Charley's Web by Joy Fielding Page A

or reason to expect.
    “Come on, Charley. Don’t be like that.”
    “I’m sorry. New job?”
    “New girl,” he said, and Charley could actually feel the smile in his voice. “She wants me to meet her parents. They live in Sarasota.”
    “Sounds serious.”
    “Well, who knows?”
    Charley felt a slight pang in her chest. She knew, even if he didn’t. She also knew that women had a way of complicating things. Certainly everything had gotten a lot more complicated after Ray had married Elise, she thought.
    “Maybe James can go with Franny,” Steve suggested. “He’s done that before, hasn’t he?”
    Steve was right. On at least two occasions, Franny had asked that her brother be included on weekend visits with her father, and Ray had generously agreed. So maybe he could be prevailed upon once again. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll think of something.”
    “Tell James I’ll make it up to him real soon.”
    “I’ll tell him.”
    “Thanks, Charley. You’re the best.”
    “Yes, I am,” she agreed. “Have a nice weekend.”
    “You, too.”
    So much for driving out to Pembroke Pines, she thought, hanging up the phone. She couldn’t very well interview a child killer with her own child sitting on her lap. Still, the thought of having to postpone her interview…. She picked the phone back up, dialed Ray at home.
    It was answered after five rings. “Hello?” a woman shouted over the sound of a baby crying.
    Charley pictured the always frazzled woman with the dark curly hair, bouncing her crying infant over her shoulder. “Elise, hi. It’s Charley.”
    “Ray’s not here.”
    Franny’s father ran a small consulting business out of his home. Charley was never exactly sure what it was Ray consulted on, and truthfully, she didn’t care. They’d met just after she moved to Florida. At the time he was working for a store that sold computers, and she was in the market for a laptop. She’d come home with both a new computer and the man who’d sold it to her. “Will he be back soon?”
    “I doubt it. He just left. Is there something I can help you with?”
    Charley took a deep breath, then plunged right in. “I was wondering if it would be possible for James to tag along with his sister this weekend,” she began.
    “You must be kidding.”
    “I know it’s an imposition….”
    “You think?”
    “It’s just that James’s father had to cancel, and I have to go out of town on business…”
    “And that’s somehow my problem?” Elise asked, as her baby continued to scream.
    “No. Of course it’s not your problem. Look, maybe I should wait and speak to Ray.”
    “Why? You think he’ll be easier to manipulate?”
    Charley said nothing. What could she say…yes?
    “Look, it was bad enough before we had a baby of our own,” Elise reminded Charley unnecessarily. Things had already been tense between the two women before Elise had given birth to Daniel. Now they were even worse. “I’m afraid you’re gonna have to find a new patsy,” Elise said before hanging up.
    Charley quickly ran through her mental list of people she could call in a crisis. To her dismay, it was considerably shorter than the list Officer Ramirez had asked her to draw up, consisting only of her mother, who she knew had booked a weekend cruise to the Bahamas after Charley canceled their trip to the spa, and her brother, who’d basically canceled out of everything, period. There was no one else, she realized, reaching for the phone to call Alex Prescott and tell him she wouldn’t be able to keep Saturday’s appointment, when it rang. “Charley Webb,” she said, unable to disguise the dejection in her voice.
    “Something wrong?” the caller inquired.
    Charley recognized Glen McClaren’s voice instantly. “Just not my day.”
    “Anything I can do to help?”
    The question stopped Charley cold. Could she do it? she wondered, inching forward in her chair. Then, immediately: what was the matter with her? She barely knew