Up Jumps the Devil

“Get a license,” I told him, sliding down to the street without breaking the heel on my shoe. “And leave your gun home till you do.”

I slammed the door and was walking away when I heard both windows power down.

“You know something, Deb’rah?” Reese shouted angrily. “You used to be a damn sight more fun before you got to be a judge.”

Before I could answer, he screeched off from the curb, ran a red light at the intersection and tore off down the street in utter disregard of the thirty-five miles per hour speed limit.

“Thank goodness it’s Sunday and the streets are deserted,” the pragmatist said piously.

The preacher was too dismayed to comment.

19

« ^ » This is a great spur to their diligence, and an ample reward for their toil, which is far from severe...“Scotus Americanus,” 1773

I was in the shower next morning when my phone rang and by the time I was dried off enough to pick up, Portland Brewer was well launched into a complicated message for my machine.

“—so there’s just no way we can—”

“Sorry, Por, I was in the shower. Want to start again?”

“Not really,” she said ruefully. “Not if you’re going to be horsey about what I’ve got to tell you.”

I took the towel off my head and began finger-combing my wet hair. “You couldn’t reach the blood tech or your ex-client yesterday, right?”

“He’s somewhere between here and Baltimore, according to his girlfriend, and she doesn’t expect him back till tonight. I’ve left messages with her and with his office.”

“What about the technician?”

“Unlisted home phone. And Jamerson Labs doesn’t open till nine this morning. I’ll try again then, okay?”

“Fine,” I said. No point riding my high horse over Portland. She knew the seriousness of this without any lectures or exhortations from me. “Just let me know when you’ve got them rounded up so we can tell Ambrose.”

Portland might not have been waiting for me in chambers, but Merrilee and Pete Grimes were. After handling the details of Dallas’s funeral for Mr. Jap, Merrilee considered herself an old hand at dealing with the Medical Examiner’s office over in Chapel Hill. To her frustration though, she wasn’t being allowed to deal.

Anything that upsets Merrilee upsets Pete, and both of them wanted me to do something.

“They’re ready to release Uncle Jap’s body, but Duck Aldcroft says he can’t send a hearse for it because Allen’s Uncle Jap’s next of kin and nobody’s seen him since Friday.”

“Did you speak to Dwight?” I asked, fiddling with the zipper of my robe. Judge Carly Jernigan’s widow had given me this robe and its old-fashioned metal teeth had caught a fold of my blouse. I was hoping to work it loose without marking the white silk.

“He says he’s got the Highway Patrol keeping an eye out for Allen’s truck, but if you ask me, that doesn’t sound too urgent.”

Pete gave a supportive rumble. “If he smashed poor old Jap and took off with the money, he could be halfway to California by now.”

Merrilee nodded vigorously. “And Uncle Jap could just lie over there in Chapel Hill and—and—and rot for all he cares!”

Pete hitched his chair closer to hers and embraced her protectively. He was such a man mountain and she was so small and dainty that images of King Kong and Faye Wray flashed through my head as Merrilee automatically leaned into his arm.

An attorney stuck his head in the door waving a show-cause order I’d promised to sign and I was conscious that it was time to head for the courtroom even though I still hadn’t called over to Social Services as I’d planned. The zipper chose that moment to release my blouse and yes, it left an ugly metallic mark right at my bustline.

“Look, Merrilee, Pete,” I said, “John Claude Lee was acting as Mr. Jap’s attorney. Why don’t you go speak to him, see what he can do about the situation? After all, you’d have been one of the—”

I abruptly caught myself, but Merrilee’s narrow little Yadkin eyes sharpened alertly.

“I’d’ve been one of what?”

I shrugged, annoyed that I’d let myself be distracted into speaking indiscreetly and even more annoyed because I knew Merrilee would never leave until I satisfied the curiosity I’d unleashed.

“One of what, Deborah?” she asked again when I’d signed the show cause and the attorney was gone.

I stood and finished zipping my robe. “I spoke out of turn, but it doesn’t really matter, I guess. Mr. Jap was planning to sign a will today that would have split his estate equally between you and Allen. You would have been co-beneficiary. Now, of course, it’ll probably all go to Allen. I’m sorry, Merrilee.”

Pete was frowning as he worked it out in his head, but Merrilee was suddenly transformed. Tears streamed from her eyes, but her smile was radiant.

“Oh, Deborah! Was he really going to leave me half?”