The Cove

Still, he felt a knife twist in his gut.

    "Yeah," he said easily, "let's give Monica a call and see if someone's gotten to her as well."

    She called Monica Freeman, a powerhouse administrator in HUD. She was embarrassed because she had to call Information for the number. She'd known it as well as her own before Scott.

    The phone rang twice, three times, then, "Hello."

    "Monica? It's Sally."

    James was bent over, writing something.

    There was a long pause. "Sally? Sally Brainerd?"

    "Yes. How are you, Monica?"

    "Sally, where are you? What's going on?"

    James slid a sheet of paper under her hand. Sally read it, nodded slowly, then said, "I'm in trouble, Monica. Can you help me? Can you loan me some money?"

    There was another long pause. "Sally, listen. Tell me where you are."

    "No, Monica, I can't do that."

    "Let me call Scott. He can come and get you. Where are you, Sally?"

    "You never called him Scott before, Monica. You didn't like him, remember? You used to call him a jerk when you knew I was listening. You wanted to protect me from him. You used to tell me he was into power and that he was trying to separate me from all my friends. Don't you remember how you'd call after Scott and I were married and ask me first thing if Scott was gone so we could really talk? You didn't like him, Monica. Once you told me I should kick him in the balls."

    There was utter silence, then, “I was wrong about him. He's been very concerned about you, Sally. He came to me hoping you would call and that I would help him.

    "Scott's a good man, Sally. Let me call him for you. He and I can meet you someplace, we-"

    Sally very gently punched the off button on the portable phone.

    To her surprise James was grinning. "Hey, just maybe we've got your husband's lover. Am I jumping too fast here? Yeah, probably, but what do you think? Maybe he's a real stud, maybe he's got both Jill and Monica? Could he do it, do you think?"

    She'd been thinking that hell couldn't feel worse than she felt now, but he'd put a ridiculous twist on it, like the best of the spin doctors. "I don't know. She's certainly changed her tune, just like Jill. Two? I doubt it, James. He was always so busy. I think his deals were more exhilarating to him than mere sex."

    "What kind of deals?"

    "He was in my dad's law firm, something I didn't know until after we were married. That sounds weird but it's true. He didn't want me to know, obviously, until after we were married. He was in international finance, working primarily with the oil cartel. He would come home rubbing his hands together, telling me how this deal or that deal would impress everybody, how he'd gotten the better of such and such a sheikh and had just brought in a cool half million. Deals like that."

    "How long were you married to him?"

    "Eight months." She blinked and fiddled with the leaves of a healthy philodendron. "Isn't it odd? I don't count the six months in the sanitarium."

    "That's not a very long time for a marriage, Sally. Even mine-a semi-unmitigated disaster-lasted two years."

    "I realized right after we were married that my father was as much a part of the marriage as we were. I'm willing to bet he offered me up to Scott as part of a deal between the two of them."

    She drew a deep breath. "I think my father put me in the sanitarium as revenge for all those years I protected Noelle. I'm willing to bet that another part of the revenge was to get Scott to marry me. He got to Scott, and Scott did what he was told. All revenge.

    "When I told Scott I wanted a divorce, he told me I was crazy. I told him that he could marry my father if he wanted a St. John so badly. Maybe two days after that, I was in that sanitarium-at least I think it was two days. The time still gets all scrambled up."

    "But he had a lover. Perhaps Monica, perhaps Jill. Perhaps someone we don't know at all. How quickly were you sure about his affair?"

    "About three months after we were married. I'd decided to try to make a go of it, but when I found a couple of love notes, unsigned, and two motel receipts, I didn't care enough to try. Between that and my father, always in the background, I just wanted to get out."

    "But your father didn't let you get out."

    "No."

    "Obviously your father knew everything about your marriage. Scott must have told him immediately when you asked for a divorce for your father to take action so quickly. Who knows? Maybe it was Scott's idea. Do you want to call anyone else?"

    "No,