by Ellie Smith
Chapter 3
Phillip Blakely crossed the ground floor lobby and approached the counter. He laid his briefcase in front of him then smiled at the dark haired man who was nearing him from the other side. "Hi Jerry. I didn't think you'd be working this late."
"I shouldn't be," the Lieutenant replied with a slight crevicing of his forehead. "But the Chief decided all of us had to put in twelve hours a day for the next couple of months to catch up on the backlog." He grinned. "When I saw your name on the roster for a visit at seven I decided to hang around an extra hour. It's a little late for visiting isn't it Phil?"
"Usually," the attorney replied. "But I've got an investigator coming in from out of town who wants to meet with my client."
"P.I.?"
The attorney nodded as he filled out the papers the Lieutenant slid across the counter.
"There ain't no amount of private dicks who'll get Clark off," the uniformed man said bluntly.
"Don't be too sure about that Lieutenant."
Both men spun to see a slender brunette leaning against the counter less than six feet from them. Her straight dark hair hung halfway down her back and was longer than Phil remembered. Large brown eyes that seemed almost black were focused directly on the man behind the counter and Phil saw the familiar fire in their depths.
Jerry Alvarado had not liked the tone in the woman's voice and had bristled with full intent of locking horns with her. But when he'd seen the icy warning in those dark eyes he had clamped his mouth shut tightly. Even though the woman was dressed casually in jeans and a faded blue sweatshirt there was something about her that told the Lieutenant she did not belong in this environment. His gut instinct told him he would lose if he attempted any kind of confrontation. When the probing eyes slid to the man across from him Jerry felt an odd sense of relief and realized he had not taken a breath since she had made her presence known.
"Hello Phil."
Phillip Blakely gave her a tense smile. "Hello Dani." His gaze shifted to the Lieutenant abruptly. "Jerry, this is the investigator I was telling you about. Her name is Dani Hayward."
Before the officer could shift his gaze back to the woman she laid a black leather briefcase on the counter.
"I'll be taking this in with me," she informed with undaunted authority.
“It’ll have to go through the....” A long white envelope dropped on the counter in front of the officer.
"Perhaps you should read that before you finish your statement," the woman stated succinctly, cutting off the balance of his sentence.
Alvarado opened the unsealed envelope, removed the single sheet and unfolded it. His gaze flared as he read the short message and the all too familiar signatures below it. He slid the letter back into the envelope and passed it across the counter. He was now sure that his decision not to have a confrontation with this woman had been the right one. "You've got a lot of pull if you can get clearance like that from the Chief and the Governor," he commented and signed the authorization needed to clear both visitors. He motioned to a distant door. "Meet me over there and I'll take you back to see the prisoner."
Minutes later, the pair was ushered into a small room that contained a long wooden table and four straight-backed chairs. The Lieutenant watched the woman scan the room in a quick glance before she sat her briefcase on the table in visible acceptance of the area.
"Clark will be here in a few minutes," the Lieutenant informed, the frown still on his face. Whoever this woman was, she had more clout than any civilian he knew. Never, in all of his twenty years in the department had he seen, or even heard of, a personal letter of open-ended clearance and authorization from the Governor and counter-signed by the Chief of Police. But he had recognized the letterhead and the signatures and knew it was genuine. After Richard Clark had been escorted into the room and the guards had exited Alvarado plopped down on a chair across the hallway and looked at the closed door as a thought-filled frown grew on his forehead.
Inside, Phillip Blakely was also curious about the briefcase. He turned to the dark haired man whose face registered as much confusion as the Lieutenant's had. "Rick, this is Dani Hayward. She's a private investigator.”
The dark haired man looked at the woman across the table from him. He had been surprised when the guards had come to his cell and told him he had a visitor then even more surprised when he saw the unfamiliar brunette with his attorney. He studied the flawless face of the woman Phil Blakely had introduced as Dani Hayward and wondered who she was. She wasn't a pretty woman but he was sure, with a little makeup and some curl to her straight hair, she could be. Her large brown eyes seemed to hold a fire in their depths that raised Rick Clark's curiosity as well as the hairs on the back of his neck. "What do you expect to do that Phil hasn't already done Miss Hayward?"
Dani flipped the briefcase open. "Prove your innocence," she replied blandly. "Sit down Professor." He did so obediently. She laid a white towel on the table in front of him then removed a small bottle from the briefcase. "Cup your hands." Clark did so and watched her pour a small amount of clear solution into them. "Wash your hands with that solution then dry them on this," she instructed and handed him another white towel. "Once you dry them, keep them inside the towel until I tell you otherwise."
Richard Clark complied, keeping his hands in the folds of the coarse feeling towel as she removed a small tablet-looking device from the black briefcase.
"I'm going to take copies of your fingerprints," Dani told Clark as she circled the table and laid the device next to him. "Take your hands out of the towel one at a time but don't touch anything." She touched a button on the side of the device and watched the screen brighten as several unusually shaped designs appeared on the screen. When a large black box appeared on the screen Dani lifted the man's left hand and moved it over the device. "Lay your hand flat on the screen," she instructed then pressed down on the back of Clark's hand until a beep sounded. "Lift your hand," she instructed then watched the screen as it rippled through a series of flashes before the black box reappeared. "Now the thumb only,” she instructed and watched the seated man press his thumb down onto the middle of the screen. After the screen rippled through another series of flashes Dani repeated the process with the other hand and watched the screen until it faded to black and emitted three short beeps. Dani took the device and went back to the other side of the table, sinking into the chair there. Her gaze lifted to the man who was standing at the end of the table watching the goings on with intent interest. "Do you have those reports?"
Phil nodded then pulled them out of the satchel he had laid on the floor and passed them to her. "You can keep them if you want," he said as steadily as he could in her presence. "I have another set."
Dani took the report and, flipping to the page that displayed Clark's fingerprints. She turned the sheet over and pressed it firmly against the tablet’s screen, holding it there until a beep sounded. She looked at the small screen then hit a button on the side of the unit and slid it into her briefcase. Her gaze shifted to Richard Clark. "Tell me about Harold Thornton."
Richard Clark held her gaze as best he could as he told her about the man he had met two days after he had arrived at the small private college and how they had become close friends. He told her about the trips to Colorado and how they would play golf together and how 'Harry' would always tease him about his expensive golf clubs and say that he would steal them if his back was ever turned long enough. Clark sighed sullenly. "The clubs he bought were just like mine. I just wish he would have lived long enough to use them."
"You went to visit him the night before he was killed, right?"
The dark head bobbed and he relayed the story about the breakup of their friendship and how they had put it back together. He told about his visit that Wednesday night and how, when he had left at nine, they had made arrangements to play golf that Saturday. "His wife was going to be out of town and Harry said he'd go stir crazy if he didn't get out and do something."
"
Did you ever meet Mrs. Thornton?"
"Many times. Felicia is a great lady. She's very active in college functions and is always on the go."
"Have you made any enemies at Harrison?"
That brought Richard Clark's eyebrows downward. "Not that I know of."
"What about someone who was, perhaps, vying for the same position you were?"
"No," Rick Clark returned. "I was hired at Harrison after the former professor died of a heart attack while on summer vacation. Since I've been there I haven't tried for any positions, either at the college or anywhere else."
"Does Harrison post positions inwardly?"
The defendant nodded.
"Did they post your job inwardly before they hired you?"
"I guess they did. I honestly don't know."
"What month were you hired?"
"August."
"Do you know when your predecessor died?"
"Late June, I think."
"And with the school closed down for the summer, posting it would have been fruitless," Dani voiced her thoughts. "What about girlfriends?"
"I don't have any, jilted or otherwise."
"Have you dated at all since you came to Harrison?"
"It wasn’t really a date," was the reply. "I met with one of the professors from the psychology department a couple of times. She was in the middle of a messy divorce and needed a shoulder to cry on." He gave her a half-smile. "I was that shoulder."
"What happened to her?"
"She got her divorce, accepted a position at San Diego State and moved to Southern California a year ago."
"Have you heard from her since she moved?"
"No, but I didn’t expect to."
"What about her husband?"
Clark shrugged. "I don't know what happened to him. I never met the man."
"Do you know what his name was?"
The dark head swung. "She never told me and I didn't ask. I was only there as a shoulder. There was no desire to get to know each other, from either standpoint."
"Is there anyone you can think of who would benefit if you were to leave the area?"
Richard Clark frowned in thought. "Not really. I suppose there are some who would but I can't pinpoint anyone in particular."
Dani clasped her briefcase closed then met the dark gaze that was watching her expectantly. "That'll be it for now Professor Clark." She got to her feet and looked down at the man. "If you think of anything, no matter how insignificant you think it might be, tell Phil right away." Dani went to the door and opened it. The Lieutenant, who had been sitting in a chair across from the door, rose immediately. "You can have him back now," she said and glanced over her shoulder at the dark haired man who was still sitting at the table. "Remember what I said Professor," she directed then disappeared into the hallway.
Phil joined the brunette in the lobby a minute later. He studied her clouded expression as they stepped out into the warm night air. Phillip Blakely had seen that expression six years ago. He debated asking the same question he'd wanted to ask then, but decided, again, that he wasn't about to pressure her. As they neared the curb a dark 4 door sedan eased to a stop at the curb. A tall blonde-haired man slid from the front passenger side and opened the back door. "This is my car," the brunette told the attorney. She stopped by the open door then turned and met the attorney's gaze. "I'll be in touch when I find something," she informed then slid into the darkness of the sedan's backseat.
The blonde man closed the door then, without looking at the barrister, eased into the front seat and closed the door. As the car sped away Phillip Blakely sighed. Dani Hayward was in Dallas again. He recalled how, six years ago, he had tried to learn something, anything about her. He had learned absolutely nothing except that she appeared and disappeared as if triggered by some magician’s wand. She never arrived in style or with any flare and he'd never seen her in anything but jeans and a faded sweatshirt. Yet there was an air about her that seem to hint that she was a woman who was far above her surroundings. She commanded an authority that was undeniable and one that no one she ever confronted dared counter. Jerry Alvarado had learned that tonight. And she had an uncanny ability of ferreting out the truth, even when there didn't appear to be any to ferret out. As he crossed the street, Phil thought about Richard Clark. There didn't appear to be any truth there; at least, not any truth that hadn't already been uncovered. But he wasn't worried now. If anyone could prove Richard Clark's innocence it was Dani Hayward.
