Page 61 of What We May Be

“Nosy?”

“She volunteers at the hospital. She’s always in everyone’s business. Gossips like an old bitty.”

The highlighted phone record appeared over his shoulder. He took the paper from Charlie and pushed it across the table. “She called you a number of times over the past couple weeks.”

“That’s right. She got my number from one of the nurses.”

“Why did she call you?”

Tracy leaned forward and answered matter-of-factly, “To tell me my husband was having an affair with a student. She’d confiscated the girl’s phone and had pictures.”

“You weren’t surprised?”

“I’d already had one unfaithful husband.” She fired a scathing glare over his shoulder at Charlie. “I knew the signs.”

Charlie was at his side the next instant, her hands braced against the edge of the table. “Trevor was never unfaithful to you. You cheated on him.”

Tracy’s ice-cold laugh sent a shiver racing up Sean’s spine. Attempting to diffuse the mounting tension, he shifted forward, refocusing Tracy’s attention on him. “Did you say anything to Julian about the affair?”

Her gaze drifted back to his, regarding him coolly. “We were in a nice, big, refurbished house, and Julian was good to me. I knew the kind of man he was when I married him. I knew there would be other women. He didn’t promise to love only me and then force me to sit across the table from the object of his affection every week at Sunday dinner.”

“You’ve got some nerve,” Charlie said.

Sean didn’t disagree—Trevor was the last person who would ever cheat—but they couldn’t afford to get mad. They needed more information on Beth, and they weren’t going to get it if Tracy shut down. He grasped Charlie’s thigh beneath the table and turned his face to her. “Check it” he mouthed and held her stare until the tension eased from her arms and she retreated.

Once she’d resumed her perch on the windowsill, he turned back to Tracy. “As a volunteer at the hospital, did Beth have access to needles and meds?”

“Directly, no, but I wouldn’t put it past her to swipe someone’s keys to the surgical carts or storage room.”

“Could she have accessed those unnoticed?”

“It’s possible. Most of us actively ignored her to avoid the gossipmongering.”

“Beth called you twice the night Julian was murdered. What did she say?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Charlie asked from behind him.

“Nothing,” Tracy repeated. “The first time, she had the desk nurse pull me out of surgery, claiming it was an emergency, but when I got to the phone the line was dead.”

“What about the second call?”

“I let it go to voicemail, and when I checked it, there was no message.” She straightened in her chair. “Do you think Beth had something to do with Julian’s death?”

Not for Sean to disclose. He dodged her question with another. “Do you know if Beth had any connection to Jefferson Marshall?”

“She told me he convinced the tenure committee to turn her down. I guess she thought I was still harboring some resentment for him doing the same to Trevor.”

“You weren’t?” Sean asked.

An ugly sneer marred her face. “I would have given Professor Marshall a medal if I’d ever met him. I didn’t want Trevor to get tenure. I wanted out of this town, and him not getting tenure was the surest bet to making that happen.”

Charlie was back at Sean’s side before he could blink, betrayal and outrage coloring her rising voice. “But then you married Julian, a dean at HU.”

Tracy shrugged, keeping her icy glare on him but aiming her spiteful retort at Charlie. “Like I said, I knew what I was getting and what I wasn’t.”

Charlie leaned forward, her temper on full blast. “Trevor loved you.”

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