In Self Defense by Susan Sloan (phonics books .TXT) 📕

during the school year and Little League during the summer, and she went to every one of his games, although baseball held no real interest for her, just to cheer him on.  In return, he attended all her piano recitals, looking very uncomfortable, but being a good sport about it.  She decided if he couldn’t be her brother for real, he would certainly be her friend for life.

Two months after David turned eighteen, a drunk driver killed his father.  When a lawsuit failed to provide much of a settlement, Gus arranged to have the mortgage on the Johansen house paid off, and then gave David’s mother a job.

“It’s too much, Gus,” she protested.

“No,” Gus replied.  “It’s not enough.  What’s the good of working hard all your life and having a little money to show for it, if you can’t do what you want with it?  You’re family.  It’ll be enough when your boys graduate college.”

And he had kept his word.  David and his brother not only earned their bachelor’s degrees from the University of Washington, they both went on to graduate school.  Today, David’s brother was on staff at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute, and David was the head of his own successful law firm.

Clare had every intention of keeping in touch after her marriage, even though Richard disliked David on first meeting, and dismissed any connection out of hand.  Clare didn’t understand why, but then, she didn’t let it stop her, either.  So between Christmas cards, and telephone calls, and bumping into one another as if by chance at various social gatherings, and lunches squeezed in every month or so, she and David managed to maintain their friendship.  Ironically, they had last seen each other just a couple of weeks ago, at Richard’s funeral.

He took her phone call without hesitation.  “Hey, kiddo, how’re you doing?” he asked, a smile in his voice.

“Not all that well, actually,” Clare confessed.  “Could we get together and talk?”

“Sure,” he replied, looking at his calendar.  “I could drop by later this afternoon.”

“That would be fine, I’ll look forward to it,” she said.  “And David -- this won’t be a social call.”

He frowned at his end of the line.  “What’s up?”

“Not now,” Clare told him.  “When I see you.”

***

“We don’t have enough,” Dusty declared.  “We may think she meant to murder her husband, but if we’re going to take it up to the prosecutor’s office, we going to have to have more.”

“Let’s go back to some of the people who were on that list Clare gave us,” Erin suggested.  “We know a whole lot more now than we did the last time we talked to them.  Let’s try again, from a different angle, and see what shakes loose.”

***

It was past eight o’clock when David Johansen left Laurelhurst for his modest home on Queen Anne Hill.  Although financially secure in his career, the attorney had learned much from Gus, not the least of which was the value of money.  David and his family lived well, but not extravagantly.  They saved conscientiously, and gave generously.

He and Clare had talked for almost four hours, and there was still much to be said.  But he had to have time to think, to digest what he had heard, and to figure out how best to proceed.  He had heard many stories in his sixteen years of practicing law, but never anything quite like the story Clare Durant had told.

***

“I’ve known Clare for four years,” Nina told Erin in her office at Thornburgh House.  “We’ve been good friends for, I’d say, at least three-and-a-half of those years.  Was her marriage a perfect one?  Of course not -- perhaps you can tell me whose ever is?  But she was devoted to Richard, there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind about that.  She’s been devastated by his death.  She’ll never get over it.”

“Would she have been devastated if he had wanted a divorce?” Erin asked.

“A divorce?”  Nina echoed in surprise.  “Of course she would have.”

“Do you think she would have agreed to it?”

Nina thought about that for a moment.  “Clare is a very proud woman, but not a foolish one,” she said finally.  “I think if Richard had really wanted a divorce, Clare would have given it to him.  She would have made him pay, of course,” she added, with a little twinkle in her eye, “but she would have given it to him.  I don’t understand why you’re coming around and asking all these questions now, though.  I thought the case had been closed.”

“We have just a few loose ends to tie up,” Erin said.  “One of which is, we’re trying to understand why Richard Durant would cut his business trip short and not tell his wife.”

“I didn’t think he would,” Nina said.  “But then again, what do I know?  I didn’t think he’d come walking into the house in the middle of the night, either, when he knew all of you were out there, expecting the stalker.”

***

“As far as we knew, the Durants were a perfectly normal, happy family,” Marcia Bennett, one of the next-door neighbors, confirmed.  “What a terrible tragedy this has been.  I saw Clare just yesterday.  She’s lost at least ten pounds.  I doubt she’ll ever be the same.  And heaven knows what effect it will have on the children.”

“Would you say that you and the Durants were friends?” Dusty inquired.

“Of course, I would,” Marcia assured him.  “We’ve lived next-door to each other for ten years now.  Of course, we’re all busy people, and we don’t see each other nearly as much as we might like to, but we certainly kept in touch.”

“What I mean is, would you know if there were any problems in the marriage?”

“Problems?” Marcia echoed.  “What sort of problems are you talking about?”

“Serious problems,” Dusty said.  “The kind that could lead to irreconcilable differences.”

“Well, if there were, I can assure you it wasn’t obvious to us.”

“You mean Mr. Durant never talked to your husband about wanting a divorce?  And Mrs. Durant never