Equivocal Death (63 page)

plump cheeks beneath the thinning hair, small pug nose. When 33

she tried to picture her ex-husband, she thought of a smooth, 34

round egg. Yet he hadn’t been a bad man. Just not the man for S 35

her.

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A M Y G U T M A N

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“You liked doing those things.”

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“Yeah.”

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Callie moved a hand to Anna’s back, but Anna wriggled away.

4

After a moment, though, she looked at Callie, her gaze shrewd, 5

assessing. The look of a seasoned gambler weighing the odds of 6

a bet.

7

“Are you going to marry Rick?”

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The question caught Callie off guard. “I . . . I don’t know, 9

honey,” she hedged. “We haven’t talked about it.”

10

“But you
might
marry him.”

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“Look, sweetie, I’m not going to marry anyone unless . . . un-12

less we both agree. Unless you and I both decide that it would be 13

a good idea.”

14

“Really?” Anna’s face lit up. This time when Callie touched 15

her, she didn’t squirm away.

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Reaching beneath her daughter’s shirt, Callie tickled her lightly, 17

trailing her fingers down the narrow back in the way that Anna 18

loved.

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“You know, if you want to talk about your dad, you can tell me.”

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“Okay.” Anna’s voice was muffled, her face pressed against a 21

pillow.

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“Do you . . . miss him?” It was painful to ask the question.

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Maybe because she wanted so much to believe that she could 24

make Anna happy.

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“I’m okay, Mom,” Anna said.

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Callie didn’t say anything. For an instant, she had a strange 27

sensation that Anna was protecting her.

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Then, leaning forward, she kissed Anna’s flowery hair. “C’mon, 29

honey, let’s go downstairs. It’s pizza night,” she said.

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“So you’ll be back on Tuesday?”

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“That’s the plan.”

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It was a little before eight. They were sitting at the kitchen 34

table. Rick flipped through the
Merritt Gazette,
while Callie 35 S

scanned the mail — applications for credit cards, catalogues, a 36 R

sweepstakes entry.

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T H E A N N I V E R S A R Y

“I’ll miss you,” Callie said to him. And was surprised to realize 1

it was true.

2

Rick looked over and smiled at her, faint lines deepening around 3

his eyes. He looked both older and younger, smiling at her like 4

that. In fact, he was thirty-two, three years younger than she was.

5

They’d met late last summer at a neighborhood barbecue. Rick 6

didn’t live in the neighborhood, but his pal Tod Carver did. Tod 7

was Rick’s best friend at the Merritt Police Department. He had 8

curly hair, a rueful expression, and Callie was fond of him. He re-9

minded her a bit of a guy she’d dated back in high school.

10

Like Callie, Rick was a Merritt transplant, having moved up 11

from New York. At the barbecue, they’d traded stories over paper 12

plates of food. “Burnout,” he’d said simply, when she asked him 13

why he’d moved. For her part, she’d told him how she’d come 14

here for school, then fallen for the town.

15

He was so appealing, so easy to talk to, she’d liked him right 16

away. Still, when he’d asked her out for dinner, she’d found her-17

self hesitating. She’d been on her own for so long now. It seemed 18

safer that way. There was no one to tell her what to do, no one to 19

report to. No one to ask her difficult questions, to dredge up the 20

painful past. Her life was simple, streamlined. For the most part, 21

it worked. And yet there was something about Rick that had 22

caused her to reconsider.
I’ll go out with him once,
she’d told her-23

self. And that was how it started.

24

A rustle as Rick turned the page, and a flyer fell to the floor.

25

Pushing aside the mail, Callie reached down to get it. A two-for-26

one sale on Easter candy, worth remembering. Once again, it was 27

almost time for the neighborhood’s Easter egg hunt. When was 28

Easter anyway? Two weeks? Or was it sooner?

29

She reached into her purse for her Filofax, meaning to check 30

the date. But as she pulled out the date book, she saw that some-31

thing was caught between its pages. The envelope she’d picked 32

up earlier, the one stuck in the door. She’d totally forgotten about 33

it. Now she pulled it out. Edging a fingernail beneath its flap, she 34

neatly ripped it open. Inside was a single sheet of paper. Two S 35

short sentences, typed.

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A M Y G U T M A N

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Happy Anniversary, Rosamund. I haven’t forgotten you.

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The shock was so intense that at first she didn’t feel a thing.

3

Like plunging into ice-cold water, unable to catch your breath, 4

hurtling down and down and down, not knowing when you’ll 5

stop. She clutched the note tight in her hand. Everything had 6

changed.

7

“Callie? What is it?”

8

She started at the sound of Rick’s voice, pulled back from the 9

precipice.

10

“Just a note from Anna’s teacher,” she lied. “I’ve got to talk to 11

her.”

12

With thick, unwieldy fingers, she quickly refolded the page.

13

Stuck the note in its envelope back in her Filofax. She was about 14

to close the leather cover when her eyes caught today’s date. The 15

large block letters in the small square box said Wednesday, April 5.

16

She stared at the date, hardly able to believe it.

17

April 5.

18

Today was April 5.

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How could she have forgotten?

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35 S

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2nd PASS PAGES

• Wednesday, December 23
  
• Monday, January 4
  
• Tuesday, January 5
  
• Wednesday, January 6
  
• Thursday, January 7
  
• Friday, January 8
  
• Saturday, January 9
  
• Sunday, January 10
  
• Monday, January 11
  
• Tuesday, January 12
  
• Wednesday, January 13
  
• Thursday, January 14
  
• Friday, January 15
  
• Saturday, January 16
  
• Sunday, January 17
  
• Monday, January 18
  
• Tuesday, January 19
  
• Wednesday, January 20
  
• Thursday, January 21
  
• Friday, January 22
  
• Saturday, January 23
  
• Sunday, January 24
  
• Monday, January 25
  
• Tuesday, January 26
  
• Wednesday, January 27
  
• Thursday, January 28
  
• Friday, January 29
  
• Saturday, January 30
  
• Sunday, January 31
  
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  
• Special eBook Feature: Excerpt from Amy Gutman�s The Anniversary
  
• THE ANNIVERSARY A Novel AMY GUTMAN
  
• PROLOGUE
  
• Wednesday, April 5