The Last to Know by Wendy Corsi Staub

Author:Wendy Corsi Staub [Staub, Wendy Corsi]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Suspense
ISBN: 9780062230058
Publisher: Zebra
Published: 2001-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13

Chapter 10

On Saturday morning, Tasha awakens to the sound of the ringing telephone.

Joel fumbles for it on the bedside table and mutters a groggy “Hello?”

Her heart racing as she comes awake and remembers everything that happened yesterday, Tasha sits up and wraps her arms around her knees, under the quilt. Last night, utterly fatigued yet suffering from insomnia, she resorted to taking several Tylenol PM tablets after tossing and turning until midnight. That was Joel’s suggestion. He seemed concerned that she get some rest, yet she found herself wondering whether his real motivation was to knock her out because her thrashing about in bed was keeping him awake.

Now she looks at the clock and sees that it’s past seven already. She’s slept through the night and feels as though she could go on sleeping all day, her head fuzzy from the drug or exhaustion or a combination of the two.

“Hang on, she’s right here.” Joel turns to her.

“Who is it?” Tasha asks him.

“It’s Ben,” he whispers.

She gives him a questioning look.

“He wants to talk to you.”

“I know, but . . .”

“Here,” Joel said, passing her the phone.

Reluctantly she takes it. She doesn’t want to talk to Ben right now. Her thoughts are too scattered; she isn’t yet ready to face the stark reality of what has happened.

“Hi, Ben,” she says, steeling herself against the emotions that, sure enough, are trickling in already.

“Hi, Tasha.” His voice is raspy. He hasn’t slept, she thinks vaguely. Or he’s been crying. Or both.

“How are the kids?” she asks helplessly when he doesn’t say anything else right away.

“As well as you’d expect. I don’t think they really understand.”

“When did you tell them?”

“When I got back to Carol’s last night after I finished at the police station—which took hours.”

“Have they . . .” How can she put it delicately? Realizing she can’t, she asks gingerly, “Have they cleared you?”

He laughs, a brittle sound. “If you can call it that. They let me go. But I get the feeling they aren’t through with me yet. My lawyer said that in cases like this one, the husband is often guilty.”

Uncomfortable, Tasha glances at Joel, who is lying back against the pillows again. But he’s watching her, a concerned expression on his face. She shrugs at him, saying into the phone, “But Ben, you and Rachel weren’t—I mean, why would they suspect you of something so horrible? There’s no reason—”

“They asked me if I knew that Rachel was having an affair,” Ben cuts in.

Stunned, Tasha just grips the phone.

“What?” Joel whispers, reaching out and touching her arm.

Her mind is racing. Rachel was having an affair?

Of course she was, a voice tells her. You were blind not to notice.

Rachel was having an affair.

Why is that so startling?

Because she has never really considered the possibility before. She was so caught up in her own whirlwind days, and in resenting Rachel’s life of relative leisure, that it never occurred to her to wonder what, specifically, Rachel was doing with her spare time.

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