There was a silence on the other end of the line, and Simon imagined Susan was weighing this request, determining the appropriateness of it and how she would go about meeting it. “I’ll call her cell right now. Is this a good number for you?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll let her know you want to speak with her about Clare and give her your number.”

“Of course.” Even in a situation like this, there was no way Susan was going to violate the privacy of her biggest client. “Just please…let her know…I really need to speak to her.” His desperation and vulnerability colored his every word.

“I will. And again, my deepest condolences,” she finished and hung up.

He laid his phone down on the desk, ignoring the streams of text message and email alerts that had been pouring in since the news broke about Clare. He couldn’t imagine ever dealing with any of it. He would ask his assistant to go through it all and make the appropriate responses later in the week.

“Do you think she’ll call back?”

He shrugged. “I have no idea. The last time I saw Donna was at that big release party for Clare’s fifth book.”

“I was there,” Eileen said. “I wonder if I met her.”

“Maybe. Things were pretty ugly between—”

His phone rang loudly, echoing off the solid wood desk. It was a New York number but not someone from his contacts. He tapped the answer and speaker icons. “Hello, this is Simon.”

“It’s Donna. How can I help?” she asked.

Her sincerity and urgency were obvious. Whatever harsh words and flaming reviews had been exchanged between Donna and his wife in the past, he could tell Donna wasn’t giving any of it a moment’s thought right now.

“Thank you,” he said, “for calling us back so quickly.”

“Us?” she asked.

“Yes, I hope you don’t mind, but I have you on speaker. Clare’s sister, Eileen, is here too.”

“Eileen? Yes, I remember you from that release party Clare had.” Her sigh came through the speaker. “I really am so sorry, for your whole family. I still can’t believe this has happened.”

It was a nice way of putting it, he thought. Clare’s suicide was something that has happened. Like Clare had only suffered an avoidable accident instead of willingly pointing a 9mm handgun at her chest and blowing her heart out.

“Simon? Did I lose you?” Donna asked.

“No, I’m sorry…I’m just…”

“We were hoping you might be able to help us.” Eileen leaned closer to the phone on the desk between them.

“I can try,” Donna said. “What do you need?”

Eileen looked at him, unsure of what to say. He didn’t know either.