Free LIES OF THE PHOENIX (A Lieutenant Cassidy Mystery Book 1) by Jeanne Tosti Page B

She hadn’t intended to get into personal details with a person she had just met, but she was stuck now. Besides, knowing Ruth, he probably had heard it all already. “After my husband and I met, things moved pretty quickly. We were together for just six weeks and knew we wanted to get married. We decided there was no reason to wait.”
    “Sounds like you knew what you were looking for. It’s nice it has all worked out for you.”
    “Yes, we’re very happy.” She wanted to change the subject. “So, how about you? Are you married?”
    “No, not that lucky. When I was on the job, I never found anyone willing to take on the stress of being a cop’s wife. Since I’ve been writing, I’ve been traveling a lot and things have been pretty unsettled. I haven’t had much time to cultivate a social life. I was actually happy when Ruth asked if I wanted to step in on the theater outing tonight.”
    The house lights dimmed briefly signaling it was almost curtain time. People who had been milling around moved toward their seats and focused their attention on the stage.
    The curtain opened and a single actor seated on a metal chair in the center of the stage came into view. The rest of the stage was bare. A spot light focused on the actor and he began a soliloquy of the trials and tribulations of his character’s life. Twenty minutes later the actor was still glued to his metal chair and expounding unendingly on his character’s personal miseries and the boring minutia of his everyday life.
    People shifted uncomfortably in their seats and a murmur here and there could be heard in the audience. A few people at the rear of the theater got up and left.
    Ben leaned over to Sarah and whispered, “I know why this guy has no life and no friends . This is awful. If he had any friends, they probably would’ve killed him.”
    Sarah muffled a laugh and nodded her agreement. Ruth and Eric were sitting in the same row, but closer to the aisle. Sarah could see that Ruth had her cell phone out and there was a discussion of some sort going on between her and Eric.
    Ruth whispered a message to the couple sitting next to her in their party. It was passed down the row from person to person until it reached Sarah who was sitting at the other end. Ruth’s message was that she had received a text from her babysitter. One of the kids had been jumping on the bed and fell off. He hurt his arm and the sitter thought it might be serious. Ruth and Eric had to leave and take him to the hospital for an x-ray. She apologized, but they would have to cancel dessert at their house after the play.
    Sarah looked down the row and caught Ruth’s eye. She nodded that she had received the message. Sarah then whispered a response to the person sitting next to her who passed it along down the row. Sarah’s message was, “Is that story true, or did you make it up to get out of sitting through another hour and a half of this misery?” Ruth got the message, smiled and nodded in agreement. Then she and Eric left.
    The actor on stage continued to drone on. After about ten more minutes Ben whispered to Sarah, “I can’t take any more of this. If he keeps this up, somebody in the audience is going to storm the stage and do him bodily harm. Would you like to go get a coffee or something?”
    Sarah looked down the row and could see that several of her friends were getting ready to leave. She really hated to walk out in the middle of a performance, but this was an exceptional circumstance. It was definitely the worst production she had ever seen in her life and every minute it became more excruciating to watch.
    “Coffee sounds good,” she said. She found her purse and they rose to leave.
    They had been sitting near the front of the theater. When she turned to look at the seats behind her she saw that the once full theater was now more than half empty. They made their way down the aisle to the rear of the theater and several stalwart members of the audience nodded