Page 94 of The List

Greene studied the list. “I have to say, it’s damn suspicious. There are a whole lot of unanswered questions here. Ones only Southern Republic can offer. They may need to be confronted. Head-on.”

“Not until the contracts are done and final. I told Brent the same thing. I have to get those deals sealed first. The people on this list are dead. Waiting a few days to get to the bottom of this isn’t going to make a difference to them.”

“That’s a bit cold, isn’t it?”

“Yep. But at the moment I have to deal with the living who need their paychecks and benefits.”

He checked his watch.

“Speaking of which, I have to get back to the negotiations. Allhell’s about to break loose. We’re going to get the company’s new offer changing the proposed contract length from three to five years. The other unions are not going to like that. It will be a long afternoon.”

Greene seemed in thought. “Before you go, let me make a copy of this. I want to think on it some more, too.”

12:45P.M.

“I DON’T LOVE YOU,” BRENT SAID TO PAULA. “IT’S THAT SIMPLE.”

“It’s her again, isn’t it?”

“No. It’s you and has been you for a long time.”

“Brent, we’ve been through this before.”

Little concern filled her voice. It was like they were having a disagreement over whether to eat in or go out. Not that her husband wanted a divorce.

“Again, Paula, we haven’t been through it. That’s the whole point.”

“You seriously plan to divorce me? What about our parents?”

“Not that they have anything to do with this, but they’ll understand.”

“And if they don’t?”

She always used others as her weapon of last resort. “Millions of people divorce and get along fine. There’s no reason why we can’t be one of those couples.”

“You plan to stay here in Concord?”

“Of course. This is my home. I practice law here.”

“You couldn’t seriously be considering marrying that ragamuffin?”

He could almost hear the thoughts swirling through her convoluted mind. What would the bridge group think? How would she explain things to her Thursday women’s club meeting? And the book club?

What others thought had always been important to her.

“Could you imagine Ashley Reed at a State Bar of Georgia function?”

In fact, Ashley would be far better there than the Academy Award performances he’d many times been forced to endure. Paula small-talking her way through the evening only to tell him on the way home how she despised nearly everyone there, repeating gossip he really didn’t want to know.

“Can we do this friendly, or will there be war?” he asked.

“What do you propose?”

“You keep this house and your car. I’ll help for a while with the mortgage and car payment. But you’ll need to go to work. I’m sure the board of education would love to have you back. We don’t have much debt, but what little we have I’ll take care of. The cash we have in the bank, we’ll split.”

“And what about your law practice?”

“That’s not on the table.”