CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Mary slipped into bed at five in the morning, her sheets cool and her bedroom dark. She felt exhausted and depressed, having barely made a dent in Simon’s emails, and Bennie had felt the same way, since all she had managed to do was plot Simon’s call logs, purchase orders, and other sales information on Excel spreadsheets. They had both left the office to sleep for an hour or so before they had to get up, shower, and leave for the crime scene. Poor Judy had stayed behind to Xerox her heart out, make the deadline for the courier, and then go home and sleep in.
Mary pulled the cotton blanket up slowly, not to wake up Anthony, and her eyes hadn’t adjusted to the darkness yet, so she could only see the outline of his shoulders, his body turned away. He must’ve been as tired as she was, since he had been at her parents’ house after the news broke about Simon’s being taken in for questioning. She had texted him to go over and try to keep her parents’ blood pressures in a normal range. She hoped he had succeeded. Otherwise she hadn’t had a chance to catch him up on anything.
Anthony stirred, shifting around to face her in the darkness. “Honey?” he asked softly, running a hand lightly down her arm.
“Oh, hi. I thought you were asleep.” Mary shifted closer to his chest, feeling the warmth coming off of his skin. She always said that he ran hot, like a furnace. “When did you get home?”
“About two hours ago.”
“Oh no, later than I thought. Were they upset?”
“Yes. My mother was there too. It’s a lot for them. I’m glad I went.”
“I’m glad you did, too, thanks so much.”
“You must be beat.” Anthony rested his arm around her.
“Not a great day.” Mary nestled closer to him, turning her head to the side.
“You want to fill me in? I can’t sleep anyway. I feel terrible for Simon. He’s the gentlest guy in the world. It’s impossible to think that he would kill his boss, or even hurt his boss. He’d never hurt anybody.”
“I know.”
“Is he okay? How is he?”
“He’s hanging in. He did well with the police. I left him at the hospital with his dad. They have each other. We went back to the office and Bennie and Judy helped with his defense. Right now he’s just a person of interest, not really a suspect or even arrested, so we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen, or at least delay it.”
“I’m sure you will, you guys make a great team.”
“Right.” Mary realized that Anthony didn’t even know about the disciplinary charges against her or that she was leaving the firm. Or considering leaving the firm. She felt a guilty twinge inside, because they had agreed to make big decisions jointly, since she had a tendency to operate like the single girl she used to be. “I guess I should mention that, well, it did come up today that I might have to think about leaving the firm.”
Anthony chuckled softly. “That’s funny.”
“Anthony, I’m not kidding.”
“What are you talking about?”
Mary braced herself. “It’s kind of a long story.”
“I have time. Are you serious? Tell me what’s going on. How can you leave your own firm?” Anthony edged away, and Mary was beginning to discern his features in the dark, his eyes widening and his lips forming a disbelieving O.
“I don’t have to make a decision yet. We’re tabling the discussion for now.”
“Who’s we?”
“Bennie and me.”
“You already discussed this with Bennie? What about me and you?” Anthony asked, sounding hurt. “Don’t we get to discuss it?”
“Of course, it’s just that everything happened so fast today. You and I will definitely discuss it, when the time comes.”
“When will the time come? This is a huge decision.”
“After we get over the hump with Simon. I’m trying to keep him out of jail.” Mary kept her tone patient, but she felt too drained to discuss it now. All she wanted was some sleep, so she wouldn’t be a wreck.
“How did this even come up? Mary, if you’re serious, how will we support ourselves?”
“I would open my own firm.”
“You would do what?” Anthony propped himself up on his elbow, fully awake. “When did this happen? What are you even talking about? How can you go out on your own?”
Mary stifled her irritability, which was growing. It wasn’t necessarily directed at him because he had a right to ask everything he was asking, but just not now. “I think it can be done. If Simon’s civil cases go forward, that’s the only time it comes into play. But I do have a client base. I think they’ll go with me.”
“But it takes money. You have to rent an office. You have to pay overhead. You need start up costs.”
“I know that—”
“—and I don’t have a job right now.”
“I know that too but—”
“—and we don’t have the savings that we used to, not since we bought the house—”
“Anthony, I know all that,” Mary shot back, more harshly than she intended.
“We’ve been talking about having a baby. Really trying. How would that work? We keep putting it off?”
“No, I want a baby, too.”
“So how do you have a baby and start a new firm?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re not superwoman.”
“No, I’m not. I’m just too tired to talk about it now, okay? I just am.”
“Fine.” Anthony turned over, facing away from her. “You and Bennie let me know when you want to talk about it.”
“Anthony, really?”
“I’m going back to sleep.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Bennie slipped into bed in the darkness, stretching out in the center of the mattress and breathing a relieved sigh. She remembered reading about the pleasures of the unshared bed and sometimes she felt that to her core. Sometimes it was good to have a whole bed to yourself. Like when you had worked all night on somebody else’s case and secretly worried that an innocent man was about to be arrested for a crime that he didn’t commit.
She reached for the night table for her phone, which was becoming her dirty little nighttime habit. She knew about the articles saying that you shouldn’t check your phone before sleep, but some days it was the only time she could catch up on her email or the national news, and tonight her brain was in overdrive.
She looked at the phone screen, noticing for the first time that she had gotten a text from Declan, and she clicked through.
Call me when you get in, no matter how late. Love you.
Bennie felt herself smile. It was sweet of him. He was a thoughtful guy. She felt a rush of love, remembering that she had had sex earlier. She had almost forgotten. How can you forget that you had sex? This might’ve been the wackiest day she ever spent in her life. She pressed the number to call him back, and Declan answered after one ring.
“Woman, where you been?”
Bennie liked when he called her that, even though it was corny, vaguely sexist, or both. “Did we have sex today? Or was it my imagination?”
Declan chuckled softly. “Wait, was that you? Are you the blonde?”
Bennie laughed too. “What are you doing still up?”