'Thank you. I appreciate that.'
Reed started to leave.
'You know, there is one thing you two can do for me, if you're still feeling generous.'
'What's that?' Isaac Geller asked.
Chapter Fifty-Four.
Daniel woke up slowly to the sound of the surf. When he opened his eyes he could see sunlight through the thin curtains that covered the picture window in the bedroom of the beach house. He stretched and smiled. The first thing Amanda had said when Judge Opton dismissed all the charges against him was, 'I bet you've never had a job interview like this before.' Then she offered Daniel the use of her beach house so he could get away from Portland and the press. His interview with the rest of the partners at Jaffe, Katz, Lehane and Brindisi was set for next Wednesday.
Daniel hoped that he would get the job with Amanda's firm, but he had no regrets about turning down J. B. Reed. Amanda Jaffe had let him see firsthand that there was another, better, way to use his law degree. Still, Daniel had not walked away from his meeting with J. B. Reed and Isaac Geller empty-handed. Alice Cummings would not have to worry about Patrick's medical expenses anymore. Daniel had sold Isaac Geller on the public relations benefits that Geller Pharmaceuticals would reap by agreeing to help Alice's son. Daniel didn't want any credit for the good deed. Knowing that Patrick would have a chance at a normal life was payment enough.
Daniel rolled onto his side and noticed that Kate was not in bed. In the past few days he had learned that she was an early riser. Daniel smiled at the thought of her.
Amanda's house stood on a bluff overlooking the Pacific, which was calm today. Last night, Kate and Daniel had sipped hot buttered rum and let the heat from the bedroom fireplace warm them while they watched a brutal storm assault the beach. This morning, the sand was littered with driftwood.
Daniel washed up and found Kate on the phone in the kitchen. She smiled when he walked in. He poured a glass of orange juice and sat down at the kitchen table while Kate finished her call.
'That was Billie,' she said as soon as she hung up. 'She found out some more information about Gilchrist. Her name was originally Melissa Haynes. Her father was a colonel in the army. He was away a lot and she grew up wild. Billie says she had a string of juvenile arrests, some involving violence, but her father used his influence to get her out of most of her scrapes.
'When she turned eighteen Melissa left home and moved to California. She married an actor wannabe, but the marriage lasted less than a year. She went to secretarial school, then learned how to be a court reporter. Gene Arnold met her during a deposition in L.A.'
'Is Billie certain that Renee was Flynn's partner?'
'She'll probably never be able to prove it, but everything makes sense if Renee was the mole at Reed, Briggs. She was in a perfect position to slip the Kaidanov letter into the discovery and send Amanda the videotape. If Kaidanov called Briggs at his office to arrange the meeting at the cottage, Renee would have answered the phone and could have eavesdropped on their conversation. But there's something else that convinces me that Renee is guilty.
'We were never able to figure out why Arthur Briggs wanted April Fairweather to meet him at the cottage on the night he was killed.'
'Right. It made no sense, since her case and the Insufort case were totally unrelated.'
'I'm certain that Briggs never wanted Fairweather at the cottage. Renee was in the waiting area when Fairweather saw you blow up at Briggs. I bet she heard Briggs leave the message on your answering machine asking you to meet him at the cottage. I think Renee told Fairweather to go to the cottage so she would see you leaving after Briggs was murdered. With you as the main suspect, no one would look at anyone else. But better still, Renee knew that your lawyer would use the videotape to thoroughly discredit Fairweather when she was under oath, assuring another hefty attorney fee for Flynn that she would share.'
'Renee probably made the anonymous call that tipped off Zeke Forbus about my call to her.'
'That's my guess. But I don't think we'll ever know for certain.'
Daniel stood up and took Kate in his arms. 'I don't want to talk about the case anymore. We're out here to forget about it.'
'If you don't want to talk about the case, what do you want to do?' Kate asked mischievously.
'I'd like to kiss you, but I'm afraid you'll use your self-defense moves on me.'
'I might if there was a bed nearby.'
'I guess ugly women need judo to get a handsome guy like me in the sack.'
The next thing Daniel knew, Kate was behind him and had him in a hammerlock. The idea of resisting never entered his mind.
