Dead In The Water (Rebecca Schwartz Mystery #4) (The Rebecca Schwartz Series) by Julie Smith Page B

to smile when he said it, but couldn’t quite manage. “I wish Esperanza could grow up in a friendlier atmosphere. But Sylvia thinks she’s better off being near her grandparents. I don’t know, maybe she’s right. At least she’ll never have to do domestic service like they did.”
    “What’s her mom do?”
    “Social worker. That’s why she went back. Many good works crying out to be done.”
    “But you prefer fish.”
    “Any day.” His teeth were almost translucent. His lips were so full they looked slightly puckered even in repose. When he smiled, I couldn’t take my eyes off his mouth. “What exactly do you do at the aquarium?”
    “Marine biologist. We all are, those of us in husbandry. We don’t all collect, though; that’s the best part.”
    “Of course. That’s where the adventure is.” We both smiled, and we locked eyes. I looked away quickly. Visual caresses weren’t what I was there for.
    “I want to start teaching Esperanza to snorkel, but she doesn’t seem all that interested.”
    “She’s got a hell of a lot on her mind right now, with her parents breaking up—”
    “Do you have kids?”
    “No, why?”
    “I was hoping you could help me with mine.”
    “That’s an odd request—don’t you have a woman friend you could ask?”
    He shrugged. “Well, that’s my problem. Marty’s in jail and Sadie’s dead.” His voice dropped on the last two words, and I thought it was more than some societal acknowledgment of her death.
    “Did you like her? Sadie?”
    “Very much.” The words were so heartfelt, I didn’t dare press him further on the subject. “And Esperanza loved her. Rebecca—” His eyes were pleading and hurt. “I know this sounds strange, but could you come home with me and talk to her?”
    I was at a loss. “Talk to her? What would I say?”
    “I don’t know. She liked you. She told me so.”
    If this was a sexual ploy, it was the oddest one I’d ever encountered. But if it wasn’t that, what was it?
    “I think maybe I should take her to a doctor. Maybe she’s in shock or something.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “She won’t speak, except to mention the rock or whatever it is. She won’t even give it a name. She calls it ‘the white thing.’ She’s acting as if Sadie’s death had something to do with it.”
    My ears perked up. “You mean, as if someone killed her for it?”
    Ho looked confused and frustrated. “I don’t know. She’s not making sense. Something’s going on. She’s acting as if she’s afraid of me.”

CHAPTER SIX
     
    I couldn’t believe what I saw in Julio’s living room—a huge saltwater aquarium. And other than that, precious little, as if Sylvia had taken the furniture and he’d replaced it with odds and ends.
    “You like the aquarium?”
    “Was I staring?”
    “It’s kind of predictable, I guess.”
    “It’s not that; it’s just that—” I stopped. I was damned if I was going to tell him we had this huge thing in common, as if this were a date or something. “It’s very nice.”
    It was quite different from mine, much bigger for one thing, three hundred gallons maybe. And mine was heated, so I could keep tropical fish; his was a cold one. He kept the same sorts of fishes in it that they did in the big aquarium—the ones found in Monterey Bay.
    “I keep mostly juvenile things in it—little blue rockfish, chili peppers, mysid shrimps, perch, gunnels—”
    “There’s a grunt sculpin!” I didn’t mean to show off, but I love those funny little fellows.
    “You seem to know your fish.”
    “Oh, look—a baby wolf eel.” I could just see its head in a little rock cave Julio had built for it.
    He grinned. “Cecil the sea serpent. Esperanza hates him. She doesn’t care much for snaky fish.”
    “Omigod! What is
that
!"
    “What?”
    “That thing that looks like a—a—”
    He stared at my pointing finger. “A dog turd?”
    “To put it delicately.”
    “That’s how Esperanza puts it. And talk about