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Qui
J.T. Ellison
you out of your mind? Do you actually think I’m going to march upstairs and give you anything that might implicate my husband in a crime? You get a warrant, Mr. Baldwin. I won’t help you frame my husband for something he didn’t do.”
Taylor stepped in. “Qui
Qui
“Gabrielle, it’s all right. Everything will be okay. Sarà tutto il di destra, cara. Non si preoccupi. ”
Gabrielle raised her head and glared at Qui
“Non, it ees not going to be all right. You have no idea. None. There ees no way Signor Buckley has done these things. I know.” She began crying harder and a torrent of Italian flowed from her mouth. “Sto facendo All the Pretty Girls
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l’amore con il Signor Buckley per parecchi mesi. Siamo nell’amore. Non significo da
Gabrielle stood straighter, and Taylor recognized immediately the stance. A woman in love. Not like Qui
Taylor looked at Qui
“Qui
Qui
“She says that she and Jake are having an affair. That they are in love. That it’s my fault, that I don’t love him enough. Is that about right, Gabrielle? I don’t love my husband enough, so you felt the need to step in and love him for me? Get out of my house, voi poco squaldrina. VOI SORCA! ”
Gabrielle’s eyes widened, and Taylor realized Qui
Qui
J.T. Ellison
touch on the shoulder. Qui
“I’m sorry, Qui
“Let’s go back in the library. I’ll help you any way that I can.”
The three filed back into the library. Taylor and Baldwin resumed their positions on the couch, watching Qui
“Jake and I have been having problems for some time now. It’s been a couple of years, actually. We had a fight, a horrible, terrible fight on a Sunday evening two months ago. Jake was getting ready for another business trip—you know he travels constantly for his job. I wanted him to stay home, to pick me over Health Partners just once. That’s when he admitted he’d been cheating on me. He’d taken up with some intern that he’d met, a marketing company he works with. The affair was brief, only a couple of days, but it was like he’d decided then and there that he didn’t want to be with me anymore. I didn’t know what to do. What woman is ever prepared to go through the realization that her husband doesn’t love her anymore? I did the only thing I knew to do. I had separation papers drawn up. I showed them to him last Monday night. That’s why I wasn’t answering the phone when Whitney called. I was telling my husband that he can kiss me, his kids, All the Pretty Girls
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his house and my money goodbye. He stormed out of here, and I haven’t seen him since.”
Baldwin tapped his fingers on the arm of the couch.
“He was having an affair with an intern? Do you know if this was here in town or out on the road?”
“I’d like to think Jake had the common sense to keep his philandering at a distance.” She stopped for a moment, thinking. “Of course, I was wrong about that. Gabrielle and Whitney, right under my nose. My God, I am such a bloody idiot!”
“Of course you aren’t. These things happen,” he comforted. “I’m sorry to have to put you through this, Mrs. Buckley. But the affair, the intern. Do you know…?”
“I believe it was New Orleans, during Mardi Gras, something like that.”
“Did he mention a name?”
“Oh, it was something French. Started with a J.”
“Jeanette Lernier?” Baldwin asked.
Qui
Qui
“Jesus,” she muttered.
They were ru
J.T. Ellison
throat. “Jake hasn’t called home this week? No word from him at all?”
“No, Lieutenant, not a peep.” She laughed shrilly.
“Maybe I didn’t handle things well. I should have told him the truth from day one, when we first met.”
Baldwin spoke softly. “Tell the truth about what, Mrs. Buckley?”
She glanced at him for a moment, cool, appraising, then turned away. “The truth about what happened to Whitney and me when we were children. About what a farce our lives were. You remember,” she accused Taylor. “You probably know the whole story already, being a cop.”
All three of them jumped when Taylor’s phone rang. She was tempted to let it ring but knew she had to answer. “I’m so sorry. Please, let me just take this call. I don’t know the whole story, Qui
She glanced at the caller ID. It was Fitz. She picked up the phone and stepped out of the room. “Jackson here.” As he spoke, she couldn’t believe what she heard. Hanging up, she went back into the library. Baldwin and Qui
“Qui