Guilt by G. H. Ephron Read Free Book Online Page B

to school, then taken the subway to Slim Freddie’s. Joe was waiting for her when she got there, so she walked around the block. When she got back, she thought he’d gone.
    â€œHas he moved out?” Annie asked.
    â€œI think so. I was going to go back later today.”
    â€œIs he bothering you at work?”
    â€œI called in sick the last three days. I’ve been too afraid. I mean anyone can come into the admissions office. What if he comes back?”
    Which he did she mean? The husband or the bomber? Or were they one and the same?
    â€œI can’t keep calling in sick. If I miss another payment, I’ll lose the condo for sure. But I need to be where I feel safe.”
    Jackie would never feel safe working at Harvard as long as Joe knew where to find her. But finding a new job wasn’t that easy. Suddenly it occurred to Annie. She and Chip needed to hire someone, that was for sure—someone to answer the phones, take care of the filing, run the occasional paperwork over to … well, Jackie wouldn’t be able to do that, not for a while at least. But she’d be safe until Joe figured out where she worked, and hopefully he’d have cooled off by then. Hiring Jackie would sure save a whole lot of time, not having to go through a gazillion resumes and interview candidates. Seemed like a slam dunk.
    She told Jackie her idea. “We can’t afford to pay a huge salary. But you’d get health insurance, and—”
    Jackie was staring at her, wide-eyed, like she’d been hit by a two-by-four.
    â€œWhat?” Annie asked.
    â€œIt’s just that no one’s ever … I mean … Yes is what I mean. Yes, I’ll take the job. And thank you.” She hugged Annie. “You won’t regret this. I promise.”
    Annie hoped to hell that Jackie was right.

6
    P ETER WAS stuck in traffic. He’d been on his way to the Cambridge Courthouse to testify in a purely routine case, quoting research, work he could do on two cylinders—he’d only taken the work because Chip convinced him that his young defendant deserved a break. Detours were still in effect around Harvard Square four weeks after the bombing, making traffic a world-class nightmare. To avoid the mess, Peter had crossed the Charles River into Boston and taken Storrow Drive. Wrong. Apparently, everyone else had the same brilliant idea. Traffic crept toward Leverett Circle.
    He called Chip on his cell phone and left an update on his progress. He suggested Chip and Annie go up without him. He’d join them as soon as he could.
    Then he sat back and tried to relax. There was nothing for it. He rolled down his window. The heat spell had long since snapped with a few resounding thunderstorms, and today the air was crisp with fall, the surface of the river flat as glass. Maybe he’d get out of court in time to get in some rowing.
    Too bad Annie didn’t love to row the way he did. She adored blading—a form of public humiliation, not a sport, as far as he was concerned. Skating killed his feet, he needed trees to stop, and when he fell down, which he did frequently, he couldn’t get up without an inordinate display of klutziness. Annie said he should give it a chance. He’d grow to like it. Right, when pigs fly.
    Annie kept telling him how “just fine” Jackie Klevinski was working out. Not only did she like the work, she was talking about enrolling in a program to become a paralegal. Not at Harvard, she said. That place had bad karma, and she’d known it all along.
    Annie invited him to butt out when he dared to question whether hiring Jackie was such a hot idea. Jackie needed to learn to take care of herself, he’d suggested, not continue to be taken care of, and maybe Annie was letting herself get too involved. It worried Peter, too, that his mother was babysitting Sophie after school. What if Joe Klevinski found out where they lived and showed up one