�Anyway, I couldn�t get a moment away from Bob for most of the rest of the evening. He was real clingy and never took his eyes off me. Finally, I made an excuse to get into the ladies� room, so I pulled out the note and read it in there. I almost climbed out the window after I read it, but I wasn�t sure, you know? I mean, after Jill lied about Don and how involved she was, I thought maybe she was exaggerating, or simply didn�t like Bob, or Denby, or��

�When did she write the note?� Danny gave up on the contents for the moment, sensing Diane needed to confide her story first.

�I think when she went up to the crib to get Frank. That�s the only time she wasn�t around Bob and me after she saw Bob at my place.�

�Anyway,� Danny gently nudged her back on the track.

�Anyway, when I read the note, I realized it was something, and so I made sure to stuff it into my pants pocket instead of back into my jacket. I mean, when Jill gave it to me, Bob was on the phone, but if this note was right, he could have looked over on the sly and seen me put it in my jacket, right?�

�Yes, absolutely. Right,� Danny said. After years of helping both skels and witnesses feel safe enough to tell their stories, Danny had finely honed his patience and his interviewing skills. Now, his patience was on the razor�s edge of falling away from him. He had to fight back the urge to grab Diane by the shoulders and demand to see the note. Just a few minutes more, he repeated to himself like a mantra.

�So, I found some old slip of paper in another pocket in my jacket, some old note I wrote when I was in the library researching a case, and I folded it like Jill�s note and put it in the jacket pocket. I was pretty upset, so I washed up before I went back out to the dinner table.�

Diane took a breath, and her cheeks began to flush. To reassure her and keep her talking, Danny patted her hand. He knew he was going to have to listen to some uncomfortable details about her evening with Bob, and steeled himself. He needed to be strong enough for both of them in order for her to get through this story.

�What happened next, Diane?� Danny watched her inhale deeply. It tore him up that there was so much pain on her face. He often stared at her face, with her perfectly shaped eyebrows, ironic smile, intelligent eyes, delicate nose, all framed by tight auburn curls. If he were an artist, he would choose to paint her exclusively. She would definitely be his Muse. He wanted to destroy all the things in the world that added so much pain to the tableau of her perfect features.

�The best I can figure is that I wanted to see for myself if Jill�s note was true. So, I invited him up for coffee. As soon as we got inside, he started kissing me, and, I�m sorry to say, I really enjoyed it. I figured her note must be wrong, or I must not be understanding what she was writing, or��