A Sheetcake Named Desire Read Online Free PDF

I’m exhausted,” I told the grim-faced cop. “I’d really like to go back to my hotel.”
    “I’ll let you do exactly that . . . in a few minutes.” Detective Sullivan flipped a couple of pages in his pocket-sized notebook and looked up at me with eyebrows raised. “You came here all the way from New Mexico?”
    I nodded and tried not to squirm under the weight of his gaze. “To talk to Philippe.”
    “You couldn’t have called?”
    The pain in my head began to throb. “I needed to get his signature on some legal documents. I couldn’t do that over the phone.”
    Sullivan’s left eyebrow rose a little higher. “What kind of legal documents?”
    I assumed the detective already knew the answer to that question too, which meant he was trying to trip me up. Did he consider me a suspect? Suppressing a shudder, I moved my chair a little farther from the sunlight so I could think. “I needed him to sign our divorce agreement, okay? Would you mind lowering the blind? The glare is giving me a headache.”
    Sullivan glanced toward the window as if my request surprised him, but he stood and did as I asked. “Better?”
    “Yes, thanks.”
    “Good. Now, the divorce agreement. You sayin’ you had to bring it to New Orleans personally?”
    “I’d already tried dealing with it from a distance. Philippe kept ignoring me. I wanted to get his attention.”
    Sullivan’s eyes iced over again. “So you wanted the divorce, but he didn’t?”
    “Philippe wanted the divorce as much as I did. He just had a habit of putting things off. If it had to do with his business, he was all over it. Anything else got shoved to the side and forgotten.” I didn’t mention the message he had left me that morning or admit that I wasn’t sure how Philippe felt about me. No sense confusing the issue.
    Sullivan wrote something in a notebook. “The decision to end your marriage made you angry?”
    “No, it made me sad.”
    “So you left here and went back to Albuquerque.”
    I shook my head. “We were living in Chicago at the time. New Orleans was home to him and he wanted to do something to help with the recovery after Katrina. He came here. I went home to New Mexico.”
    “This was how long ago?”
    “Two years.”
    “And why did you decide to get the divorce agreement signed today?”
    “Because it’s time. I grieved for a while, but I’m ready to move on with my life. I couldn’t do that with our marriage in limbo.”
    Sullivan made another brief note. “How long you been in town?”
    “I arrived Thursday afternoon. I came here yesterday, but Philippe wasn’t available. I left a message with Edie and went back to the hotel last night. I came back today to try again.”
    “You didn’t try calling his cell or pay him a visit at home?”
    “I didn’t have his current address or cell number,” I said. “Since he came back to New Orleans, I’ve only been able to reach him at the shop.”
    “You couldn’t have reached him through a relative?”
    “I didn’t want to involve his mother.”
    The detective cut another one of those intense glances at me. “That’s unusual, isn’t it? Not knowing how to stay in touch?”
    “I wouldn’t know,” I said, trying not to look nervous. “This is my first divorce. We didn’t have children, so there was really no need to stay in touch.”
    Sullivan jerked his head toward the duffel bag the uniformed officers had gathered from the front office. “So you came back this morning. What were you fixin’ to do? Move in?”
    Was he trying to be funny? The complete lack of expression on his face made it hard to tell. “I came prepared to stay until Philippe signed the divorce agreement.”
    “You were serious about getting rid of him.”
    Nervous perspiration beaded on my nose and upper lip. “Look, Detective, I know what you’re thinking, but you’re wrong.”
    “You have to admit, it’s quite a coincidence. You come to town, and two days later, your estranged husband is