I don’t think this is about a woman.” Khouri’s gaze was fixed on his father’s office door then.
The admission fueled Avra’s determination again. “Well, let’s go find out what’s goin’ on.”
“Wait, Av, that’s not the way.”
His hushed words stopped her easily. The tone never failed to deter Avra from whatever course of action she’d chosen. No one could argue that Khouri Ross had a sixth sense for selecting the right course of action. His batting average was so impressive in that regard that few saw the benefit of making a move until Khouri voiced his opinion. Avra simply slapped her hands to her sides and waited.
Doris Shipman was returning to her office then. “Hey, darlins!” she called.
Khouri slanted his sister a wink. “Hey, Miss Doris, you’re just all over the place this mornin’.”
“Honey, you said it!” Doris waved one hand above her head. “I’m startin’ to feel like a chicken with my head cut off.”
“Well, you’re by far the prettiest chicken I’ve ever seen.”
Doris waved her hand again, giggling like a high school girl instead of a great-grandmother. “Don’t you even start that flattery, Khouri. I’m too busy to be swoonin’ over compliments today.”
Khouri didn’t let up and Doris clearly didn’t mind all that much. Avra leaned against the doorway of Doris’s office and observed the scene. She pitied the woman who tried to ignore her brother. It’d be interesting to bet on how long one could resist should he put the full force of his charm to work then.
“We’re sorry to be barging in on you here, Miss Doris, when you’re so busy,” Khouri was saying once talk of the new grandbaby and the fishing trip Mr. Shipman took to Lake Jackson had ended. “We just wanted to check in on Dad. After the way he raced out of the meeting…we thought there might be something we could help him with.”
The expression dimmed on Doris’s light honey-toned face, losing some of the illumination it held when talk had surrounded her family. “Oh, dear…” She fidgeted with her pearl necklace and glanced toward Basil’s door. “It’s not about business.”
“Is he all right, Miss D?” Khouri moved closer to Doris, cupping her elbow lightly.
Again, Doris angled her head to check Basil’s door. Satisfied by the level of privacy, she patted Khouri’s chest. “He’s gotten bad news about a friend, a colleague, almost like a brother really.”
“No,” Avra breathed, bolting from the doorway then.
“Av!”
Avra was already walking into her father’s office without so much as a knock to announce herself. Basil didn’t seem bothered by the intrusion. He barely turned his head toward the door when it opened.
“Daddy?” Avra rushed around the desk, falling to her knees before Basil’s chair. Her large, coffee-brown gaze searched his face almost half a minute. “Is it Mr. C, Daddy?” she asked, referring to her father’s oldest friend, Wade Cornelius.
Basil nodded, cupping Avra’s face when she gasped. “Shh…” He gestured sweetly and pulled her close as her eyes pooled with water. “Shh…”
“What happened, Daddy?” Her voice was muffled in his shirt as they embraced.
“They…they say they found him dead.”
Khouri stepped deeper into the large sunken office in the uppermost corner of the building.
“Found him?” Avra squeezed her father’s shoulder. “How? When— Do they suspect—?”
“Shh, baby, shh… They don’t know much more than that just yet.” He kissed her forehead and patted the small of her back. “I need a little more time to myself, sugar, all right?”
“Let’s go, Av,” Khouri called before she thought about asking more questions. He moved behind the desk, gently but firmly pulling Avra from Basil’s lap.
“It’s okay, Av,” he soothed while leading her to the door. Before leaving, Avra caught Khouri sending a narrowed meaningful look toward his father. Basil barely sent him a wave, before turning his chair to face the windows lining the rear wall of the room.
Avra was shaking noticeably by the time they were back out in the hall. Khouri’s soft tone and reassuring rubs to her back had her measurably calm soon after.
“Mr. C?” he queried when he and Avra were seated in the small waiting area outside the office.
Avra studied her hands smothered in one of Khouri’s and took solace in the comfort it instilled. “Wade Cornelius. He was my mentor here right out of college. He was a very respected writer—more than Pop even once they got the magazine up and running.” She smiled. “Daddy was more interested in the business end of things—left the writing to Mr. C.” Covering her face in her hands, she inhaled for a few seconds and then continued. “He was a wonderful man. I learned a lot from him.” She sniffed. “That was back when I was naive enough to think I had what it took to be a hard-nosed journalist.”
Khouri listened intently, cupping Avra’s cheek when she wept. “You gonna be okay, honey?”
“Sorry.” She sniffed again frowning at herself for losing reign over her emotions. “Didn’t mean to get sappy.”
“Stop,” Khouri whispered, using his thumb to brush a tear from her cheek. “You’re entitled. Can I do anything?”
Avra laughed amid her weeping. “Just don’t tell me you can’t take over the Melendez ad account. I’m definitely not in the mood to deal with that or anything else heavy right now,” she said, watching as her little brother graced her with one of the adorably guileless smiles that made her heart melt even when she was mad enough to spit nails at him.
“No sweat,” he said.
Avra brushed his face. “Go handle your business.” She kept her smile in place until he was gone.
* * *
Setha had a full evening planned that night. It was to take place right there before the TV in her sitting room.
“What a lucky girl I am.” She sighed, grimly eyeing the two hefty folders on the pine coffee table before her. She’d gone through the Melendez ad file several times, but would take another look once more for good measure before tomorrow morning’s meeting.
The file that held her full attention just then was the one simply labeled with a question mark. Everything inside had proven to be one big riddle after another. Setha fingered the pink message slip that had started it all.
“What now?” she asked herself. Her “stalker” had effectively ruined the meeting she had hoped to have with Raquel Ross at her club. It was a good thing she hadn’t alerted the woman beforehand, Setha thought. She wondered whether she should risk another meeting and then decided it could be a moot point after tomorrow.
The entire reason for visiting the club had been to get a sense of the Ross family—to discover what side
