Dead In The Water (Rebecca Schwartz Mystery #4) (The Rebecca Schwartz Series)

Sadie?”
    “Very much.” The words were so heartfelt, I didn’t dare press him further on the subject. “And Esperanza loved her. Rebecca—” His eyes were pleading and hurt. “I know this sounds strange, but could you come home with me and talk to her?”
    I was at a loss. “Talk to her? What would I say?”
    “I don’t know. She liked you. She told me so.”
    If this was a sexual ploy, it was the oddest one I’d ever encountered. But if it wasn’t that, what was it?
    “I think maybe I should take her to a doctor. Maybe she’s in shock or something.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “She won’t speak, except to mention the rock or whatever it is. She won’t even give it a name. She calls it ‘the white thing.’ She’s acting as if Sadie’s death had something to do with it.”
    My ears perked up. “You mean, as if someone killed her for it?”
    Ho looked confused and frustrated. “I don’t know. She’s not making sense. Something’s going on. She’s acting as if she’s afraid of me.”

CHAPTER SIX
     
    I couldn’t believe what I saw in Julio’s living room—a huge saltwater aquarium. And other than that, precious little, as if Sylvia had taken the furniture and he’d replaced it with odds and ends.
    “You like the aquarium?”
    “Was I staring?”
    “It’s kind of predictable, I guess.”
    “It’s not that; it’s just that—” I stopped. I was damned if I was going to tell him we had this huge thing in common, as if this were a date or something. “It’s very nice.”
    It was quite different from mine, much bigger for one thing, three hundred gallons maybe. And mine was heated, so I could keep tropical fish; his was a cold one. He kept the same sorts of fishes in it that they did in the big aquarium—the ones found in Monterey Bay.
    “I keep mostly juvenile things in it—little blue rockfish, chili peppers, mysid shrimps, perch, gunnels—”
    “There’s a grunt sculpin!” I didn’t mean to show off, but I love those funny little fellows.
    “You seem to know your fish.”
    “Oh, look—a baby wolf eel.” I could just see its head in a little rock cave Julio had built for it.
    He grinned. “Cecil the sea serpent. Esperanza hates him. She doesn’t care much for snaky fish.”
    “Omigod! What is
that
!"
    “What?”
    “That thing that looks like a—a—”
    He stared at my pointing finger. “A dog turd?”
    “To put it delicately.”
    “That’s how Esperanza puts it. And talk about something she hates! Wow, does she hate them—with a deep, primal loathing the way some people hate spiders. Libby, too—all the kids do. Can’t say that I blame them either. Some things are hard even for an aquarist to stomach. It’s a hagfish—I’ve got three of them in there. Disgusting, but they’ll keep your tank clean for you.”
    “A hagfish?”
    “Otherwise knows as a slime eel. Does that ring a bell?” I shook my head. “I guess I’ve led a more sheltered life than I thought.”
    “No eyes; one rasping tooth.” He shuddered. “Among its other charming qualities, it can tie itself in knots.”
    “What about the slime?”
    But Esperanza, who had heretofore not uttered a peep, called, “Daddy, are you back? Did you get it?”
    “Uh-oh.” Julio looked sheepish, a provider who’d failed to bring home the bacon. “I guess I’d better break the news.”
    “I didn’t realize she was here. She was so quiet.”
    He sighed. “That’s how she’s been.”
    “I mean, I guess I imagined you’d left her with a neighbor.”
    He saw what I was getting at. “You don’t think I should have left her alone?”
    “She seems so little.”
    “She’s just short, like her mom. She’s ten—you don’t think that’s old enough?”
    I considered. “I guess so.”
    It was comical, really. I could tell he genuinely didn’t know if she was old enough to be left alone, and he thought I might because I’m a woman. I hadn’t a clue. Who did know anything about kids, and how did they find out? I’d never thought to wonder before.
    “I’ll tell her the bad news. Then you can go in.” Julio walked to the back of the house, and I thought I could hear a drone, his voice. There was one stifled wail and nothing else from Esperanza.
    He came back looking like some sitcom depiction of an expectant father in a waiting room—terrified by the alien world of women and children. “She’s a wreck.”
    “Shall I go in alone, or do you want to come?”
    But he was staring