Page 12

It was cut so low in front that he could see where the bottom of the double string of pearls around her neck disappeared between her breasts.

“You were missed at lunch,” she said.

“It was not my decision, Ginger . . . What the hell are you doing up here again?”

“I had to come up to check on the baby. On the way, I realized that I have some more things to say to you. And I decided they couldn’t wait.”

“Your timing is lousy. And what if somebody comes through that door looking for me?”

“This won’t take long, Jimmy. I’ll take my chances.”

Jesus Christ, her eyes are blue—a beautiful blue.

“Okay, then, spit it out.”

“I heard what was said in the library.”

“Hear

d what?”

“That we’re off to Germany first thing in the morning, and that as soon as we land, you’re back in your Super Spook role, and that means that once again you are about to disappear from my life.”

“You know what I do for a living. It’s what got Bonehead—”

“Shut up!” she snapped. “Let me finish what I didn’t finish before!”

So there actually was something else, he thought.

He shrugged. “So, finish.”

“I was pissed at you because you were stupid—”

“I’m often accused of that.”

“Goddamn you, please shut up!”

There’s tears glistening . . . She’s about to start crying.

What the hell is going on?

“And it was your stupidity, and mine, that had suddenly turned me into the widow of Bruce Moriarty, with a child to raise all by myself.”

“Ginger, I’ve been kicking myself, just about daily, for taking Bone—Bruce—out of the Constabulary and into the DCI.”

“You did that to be a nice guy. More than that, you did it because you loved him and were taking care of him, as you always did. And because he loved you, you made him as happy as a pig in mud to be in the DCI with you.”

“I don’t understand where you’re going with this.”

“That’s what I mean about you being stupid.”

He threw both hands up in frustration. “Tell me!”

“You ever wonder why I married Bruce in the first place?”

I know why Bonehead married you. He told me.

Do I tell her he did?