Awaking in bed, Lynne looked at the empty pillow beside her and frowned. It wasn't like him to not call or come home. Picking up the cordless phone beside the bed, she dialed the office in Auburn Hills where James worked. Ethan stayed on the sites most of the time, but used James' secretary, Kristen Marks to keep up with his appointments.
Kristen answered the phone as polite as ever, although her tone went a little wayward when she realized exactly who was on the other line. "Good morning, Mrs. Black, James hasn't come in yet."
"I was wondering if you've heard from my husband?"
"Mr. Black left a message to reschedule all his appointments for the next seven days to after the holidays if possible." Her tone of voice was directly sarcastic as if Lynne should already know this.
Lynne didn't exactly care for this little chit working for James, but she was a daughter of a friend of the family and James had said she did excellent work. "Would you know the reason behind this?"
Sighing impatiently, Kristen answered, "He's working on dual projects." Again, her tone was as if Lynne should have known this. "It may be taking up a lot of his time. Especially since he needed special zoning with one of them."
Of course this didn't interest Lynne. Nothing of what her husband ever did interested the selfish woman, but she was always interested in James schedule.
"Did he say where he can be contacted?" Lynne knew Ethan never slept on site.
"Only his cell phone after today."
Lynne huffed annoyed knowing the little minx was holding back information. Ever since Lynne had begun to show interest in James, Kristen seemed to be aloof and agitating to Lynne.
"Why after today, Kristen?"
Kristen's voice was matter-of-factly, "Because he sold the house in Detroit for one dollar. I drew up the papers myself for the lawyer."
Lynne gasped. "When? Why? To whom?' "He said he didn't like its location anymore and that he wanted something bigger."
This wasn't like Ethan at all and alarm bells started going off in Lynne's gut. What the hell could he be up to?
"He sold it to Thaddeus Newman."
Lynne wanted to scream. She figured somehow Thaddeus and his meddling wife, Skye, had been able to "educate" Ethan a little on the black woman. She'd noticed little techniques Ethan had begun using in questioning her on her whereabouts in the past year. If he knew about her male lovers then he hadn't said a word. Yet, if he was so knowledgeable why hadn't he said anything? He was a man who liked to get things out in the open. Not sneak around. Yet he sold the Detroit property and didn't tell her. He had always hated the city, so this wasn't out of the ordinary for him, just so unexpectant of him and Ethan was anything but spontaneous. How dare he sell of property without telling her so? "What about the furnishings I picked out and my things?"