Free Death Angel by Martha Powers

voice
chiding her for shirking her responsibilities. She was Richard’s wife. Whatever
help he needed she would give. Having reconfirmed her support, she relaxed,
letting herself drift naturally into sleep.

 
    Kate threw back the Afghan as she clawed
her way up out of the nightmare. She lay on her back, blinking her eyes in the
darkness, trying to find some point of familiarity to anchor herself in safety.
Her panted breath was loud in the night silence.
    She didn’t try to hold on to the dream.
It was about Jenny, and she did not want to remember what had taken place in
the irrational world of her mind. Better to block it all out.
    Instinctively she sought comfort from
Richard’s presence. She reached out but her hand encountered only space. Fear
of being alone brought her fully awake.
    She was lying on the couch in the family
room.
    It was night and the room was in
darkness. Richard sat in the lounge chair beside the couch, his back to the
patio doors, his face in shadow. His feet and legs were bare and he was wearing
a bathrobe over his shorts.  
    “Couldn’t sleep?” she asked, propping
herself up on her arm.
    “No. Too wound up.” Richard’s voice was
disembodied in the darkened room. “I called Mike and talked to him about
Leidecker’s interview. Apparently he had already taken a statement of sorts
from Mike.”
    “From Mike? What for?”
    “It appears that everyone we know is
under suspicion of one kind or another. Mike played it down, but I could tell
it was bothering him. I gather Leidecker was trying to confirm the time we
called him and when we got to the hospital. What seemed to trouble Mike was
that Carl grilled him pretty intensely on my college life and single days. He
also asked if Mike had ever seen any evidence that Jenny had been abused.”
    “Dear God!”  
    “Apparently Mike read him the riot act
and Leidecker believed him. Doctors have credibility with the police.” His
softly spoken words were bitter.
    She edged her legs over the side of the
couch and sat up, flexing her shoulders to release the stiffness from her
cramped position. She held up her arm, and in the glow of moonlight filtering
through the patio doors, she could just make out the numbers on her watch.
One-thirty.  
    “Mike thinks I should talk to a lawyer.”
    “He does?” Kate’s heart jolted at their
friend’s confirmation of the gravity of the situation.
    “Yes.” Richard’s voice was noncommittal.
“Suggested I see Stacie Wolfram. He dated her a couple of years ago. Says she’s
a first-class criminal lawyer.”
    “I vaguely remember her. Cute and very
funny. Didn’t she play beach volleyball?”
    Richard snorted. “That’s how Mike met
her. At any rate, he called her and she’ll see me tomorrow at four.” He glanced
at the darkened windows and grimaced. “I guess that’s today.”
    “Do you want me to go with you?”
    “No.” The single word was edged with
anger. He took a steadying breath and stared at her, his expression bleak in
the semi-darkness of the room. “I’d like to spare you any more hurt, Kate. I
wish I could make all of this go away, but I can’t. No matter what Leidecker
thinks, I had nothing to do with Jenny’s death. Do you believe me?”
    Despite the pain in his voice, Kate did
not answer immediately. She turned toward the window so that the moonlight
would illuminate her face. Richard could read her expressions as easily as she
could gauge the shadings in his voice, and it was imperative that there be no
suspicion between them. When she spoke, her words were specific as she tried to
give him the assurances that he needed.  
    “I believe that you had nothing to do
with Jenny’s death.”
    “Thank you, Kate.”
    “Let’s go to bed,” she said, rising and
holding out her hand.  
    She undressed quickly and slipped
beneath the covers, opening her arms as Richard pressed against her. There was
nothing sexual in the embrace. Kate could not have borne that. Long after