Hidden Summit

as good news. And this was forwarded to you from the D.A.’s office to me.” She handed him a white envelope.
    He looked at the handwriting and return address and handed it back to her. “This is my ex-wife. I’ve gotten letters before. I don’t read them.”
    “Read this one, please,” Brie said. “We’d like to know how she knew to send it to the D.A.’s office, if she mentions that.”
    He pressed it on her. “Go ahead, knock yourself out. Read it.”
    “It could be personal, Conner,” she said as she took the envelope with reluctance.
    Of course the D.A. knew the story even if Brie didn’t. “No, it couldn’t be. We’ve been divorced almost two years and we divorced because she had a problem with sex, as in she had a great deal more of it than I did. With many, many partners.”
    “Oh,” Brie said. “Sorry.”
    “So go ahead. It’s probably one of those amends letters—there were quite a few before the fire, before the murder in my back alley.”
    “Amends?” Brie asked as she ripped open the envelope. “I take that to mean…?”
    “Some kind of program,” he answered. “A very long, expensive program. My parting gift to the lady.”
    “Wow,” Brie said under her breath, unfolding a long letter. “Wow,” she said again, taking in the neat, close, tightly constructed and lengthy penned letter—three pages, both sides. It was written so densely. Obsessively. “This could take a while.”
    “Take as long as you like, it’s all yours.”
    “You’re not wondering how she tracked you down to Max? The D.A.’s office?”
    “Not really. She was a smart woman. About most things.”
    Brie scanned the first page. “Well, we’re in luck—it’s up front. After she heard about the killing and your store being burned down she decided to take a chance and see if the D.A.’s office might know where you could be. She’s very worried about you and hopes you’re all right.”
    “That’s Samantha,” he said. “She was worried about me before all this happened, too. She wants dialogue—it’s not going to happen.”
    “Maybe she wants to be forgiven,” Brie suggested.
    “That, too, so I told her that I forgave her, but that we weren’t going to have a relationship. It just isn’t a good idea, not for either one of us. I wish she’d quit writing me letters.”
    Brie scanned some more. “She says she’s been straight for a long time and that she’s sorry and that she misses you.”
    “Hmm,” he said. “Good for her. That she’s fixed, I mean. So, there are a couple of things I need to talk to you about. First of all, when do you think I’ll be asked to go to Sacramento?”
    “A few weeks, I think. Give or take.”
    Ness tried to get her cup of milk, just out of her reach, and Conner automatically slid it closer to her. “There you go, honey,” he said. “That’s good, isn’t it?” he asked her gently. Then he straightened and looked at Brie. He was glad they were all in the kitchen together with Ness eating her dinner. That alone would probably keep Brie from having a little hissy fit.
    “Before I testify, I’m going to see my sister,” he said. “I’ll drive to San Francisco, leave the truck in the long-term lot and fly to Vermont. I haven’t asked her if I can visit yet, but I’m sure she’ll be happy to see me. We’re very close. I’m close to the kids.”
    “Not recommended,” Brie said, shaking her head.
    “I wasn’t asking for a recommendation,” Conner said. “I don’t know what you know about me, Brie, so let me fill in some gaps. Our parents died when we were young—both of them were gone when Katie was twenty and I was twenty-three. We took over a family business we didn’t know how to run, and although she thought she was all grown-up by then, I had to be a parent to her. She married a great man, Charlie, when she was twenty-six—he was like a brother to me. Less than a year later, a couple of months before Katie’s twin boys were born, he was killed in Afghanistan. That was five years ago. I took care of her and my nephews right up to the day the D.A. sent her in one direction and me in another.
    “Now I talk to Katie every day, and guess where we are? She likes where she is. There’s someone she’s starting to care about there. She’s talking about staying there. She thinks she and the boys might have a future there. She was kind of hoping I’d end up there, near them. But what do you suppose happened? After all these years,