For the Defense

by M. J. Rodgers

  Diana turned into her mother’s driveway and pushed the remote control button for the garage. As she maneuvered the car forward, she caught sight of a man’s figure in her peripheral vision. He was sitting on one of the patio chairs at the front of the house.

  As her head swung toward him, he lifted his hand and waved. She was so surprised to see him that she nearly drove into the wall.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “MORE COFFEE?” Margaret asked as she stepped onto the front patio, the pot in her hand.

  Jack eagerly held up his cup. “You sure this stuff isn’t a love potion, Margaret? I’ve got a sudden urge to challenge this Ray guy for your hand.”

  She shook her head as she refilled Jack’s cup. “Good looks and charm. You must have to fight the women off.”

  “I have more fun when I don’t fight them all off,” he said, sending her a wink.

  Her smile was full of mischief. “I’ve watched Mel’s tapes of Seattle. Didn’t look to me like you fought any of them off when you played Derek Dementer.”

  Jack chuckled as he sipped more coffee, glad he’d made the decision to come here, if for no other reason than he’d had the chance to meet Diana’s mother.

  Margaret was a living embodiment of the sweet wholesome homemaker—comforting and bolstering everyone around her, dispensing love and warmth to the weary family who trudged through the door at the end of the day. And even to a stranger like him who had straggled in un-announced forty minutes before.

  “Can your daughter make coffee this good?” he asked, wondering why he did as soon as the words were out of his mouth.

  “Diana does everything well,” Margaret said with a tone full of pride.

  As though hearing her cue, the door to the house opened and Diana came outside.

  Margaret greeted her brightly. Diana’s response was warm, but dropped several degrees when she spotted him sitting comfortably on a lounge chair.

  Mel came bounding onto the patio a second later holding the article she’d written on fictional villains he’d asked to read. “Oh, hi, Mom. Jack said he saw you driving up a minute ago.”

  Diana gave her kid a hug before facing Jack. “I thought you were going to call me at the office?”

  “I was late getting out of an interview,” he said.

  “Problem with your cell phone?” she asked, oh so sweetly.

  “Didn’t think you’d still be at the office this late,” he said. “Figured I’d catch you at home where we could talk about the developments on the case in privacy.”

  She eyed him silently. He eyed her right back.

  “But first we’ll have dinner,” Margaret said. “Jack kindly accepted my invitation to join us. Will five minutes be enough time for you to wash up, dear?”

  “Five minutes is fine,” Diana said, stepping inside the house.

  A smile tugged at the corners of Jack’s lips. She was cool and composed on the surface, but he could tell she wasn’t happy with his unexpected presence in her home. She’d chosen not to make an issue of that fact in front of her mother and daughter. Still, he had a feeling he’d be hearing about it later.

  “Do you really want to read this?” Mel asked.

  Jack realized he’d been staring at the door Diana had disappeared behind a moment before. He took the paper Mel had patiently been holding out to him.

  Damn, the thing was at least two inches thick. “I’ll start reading it tomorrow,” he promised, batting at a gnat that was buzzing his ear.

  Mel’s response was a wary stare that reminded him of Diana. He wondered what had happened over the past couple of minutes to cause the kid’s easygoing manner to change.

  “We’d better get inside before the bugs have us for dinner,” Margaret said.

  At her urging, Jack went to sit in the small dining room. The walls were painted cocoa and trimmed in cream. The lighting was soft. Mel spread a white cloth over the cozy table for four. Margaret placed a vase of fresh-cut flowers in the center all the while humming to the soft music drifting in from the next room. Navigating the tight corners with perfect synergy, she and Mel set the table.

  Jack shook his head in wonder. Guys living together would be shouting at each other to be heard over the ball game blasting away on the tube and bumping into each other on the way to the kitchen for pizza and beer.

  Men and women weren’t simply from different planets. They had to be from different galaxies.

  When Diana joined them, Jack saw that she’d changed into black slacks and a white sweater, both of which revealed lovely curves her formless business suits had completely covered.

  Her freshly brushed hair flowed loosely over her shoulders. The soap she’d used to wash with left a hint of vanilla on her skin. When she slipped onto the chair next to Jack’s, he realized he should have gotten up and held it for her. He might have, if he hadn’t been so preoccupied with his reaction to her.

  Tina had hung all over him that afternoon, and there’d been not so much as a twinge. Now just sitting next to Diana he was turned on.

  Dinner began with a large salad full of fresh vegetables, slices of sweet almonds and nectarine, topped with finely grated cheese and a fragrant homemade dressing Margaret mixed at the table. Poached salmon covered in a light dill sauce with glazed carrots followed. Dessert was baked apple covered in dried cranberries and currants.

  There were no heavy gravies or breads or fat-laden sweets, and Jack found he didn’t miss them. The trim figures around the table were evidence that these females didn’t miss them, either.

  If Diana ate like this every night, there was very little chance he’d be able to impress her with his selection of dinner—cooked in or out. The fact that he still wanted to was another bad sign.

  “That was great,” Jack said when he sat back after cleaning his plate. “And not a French fry in sight.”

  “We’re not into foods with bad fats,” Mel said as she got up to start clearing the dishes. The standoffishness was still in evidence. “Grandma’s taught us how to eat healthy.”

  Jack turned to face Margaret, his curiosity aroused. “Where do you get your nutrition information?”

  “Reading the scientific journals,” she said very matter-of-factly.

  Margaret might be a sweet little homemaker, but obviously not one of the stereotypical, cake-baking variety. Each generation of female in this family was a surprising original.

  When Mel went into the kitchen with the dishes, Jack turned to Diana. “So, what are you doing with all those chocolate bars hidden in your handbag?”

  Margaret chuckled.

  Diana sent him a look that was slightly less amused as she stood to collect her dishes and his. “Mom’s been reading the relevant reports on healthy eating for thirty years. She’s better than any encyclopedia on nutrition.”

  Like Margaret’s tone earlier, Diana’s was warm with pride.

  Most women Jack dated rarely even got along with their mothers. This was a nice change.

  When Diana disappeared into the kitchen, Jack remembered the manners his mother had so diligently tried to instill in him and offered to do the dishes. Margaret waved him back into his seat. He sat down, relieved.

  “I need to talk to you before Mel and Diana return,” she said, noticeably lowering her voice as she cast a glance at the closed door to the kitchen.

  Ah, a secret. He loved secrets. Margaret made him wait a few more seconds as she collected her thoughts.

  “I’d like you to come to my wedding this Saturday,” she said finally. “The ceremony will be an informal affair here in the garden, just family and a few friends. We’ve asked that no one bring presents. Heaven knows Ray and I already have more junk than we’ll ever need. Jack, I realize this is very short notice and you probably have other plans. But if by chance you are free, I would really appreciate your being here.”

  The invitation had been delivered so sincerely—as well as so clandestinely—that Jack knew there was a lot more than mere politeness behind it. />
  “Want to tell me what’s going on?” he asked.

  Margaret sighed. “There’s a man who will be coming who is not very nice. I don’t want him bothering Diana. If he sees you with her, I’m hoping he’ll leave her alone.”

  “Between you and me, Margaret, I think Diana can handle a bothersome male.”

  “Normally, I would agree. But this one is Ray’s stepson, and what with Ray being so close by and all, well, she…”

  “Might feel constrained,” Jack finished when Margaret failed to find the right words.

  She nodded.

  He rested his hand on top of hers. “I’ll be here.”

  Margaret’s smile was golden. “Some very fortunate woman is going to rejoice when she gets you for a son-in-law.”

  “Does this mean you’re going to introduce me to your mom?” Jack asked.

  Margaret was laughing with delight when Diana entered from the kitchen.

  “Do I get to hear the joke?” she asked.

  Margaret got herself under control. “Jack’s such a lot of fun. I’ve asked him to the wedding, and he’s graciously agreed to come. Will you sit beside him so he doesn’t feel uncomfortable among a bunch of strangers?”

  “Jack uncomfortable among strangers,” Diana repeated, like she thought that could ever happen. “Sure, Mom. I’d be happy to make him feel comfortable on Saturday. But right now I need him out on the porch for a little conference regarding our case. You’ll excuse us?”

  From the look on her face, Jack didn’t imagine the upcoming conference would be a comfortable one. He followed her outside. The moment she’d closed the door after them, she turned to him, folding her arms across her chest.

  “What’s going on?”

  The soft evening light danced through her hair. Her face glowed with annoyance.

  “Your mother was kind enough to invite me to her wedding,” he said, trying not to stare at her too blatantly. “Something about that bother you?”

  Clearly, a lot about that bothered her, but putting the reasons into words seemed to be causing her considerable trouble.

  “Why did you come here?” she asked after a moment.

  “As I told you, so we could talk about developments on the case.”

  “We were supposed to do that over the phone.”

  “Some things are better said in person.”

  “You could have driven to the office and talked to me there. And speaking of driving, where’s your car?”

  “I sort of misplaced my keys.”

  “Sort of misplaced?” she repeated.

  “Down Tina Uttley’s blouse,” he said bluntly.

  The startled look in her face was charming. “What?”

  “Tina of red lace bikini fame was the witness I was interviewing this afternoon and into early evening,” Jack said. “And let me tell you, getting the information I needed ended up requiring more Scotch than anybody should be able to consume.”

  “Let me get this straight. You’d been drinking when you showed up at my home this evening to be with my mother and daughter?”

  Anger was lighting her now—brilliant, beautiful anger. Jack was beginning to think any emotion would look good on her.

  “I showed up here to be with you,” he corrected. “And, believe me, I was definitely sober and thinking straight. You are not a woman I can trust myself to be around in any other state.”

  He hadn’t intended to be quite so forthcoming. But the desire to see the range of emotions crossing her lovely face made him reckless.

  She contemplated his admission for a couple of seconds before confusion lifted, and a pink cloud covered her cheeks. Yep, any emotion.

  Getting her poise to slip was dangerously fun.

  She quickly regrouped and went back to the offensive. “How many drinks did you have?”

  “One’s my limit. Always has been. You’re looking at a guy who can’t hold his liquor. But, boy, can Tina put them away.”

  “You deliberately got her drunk?”

  “She got herself drunk,” he corrected. “Which is why I had to drive her home.”

  “Let me guess. That’s when you…misplaced your keys?”

  “That’s when she snatched the keys out of my hand and dropped them down her blouse. Getting them back didn’t seem nearly as important as getting out of her apartment at the time. As it was I barely escaped with my virtue intact.”

  “Barely escaped,” Diana repeated. “Let’s see, you’re what, six-one? Hundred and eighty pounds of muscle? Tina’s bikinis were a size small, which tells me she’s probably a hundred and fifteen pounds at the most. Yeah, I bet you were shivering in your shoes.”

  He tried to laugh lightheartedly, but the sound ran deep with another emotion. On Diana, sarcasm looked so damn sexy.

  Some of that must have shown on his face because she was getting that uneasy look again.

  Jack strolled toward the edge of the garden, stopping in front of a stone birdbath as he filled his lungs with the clean country air. Time to get back into his detached private investigator role. Damn, this shouldn’t be that difficult a part to play.

  “Why didn’t you call?” she asked after a moment.

  “My cell phone’s in the glove compartment of the locked Porsche.”

  “There weren’t any pay phones?”

  “None that worked. Fortunately, I was able to hail an unoccupied cab. I would have taken it to your office, but it was late, and I figured you’d left. Your mother let me use her telephone when I got here. Your office line was busy.”

  “What are you going to do about your car?”

  “I reached my dad. He’ll hide a second set of keys to it and my condo underneath the front right wheel.”

  “And the set that Tina has?”

  “Will be retrieved when she’s sobered up and not a moment before. Now, do you want to hear what I sacrificed my afternoon to learn or do you want to stay mad at me?”

  She eased onto a patio chair. “I’m not mad at you.”

  He stared at her, not saying anything.

  Her lips curled slightly upward. “Anymore.”

  The emotions that brought a smile to her lips were the best of all. She had the kind of face he could never get tired of looking at. As Jack settled in the chair across from her, he assured himself that at least looking was no problem.

  “What have you learned?” she asked.

  “First, let me tell you about Bruce’s garage.”

  Jack explained that Jared had found the drop cloth and collected it with other debris, but that neither Bruce nor anyone in his family had owned an old car.

  “Still, if there is any evidence that the vehicle that killed Amy was parked in Bruce’s garage, it will help immensely,” she said. “Did Tina tell you anything of importance?”

  “Nothing about his having driven an older sports or classic car. She started at Weaton Real Estate a few months after Amy’s hit-and-run and was involved with Bruce romantically for the entire time she worked for him, even after he met Connie and proposed to her.”

  “Tina knew about the proposal?”

  “Bruce assured her his marriage to Connie wouldn’t interfere with their affair.”

  Diana shook her head, disgust flashing across her features. “How did Tina react to that news?”

  “She says she didn’t care. I’m inclined to believe her. Tina likes to party and isn’t all that particular with whom.”

  “Did you learn anything else?” Diana asked.

  “Bruce was a real hustler at the company, brought in the most new clients. Tina described him as charming on the surface, but cutthroat underneath, especially when it came to business. The fact that he didn’t drink actually seemed to annoy her.”

  “But not enough to stop her affair with him.”

  “As she tells it, he was good-looking, one of her bosses and handy. But she was seeing other men at the same time she was seeing him.”

  “Did Bruce know?”

  Jack nodded. �
��Didn’t matter to him, apparently. Of course, he was dating other women so he could hardly object. But she did keep quiet about the fact that one of the other men she was seeing was his brother.”

  Diana came forward in her chair. “She was sleeping with Lyle Weaton as well? Did he know about Bruce?”

  “According to Tina, not while Bruce was alive.”

  “A woman sleeping with two brothers—one married and both her bosses—has to be out of her mind. If they had found out—”

  “Even if they had known, I doubt that would have caused a big problem between them,” Jack interrupted. “Lyle Weaton knows now and he’s kept Tina on the payroll. She even hinted that they still get it on.”

  Diana shook her head. “Where do they find the time to sell real estate? Or the energy?”

  Jack shrugged. “It’s no big deal. Simply routine sex. Easily gotten, easily forgotten.”

  “Routine,” she repeated, like the word left a bad taste in her mouth. “If the day comes when such an incredibly exciting, intimate act is reduced to the label of routine for me, I hope I’m dead.”

  Jack stared at Diana for a moment without speaking. He wasn’t just surprised at the unexpectedness of her sharing that personal viewpoint. He was stunned at the excitement of his all out-of-proportion response.

  Diana rested back in her chair, oblivious to what she had done to him. “I trust you wouldn’t be telling me any of this if you weren’t confident Tina had told you the truth?”

  Jack nodded, making a Herculean effort to pull his thoughts away from the far too exciting images playing through his mind. “The fact that Bruce had no intention of being true to Connie, even if she agreed to marry him, does put his motives into question.”

  “And we can have Tina testify to that aspect of Bruce’s character, or lack thereof. Who will you be talking to next?”

  “Jared’s getting me a copy of the police report on Amy’s hit-and-run. Once time and place are clear, I’ll see if I can find out where Bruce was on that day, who he was with and how he came to be driving a car that wasn’t his.”

  “I’d be interested in taking a look at that hit-and-run report myself.”