Page 112 of Start With A Slap

“Gotta say,I’m surprised you’re on board with this.”

Ivy tore her gaze from Sever’s documents to ask Kara to repeat herself. It was bad enough the woman was standing in her kitchen, worse yet that Jason had left them alone in it. And now she was judging her. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know. You went to Paris with the guy. I hear he’s a charmer.”

Ivy didn’t take the bait. She had a better question: “Why areyouon board with this, Kara?”

“Because Jason asked me for help. Why are you changing the subject?”

“So you’re risking your career out of the kindness of your heart?”

“This is personal research. I’m off the Alvarez case. I’m not risking anything.” Kara tilted her head. “And if I wanted to steal your husband, I could do it in a heartbeat.”

Ivy was stunned. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.” She leaned in, voice low. “He thinks you’re a saint. That you would never ever. But I don’t.”

Jason returned to the room before Ivy could form words.

What did Kara know?Howdid Kara know? And most importantly, if she didn’t want to steal her husband, why did she care?

As Jason and Kara went through hypotheticals, Ivy shuffled through the files. Her mind was racing, her face felt hot and her heartbeat tachycardic. She realized she hadn’t heard any of their conversation when Jason said, “What are you thinking, Ivy?”

“Yes, Ivy,” Kara condescended, “Whatareyou thinking?”

Up until that moment, Ivy was thinking about covering her tracks. Now she was thinking,I want to punch you in the face. “I’m thinking,” she said to Kara, “that we have to be careful with our assumptions.”

“Oh really?” Kara caught her drift, then dared her, “How so?”

Kara didn’t know Ivy well enough to trust that she’d have a real answer to that question. “The judge will need solid proof that this was a forgery, not an error.”

“Of course it wasn’t an error,” Kara argued. “The coroner’s bank account suddenly quadrupled; there’s a pattern across the board of lost and altered evidence?—”

“You of all people should know coincidence doesn’t fly in court! We need the coroner’s entire career record, character witnesses, everything we can to show that he wouldn’t make a mistake in determining cause of death.”

“That’s a good point,” Jason said, picking up the one remaining police photo of the car wreck. “I didn’t even think of that.”

In your face. “Thank you, Jason.”

“Anything else you want me to do to stall an indictment? Scour the city dump for the murder weapon? Search the ocean floor for Roxie’s scattered ashes? Count all the stars in the goddamned sky?”

“I’m not trying to stall this, Kara?—”

“So let Jason make his move already! He’s been waiting ten years.”

“Let him?” Ivy scoffed. “I don’t control him, he can do whatever he wants!” She waited for corroboration. “Chime in any time, now, Jase.”

“She wanted to be buried in Texas,” he said, still lost in the same photo. Ivy and Kara were hushed by his grief. “Under an old oak tree near my house. I was so mad at him when hecremated her...” He returned to the present. “Yeah. We gotta do this right.”

Ivy rubbed his shoulder, leaned her cheek there. He touched her hair.

“It’s late,” Kara said, uncomfortable. “I’ll keep in touch, Jason.”

Ivy watched her go.

CHAPTER 32

Someone Else

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