The Keeper by John Lescroart Read Free Book Online

you are not aware of any evidence of a physical fight between them. Am I right?” Abby asked.
    Curt answered, “He could have gotten rid of any evidence. Straightened things up.”
    “That’s all conjecture, dear,” Carli said. “You know it is. Whether he hit her, whether they were fighting. We don’t know.”
    “We do, Mom,” Sherrie said. “At least arguing.”
    “Okay, so they were going through a rough spell, maybe, but with two young children, is that really so unusual? She wanted or needed help dealing with what was bothering her, and he was too proud to go along with her. That could have been all this is. We all talked to Hal last week. We know he’s truly devastated. I looked in his eyes, and he was in agony. He wasn’t faking that. I don’t think we should accuse him of anything unless we find out something that he definitely did.”
    “That’s good advice,” JaMorris said. “Anything you do find, whether it’s about Hal or anybody else, please come to us first. We know the newspapers have been bothering you, and it wouldn’t be productive to have them put Hal on trial in the press.”
    Curt wasn’t ready to give it up. “Let’s not forget that he could have simply woken up that morning and done what he did with no new reason. He could have gotten to the end of whatever he was going through and decided to act.”
    “Yes,” Abby said, “that could have happened. But usually, there’s a reason of some kind, and without any hint of what that might have been, we’re in the dark. More important, we don’t have grounds to charge anyone.”
    “I’m telling you, it’s him,” Curt said. “Hal. No one else fits.”
    Abby nodded. “We’re going to keep looking and hope we turn up something in the line of motive or evidence. If it’s any consolation, at the moment, he certainly remains a person of interest.”

10
    “P REJUDICE, ” G LITSKY SAID , “is a powerful thing.”
    “What makes you say that?” They’d just finished doing the dishes, and Treya was drying her hands.
    “Because I am in the grip of it.”
    “Ahh. And who are you being prejudiced against?”
    “Hal Chase. Husband of missing, probably now-dead person Katie Chase.”
    “You think he had something to do with it?”
    “That’s the thing. It’s not a thought, although in ways it’s much stronger. It’s like an automatic default. Woman disappears from her home with no sign of struggle, my very first reaction is to look at the husband. So I look at the husband—any husband—and what do I see? I see a guy who probably killed his wife.”
    She put the towel down. “After hanging out with him all afternoon, do you still think that?”
    “As I said, I don’t think it, not rationally. I just feel it. And I know I’m not supposed to. But my gut keeps pointing in the same direction it always points. Meanwhile, my brain is trying to come up with plausible alternatives.”
    “Such as?”
    “Such as a random snatch, some guy walking along the street who decides to abduct a woman out of her house, but this guy can’t be walking down the street, because then what does he carry the woman away in if he’s not in a vehicle of some kind, so that means he’s got a car or something and drove up while Hal was driving away, but then how would he know that Hal wasn’t just driving to the store for a six-pack and wouldn’t be back in five minutes?”
    She smiled at him. “That might be the longest sentence of your life. And what you’re describing probably didn’t happen.”
    “Right. I agree. But somebody came by, apparently, who knew when Hal would be gone and used that time to grab Katie and take her away. Which leads to the question: Why take her away? If they were going to kill her, why not kill her in the house? Whereas, if it was Hal, he’s got a reason to take her away, which is that without a body, it’s probably not going to get charged as a murder.”
    “Wouldn’t that be true of anybody?”
    “Yeah,