Page 77 of Almost Dead (The Cahills 2)

“You think someone stole it?” he asked again, trying to understand.

She looked away over the iron fence on the lower side of the property to the city, where lights twinkled through a bank of fog. “I don’t know what to think,” she admitted. “My whole life is upside down right now.” Sighing, she checked her watch and said, “Look, I’ve really got to run. The sitter expected me fifteen minutes ago.”

“Okay. Just let me know if you think of anything else.”

“I will,” she promised, and for the first time ever, he sensed she trusted him.

Cissy’s nerves were jangled, stretched thin, her hands grasping the steering wheel as if she were afraid to let go. She drove down Mt. Sutro and merged into Stanyan, following the taillights of an SUV.

Ever since Gran’s death, her life had been careening out of control. People were dying. Things were missing. She felt as if she were being watched by unseen eyes, and now this…this sighting of her mother. Did that make any sense?

“No,” she said aloud, and as she stopped for a traffic light she thought about the impending divorce and how torn she was about that too. Had Jack had an affair with Larissa? Was he lying through his teeth, or, as he’d protested, had “nothing happened”? Did it matter whether he’d slept with her at all, or was it the fact that he’d ended up spending the night in the redhead’s apartment?

Ever since that one disastrous event, she’d suspected nearly every woman she knew of trying to seduce her husband. “That’s nuts,” she told herself, then glanced in the rearview mirror to see her own pained eyes staring back at her. Frightened eyes. Paranoid eyes. Oh God, was she losing her mind? She felt herself quivering inside and gnashed her back teeth together. Get a grip, Cissy!

She eased around the edge of Buena Vista Park and turned onto Haight Street. She’d go home, play with B.J., make dinner, give him a bath. Once he was in bed, she would strip out of her clothes, cast off her cares, and settle into a tub of hot, scented water. She’d turn on the stereo to her favorite CD, light candles, and even sip some wine. Pamper herself. Find herself.

She wouldn’t think about her mother, the murders, her estranged husband, her missing things. No, she’d relax and de-stress.

At the house, she clicked her remote and drove into the garage. Hauling her purse and computer into the house, she called “Hello” but heard no excited little footsteps, no small voice calling excitedly “Mom-mee home,” no giggling. No frantic barking from Coco. In fact the house was silent as a tomb.

Oh no!

“Hello?” she called again, heartbeat accelerating. Then she spied Tanya on the patio outside in the dark. She was huddled against the wind, her cell phone to her ear, and when she turned at the sound of Cissy’s voice, she quickly ended the call, snapping her flip phone shut.

As she stepped inside, she said, “I get lousy reception in the house.”

“Where’s Beej?”

“Jack came by and picked him up.”

“What?”

“I said, Jack came—”

“I know what you said, I just don’t understand it,” Cissy cut her off. “I thought you understood that Beej isn’t to leave—”

“With his own father?” Tanya looked at her as if she’d gone around the bend.

“Did they take the dog too?”

“Yeah, thank God.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know. He called and said that I didn’t need to bother with dinner. Then he picked up Beej and the stupid dog and they took off about ten minutes ago.”

“But—”

“I couldn’t call you,” Tanya pointed out. “And you’re late.”

“I…ran into some unexpected problems.”

“Sure.” The corners of her mouth pinched. “Look, I know you don’t like me. I don’t know why. I do a good job, but it’s never good enough, is it? It’s like you were ready to hate me from the get-go. I figure it has something to do with the fact that Jack hired me, and you’re pissed at him. Anyway, it doesn’t matter, I’m giving my notice.”

“You are?”

“I’m not sticking around so you can fire me. I know you’re thinking about it, so let’s just get it over with. It’s too bad in a way, because I love Beej. Jack’s great too, but you and I”—she waved her hand back and forth between Cissy and herself—“we just don’t click.”

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