Page 11 of I'm Watching You

Her birthday was in two days. She’d almost forgotten. Leave it to Sam to remember.

‘I’m going to be working late tonight.’ She was grateful to have a real excuse. ‘Rain check? Maybe next week? And make the cake carrot.’

He laughed. ‘Consider it done.’

She glanced at her phone console, noticing two other lines blinking. ‘Hey, look, I’ve got other calls. Lots of stuff going on here today.’

‘Everything all right?’

‘It’s a long story. I’ll tell you when I see you.’

‘No problem. See you in about an hour.’

‘Thanks.’ Lindsay hung up and caught Ruby’s gaze.

Ruby cupped her hand over the receiver. ‘Line three. Dana Miller.’

Lindsay’s stomach knotted with tension. ‘Thanks.’

Dana, the shelter’s board chairman, was essentially Lindsay’s boss. Had Dana already heard about the murder or was the call about the missed teleconference? Neither topic boded well.

She punched line three. ‘Hello, Dana.’

‘What’s going on over there? First you miss our phone meeting and then the director at Riverside Shelter calls and tells me Ruby requested bed space for some of your residents.’

Lindsay sighed. No beating around the bush with Dana. ‘A body was found behind the shelter.’

‘What!’

‘It wasn’t one of our residents,’ she rushed to say.

‘Who the hell was it?’

‘I don’t know. The police aren’t telling me much right now.’

‘Damn it, Lindsay. This is not good.’

Lindsay pictured Dana sitting in her high-rise office wearing her trademark red Brooks Brothers suit. On her desk there’d be a half-full cup of coffee and a cigarette burning in a crystal ashtray. Dana had made millions in real estate and had built a reputation as a hard-driving ball buster who disdained sloppy emotions. Lindsay never could figure why she’d decided to champion battered women or Sanctuary.

‘I know the victim is a man, and as soon as I know anything else I’ll call you,’ Lindsay said.

‘Do you know how the guy died?’

‘No.’

Dana exhaled. ‘We don’t need bad press, Lindsay. Not after what happened before with that other woman.’

‘Her name was Pam Rogers.’ Dana may have forgotten the woman’s name but Lindsay never would.

Dana blew out a lungful of smoke into the receiver. ‘Handle this, Lindsay. I don’t want to defend the shelter again to the media. It’s not good for me or you.’

Handle this. ‘Consider it done.’

The line went dead.

Ruby poked her head into the kitchen, clearly having overheard the conversation. ‘Sorry about that. I wanted tocall Riverside first thing. If we can get Aisha Greenland and her boys transferred there, the boys won’t have to switch schools.’

‘The children’s well-being comes before politics. You did the right thing. Did they get bed space?’

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