The Whispering Room

“And I ask you again, how do you know this?”

He hesitated, wondering how much he would have to tell her to get her to back off. “A few days before he was last seen, Courtland was overheard expressing a concern that he was being followed. On several different occasions, he’d spotted a strange car parked outside his apartment and his office building, and a blond woman appeared to be tailing him once when he took his daughter to the movies. She later turned up at the same restaurant.”

“Could she have been working for Betts?”

“Highly unlikely.”

She turned to face him. “You say that so definitively. Like there’s not much room for error.”

“We don’t think there is.”

“Who overheard Courtland ‘express’ this concern of his? You?”

“Not me personally.”

“Who, then?” When he didn’t answer, she folded her arms. “You had him under electronic surveillance, didn’t you? His phone was tapped. You guys really are Big Brother.”

“The point is, there’s a very high probability the person or persons who were following Courtland know something about his murder. If you find this blonde, you may just find his killer.”

She remained silent for a moment, as if carefully digesting everything he’d told her. When her gaze finally met his, he could see the wheels turning and he knew, with a sinking feeling in his gut, that she was going to be trouble. And he was already wondering what more he would have to do to keep her in line.

“Why didn’t you just tell us about this woman yesterday? Why pull strings to get me removed from the case?”

“Would you have listened? Or would you have dug in your heels?”

She frowned. “Don’t presume you know me well enough to predict my behavior in any given situation. And don’t think this is over. You guys have gone and meddled in my life, and now I’m going to have to spend some time figuring out why.”

A few moments later, Nash watched her weave her way through the square, heading for Decatur. For a moment, he considered going after her, maybe even asking her out to dinner. A little damage control might be in order because he was certain they hadn’t heard the last of Detective Theroux.

Then common sense prevailed and he realized that was about the worst idea he’d had in years. The less time he spent with Johnny Theroux’s widow, the better.

If he wanted a woman’s company, all he had to do was make a phone call or two. Not that he had the proverbial black book full of numbers, but he’d never wanted for female companionship.

Since the breakup of his first marriage, Nash had crossed paths with any number of women who had sent interested signals. Sometimes he acted on those invitations; other times he ignored them. What he never did was mix business with pleasure. He was smarter than that, although he’d made his share of mistakes, especially in the months following the divorce.

Looking back now, his reckless behavior during that time puzzled him. It was out of character for him to take so many risks, and it sure as hell wasn’t like him to fall for a beautiful, soulless woman with whom he had so little in common and about whom he knew next to nothing. Rushing into marriage was something a love-struck kid would do, not a grown man with a troubled daughter to look after.

Nash’s second marriage had lasted all of six months. When he came home on that last night to find Sophia packing her bags, all he’d felt was relief.

All he could think was thank God it’s over.

A few months later, the marriage was nothing but a bad memory. A tear in the whole fabric of his stable, conservative life.

The one good thing to come from the brief union was the return of his common sense, and for that Nash was grateful. Ever since Sophia, he’d been a lot more careful. Temptations these days were few and far between, and that was the way he liked it. He was finally at a comfortable place in his life. He neither looked forward with anticipation nor back with regret. Instead he’d learned to take each moment as it came. He liked his job, he liked New Orleans and he liked living alone.

On the rare occasions when he allowed himself time to reflect, his thoughts more often turned to his daughter rather than to his two failed marriages.

Jamie was his real failure, but that was a door he couldn’t afford to open too often and never while on the job. The guilt and anger, even after all these years, still had the power to overwhelm him. To creep up and steal his composure if he wasn’t careful.

Luckily, Nash was an expert at keeping his professional life separate from his personal. That was one of the reasons his first wife had left him. That…and because she didn’t want to deal with her own guilt. Better just to run away. Start over. Find someone who could give her what she wanted and needed. A new life, a new husband, a new family.

Nash wondered if Deb ever even thought of Jamie these days. All that social climbing probably kept her pretty busy.