COLLATERAL CASUALTIES (The Kate Huntington mystery series) by Kassandra Lamb Read Free Book Online Page A

to sit next to him on the bed. “Come on, talk to me. What’s the matter, darlin’?”
                Kate shook her head, struggling not to cry. “I can’t tell you. It has to do with that case. And tomorrow I won’t be home for dinner. I have to go somewhere after work.”
                “You said the client’s in danger.” There was alarm in his voice. “You’re not going to meet her, are you?”
                “The danger’s over now,” Kate said, not bothering to correct his assumption about the client’s gender. “Sweetheart, I wish I could talk to you about this, but I can’t. Confidentiality...” She caught herself. She’d been about to say, Confidentiality doesn’t die with the client. Skip was an investigator. She dared not give him any hints about what had happened or he might start poking around in this hornet’s nest. Kate shuddered at that thought.
                “Confidentiality doesn’t allow me to say anything more, but I need to go somewhere tomorrow evening. It’s important to me.” She prayed he would stop asking questions she couldn’t answer.
                “Okay, but the suspense is killing me.”
                Better suspense than foreign agents, Kate thought as Skip pulled her onto his lap. She closed her eyes and relaxed against him.
                He touched his lips to each of her eyelids and wrapped his arms more snugly around her. She was grateful for the warmth of his embrace, but it didn’t completely ease the hollow feeling in her chest.
    ~~~~~~~
                Kate arrived at the funeral home Monday evening shortly after the viewing had begun. She planned to hover in the background until she could discreetly approach the coffin to say goodbye, and then offer her condolences to Jill Dawson as a friend Miller used to work with. It wasn’t a lie. He had worked with her, very hard in fact, in therapy.
                But things did not go according to plan. Stepping into the funeral home brought back a flood of memories from Eddie´s memorial service. The low voice of the funeral director as he greeted her at the door, the cloying fragrance of the flower arrangements, the murmur of conversations... It was all she could do not to turn and run.
                She hid in the cloak room for a few minutes, actively struggling to find the delicate balance between warm caring and clinical detachment that came so naturally in her therapy office.
                Still a bit shaky, she stepped out into the main room. But she couldn’t make herself go up to the coffin. One glimpse of Miller’s immobile face from ten feet away told her she would burst into tears if she got any nearer. That would make the other mourners far too curious about who she was.
                When there was a lull in the line of people trickling past the widow, Kate approached, her hand extended. “I’m Kate Canfield. Miller and I worked together years ago. I’m so sorry for your loss. He was a wonderful man.”
                Kate’s use of Canfield did not fool Jill Dawson. Her red-rimmed eyes went wide. “You’re Kate. Oh, thank you, Lord!” She grabbed Kate’s arm and hustled her to a far corner of the room.
                An older man started to approach but Jill shook her head slightly in his direction. “That’s my father. The kids are home with my mom. They were here earlier but I couldn’t put them through this again.” Her voice broke on a sob but she quickly got herself under control.
                “You’re the Kate he saw, the therapist that helped him, right?”
                Kate nodded. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the elderly gentleman discreetly steering people away from where they were sitting.
                “I need to talk to you. I know he met with you recently.” Jill’s words tumbled out. “He