Denying that desire was running rampant through him, he walked over, slid into the booth across from her, and set the bottle of beer on the table.
After a strained silence, she said, “I see you got my message.”
“I’m here.”
“I purposefully didn’t leave my name.”
“You didn’t before.”
“I figured you would know by the meeting place…”
She let that trail off, and, when he failed to comment, she picked up her glass and took a sip from the straw. As she returned the glass to the table, she said, “Mitch invited me to the christening tomorrow.”
Peachy. He would be put through this agony two days in a row. He was gonna kill Mitch the Matchmaker.
“They sent me a birth announcement,” she said. “When I called to congratulate them, Mitch described baby Andrew as a rock star.”
John hated himself for wanting to take a bite of her soft, pink smile. He grumbled, “He’s obnoxious over that baby. Brags so much, you can hardly stand to be around him. At least he’s shaved off that godawful mustache.”
“His bragging must make it difficult for you two to work together every day.”
How sly of her to slip that into the conversation. He didn’t respond. Instead, he picked up his beer and took a drink.
“Congratulations, John.”
“Thanks.”
“You should have been heading the CAP unit all along. You’ve certainly assembled a great team. In addition to bringing Mitch back into the fold, I heard you also talked Isabel Sanchez into joining your ranks.”
“Who’s feeding you all this information?”
“I heard a lot of local gossip from the production crew. They were here for several weeks, talked to a lot of people who were integral to the restructured Crissy Mellin story.”
“For several weeks they were a pain in the ass. They overflowed all the good cafes and caused traffic jams around the police station nearly every day.”
“I obtained a permit.”
He knew that, but didn’t say so.
“I assigned one of our female contributors to interview Carla and Crissy together.”
“Did Carla cooperate?”
“She still has a sting, but it’s not as vicious. Crissy has…” She searched for a word and used her hands to express it. “Blossomed. It’s miraculous.”
He took another sip of beer.
“She told me that you call her at least once a week to see how she’s getting along.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “The least I could do.”
Looking exasperated, she sat back against the booth, and for a minute neither of them spoke. Then she said, “You’re determined to make this hard, aren’t you?”
That angered him. First of all, it was she who was making it hard. It was so damn hard his eyes were probably crossed. Secondly: “Define ‘this,’ Beth. What is this?” Then something occurred to him that made him furious. “Don’t tell me you lured me here again in the hope of getting an interview. Is that what you’re after?”
She fired back. “If that’s what I was after, I wouldn’t have specifically ordered everyone working on the episode not to approach you.”
“Then why did you call and ask me to meet you here?”
“I didn’t want there to be an awkward scene at the christening tomorrow.”
“I wouldn’t have made a scene.”
She looked at him doubtfully, and she was right to. There might have been some monumental awkwardness if she’d walked into the church while he, as godfather, had a vital role to play. Questions to answer, pledges to make. Taken off guard by seeing her there, he probably would have flubbed it all and ruined the observance for Mitch and his family.
“And,” she continued around a unsteady breath, “I wanted to see you, talk to you, and not in the presence of Angela’s slew of kinfolk, which Mitch warned me would all be attending the after-party. John…” She extended her hand, but drew it back without making contact. “I wanted to catch up on you, on everything.”
“Seems to me you are caught up. I can’t think of anything to tell you that you haven’t already heard from your talkative sources.”
Miffed again, she said, “I know that Barker was indicted for murder, was considered a flight risk, denied bail, and is in jail awaiting trial, the date of which is TBD, but it’s not going to be speedy. Meanwhile, his wife has filed for divorce.
“Professor Victor Wallace is also incarcerated, awaiting sentencing on two counts of kidnapping, etcetera, etcetera. Prosecutors are pushing for at least twenty-five years for each count. His wife, oblivious to his hobby, has sold their home. She and her son have moved to Dallas to live with her parents.”
“Worse than that, he’s had to cancel all his scheduled lectures.”
She didn’t acknowledge his droll remark, but continued in the same vein she’d been using. “The two previously overlooked suspects in Galveston and Jackson are now awaiting trial. Patrick Dobbs has been granted an appeal. Cougar in Shreveport still hasn’t isolated a suspect in the disappearance there, but he’s more aggressively working on it.
“You and Mutt have moved closer to town. Molly loves your new house. Even more, she loves getting to spend half of each week there with you.”