Chapter 43

Now he sat and stared at the four walls of the living room and remembered the laughter they’d shared when, at his insistence, they had repainted them one Saturday morning.

“Beige is so…beige,” Vanni had said. “We need color.”

“And just what do you suggest?” Hollis had asked, one eyebrow cocked to give him that amused look Vanni had always loved.

“Well…I was thinking maybe blue? Sort of in between light and dark. Then…” He’d gone on to describe what he had in mind, and laughed when Hollis had replied, “My lover, the interior decorator.”

“Damn it, Hollis! Why did you have to die?” Vanni moaned. He didn’t cry. He hadn’t since the night of Hollis’s death. But the ache in his heart was still as deep and terrible as it had been the moment he’d opened the front door to see Abbie and the lieutenant standing there. “Why you? Why not me? It should have been me. I’m nothing, you were everything.”

He jumped when the doorbell rang. “Go away!” he shouted. “Go away and leave me alone!”