*
Andi hit the remote on her single-car garage and drove inside. The trembling had stopped, but the disbelief and horror remained. She sat for a moment behind the wheel and watched in the rearview mirror as Luke’s truck pulled to the side of the drive behind her.
Climbing out of the car was difficult; she felt like she’d aged a year in the last few hours. It didn’t seem strange when Luke joined her in the garage and walked her to the front door. He inserted the key and pushed the door open, holding it so she could enter first.
Once they were inside she walked into the kitchen and then stared around, completely forgetting what she’d gone there for.
“You want to sit down?” Luke suggested, following after her. He stood by the table, clearly concerned. He’d tried to drive her home, but she hadn’t wanted to be stuck without her car. She could tell he was worried that she was going to fall apart completely.
“I have antidepressants,” she said. “I should take them regularly, but . . .”
“Are they in the bathroom? Medicine cabinet?” At her nod, he went to get them without her asking.
He returned with the two vials of pills. “They look the same.”
“They are the same. Dr. Knapp prescribed them of both, but some were prescribed earlier and then the others after my miscarriage. Dr. Knapp wanted me to keep taking them, and I should. I don’t know why I don’t, except . . . I’m drug sensitive.” She gave him a quick look. “I’ve lost time . . . had blackouts . . . so I don’t always want to take them.”
“You’ve had blackouts from the pills?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you want one now?” he asked dubiously.
She shrugged. She wanted something. She just didn’t know what it was.
He held up the two bottles and extended one to her. “These pills look a little bigger.”
“Are they? They were both prescribed by Dr. Knapp.” Andi’s head hurt. She didn’t want to have this conversation. She just wanted to lie down and pretend nothing had happened.
Luke took off the caps of both vials and shook a few tablets into his palm. It was true. The white tablets all looked like aspirin, but the ones from the first vial were slightly larger than the ones from the second one. He squinted at both of the labels.
“Same prescription. Same pharmacy,” Luke said.
She shook her head.
He gave it up and put the tablets and vials on the table, then came over to her. Resting his hands lightly on her shoulders, he steered her to a chair. “You want water? Coffee? Tea?”
“Tea would be great, actually. I’ve got some for the Keurig.”
He made her a cup and brought it to her. Her cell phone rang, muffled inside her purse, which she’d dropped on the table. She looked at it without much interest, then sighed and reached for it. When she plucked out her phone and saw it was Carter, she grimaced. “I haven’t had a chance to tell him about Mimi and Scott yet. God. It seems so unimportant now.”
“Want me to talk to him?”
She nodded and Luke answered the phone. “This is Luke Denton.”
“Where’s Andi?” Carter demanded. She could hear his tinny voice clearly.
“She’s right here. She’s had a shock. Her friend Trini was found dead in her apartment this morning.”
There was a moment of silence, then “Dead! What do you mean dead? You don’t mean . . . dead-dead . . . ?” he asked in shock.
“That’s exactly what I mean.” Luke spent a few moments bringing Carter up to speed.
Carter responded, sounding poleaxed, “Okay . . . okay. Well . . . I still need to talk to her.”
Andi reached out a hand when it looked like Luke was going to fob him off. She knew Carter. It would be easiest to just find out what he wanted. “Hi, Carter,” she answered.
“Andi, I’m sorry. It’s unbelievable. I hardly know what to say.... Do the police know anything? Was it foul play?”
“We don’t know anything yet. Just tell me what you need.”
He cleared his throat. “You’re not going to like to hear this. The Carreras are meeting with our lawyer on Monday. They’re bringing a five-million-dollar check.”
“Five mil—” She couldn’t finish. “Goddamn it, Carter. It’s not going to happen! They can bring us a hundred million. I don’t care! Do you get that? Do you? I’m so sick of this!”
Luke was on the balls of his feet. “What?”
“I’ve talked to Emma and—” Carter began calmly.
“No. No, you haven’t. She would never agree,” Andi practically shouted into the phone.
“I was going to say, she feels like you do. But she at least said she’d come to the meeting. I didn’t know about your friend, but you and I need to be there, too.”
“No. No.”
“If Greg were alive, he would be there.”