Raising The Stakes. Sandra Marton
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all she wanted was Harman out of the place.” Jack looked up. “Nothing once he married our girl. Dawn either swings a heavy bat or she reformed him.”
“Yes,” Gray said lightly. “They sound like a real nice couple.”
The bus boy cleared their places. The waiter stopped by. Gray ordered espresso; Ballard ordered a cappuccino and cheesecake.
“So,” Ballard said, “the next thing I’m going to do is fly on back to Queen City and have a chat with Mr. Kitteridge. He’s on his mountain again.”
“I thought you said he doesn’t know where his wife is.”
“I said that’s what the town says. Besides, even if he doesn’t, maybe he can give us some clues. Maybe she talked about wanting to see someplace special. Maybe she has friends in places outside Queen City.” The investigator peered at the slice of cake the waiter put in front of him, then dug into it. “At the very least, he can probably fill in some blank spaces while my guys look for her.”
“That sounds reasonable, I guess.”
“Trust me, Gray. It is reasonable. Just tell your client to keep his pants on, okay?”
Gray laughed. “I’m sure he’ll love the advice, Jack. Anything else?”
“Nope. Oh. Yeah, before I forget…” He patted one breast pocket and then the other. “Here,” he said, and held out a small white envelope.
“What’s this?” Gray opened the envelope. Inside were the photo of Jonas and Ben, and the one of Nora Lincoln. “Ah. The pictures. You don’t need them anymore?”
“Not really. Besides, I made copies. I figured your client might want these back.”
Gray nodded and pocketed the photos. “You’ve done fine, Jack. To be honest, I didn’t think we had a chance of coming up with anything, but you’ve managed to find the girl.”
“Not yet. I found where she lived and who she lived with.” Ballard took a sip of his cappuccino. “She’s still among the missing.”
“Among the…” Gray looked up. “You think something happened to her? That Kitteridge did something?”
“Hell, no. Jeez, you’ve been associating with lowlife too long. No, Gray. I just mean I haven’t located her yet. But I will.”
“Fine. Call me when you do. In fact, call me after you go to Queen City and speak with Harman Kitteridge. I have to admit, I’m curious.”
Ballard grinned. “Your wish is my command, counselor. Say, is this lunch on your client’s expense account?”
“Why?”
“You think I could have another slice of that cheesecake?”
* * *
That night, Gray phoned Jonas and gave him a brief update. When he finished, there was a long silence. Then his uncle cleared his throat.
“So,” he said, “the girl really exists.”
“Yeah. So it would seem. Do you still want her found?”
“Yes, of course. Find her, talk to her, see what she’s like…” Another silence. “This husband of hers. He doesn’t sound like anybody’s idea of Prince Charming.”
“No. He doesn’t.”
“You’re gonna meet with him?”
“No,” Gray said coldly, “I am not. The investigator I hired will do that. There’s no reason for me to talk to the man.”
“You got a good way of seein’ inside people.”
Gray laughed. “Don’t try to con me, okay? If I did, I’d have figured out, years back, that the only way my father could have come up with money for my schooling was by begging it from you.”
“You know, boy,” Jonas said, his voice hardening, “maybe you ought to be grateful he did, otherwise what would you be doin’ right now? Not livin’ high on the hog in New York City, I bet.”
“I’ll call you when I know more,” Gray said, and hung up the phone.
Hours later, he gave up trying to sleep. The old man certainly had a way of getting to the heart of a thing. He’d grown up disliking Texas and despising his uncle, congratulated himself for getting free of both…and now it turned out he hadn’t actually escaped either one.
He went into the kitchen, switched on the light, took the pictures Jack Ballard had given him from the kitchen table and stared at the faces frozen in time.
There was more to this tale than his uncle admitted. Gray had suspected it. Now, he was sure of it. He’d been a lawyer long enough to sense when a client was omitting pieces of a story. Sometimes, you were happy to leave it like that. You wanted the truth, but you didn’t want to hear things that might keep you from doing the best possible job. Defending a man against a charge of murder was a lot easier when you believed he hadn’t actually committed it. There was no murder involved here but something dark and distant was gnawing at Jonas’s innards. And, like it or not, he was being drawn further and further into the situation.
He sat down at the table and stared at the picture of Jonas and Ben Lincoln. Was there a whisper of hostility hidden inside those smiles? And the picture of Nora Lincoln. He touched the tip of his finger to her face. Were her eyes cool, or were they infinitely sad? Maybe that chin wasn’t tilted in defiance but in self-defense.
“Dammit,” Gray said, and kicked back his chair. What did it matter? The story, whatever it was, dated back half a century. And it sure as hell didn’t involve him. He had better things to think about than a dead woman who might have a secret in her eyes and a granddaughter who had run away from a mountain in the middle of nowhere.
The case that had consumed his time for the past few months was winding down. Tomorrow, he’d present his closing argument to the jury. His client would walk free. Gray wasn’t foolish enough to think you could predict how a case would end but sometimes you could make a pretty shrewd guess. His client had been accused of felonious assault with intent to kill; he’d sworn that the witnesses had misidentified him. Gray hadn’t been concerned with the man’s guilt or innocence. That wasn’t his job. His duty was to convince the jury that the witnesses were wrong, that there was reasonable doubt that it was not his client who had committed the crime. Every instinct he had assured him that he’d done that.
He’d be free of the case in a few days. He’d thought about taking a break, getting away from the city and the stress of his job, maybe doing something different enough to get the juices flowing so he’d feel the way he once had about his work. He’d even had a talk with his travel agent, who had given him a stack of brochures about things that ranged from running the rapids in Alaska to mountain trekking in Nepal.
He’d been to Alaska. And there were mountains in northern Arizona.
He looked at the photo of Nora Lincoln. What would she think, if she knew her granddaughter had spent most of her life in a trailer park? That she’d married a man with an arrest history and then left him?
“Life sucks,” Gray said softly, “and then you die.”
He went into his study, flicked on the light, looked up Jack Ballard’s phone number in his address book and dialed it. Ballard answered on the second ring.
“It’s late,” Ballard said in a gravelly voice. “This better be good.”
“Jack, it’s Gray Baron. Look, I’m sorry to bother you at this hour but…” Gray cleared his throat. “You know that trip you were going to make to Arizona? The thing is, my client—well, I have a personal connection to him. And, as a sort of favor, I’ve decided to talk with Kitteridge myself. Uh-huh. I’m going to fly out there, probably within the next couple of days. No, no, I’m not pulling you off the case, Jack. Far from it. I want you to locate Dawn Kitteridge for me. Absolutely. Right.