Page 4 of Close Your Eyes and Count to 10

But no. There was an electricity to the air, an energy of something about to go wrong.

When she looked through the glass at the top of the door, she saw a form that had become too familiar. Tall, broad-shouldered, close-shorn hair, hands in pockets, stance wide.What now?She released a sigh, opened the door.

“Why doesn’tanyoneever seem happy to see me?” said Special Agent Sean Coben. He offered his hand, which she reluctantly took. It was strong and calloused in hers, his grip a little too firm.

“What can I do for you, Agent Coben?” She drew her hand back, kept her body in the doorjamb.

“I wanted to let you know,” he said, peering past her into the house, “that we have a lead on your husband. A sighting in Tampa that we think might be legitimate.”

She leaned against the frame. Was this day going to get any worse?

Agent Coben was the most recent in a long line of FBI agents looking for her husband, who had been on the run for the last five years. Coben was definitely the youngest and most energetic of the agents, fresh to the fight, bringing an uncommon enthusiasm to the hunt for a man accused of fraud and embezzlement. Miller’s company, a biotechnology firm that developed prosthetics, among other things, was—had been—a major employer of the town in which they still lived. Due to his alleged activities, the company went bankrupt, employees lost everything, and Miller was said to have absconded with untold millions of dollars, leaving Adele behind to pick up the pieces of their shattered life.

“I have some footage I’d like to show you,” Agent Coben said, rubbing at his clean-shaven jaw.

She swung the door open finally, and he walked inside, standing in the small foyer.

“We’re eating,” she said. “Would you like to join us?”

He smiled, maybe intuiting that it was a polite invitation that would be impolite to accept, lifted a palm. “Thank you. I’ll just wait here until you’re done.”

The kids were standing inside the kitchen door when she returned.

“Did they find Dad?” asked Blake, childishly hopeful.

“If they’dfoundhim, he’d be in jail,” said Violet, face stone-still, eyes sad.

The pain that her husband had caused his children was a knife in her gut every single time.

“He’s not going to jail,” said Blake. “Because he’s innocent. He wasframed.”

“You,” said Violet softly, moving toward the sink, “are an idiot.”

Blake glared but stayed quiet.

“Violet, in this family we treat each other with respect,” said Adele, the words sounding weak even to her. “No name-calling.”

Violet shook her head, mouth pressed into a thin line, stayed silent. No back talk, but no apology, either.

“Kids,” she said, clearing her dish. She’d lost her appetite. “Finish eating and go work on your homework. If there’s any news, I’ll talk to you about it when Agent Coben leaves.”

After Blake and Violet went upstairs, Adele sat with Agent Coben at the kitchen island. On his iPad, he showed her footage of a man walking down a city street, the image black-and-white and grainy. It could have been Miller. Baseball cap, mirrored glasses, light jacket, and jeans, it could have been anyone.

“We got a call, then pulled area footage. This was all we found.”

“Why Tampa?”

“That’s what I was hoping you could tell me.”

Adele and Miller met in Florida; Miller had always talked about returning there someday. He loved the beach lifestyle, boats and warm weather all year. The last alleged Miller sighting had been in Majorca; before that, Greece. But if he had any connections in Tampa, any reason to go there, Adele had no idea what those might be. Her husband was a stranger to her, maybe in light of everything that had happened, even after ten years of marriage and two children, he always had been.

“Has he reached out to you?” asked Agent Coben, keeping his dark, girlishly lashed eyes on her. His gaze was warm but unyielding.

“You’d know if he had, wouldn’t you?” It was no secret that she was still under FBI surveillance. It was subtle, but she knew.

“People have their ways,” said Coben easily.

“He hasn’t. And if he had, I would have called you. I would like Miller to come to justice, even if just for closure for my kids.”

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