Sunset Bridge by Emilie Richards Page B

They were no longer a couple, and she had nothing else to lose. “The day I was told to drop the Famosa case, I came back to the station to find you. I thought I needed to talk to you, to get your opinion. Somebody told me you were in an interview room down the hall, so I went to find you, only the door was closed. I looked through the glass to see who you were with, because I didn’t want to interrupt if it was important. I saw you sitting with Sal Freepoint, patting her hand, heads together like lovers.”
    He gave a short nod and waited.
    “I’d been suspicious of her, of you, before that. She was always asking you for advice, getting you off to one side for who knows what. I told myself not to pass judgment on what I’d seen, that you’d tell me what was going on when we talked that evening. But you never mentioned her.”
    “What chance did I have? We fought about your decision to quit the force. We fought about what you should do about Famosa and Smythe. What chance was there to tell you that Sal just found out that her boyfriend was going to Iraq—the same boyfriend whose unit dismantles explosives, by the way, and who has a better-than-average chance of getting his head blown off while he’s there?”
    “Don’t make me sound like some kind of shrew, Felo. By the time we called it quits—”
    “ We never called it quits. Don’t pretend I was part of that.”
    “By the time I called it quits, then, you were hardly ever home anyway. How long did it take you to realize I was gone? We’d stopped spending time together. Are you really trying to tell me you were faithful?”
    “I’m not trying to tell you anything.”
    She shrugged.
    “But for the record?” he said. “I was. Have been. Still am, although God knows why. And if I’d stopped spending time with you…? It’s because you were never there, Mags. Oh, the physical Maggie Gray came home sometimes. But your head and your heart were on the Famosa case. You lived and breathed it. I wanted someone to look at me and see me. I wanted a wife, a woman who wanted a husband and children to help round out her life. And every time I looked at you, looked through you, that woman was moving further and further away.”
    “I was a cop. You know what that means. At least, you know what it means for a man .”
    “No, I know what it means to me. What it meant to you? Apparently everything, but in the end, nothing. Because you threw it away. And you know why? Because you don’t thinkanybody else’s advice is worth anything. You don’t trust anybody except Maggie Gray.”
    “I don’t pander to other people, people who ought to be locked away forever, no!”
    “Mags, you don’t listen, and you don’t ask questions. You’re sure every male cop in the world, including me, is going to stomp on you again. But all you ever had to do was ask what was going on and listen to what I said. You could have asked if Sal and I were going to bed together, or who I was out with in the evenings when you were preoccupied. But that was beyond you. Just like telling me you were leaving was beyond you. Like telling me where you’d gone was beyond you!”
    “ This is not beyond me,” she said carefully. “I’d like you to leave.”
    “You know what? I don’t believe you. But I’ll do it anyway. Because I don’t want to be here anymore.” He set the cat down carefully, and Rumba, who had picked up the tension between them, fled toward Maggie’s bedroom.
    “What do you want me to do with the rest of your stuff?” he asked.
    “I’ll come for it. Just tell me when you’re not going to be there.”
    “I’ll look at my schedule. Try opening my next email for a change. It’s easier than a conversation. I’ll let you know.”
    He turned and started through the house. She heard the door slam. The noise shuddered in her head long after she’d gone to bed, and kept her awake for most of the night.

chapter seven
    J anya was pleased Rishi had made friends with Harit