Haunted in Death by J. D. Robb Page B

that.“
    “Showoff. She had a kid, and the timing makes it most likely Hop’s. There’s no record of a child. No reports from that time of her pregnancy. But she separated from him for several months, which would coincide with the last few months of her pregnancy and the birth.“
    “After which, it would seem, she gave the child to her own mother. Who then moved her family to a ranch outside Scottsdale, and Bobbie went back to Hop, and her previous lifestyle. I’ve found some speculation that during her period of estrangement from Hop she went into rehab and seclusion. Interviews and articles from the time have her clean and sober when she returned to the scene, then backsliding, I suppose you could say, within weeks.“
    He angled his head. “I thought you were leaving Bobbie to me.“
    “The ghost part’s yours. The dead part’s mine.“

Seven
    They were into their second year of marriage, and being a trained observer, Eve knew when he was irritated with her. It seemed stupid, just stupid to have a fight or the undercurrent of one over something as ridiculous as ghosts.
    Still, she brooded over it another moment, on the verge of stupidity. Then she huffed out a breath.
    “Look,“ she began.
    After a pause, he sat back. “I’m looking.“
    “What I’m getting at is… shit. Shit.“ She paced to his window, to the doorway, turned around again.
    Rules of marriage – and hell, one of the benefits of it, she admitted – were that she could say to him what she might even find hard to say to herself.
    “I have to live with so many of them.“ There was anger in her over it, and a kind of grief she could never fully explain. “They don’t always go away when you close the case, never go away if you leave a crack in it. I got a freaking army of dead in my head.“
    “Whom you’ve defended,“ he reminded her. “Stood over, stood for.“
    “Yeah, well, that doesn’t mean they’re going to say Thanks, pal,’ then shuffle off the mortal whatever.“
    “That would be coil – and they’ve already done the shuffle before you get there.“
    “Exactly. Dead. But they still have faces and voices and pain, at least in my head. I don’t need to think about one wifting around sending me messages from beyond. It’s too much, that’s all. It’s too much if I have to start wondering if there’s some spirit hovering over my shoulder to make sure I do the job.“
    “All right.“
    “That’s it?“
    “Darling Eve,“ he said with the easy patience he could pull out and baffle her with at the oddest times. “Haven’t we already proven that you and I don’t have to stand on exactly the same spot on every issue? And wouldn’t it be boring if we did?“
    “Maybe.“ Tension oozed back out of her. “I guess. I just never expected you’d take something like this and run with it.“
    “Then perhaps I shouldn’t tell you that if I die first, I’m planning to come back to see you naked as often as possible.“
    Her lips twitched, as he’d intended them to. “I’ll be old, with my tits hanging to my waist.“
    “You don’t have enough tit to hang that low.“
    She pursed her lips, looked down as if to check. “Gotta point. So are we good now?“
    “We may be, if you come over here and kiss me. In payment for the insult.“
    She rolled her eyes. “Nothing’s free around here.“ But she skirted the desk, leaned down to touch her lips to his.
    The moment she did, he yanked her down into his lap. She’d seen it coming – she knew him too well not to – but was in the mood to indulge him.
    “If you think I’m playing bimbo secretary and horny exec – “
    “There were actually a few insults,“ he interrupted. “And you’ve reminded me that you’re going to get old eventually. I should take advantage of your youth and vitality, and see you naked now.“
    “I’m not getting naked. Hey! Hey!“
    “Feelyou naked then,“ he amended, as his hands were already under her sweatshirt and on her