Page 79 of First Date: Divorce
“No there’s not,” Cully objected.“I plan on those for a snack later.”
“We’ve eaten, anyway,” K.D.said.
“I might eat another meal to spite him,” Eric said.
To avoid a food fight, K.D.filled in Cully and Ellyn on their reception at Marriage-Save while Eric went through his real phone and responded to clients, friends, and family.
“Not a whole lot of definitive progress,” she concluded, “but knowing the professional staff came along from Oregon might help.Certainly keeps them in the mix as possible suspects.And those new lines to check — the Murchisons and Albert.He was Melody’s prime suspect.Though that could be her diverting attention.”
“On it,” Cully said.“Albert’s a local.Not somebody I’d use on security.The good news is he frequents one of the county’s establishments where I’ve got ears.Though the best time to pursue that would be when he’s off duty, so info might be sparse until then.”
K.D.acknowledged that with a nod.“Also, check on couples who’ve gone from Marriage-Save to Gail Bledsoe, and see if any have kids.”
Ellyn’s eyebrows rose.“I don’t believe any of the couples I’ve heard about have children.I’ll double check and let you know, Cully.”
K.D.responded to a couple routine texts on her phone and replied “hi-all’s-well” to her mom while they took turns adding details of what they’d learned about the counseling program, the counseling and financial records being kept separate, rumors about cameras from Izzy and Orion, Albert’s contributions, and the resulting restrictions on their movements at night.
Cully seemed about to say something, but Ellyn gave a kind of hum, and he didn’t.“We’ll check the kids thread, but why would it be significant?”
“Because it could tell us something about whoever is selecting which couples Bledsoe goes after.It has to be someone who not only knows their financial circumstances, but also that they have no children.It might be fairly easy for certain office and billing people to share financial information.But if what we’ve found out so far holds up, they also need access to counseling records to know who doesn’t have kids, along with which couples are more likely to split.”
“Or it’s organization-wide,” Cully said.
Eric nodded.“Possible.If itisan individual working with Bledsoe, that narrows the possibilities.If we could get in to see who’s accessing both systems—”
“Be careful,” Cully said.“We don’t want this informal look-around to make it impossible for us to follow the legal route with Marriage-Save if it comes to that.”
“The schedule’s tight and with us essentially locked in the room at night, we’re going to have a hard time knowing who at Marriage-Save is involved.”
“It might already be enough to prevent the lease extension.Problem is, if the whole outfit isn’t rotten and it’s one person, the county’s lost a good business that’s putting a historic building to good use.”
“Plus, Marriage-Save could move, and the mole could set up shop somewhere else with another corrupt lawyer,” Eric said.
“Then somewhere else would deal with it,” Cully said.“We’d all like to stop them for good.But first priority is protecting the people of Shakespeare County.”
K.D.glanced at Eric and knew that didn’t satisfy him any more than it did her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
“Hello, Mr.and Mrs.Larkin,” Lily said with her usual smile.“I hope you had a lovely walk before dinner.”
“Lovely,” K.D.repeated with a suitable hint of sarcasm.
They’d also had a careful conversation on their walk back.Skirting around the issue of whether they’d outright flout Cully’s instructions about taking no risks.
“Wonderful.And dinner?It was so nice to serve everyone on the patio on such a lovely evening,” Lily added.
They’d ended even their careful conversation when they walked into the last stages of setup for dinner on the patio.
Izzy and Orion called them over to join them by the pool for a pre-dinner drink.The older couple entertained them with their sharp observations on the staff and other couples who came into sight.
“You must spend a lot of time with the other couples to know so much about them,” K.D.said after Izzy’s description of one couple’s knock-down-drag-out fight — “figuratively only” — over what breed of puppy to get.
“Good heavens, no,” the older woman said.
“We try to stay away from most of them,” Orion added.“Talk about taking the fizz out of a day.But we hear things.Plus a lot of experience.Can’t help but put pieces of the puzzle together.”
The dinner planners had each couple at a separate table, so there’d been no further insights gained and the older couple went inside immediately after the main course.
