The Queen of Cool by Claudia Hall Christian Page A

used
the house more than we ever did. She’s probably there.”
    “ Can you give me the
address?”
    “ Sure,” Lo said. “Can’t you
ask his partners about his practice? Surely they must be taking
over his cases.”
    Manny looked away from Lo.
    “ Can’t you?”
    “ The practice caught on
fire the night your house burned down,” Manny said. “Burned to the
ground.”
    “ Was anyone injured?” Lo
asked.
    “ No,” Manny said. “Thank
God. But everything burned, all the files, records, computers,
everything. Everyone seems a little lost.”
    One of the Koi slapped the water. They
turned around to look in the pond.
    “ Do you think Don was
murdered?” Lo asked.
    “ We don’t have all the
results yet, Lo,” Manny said. “But, yes, I’ve thought he was
murdered from the beginning. It’s not the popular opinion, but it’s
mine. I’m sorry to have to tell you this.”
    “ I’ve thought it,” Lo
said.
    “ What did you get at the
house?” Manny asked.
    “ Do you need to take it?”
Lo’s face reflected her heart sinking horror.
    “ No,” Manny said. “No, Lo.
That’s yours. But if you find something suspicious, you’ll call me,
right?”
    Lo nodded.
    “ What was the book?” Manny
asked.
    “ A few years ago, right
after Mandy left for college, Don decided to write down things he
appreciated about me,” Lo said. “Every day, he wrote something he
appreciated about me. He read me one thing every night. It was
supposed to help with his jealousy. Maybe it did. We got really
close that year and just kept getting closer. I don’t think he’d
have thought to ask me to leave competing if it hadn’t been for
that year; he wouldn’t have risked asking the question. God, I
couldn’t have loved him more than when he’d get out that book and
read about… you know, something stupid… my eyelashes or whatever.
After that year, we did that every day – talked about the little
things we loved about each other. Do you need to read
that?”
    “ It’s all right, Lo,” Manny
said. “How did the conversation about leaving competitive life
go?”
    “ I saw that article on
ESPN.com too,” Lisa said. “Did fitness competitor Lo Downs murder
her husband to stay in the game?”
    “ Then you know why I’m
asking,” Manny said. “How did it go, Lo?”
    “ Don said something like
‘Would you ever consider stopping competing?’ I said, ‘Sure’. He
said, ‘To have a baby.’ I said, ‘I know.’” Lo smiled. “I think we
said a few more things, but that was about it. He made the
suggestion, and I was all for it. We had to go to the fertility
doctor, so it was easy. I finished in September and we started with
the doctor in January. The Nike contract was to follow a ‘real
fitness pro’ for a year. So it all worked out.”
    “ ESPN lying bastards,”
Manny said.
    Lo smiled.
    “ What else was in the
safe?” he asked.
    “ I have the
girls’ baby books and our stuff ,” Lo said.
“Passports and stuff like that. I was going to give most of it to
the lawyer to see if he could sort it out.”
    “ How are you… getting by?”
Manny asked.
    “ Earl’s unemployment,” Lo
said. “The house is paid off. Don bought it when we got married. So
we just need groceries and other stuff. But for three kids and
three adults… that’s a lot of food. And…”
    Lo looked at Lisa.
    “ Earl’s unemployment runs
out next week,” Lisa said.
    “ We’re thinking of seeing
if we can work in Henry, uh, Don’s Dad’s air conditioning
business,” Lo said.
    “ Oh.” Manny’s face clouded.
“Really?”
    “ Did that burn down too?”
Lisa laughed.
    “ It was shut down,” Manny
said. “In September.”
    “ When I was in Vegas for
Ms. Fitness Olympia?” Lo asked.
    “ The Feds thought the guy
who managed the place was using it for smuggling,” Manny said.
“They got a tip from one of those CIA prisons in Afghanistan.
Before they could talk to the manager, he killed
himself.”
    Manny held two