Free Two Guys Detective Agency by Stephanie Bond Page B

me. He or I will pay you as soon as we see you.”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    She disconnected the call and backtracked to the van in search of her purse while her heart trotted in
    her chest. She checked her wallet for cash — a little over six hundred dollars. That wouldn’t last long. She
    forced herself to tamp down the panic as she called to check account balances and the available limit on her
    credit cards.
    “Cancelled?”
    “On hold?”
    “Deactivated?”
    “Closed?”
    “Stopped?”
    “Blocked?”
    At the end of the stack, she had a Macy’s Department Store card that was still active, and a gas card. An
    old savings account contained nine hundred dollars. Every other account was overdrawn or cancelled.
    She had her jewelry case with her, but no way was she going to sell her good pieces.
    Octavia brought her fist to her mouth. She had to get back to Louisville and figure out what was going
    on.
    A noise sounded from the hallway. She looked up to see Linda skid to a halt, still wearing yesterday’s
    funeral dress, her eyes wide. “I overslept. Where are the kids?”
    “Fed and on their way to the bus stop with your fat neighbor.”
    “What about their lunches?”
    “Don’t worry — I fixed them.”
    Linda heaved a sigh. “Thank you. I need coffee.” She moved toward the coffeemaker and hit a series of
    buttons. “How did you sleep?”
    “That thing I woke up on is a torture device.”
    “Sorry. Sullivan and I — ” Linda stopped and blanched. “We don’t have many guests.”
    Octavia’s heart shifted. Damn Sullivan Smith for leaving her sister in a lurch. Damn men everywhere,
    dammit. “Did you get some rest?”
    “Some,” Linda said in an unconvincing voice. “Do I look as bad as you do?”
    “Worse.”
    “At least I don’t smell as bad as you do. Milk or sugar?”
    “Do you have half and half?”
    “I have milk and I have sugar. Wait — ” She held up the empty jug. “We’re out of milk.”
    “I’ll have it black.”
    Linda brought two mugs to the table and they sat in silence. There was too much to talk about, none of
    it pleasant. The clutter of the demolitioned kitchen seem to close in on them. Octavia felt claustrophobic
    and antsy, her mind swirling. Some of her conversation with Linda the previous night was starting to come
    back to her. She’d been drunk, but it was no excuse for some of the things she’d said — no matter how
    true. And she felt bad for Linda, but she didn’t want to get involved in her sister’s life. She had her own
    problems to deal with.
    Linda sipped. “Have you heard from Richard?”
    Octavia sipped. “No.”
    Linda sipped. “And you still don’t know why he left?”
    Octavia sipped. “No.” Although she wondered now about the phone call he’d taken yesterday on the
    drive here that had upset him...and later when she’d seen him sitting in the car talking on the phone,
    gesturing in anger. Obviously their financial problems had reached a boiling point.
    She could feel her sister’s censure wafting in her direction. And the longer the silence dragged on, the
    more it rankled Octavia. Who was Linda to judge? “Go ahead...say it.”
    Linda blinked. “Say what?”
    “This is what I get for marrying Richard for his money.”
    “I would never say that. Besides, I don’t know enough about your and Richard’s relationship to have an
    opinion.”
    “That’s right, you don’t,” Octavia snapped. She took another sip to cover the fact that her eyes had
    filled with unwanted tears. After a few blinks, though, she couldn’t fight the panic anymore and a sob
    escaped her.
    Linda reached across the table to clasp her hand. “It’s going to be okay.”
    But the dam had burst, sweeping away Octavia’s pride and revealing her low-lying vulnerabilities. The
    seed of doubt in her mind when she’d walked down the aisle all those years ago had grown over the years,
    but she’d ignored it...and now she had a solid mass weighing down her heart.