“She’s one of the bodies we came across,” he said. “Actually, we found her buried under Angela Pfeiffer.”
She stopped and studied his face.
“You found her under Angela?”
He nodded.
She looked confused.
“That is so freaky.”
He agreed.
“So you only dealt with that other lawyer, what’s her name?”
“Jacqueline Moore,” she said.
“Right, Jacqueline Moore.”
“Even that was fairly brief,” she said. “She has a pretty abrasive personality.”
“Is that the only connection you have to Rachel Ringer that you can think of?”
“Right,” she said. “Except I wouldn’t call it a connection.”
Teffinger sipped the wine.
The sunset, so spectacular just a few minutes ago, was already losing its intensity.
“How about Catherine Carmichael?” he asked. “Do you know her or have you ever heard of her?”
“No.”
“She was also found at the site,” Teffinger said.
“The only one I know is Angela,” she said.
“Okay.”
In another ten minutes, it would be dark. Up ahead, a sprinkler oscillated, shooting onto the sidewalk at the end of every arc. Teffinger paused while Davica ran through it. “Come on,” she said. “You can do it.”
So he did.
When he caught up, he had one more question. “I don’t suppose that you or Angela were ever part of any cult or gang or anything like that,” he said.
She gave him a startled look.
“Teffinger, you come up with the weirdest questions, I swear,” she said. “No, we weren’t. Now I have a question for you.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“And what might that be?”
She stopped and put her arms around his neck.
“When we get back to my place, are you going to screw me silly, or what?”
“To be honest,” he said, “it’s about the only thing I’ve been thinking about all day. But I can’t.”
She made a face.
“You’re such a tease,” she said.
He got serious.
“Believe me, it’s worse for me than you.”
She slapped his ass.
“I doubt that,” she said.
When they got back to her house, she uncorked another bottle of wine and they sat in front of the fireplace and talked until midnight. Then Teffinger retreated to the spare bedroom and tossed for ten minutes before falling asleep.
26
DAY FIVE-SEPTEMBER 9
FRIDAY MORNING
After a fitful night of twisting and shifting, Aspen woke early Friday morning to a cold and cloudy dawn. She didn’t have a job, but she did have her dignity. Who would hire her now, though, after being fired on her fourth day of work?
No one, that’s who.
Still, she wouldn’t take back her words last night even if she could. Maybe she didn’t have a paycheck or a career, but at least she could look in the mirror without disgusting herself.
She showered and ate cereal.
Then she headed to Einstein Bros and drank coffee alone at a table as she pondered her options. She remembered turning off her cell phone last night, pulled it out of her purse and powered it up.
She had a half-dozen voice messages.
All from Blake Gray.
“We need to talk.”
As soon as she erased the last message the phone rang. When she answered, Blake Gray’s voice came through. Before she could hang up, he said, “First, you’re not fired. Second, Jacqueline Moore was way out of bounds. Third, we need to talk and get this straightened out.”
She almost powered off but didn’t.
“Talk about what?”
“Last night, the future, everything,” he said. “Where are you?”
She told him.
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Don’t go anywhere.”
She tried to warn him that he was wasting his time, but he had already hung up. So instead she got in her car and left.
When she got home, she changed her mind and went back. Blake Gray arrived three minutes later, wearing a wool-blend suit worth more than her entire wardrobe.
He hugged her around the shoulders and said, “Give me two minutes, I need coffee or I’m going to be cranky all day.” She nodded and felt queasy. Whatever happened in the next ten minutes would be a turning point.
He came back, sat down, and took a noisy slurp from the cup.
He looked good.
Powerful.
Yet compassionate.
She wished she had dressed in something other than jeans and a sweatshirt.
“Good stuff,” he said.
She muttered something and waited.
“First,” he said, “Jacqueline told me to tell you she’s sorry. She’ll tell you herself when you see her.” He lowered his voice. “Unfortunately, she’s a damn fine lawyer-one of the reasons the firm even exists, to be honest with you-but she also has her moments. Between you and me, I’m trying to keep her in the firm but she’s making it more and more difficult every day. I don’t know what’s going to happen, if this keeps up.”
Aspen sipped her coffee.
“It’s more than just her attitude,” she said. “I don’t understand why I was called into a meeting to begin with. It felt like the KGB had come to get me.”
He nodded and understood her viewpoint.
“Outsiders see big law firms as rock-solid institutions that have been there forever and always will be,” he said. “In reality we’re very fragile. Personalities, egos, money and a million other things take their toll every day. I know, because my primary responsibility as the head of the firm is to keep it healthy, so we can all make a living and pay our bills.”
He got a gleam in his eye and stood up.
“Come on,” he said. “I want to show you something.”
They took his vehicle-a white F-150 pickup that had to be every bit of twenty years old-to an edgy section of
