Page 62 of 25 Alive

I WAS AWAKE and staring at the ceiling at 4 something a.m.

Chamomile tea and Tylenol PM could only do so much. I stayed in bed, thinking about Joe, hoping for a phone call from him, furious that my husband was gone and the only information I’d been given was “We’re working on it.”

Dr. Sidney Greene once told me that if I couldn’t sleep, I should get out of bed, sit in a chair, and read. When the book or magazine fell out of my hands, go back to bed, and I would fall back asleep.

I had one of Joe’s magazines on my nightstand, and I had dog-eared an article about “chair yoga.” It didn’t sound exciting. I positioned the bedside clock so that it threw light on the pages. I don’t know when the magazine fell out of my hands, but it was Julie who woke me up for good. She got into the bed and bounced until I opened my eyes.

“What are you doing, Jules?”

“I’m going to miss the bus and you’re going to be late and Daddy’s still not home.”

“Oh, Jules, he’s still away in Mexico on his business trip,” I told her, hoping to God that I was right.

“Where is he? Is he going to call?”

“If he can, Jules.”

“Why can’t he?”

“I told you,” I said. “He’s in a foreign country. His phone might not work there. He’ll call as soon as he can.”

I had lied to my daughter without even crossing my fingers. I checked the time. It was 7:45 a.m., and Brady had called a task force meeting for 9.

“Let’s get ready, Julie-bug. Go brush your teeth.”

I moved fast. I got Julie into a new outfit that I’d been saving for a special occasion.

“Thank you, Mommy. I guess.”

She’d put on the new black tights and big pink shirt I’d bought, but she didn’t like the look. I would come up with something she’d like better. There was time.

Meanwhile, I fed the two of us plus Martha and sprinkled fish flakes into the goldfish bowl. Julie chatted with Martha and even had a couple of things to say to the TV hosts ofGood Morning, San Francisco.

I sat on my bed to pull on my shoes and lost track of time until Martha came into the room and woofed.

“Boo? Want to go for a walk?”

She woofed again, danced a circle, then rounded up Julie. After I’d leashed my old border collie, she shepherded me and Julie down the stairs and up the street to the bus stop. We arrived just as the school bus pulled up to the curb. I kissed my kiddo good-bye, then waved as the bus drove away.

CHAPTER94

CINDY WAS RACING to discover the truth about Brett Palmer. Brett’s voice on his lost-and-found recorder had been chilling. As Cindy had listened to his complaints and declarations to his brother, Nate, she got a sick feeling that she was in real danger.

She hadn’t felt this way when she and Brett were chowing down on their breakfast at the Ritz. Now she felt as if Brett were standing behind her with a coiled rope in his hands.

Cindy went back to the beginning and prepared herself to listen again to the whole damned hour and a half of Brett’s “Notes for file.”

Twenty minutes in, Brett said to Nate, “I couldn’t stand it anymore. When Ange and I got divorced, I gave her the house, the car, even the damned plants. Plus 300K in cash.”

Nate said, “No respect—that’s what she gave you.”

“I gave her what I had. I said, ‘You dead.’”

Cindy was still rocked by Brett’s admission. He’d all but admitted to killing his ex-wife, Angela Kinney Palmer—andhow many others might there have been? He had to be stopped. A recorded conversation pertaining to a crime was legal as evidence. But she also knew that in a trial setting there were a dozen ways the defense could undercut it.

But if Brett’s confession was confirmed by Nate Miller, Cindy would be handing the prosecution an almost certain win. And maybe, maybe, she’d write another true-crime bestseller.

Cindy fast-forwarded past Brett Palmer’s appointment schedule, meeting notes, and list of expenses. Then she slowed to catch the last of Brett’s “I said, ‘You dead’” declaration. She was obsessing, but she had to follow this lead. Yes, she was dogged. Yes, she was tenacious. But doggedness and tenacity were necessary if she was going to find the truth.

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