“No, no, no. Sutton wasn’t strong and self-reliant, but she wasn’t a pushover, either. She was just a normal woman, an artist—a good one, too—who was put in two untenable situations in a row. I have a tendency toward believing she’s simply decided to take a break, and will come back in a few days. I can’t wrap my mind around Ethan actually hurting her. I’ve never known him to be abusive, or mean. He loves her, and she loves him. They’re competitive with each other, without admitting it, absolutely. But they’re partners in this marriage. Losing the baby brought them closer, even if they have been having issues. After her showdown with the reviewer, he stood by her.”

“Is it possible she instigated the situation with the reviewer? Mrs. Woodson indicated it might have been a setup, a ploy to get out of a contract that went awry.”

Ellen looked amused for a moment. “Knowing Sutton? She’s a firecracker, Officer. She didn’t like taking no for an answer, and her agent and publisher were pushing her hard to write a book she absolutely loathed.”

“So she blew up her career instead of writing the book?”

“No, she wouldn’t do that. Sutton wasn’t an idiot. No one wants the kind of publicity she got. No one deserves it, either. I believe her when she says her accounts were hacked. She made one comment on the whole thing. The rest took on a life of its own.”

“And the book she was writing? How does that work?”

“Normally she wrote her own books, but this was a one-time thing, a contract-for-hire job, finishing the final book in a popular series by an author who passed away. They paid her a wad of money to do it, too. When she started it was all fine, but before it was published, the estate dictated some changes to the story that she didn’t agree with. She’s a professional, though, and made the adjustments they wanted. She knew it was all part of the game.”

“What was the book about?”

“The official title was The Bedouin’s Dream Bride. She called it Sharif and His Naughty Nightstick. Cracked me up when she talked about it. It was terrible material, a worse story, and yes, she was appalled that she was forced to write it, but she was a professional, and she was absolutely fulfilling the contract when things blew up. The comment kerfuffle tore her apart, and it wasn’t fair, it wasn’t even her own story. Now, her most recent, it’s a Victorian high-fantasy novel, with a Jack the Ripper–style murderer, and it is fantastic. Impeccably researched, vicious, scary, romantic. It’s such a shame the contract was canceled, but I bet down the road she’ll publish it herself, or someone will get excited by this situation and want it.”