Read In Self Defense for Free Online

record. 
    It was one thing for Nina and Anne-Marie to know about the caller.  But now the police were going to involve everyone she knew or had ever known, her friends and associates . . . her coworkers . . . her clients.  And that was decidedly unnerving.
    She knew enough to know that things like this had a way of growing wings.  And usually did.  To prove her point, a reporter from the Seattle Times who covered the police beat, telephoned just after lunch.  It was a short conversation, and on the whole, not a particularly polite one.  In fact, it was the first time in her life that she had ever been rude to a member of the media.
    Already, she regretted speaking to the police.
    While Clare Durant went to great pains to keep her personal life private, to a great extent, she and her husband lived in the limelight.  As a result, her reputation in the community was important.  Her present situation was not something she wanted strangers to paw over, or gossips to whisper about.  No, this was definitely not the way she wanted things to be handled.  Not at all.
    ***
    “If you were having a problem, I wish you’d come to me,” Glenn Thornburgh told her.  “We’re family here.  We help each another.”
    “I didn’t think it had anything to do with the firm,” Clare replied, acutely uncomfortable.  “That’s why I didn’t mention it.”
    “Well, I hope you’re right, and I hope this whole thing can be cleared up quickly and quietly,” Thornburgh said.  “You’re far too valuable an employee here, you know, and I wouldn’t want anything to interfere with your excellent work.”
    Glenn Thornburgh was a rather formal man, and this was the first time in a long time that Clare could remember him ever saying anything to her about the quality of her performance.
    “I appreciate that, and I’m sure this will all go away soon,” she murmured.  “But even so, I promise that I won’t let it interfere in any way with my doing my job.”
    “That goes without saying,” Thornburgh assured her kindly enough.
    Clare currently handled six writers.  They were not necessarily the high visibility authors that the bigwig editors liked to keep for themselves, perhaps, but they were among what were called the bread-and-butter writers, the ones who churned out mid-list books on a regular basis and whose earnings could be counted on to pay the bills, month in and month out.  And Clare had been keeping them happy for four years now.
    “I thought Thorny was going to fire me on the spot for causing trouble,” she told Nina later, using the nickname some of the employees had for the head of the company.
    “Now why would he do that?” Nina responded.  “You didn’t start this.”
    “Maybe not,” Clare conceded, “but I feel as though it’s my fault.”
    “Poppycock!”  Nina was adamant.  “Whatever is going on here, this guy is preying on you -- not the other way around -- and don’t you forget that.”
    “I know,” Clare said.  “But you really shouldn’t have called the police, you know.”
    “Why not?” Nina responded with a shrug.  “You weren’t going to do it, and someone had to.”
    “You’re a good friend, you really are,” Clare said sincerely.  “But by making my private life public, you’ve exposed my family to what is probably going to be a lot of unpleasant gossip.”
    “That was certainly not my intention,” Nina assured her.
    “I know it wasn’t,” Clare allowed.  “And I know you didn’t mean to cause me any embarrassment.  But you acted without thinking things through, and now I’m stuck with having to go home and deal with the consequences.”
    “If I’ve caused you any embarrassment, or if I’ve made things awkward between you and Richard in any way, I’m certainly sorry,” Nina said.  “You’re right, I wasn’t thinking about that.  Frankly, I was thinking about your safety.”
    “I know you were,” Clare acknowledged with a little smile.  “And