Canaan's Gate by Kathryn R. Wall

Author:Kathryn R. Wall
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780312601843
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

The thought of food made me literally nauseous as I trudged up the three steps into the kitchen. I poured myself a glass of tea from the pitcher in the refrigerator and carried it with me out onto the deck. At times like this, I could almost understand the lure of alcohol and its ability to numb the senses. Nicotine could have that effect as well, at least on me. If there’d been a cigarette anywhere in the house, I would have been tumbling off that particular wagon in a heartbeat.

The air still dripped with humidity as I stretched out on a chaise, but the wind was blowing onshore, ruffling branches high up in the live oaks and the fronds of the palmettos closer to the ground. I kicked off my shoes, set the cell phone on my stomach, and let my eyes drift closed. Slowly, painstakingly, I reviewed my interactions since the first anonymous phone message Cecelia Dobbs had left on the machine at the office. I forced out the gut-wrenching images that kept trying to worm their way into my head, concentrating instead on my conduct over the past few days. I tried to be brutally honest with myself; but, at the end of it all, I couldn’t come up with a single instance in which I had inadvertently revealed either Cecelia’s name or given up enough information that would have enabled someone to home in on her as our new client.

Red. Erik. Me. And Dr. Dobbs. We were the only ones who had the complete story. In the course of getting the investigation up and running, I’d spoken to very few people who might even remotely have been able to make the connection: Dr. Harley Coffin. Bitsy Elliott. Nicholas Potter. Kendra Blaine, although she had no idea I had any interest in her or her partner, Dalton Chambers. He’d seen me that morning at the bank, but again, how could he know anything about me or why I was there? We hadn’t even exchanged a word. Besides, that was only a few hours before the body had been discovered, and he’d been at work in full view of his colleagues and who knew how many customers.

So. Logic decreed that we hadn’t put Cecelia at risk. Nowhere could I find even a hint that we’d compromised her confidentiality or inadvertently let slip anything that could have put her in jeopardy. Erik was right. It had to be something else, some facet of her life about which we were completely unaware. Maybe even something that could have led to suicide.

A coincidence. I opened my eyes at the squawk of a jay just above my head. In my mind, I heard the Judge’s voice, stern and commanding: Bullshit, darlin’. You don’t believe in them any more than I did. Look again. You’ll find it.

I picked up my glass off the wrought-iron table and began a reexamination of the facts. A moment later, the cell phone chimed. I snatched it up, splashing tea all over my sweater.

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