It would be that way, though. It would have to be. A smooth return wasn’t reasonable; too much had happened, there would have to be awkward, painful moments. But he could minimize them. He could try to do that.
“Morning,” she said, and he had a feeling she was thinking the same thoughts.
“Morning.”
She sat up, pulling the sheet up to cover herself, and ran both hands through her hair, then held them to her face, eyes lost in thought.
“Is that a What have I done? look or a What do we do now? look?” Eric said.
“Neither,” she said, and then, “both.”
But she smiled, and that was enough. He kissed her again and this time she returned it without the same flicker in the eyes.
“What we do now,” she said, “is the simple part. Today, at least.”
“Yeah?”
“We go home.”
He looked away.
“Eric?”
“You said we would talk it out in the morning,” he said. He had his hands pushed hard against the mattress, to still the shaking lest she notice.
“I also said that I would not stay.”
“There’s something I need to do,” he said. “Something I need to resolve first. Once it’s resolved, I’ll leave with you. I promise I will leave with you. But first there are a few things I need to know. Document who the boy’s uncle was, for one. That will be a legal help, Claire, maybe an important one.”
She didn’t respond. He felt desperation creeping on.
“I need you to understand, Claire, that what I’m going through, what’s happening to me, it’s powerful. It is strong. So I’m just struggling to deal with it, figure it out.”
“I know that.”
“Twelve hours, then. Give me that much. Give me one day.”
“What can possibly be accomplished in a day?”
“I can try to get the answers I just told you I needed,” he said. “If I can’t do it by then, we’ll leave, go home, and figure the rest of it out from there.”
I can find that spring in twelve hours. I better. I sure as shit better.
“My preference,” she said slowly, “would be to get in the car and head north. No pausing for loose ends, breakfast, even a shower. Just go. That would be my preference.”
He waited.
“But if you need the day, take the day,” she said. “We’ll leave tonight, though?”
“Yes. We will leave tonight.”
She stared into his eyes for a long time before nodding. “All right. In that case, I guess I’ll go ahead and take the shower.”
She slipped out of the bed naked and walked into the bathroom, beautiful and elegant as she moved through the dim light, always comfortable in her own skin. He watched her go, thought, my wife, savoring the sound of it.
She’d just closed the door when the phone rang.
He rolled onto his side and lifted the phone, said, “Yeah?”
“Eric. How you holding up, son?”
“Hello, Paul,” Eric said, voice flat, and the bathroom door opened and Claire peered out.
“I’ve heard that you ran into some trouble down there.”
Ran into some trouble, yes. Just like I did in California, just like you’re sure I’ll do again, and you want to play the role of the protector for your daughter now, prove to her yet again that I was a mistake, you passive-aggressive prick. He wanted to shout it all, but Claire was standing there at the bathroom door, watching him as if he were taking a test, and he said only, “It hasn’t been a real good week.”
“So I’ve gathered. Claire is with you?”
“Yes.” And she’s going to stay with me, Paul, and I will stay with her, your influence be damned.
“Good. Listen, I’ve been trying to help. I’ve been trying to find out who hired this man Murray, the one who was killed.”
“Uh-huh.”
“The investigations firm has been hiding behind attorney-client privilege so far, but when I called them, I said I’d be representing you—”
“You did what? I haven’t asked you to—” Claire stepped out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around her now, and Eric stuttered for just a moment, interrupted by her return. It was all the gap Paul needed to plunge ahead.
“I thought it was imperative that you know who hired this man before you made any decisions on how to act, so I pointed out that their client might be protected by his attorneys but that they had to disclose said attorneys, if nothing else. If anyone was going to stonewall, it had to be the law firm. They didn’t like that but I mentioned a district attorney friend who’d be happy to call them and clarify the issue and possible repercussions, and they gave me the name of the firm: Clemens and Cooper.”