That made sense. Hannah knew the local gossips would have had a heyday if they’d seen Danielle with Ron. “Can you describe the bouncer who hit Ron?”

“I wasn’t there. It happened about an hour before I got to the casino. I think you could find him, though. Ron told me he landed a couple of good punches and he was pretty sure he gave the guy a black eye.”

“And that’s all you know?”

“That’s everything, Hannah.” Danielle gave a deep sigh. “You don’t have to tell Bill about this, do you? Boyd thinks I was home all night and I really don’t want him to find out.”

Hannah made one of her lightning decisions and she hoped she wouldn’t regret it. “I’ll tell Bill what happened, but I’m not going to use your name, Danielle. There’s no reason he has to know.”

“Oh, thank you, Hannah! You don’t know how much I appreciate this. I wanted to say something sooner, but—”

“I understand,” Hannah interrupted her. “You couldn’t say anything without letting Boyd know that you were with Ron.”

Danielle dipped her head in a nod. She still looked beautiful, even though her makeup was smudged and her eyelashes were stuck together in clumps from the tears she’d shed. Hannah was amazed at the difference between them. Every time she cried, which wasn’t often, her nose turned as red as the light on top of Bill’s cruiser and the skin around her eyes puffed up. It was pretty clear that when they’d handed out the gorgeous genes, women like Danielle and Andrea had stolen her share.

“Take a couple of minutes and fix your makeup.” Hannah gave her a bracing smile. “Your mascara really is running now.”

Danielle looked scared again. “But Boyd’ll come looking for me if I’m not out soon.”

“I’ll find him and tell him that you got a piece of dust in your eye.” Hannah helped her up and propelled her toward the mirror. “Don’t worry, Danielle. Your secret is safe with me.”

“I know, Moishe. I was gone a long time.” Hannah scooped up the orange blur that hurled itself at her ankles when she opened her condo door. That action seemed to appease the needy feline because he started to rumble, deep in his throat. He licked her hand and Hannah laughed. “I’m home to stay now. Just let me make one phone call and then we’ll have our bedtime snack and hit the pillows.”

Moishe followed her out to the kitchen and watched as she poured herself a glass of white wine from the green gallon jug of Chablis that sat in the bottom of her refrigerator. It was far from fine wine and Hannah knew the difference, but it was cheaper than Sominex or Bayer P.M. She opened the cupboard to grab one of the antique dessert dishes that her mother had given her as a Christmas present and filled it with Moishe’s favorite brand of vanilla yogurt. Her mother would be horrified to learn that the only one who’d ever used one of the cut-glass dessert dishes was the cat who’d shredded her stockings.