“I guess so. I never thought about it. What could anyone want in the basement? I don’t keep anything valuable there. It’s all dust and old clothes and boxes of stuff I can’t quite part with.”
There was another pause before he spoke again. “No one else has ever put anything there that you know of?”
“Who would … do you mean Tommy?”
“The men who broke in last year, they said Webster had something that belonged to them. They must have thought something was here.”
“I told you then — Tommy never left anything in my house except the occasional disposable razor.”
He flinched and she realized she probably shouldn’t remind him that Tom Webster had slept with her in this house, too.
“You told me he had a key to your house. He could have gotten in when you were in your studio, couldn’t he?”
“Yes, but … ”
“Would you mind if I took a look around down there?”
“Didn’t your colleagues do that last year?”
“It can’t hurt for me to do it again. If I don’t find anything suspicious, maybe it might be a good idea to have the sensor taken off the back door and put on the door from the basement to the kitchen.”
She reluctantly agreed. “Okay. But I don’t want to muck around down there. I hate being in the basement. It creeped me out before all this happened and last year only made it worse. I’ll sit on the steps while you look around.”
While she sat and sipped coffee, he looked through the small rooms that were the remnants of half-completed remodeling projects left by former owners. He poked at the ceiling in a few places and had just started knocking on a few walls when she said, “This is silly. There’s nothing here. And Chihuly’s scratching at the door behind me. He wants to be let out and I don’t want to waste any more time here. I’m going to attend to my dog and start doing the dishes.”
Sam looked like he wasn’t convinced but he went back upstairs with her. As they cleared the table he brought up the other subject she’d been trying not to discuss.
“The other thing you haven’t talked about is Eubie Kane. What’s happening on that front?”
“Nothing.” She avoided his eyes, picked up their wine glasses and headed for the kitchen.
He persisted. “Nothing? No response from him or his attorney?”
“That’s right. Nothing.” She had her back to him so didn’t know how close he was until she felt his hand on her shoulder.
“Nothing? Or nothing you want to talk about?” He turned her around and lifted her chin with his finger so she had to look at him.
“I’m taking care of this, Sam. I don’t need to be saved.”
“I’m not trying to save you. I care about you, about what’s bothering you. And I have some experience in this area, you know. I might be able to … ”
“Help. Yeah, of all people in the world, I know that, Sam. You bailed me out once. Big time. I can’t let you keep doing that. I have to stand on my own.”
“Amanda … ”