IT WAS AN HOUR-AND-half later before they had got abreast of the remaining reports. Rafferty bid Llewellyn good night and headed for the hospital to offer his niece the belated congratulations or condolences the intrusion of that morning’s murder had delayed.
He knew his new love, Abra, would be there. He hoped she would be in a more reasonable frame of mind than she had been on the previous evening when she had told Rafferty her news.
Even now, Rafferty felt shocked that Abra could have brought the possibility of turmoil into both their lives with such banal words. He hadn’t even understood what she was saying at first. He drove the familiar route home on auto-pilot as he ruminated on the saying “expectant pause”.
***
