Lawman Lover

by Saranne Dawson

  “Amanda, this is Tony Gambelli, the son of the owners. Tony, this is—”

  “Amanda Sturdevant, our esteemed district attorney,” Tony said, his big paw engulfing the hand that Amanda extended. “If you’re a friend of Michael’s, you’ve got my vote.”

  Amanda thanked him, and Tony joined them, launching quickly into a discussion of politics. His uncle sat on the city council. Michael relaxed and let them do most of the talking.

  He was grateful for Tony’s appearance because it seemed to take Amanda’s mind away from the issue at hand—for a while, anyway. He wondered how far she’d gotten with her thinking and whether those thoughts would eventually veer in the same direction as his. Somehow, he doubted it.

  Tony left when their food arrived, and Michael tried to keep the conservation going along the same lines. But it didn’t work. Amanda soon subsided into a brooding silence.

  “Do you think Mary knows how to reach Elaine?” she asked after a while.

  “No,” Michael lied. “I think she would have told us.”

  “But she’ll be gone for a month.”

  “Then we’ll just have to wait—unless Jesse decides to talk.”

  “Michael, you can’t push her. She’s...”

  “Come on, give me some credit. I’m not even going to go see her again. But maybe her therapist will persuade her to open up—or maybe she’ll come to that conclusion herself.”

  He didn’t think for one minute that would happen, but she seemed to accept it. “Besides,” he went on, “from what you were telling Tony, you’ve got a heavy campaign schedule, so maybe it’s time to just back off from this. Like Mary said, nothing is going to bring Eve back, and justice can wait a while longer.”

  She frowned at him, but he kept his expression neutral. He knew what she was thinking: that this didn’t sound like him. Sometimes, he forgot that she knew him about as well as he knew her.

  “I’m still having a hard time accepting that Elaine could have done things like that,” she said after a moment. “She’s such a good person. I’ve never met anyone so dedicated to helping kids.”

  “You’ve heard that old expression about not judging someone till you’ve walked a mile in their shoes? I think maybe that applies here.”

  She stared hard at him. “Do you mean that you can condone what she did?”

  “No. I didn’t mean that, but I can understand it, maybe. You have to have lived close to the edge to understand what it means to fall over it. I don’t know all the details, but I do know that Elaine’s husband left her with a couple of kids and no way to support them.”

  Amanda told him the rest of what Tina had said about Elaine, and he nodded. “So her cousin probably set her up in that house in Parkside. She had a choice—go on welfare and try to keep her kids out of trouble in the Bottom, or do what he wanted and raise them in a safer neighborhood.

  “Can you really say that she made the wrong choice? I know for a fact that all her kids have done well—and that might not have happened if they’d grown up in the Bottom.”

  “You grew up in the Bottom, and so did Tina. And both of you have done well.”

  “So we were lucky. Anyway, Elaine has served her time, and in a better way than going to prison.”

  “Yes, I suppose you’re right,” she said, but in a doubtful tone.

  Michael talked her into having some dessert: warm, fresh cannoli, and then they left the restaurant. As they were walking toward their cars, another car pulled into the lot and several men got out. One of them was Neal Hadden.

  “Amanda! Michael! Well, this is a surprise!” Hadden said in his best courtroom voice.

  Michael managed to nod a greeting, but his hands were itching. He’d like nothing better than to bust a few of Hadden’s big white teeth. What had Amanda ever seen in him?

  Amanda greeted him pleasantly, then turned toward her car. But Hadden apparently hadn’t finished. “I hear you’ve positively identified that girl from the island. My sources tell me that she was a hooker and a drug addict. Have you got any theories about how she ended up out mere?”

  He addressed himself to Michael, who was now clenching his fists to keep them quiet. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Amanda staring at him. He’d forgotten to tell her about the positive ID on Eve.

  Michael smiled at him—the kind of smile he used on uncooperative suspects. It pleased him to see fear spark briefly in Hadden’s eyes. “If I had any theories, Hadden, you’d be the last to know.”

  Hadden stared at Michael for a moment, then turned to Amanda. “I assume you’ll be bringing in an outside prosecutor on this one, Amanda.”

  “I know my job, Neal,” she replied in a frosty tone.

  “Some people might say that it doesn’t look so good—you getting so cozy with the police,” Hadden said with a smirk.

  Michael was ready to explode, but at that moment, Amanda put out her hand. “Thanks for dinner, Lieutenant. I’m sorry that things have been so busy we couldn’t get together during office hours to discuss the case.”

  Michael shook her hand, his anger dissolving into amusement over her act. “No problem. Good luck in court tomorrow.”

  They both conspicuously ignored Hadden, who finally rejoined the man he was with and went into the restaurant.

  “Were you really going to hit him?” she asked, her tone somewhere between amusement and shock.

  “It’s probably a good thing that we didn’t have to find out,” Michael said. “What did you ever see in him?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve been asking myself that same question. But I think he’s guessed that something’s going on between us.”

  “Yeah, I think so, too,” Michael admitted, then shrugged. “We couldn’t have hoped to keep it secret forever. I’ll follow you back to your place, and we can talk about it.”

  But she shook her head. “I have to prepare my closing argument for tomorrow. Is it true that you’ve got a positive ID on Eve? How is it that Neal knew, and I didn’t?”

  “That’s why I called you earlier. Her mother called. Someone she still kept in touch with from here had called her. She’s living in some little burg near Schenectady.

  “It turns out that there were some dental records, and we got them. She also said that Eve had broken a bone in her right arm, and the forensics people confirmed that from their examination. It’s her.

  “We released the information in time for the evening news. That’s probably how Hadden knew about it.”

  “What else did her mother say?” Amanda asked, and he could see her tense up.

  “Nothing of importance,” he replied honestly. “She claims she didn’t know what Eve was into, and she’d always thought that she ran away to the city.

  “How about if I come over later, then, after you’ve finished your work?”

  “No. I’m sorry, Michael, but I’d really prefer to be alone tonight. There’s just too much on my mind.”

  He didn’t like what he was hearing. It sounded to him like she was trying to cut him out of her life. He started to protest, to tell her that he wouldn’t let her do that, that she needed him. But he stopped himself. This wasn’t the time to push.

  Instead, he waited until she was in her car, then surveyed the parking lot before bending down through the window to kiss her.

  “I love you, you know. That’s why I’m being a nice guy and letting you go tonight.”

  He was rewarded by a tentative smile. “I love you, too, Michael.”

  He watched her drive out of the lot, then started toward his own car. He had a phone call to make, but given the nature of that call, he didn’t want to use his car phone.

  AMANDA DIDN’T SEE her father until she had finished her closing statement, which, she decided, was probably a good thing. He’d come to court to hear her a few times before, and it never failed to make her nervous. As a teenager, she’d watched her father in court when he’d held the position she now held, and she was sure that she could never be as good a
s he was.

  She sat through the defense attorney’s closing statement, wondering why her father was here. Was it possible that he’d come to apologize for his behavior toward her? It wasn’t likely to have anything to do with Jesse because she’d spoken to Steve over the lunch recess, and there was no change. Jesse was still being kept heavily medicated, though Steve said they would begin tomorrow to wean her off the powerful drugs.

  When the defense attorney finished, the judge called a recess for the day, saying that he would instruct the jury in the morning. Amanda immediately got up, but by the time she reached her father, he was surrounded by the media. They were asking him about his prospects for the Supreme Court, and it was only through their questions that Amanda learned that one of the current justices had indeed announced his retirement.

  “All I can tell you,” Judge Thomas Sturdevant said, “is what the White House has already stated. I’m on the shortlist, and I consider that to be a great honor.”

  “What about that body they found on the island, Judge?” One of the more obnoxious reporters shouted from the back of the crowd. “Is that going to cause any problems for you?”

  Amanda saw her father frown. “I don’t see how it could. I spoke some time ago with Lieutenant Quinn, but I don’t know anything that could help him in his investigation.”

  Then he gestured toward her. “Folks, if you don’t mind, I really came here to see my daughter.”

  Some of them turned to her and began to ask her questions, but not with any great enthusiasm. Amanda guessed that their interest in her case had peaked—at least until the verdict came in—and they were ready to move on. It was unfortunate that the justice’s retirement announcement had coincided with the positive ID on Eve, thereby forging a link between her father and the dead girl that she knew they would continue to exploit for a time.

  “You were very good,” her father said, taking her arm and propelling her down the hallway to the elevators.

  “Thank you, but I really wasn’t well prepared for this one.” As they got onto the elevator, she told him about Ted’s accident and how she came to be trying the case herself.

  “You’ll get a favorable verdict,” he said as they rode up to her office—his old office.

  “I hope you’re right,” she replied with a smile, recalling how he had always seemed to know how the jury would go—something very few attornies could do.

  She led the way into her office suite, where he paused to greet several of her assistants and her secretary before following her into her office.

  “Do you know anything more than you told the press down there?” she asked. “I hadn’t heard about the announcement. I’ve been too busy to follow the news.”

  “I’ve been told privately that I’m their man. They’re running my nomination by some key members of the judiciary committee before announcing it.”

  Amanda smiled and stretched up to kiss his cheek. “Oh, Father, I’m so happy for you.”

  He returned the smile. “I’m trying not to count my chickens just yet.”

  “Are you worried about the Eve Lauden thing?” she asked, wondering if she should tell him about the latest development.

  “Not really,” he replied. “The local press might try to make something out of it, but that’s all.”

  “Have you seen Jesse?”

  He shook his head. “I went by the hospital, but they told me that her therapist was with her. Has she talked at all to you?”

  “No. And Michael—Lieutenant Quinn—has promised to stay away from her, too.”

  “I don’t understand why he thinks she knows anything in the first place,” he said angrily.

  Once again, Amanda wondered if she should tell him. But she decided against it. He had enough on his mind right now. Instead, she said that Michael was a very good and very thorough investigator.

  Her father frowned, then shrugged. “Yes, of course. I guess that it’s been so long since I’ve worked with the police that I’d nearly forgotten how they can be.”

  Amanda also decided that this was definitely not the time to tell him about Michael and her. In fact, her father seemed more agitated than she had ever before seen him. Instead of taking a seat, he was pacing around the office with a nervous energy that was most unlike him.

  And why shouldn’t he be nervous? she asked herself rhetorically. He’s on the very threshold of achieving his life’s goaL For as long as she could remember, that goal had been the Supreme Court.

  She wondered if his casual dismissal of the importance of the Eve Lauden case was sincere. It now seemed inevitable that someone from the island had been involved, and every one of them was a close friend. Most were distant relatives.

  But who could it be? That was the question that continued to haunt her. She knew these people, knew them well. None of them could possibly be a murderer, but she was beginning to understand that one of them might have been capable of covering up an accidental death in order to protect his reputation. After all, every one of them had positions that could have been severely damaged by the revelation that he’d been involved with a prostitute.

  Or was it still possible that none of them was involved, that Eve had gone out there with friends and something had happened? Tina had said that Eve wasn’t always honest and that she craved status. Didn’t that make it likely that she’d lied?

  And if she had gone out there with friends, then died or been killed by one of them, wouldn’t they have been very careful to eliminate any trace of their presence after they buried her?

  “I’m going to try to reach Jesse’s therapist,” Amanda told her father as she picked up the phone. “We’ll see what she says about whether or not this would be a good time for us to visit her.”

  “I don’t like having to ask a therapist if I can see my daughter,” he stated coldly.

  “Father, we have to accept that Jesse has problems. You said that yourself. And if we, as attornies, expect people to take our advice, then we should be prepared to take the advice of other professionals.”

  His frown dissolved into a grudging smile. “You’re right. Call her.”

  The therapist answered her office phone herself, and after Amanda identified herself, she informed her that she’d just returned from the hospital.

  “Jesse is being weaned from the drugs now, but she’s still rather incoherent. And she’s still refusing to talk about whatever it is that’s troubling her. I asked her if she wished to have visits from her family, and she said that Steve could come. I’ve already spoken with him.”

  “My father is here,” Amanda told her. “And we’d both like to see her.”

  “I don’t think that would be wise just yet,” the therapist responded. “She specifically stated that she didn’t want to see anyone but Steve. I think that’s a very good sign, though, that she’s wanting to see Steve.”

  Amanda agreed. It seemed to suggest that their marriage was stronger than Amanda had believed.

  She hung up and informed her father that they couldn’t see Jesse just yet, but that Steve would be visiting her.

  “She needs her family,” the judge stated angrily.

  “Father, Steve is her family. He’s her husband!”

  “Her third mistake,” he replied in disgust. He’d never cared for Steve or for her first two husbands, either.

  AMANDA SAT at the small table and listened to her father talk about the politics of a Supreme Court nomination, between interruptions, that is. People kept stopping by their table to congratulate him. The evening network news had identified him as the most likely nominee, though the White House had refused to comment.

  She felt proud to be there with him, proud to be his daughter. He had told her that the Senate confirmation hearings would most likely be held before summer recess, and he would like her to be there with him. She was thrilled.

  But even in the midst of her happiness for him, it seemed to her that a darkness hovered. Her life had become so... compartmentalized. There was her
father. There was Michael. There was Jesse. And there was the ghost of Eve Lauden. And, of course, her campaign. All of them separate, and yet intertwined. Too many boxes—and too many secrets.

  Chapter Twelve

  “You’re sure it was him?”

  “Yes, I’m sure.”

  “Did you actually see them together that night?”

  “Yes. He picked her up at my place. He didn’t get out of his car, but I knew the car. It was an old station wagon they kept for the housekeeper’s use. Besides, I saw his face when she opened the door to get in.”

  “How can you be sure it was that night—the night she disappeared?”

  “Well, I can’t be sure of that, of course, but...”

  Michael listened to her explanation, asked a few more questions, then thanked her and hung up. After that, he sat at his desk for a very long time.

  “MICHAEL, WHERE ARE YOU?”

  “On my way over. Sorry I’m late, but...”

  “Don’t come here! I think someone’s watching us.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “I went out to empty the trash a few minutes ago. The trash house is at the rear of the parking lot, and I went out the back door. I only checked the visitors’ lot because I was expecting you, and that’s when I saw him. I don’t know his name, but I know he’s a private detective. I think he’s a former cop.”

  “Describe him.”

  She did, and Michael swore. “Fred Carruthers. Hadden’s law firm has used him.”

  “I assumed it must be Neal. What are we going to do?”

  “Can you get out the back way and come over to Westview?”

  Amanda agreed to meet him in fifteen minutes. She’d left her briefcase in her car because she’d had bags of groceries to carry in earlier. She’d intended to spend the evening catching up on some work, but when Michael called, she’d very willingly put that notion aside.

  Now she went out the front door, forcing herself to ignore the visitors’ parking area even though she could see that the detective’s car was still there. She retrieved her briefcase from her car and carried it back inside. That should convince him that she was planning to spend the evening alone.