James Patterson - Murder, Interrupted

Christmastime was approaching in Carrollton, Texas, and Nancy Howards husband, Frank, was putting up the Christmas lights.

The two-story brick house was the sort of house Frank and Nancy had dreamed about since the day they were married, twenty-eight years ago now, in Franks daddys church. The house where their three grown-up children always came back to for the holidays.

Nancy missed Ashley, Jay, and Brianna so much it was like part of her own body had gone missing. But the truth was that she also looked forward to her years as an empty nester. Frank was a hardworking man. At home hed been a devoted father, with all the time in the world for their kids. Nancy loved and admired those qualities. But Franks work, the kids, and all of the hours that Nancy and Frank had spent with their churchthat meant less alone time for them. Hard as it was to see her children leave home, Nancy looked for a silver lining and found one: In all of the months and years to come, shed have more of Frank to herself.

At least, thats what Nancy had thought.

The Howards had seen each other through some hard times. Ashley, their oldest, had barely survived her first days in the hospital. That had tested Frank and Nancys faith. So had Franks prostate cancer and Nancys fibromyalgiaa chronic condition that disturbed her sleep and her moods and made her muscles ache constantly. But in the end, those trials had only strengthened their bond.

Then, in 2009, Franks two-man accounting firm had taken on a new client.

At first, it had seemed like a windfall. The client was a defense contractor named Richard Raleya man with significant interests in the Middle East. What Raley did specifically was ship ice, military hardware, and other equipment to American troops in Iraq. What hed engaged Frank to do, after the death of his previous accountant, was to help him manage tens of millions of dollars hed made in Kuwait.

Officially, Frank was to be paid $10,000 a month to advise Raleys firm on issues relating to investments and taxes.

Frank had his questions about the operation, and about Richard Raley, but he kept them to himself, and Raley ended up making Frank his chief financial officer.

The job came with significant perks: new office space, the use of Raleys own private jet. Frank bought himself a Lexus and began flying to the West Coast, Europe, and the Middle East on business. Left behind in Carrollton, Nancy felt lonely and abandoned. But what made it worse was that the Frank who came back from these trips seemed less and less like the man she had married.

Distant. Furtive. Angry.

For two years now, those were the words Nancy had tried to avoid when she thought of her husband.

For two years, those same words kept coming to mind.

Nancy blamed Richard Raley and the long hours that Frank had been putting in, ever since Raley had made him his CFO. Frank himself had told her that the job was wearing him out. But Nancy wondered if there was more to it than that. Something she couldnt put her finger on. Something that was nagging at Frank and pulling him further and further away from their marriage.