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

was I to play rescuer? Yet I was getting caught up in the role. And I wasn’t going to be effective if I didn’t stop offending Ava.
    But I needn’t have worried. The snapping eyes had lost their focus; she was tearing up. “I guess I picked another ‘inappropriate’ time.” There was fury in her voice, but it was the frustrated rage of defeat. She was handing the power over.
    I simply couldn’t believe it. Instead of using that giant head of energy she’d just worked up, shed gone all victimized and soft. Or so it seemed. Why didn’t I trust it?
    Deliberately I made my voice calm and lawyer-like. “Not at all. Is there tuna fish? Maybe I could make some sandwiches. We could stop and get some potato chips and Cokes.”
    “Marty doesn’t let them have sugar.”
    “Juice then. It
is
all right with you if they go?”
    She shrugged, still mad. “I guess you’re in charge here. I usually don’t let one go without the other. And Libby shouldn’t be allowed to go until she apologizes for using filthy language.”
    “But if one can’t go without the other, that would penalize Keil.”
    She turned toward the kitchen, big shoulders heaving again. “That’ll just be on her conscience, won’t it?”
    I went up and found Libby. “Your grandma said you couldn’t go sailing until you apologized for calling me a shithead.”
    “I don’t give a shit who I called a shithead. I told you I didn’t want to go sailing, shithead.”
    I laughed and hit her with a pillow. “What’d you call me?”
    “SHITHEAD!!!!”
    I cupped my ear and whispered, “Could you say that again, please?”
    “Shithead!”
    “Oh. I thought you said
cabeza de mierda
.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Shithead in Spanish. Esperanza taught it to me.”
    She laughed, caught herself having fun, and put her hand over her mouth. “She did not! She never swears.”
    “You’re right, she didn’t. But I did see her this afternoon. Her dad took me to talk to her because she’s real, real upset about something.”
    “Sadie.” Libby looked down at her coverlet and found a design to trace.
    “It isn’t just that, honey. It’s something about a white thing. Do you know what it is?”
    She looked up, interested for the first time. “A white thing?”
    “Uh-huh. She said it looked like a brain.”
    “A brain? She told
you
that?”
    “Yes. Have you seen it?”
    “Maybe. Why’d she tell
you
about it?”
    “Kids like me. Haven’t you noticed?”
    She threw the pillow back at me. “Shithead.” But there was no venom in the word.
    “See? You hardly know me and already you gave me a nickname.”
    “Is Esperanza
really
upset?”
    “Really, really upset.”
    “Really, really, really upset?”
    It went on like that for a few more exchanges, while Libby let me know she wouldn’t dream of going except that Esperanza needed her so desperately. But I knew the battle was won the first time I mentioned the white thing—I couldn’t tell whether she knew what it was, but she obviously didn’t know why it was upsetting Esperanza. And she was burning up with curiosity.
    Keil the Wonder Child already had the sandwiches made. How he knew we were even really going, much less that we needed tuna sandwiches, I had no idea. Maybe he was psychic; he seemed to know what you wanted half the time when you didn’t know yourself.
    Julio kept his boat at the marina, and we were to meet him there at three. We’d have just made it if the phone hadn’t rung. Keil answered it—who else? “It’s for you, Rebecca.”
    I snatched the phone, fervently hoping I’d connected with Judge Reyes before I remembered I hadn’t been able to leave a message.
    “Hello, schweetheart, get me rewrite.”
    “Rob.”
    “Hey, what’s wrong?”
    “Nothing. I was on my way out, that’s all. How’s—ah—” Where was he? “—Harvard?”
    “You don’t sound right.”
    “How’d you know I was here?”
    “I tracked you down. The Monterey Bay Aquarium murder is national news, pussycat. Your name was in the
New York Times
this morning.”
    “Shit!” Guiltily I looked over at Ava.
    “I’m getting the weirdest feeling about your attitude.”
    “Did the paper say Marty’s been arrested?”
    “Uh-huh. I always thought there was passion beneath that calm exterior.”
    “And did it mention Don’s away in Australia?”
    “No. Why?”
    “Well, if you recall, they’ve got two kids.”
    “Oh, no. You’ve been elected Mom for a Day? Surely not. Not