Sea Change

have in mind?”

Rita looked up and smiled.

“Then they ran into a snag,” Rita said. “The girls didn’t want to tell him who.”

“Whose movements they wanted him to discover?”

“That’s right.”

She returned to her notes and studied them for a moment.

“He said that it would be difficult to trace someone’s movements if he didn’t know who they were, and, he told me, ‘They acted like they hadn’t thought of that.’ He told me, ‘They kept looking at each other and silently agree-ing that they couldn’t give the name.’ So he declined the employment offer . . . he claims, graciously.”

2 5 2

S E A C H A N G E

“They give him any clue where he was supposed to look?”

Jesse said.

“Miami and Boston,” she said.

Rita looked at her notes.

“Miami or Boston,” she said, “or travel between.”

“Jesus Christ,” Jesse said.

Rita waited. Jesse didn’t say anything.

“I would guess,” Rita said after a time of silence, “that I have provided you a clue.”

“Yes,” Jesse said.

They were quiet again.

Then Rita said, “I would guess that you are not going to share it with me.”

“Also true,” Jesse said.

“Because?”

“Because you are the best criminal defense lawyer in the state,” Jesse said. “And you might end up defending someone I want convicted.”

“Are you suggesting I would take unfair advantage of our, ah, relationship?”

“Yes.”

Rita smiled.

“Well, of course,” she said. “What are you going to do now?”

“I’m going to call Kelly Cruz,” Jesse said.

“Who’s Kelly Cruz?”

“Somebody I’m going to call,” Jesse said.

Jesse stood. Rita stared at him for a moment.

2 5 3

R O B E R T B . P A R K E R

“If I’d known you were like this,” she said, “I’d never have bopped your socks off.”

Jesse grinned at her.

“Yeah,” he said. “You would have.”

And they both began to laugh.

2 5 4

54

B ack with the Plums, Kelly Cruz thought, as she sat on the same terrace, looking at the same blue-green water. Mr. and Mrs. Plum

were both tanned and immaculate in white. The drink trolley was set up on the terrace. It was late afternoon and the cocktail hour had begun. Probably been in effect for a while, Kelly Cruz thought. She declined alcohol, and accepted a 7-Up.

“Just a few follow-up questions,” Kelly Cruz said when they were all settled. “Have you been traveling at all in the last couple of months?”

“No, we haven’t,” Mr. Plum said pleasantly.

He smiled at Kelly Cruz. His eyes crinkled attractively when he smiled.

R O B E R T B . P A R K E R

“Say, since the end of May?”

“No, we haven’t,” Mr. Plum said, just as pleasantly.

“Mrs. Plum?” Kelly Cruz said.

“No,” she said. “I believe Willis drove up to Tallahassee, around the beginning of June, but I haven’t gone anywhere.”