"Kate Powell."
Josh's brows shot up. "Really?"
"Not in that context," Byron said, a bit too quickly. "It was something Laura said today that got me thinking about the whole situation. Bittle made some serious allegations against her, yet they haven't pursued it. And neither has she. It's going on three weeks now."
"I'm going to get pissed off again." Feeling his temper bubbling, Josh rose and paced it off. "My father used to play golf with Larry Bittle. I don't know how many times he's been over to the house. He's known Kate since she was a kid."
"Have you talked to him?"
"Kate almost took my head off when I threatened to." Scowling, Josh gulped down his beer. "That was okay, but then she just shut down. She seemed so shaky over the whole thing, I didn't push. Hell, I've been so wrapped up in Margo and the baby, I let it slide. We did this heartbeat thing at the doctor's today. It was so cool. You could just hear it, beating away, this quick little bopping." He stopped when he caught Byron's grin. "Kate," he began again.
"That's okay, you can indulge in obsessive expectant fatherhood for a minute."
"There's more. It's not an excuse for letting my sister dangle." He sat again, with a muscle in his cheek twitching. "We've decided to settle with Ridgeway. Goddamn bastard cheats on Laura, scalps her, ignores his children, alienates half the staff at the hotel, and we end up cutting him a check for a quarter million just to avoid a premature termination suit."
"It's rough," Byron agreed. "But he'll be gone."
"He better stay gone."
"You could always break his nose again," Byron suggested.
"There is that." Willing himself to relax, Josh rolled his shoulders. "You could say I've been a little distracted the last few weeks. And Kate, she's always been so self-reliant. You begin to take it for granted."
"Laura's worried about her."
"Laura worries about everyone but Laura." Josh brooded for a minute. "I haven't been able to get through to Kate. She won't talk about it, at least not to me. I hadn't considered going over her head to Bittle. Is that what you're getting at?"
"It's none of my business. The thing is…" Byron studied his beer for a moment, then lifted those calm, clear eyes to Josh. He'd thought it through, as he did any problem, and had come to one conclusion. "If Bittle does decide to pursue a case against her, wouldn't she be better off to take the offensive now?"
"The threat of a nice fat libel suit, an unjustified suspension, loss of income, emotional distress."
Byron smiled and finished off his beer. "Well, you're the lawyer."
It took him the best part of a week, but Josh was hotly pleased when he strolled into Pretenses. He'd just come from a meeting with the partners of Bittle and Associates.
He caught his wife around the waist and kissed her thrillingly, to the delight of the customers milling about the shop.
"Hi."
"Hi, yourself. And what are you doing in my parlor in the middle of the day?"
"I didn't come for you." He kissed her again and barely restrained himself from laying a hand on her stubbornly flat stomach. He couldn't wait for it to grow. "I need to talk to Kate."
"Captain Queeg is in the office, rolling marbles and talking about strawberries."
Josh winced. "I thought you were calling her Captain Bligh these days."
"He wasn't insane enough. She's redoing the filing system. Color-coded."
"Good God. What's next?"
Margo narrowed her eyes. "She put up a bulletin board."
"She must be stopped. I'll go in." He drew a deep breath. "If I'm not out in twenty minutes, remember, I've always loved you."
"Very funny," she muttered, and managed to hold the smile back until he'd slipped into the rear office.
Josh found Kate mumbling over files. Her hair stood up in spikes, and the first two fingers of her right hand were covered with rubber tips.