The Hidden

“Yours?”


“His,” Scarlet said, letting out a sigh. “Ironic, huh, since I called him the minute I was in trouble.”

“Not ironic—natural,” Meg assured her.

“I guess,” Scarlet said, shaking her head in puzzlement at her own behavior. “The thing is, I knew what I was getting into. We met, he flirted. We dated. It was whirlwind, but we were madly in love. We were married within months of our first meeting. It was bliss at first. I adore Brett, he’s not just Diego’s partner, he’s my friend, so I never felt shut out. And Diego was genuinely interested in my job. I was working on a very old Native American site near downtown Miami. And when we had free time, we both loved horses, sun, the local beaches...”

“Sure sounds like a divorce in the making to me.”

Scarlet hesitated, then went on. “Somehow, so slowly that I didn’t even realize what was happening, things changed. First it was just a special dinner.”

“He didn’t show up?”

Scarlet nodded. “Then it was a banquet with my colleagues.”

“Because he was working?”

Scarlet winced and looked down, and then met Meg’s eyes again. “Then it was the miscarriage.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Meg said. “You were in the hospital, you’d lost a child—and he wasn’t there?”

“To be fair,” Scarlet said, “he didn’t know I was pregnant. I kept looking for the perfect moment to tell him, but he was in the middle of a case and was never there. And then I wound up in the hospital. I called and called, but in the end...they released me before he ever returned my call. I just saw this bleak life where I’d always be alone, no matter what happened. When he did come home—upset because the case wasn’t going well—I told him I was leaving, that I had to get away, go somewhere else. I was calm. He tried to make up, but I was just done.”

“I’m so sorry,” Meg said.

“He’s a great guy. He’s just too focused on what he does. I still love him. I probably always will.”

“I think he’ll always be in love with you, too,” Meg said, and then looked at Scarlet questioningly.

“So what the hell am I doing now?” Scarlet said, her tone dry. “That is what you want to ask me, isn’t it?”

What was she doing? It was crazy. But they’d been married, and it was only natural...

She hadn’t wanted to be alone.

But that wasn’t really why she’d insisted he sleep in her room.

And now they were like a pair of high school kids, eager and anxious, making love like rabbits just because they had an hour alone.

Even in the midst of this mess.

“None of my business,” Meg assured her. “None of it was.”

Scarlet never had a chance to respond, because she looked out to the broad lawn and saw the man.

The man who had stopped her in town. The man she had seen at the cemetery. He was standing behind a large family group and looking up at where she was standing on the porch.

“Meg!”

“What?”

“He’s here!”

“Who’s here?”

“The stalker—the man I saw in town and at the cemetery.”

“Where?”

“There!” She pointed. “Right behind those people.”

Meg walked firmly in the direction Scarlet indicated. Scarlet followed, ready to indignantly accost him.

But when they got to the spot where she had seen him, he was gone.

Meg stopped and asked, “Did you see where he went?”

“No,” Scarlet said, frustrated.

“We’ll find him once we’re all corralled in the basement again,” Meg said.

But they didn’t see him there.

Meg told Adam what had happened, and Scarlet described the man to him.

Adam listened gravely, said he hadn’t noticed him and then looked for him in the crowd, as well.

But he hadn’t reappeared by the time the tour finished.

“I’m not crazy,” Scarlet insisted to Meg. “I really did see him.” Then she fell silent, because the others were hurrying their way.