She was moving away before he shouted, “I am!”
She didn’t look back.
“Well, how do you like that!” he said, laughing.
He joked about himself when recounting the tale of blistering his feet. “And the worst part,” he said, “is the number of lectures I’ve endured from this foot specialist at the hospital.”
He proceeded to give an imitation of the man; it made Frank laugh, and in this good humor he gave in to Newly’s request that they stop off at a pharmacy not far from the lawyer’s home. Newly insisted on trying to walk into the store on his own.
“Look,” he said, “while I’m in there, could you rearrange my pack a little? I left the GPS on top, and I’m afraid it will fall out and break. Cost me about six hundred, you know, so I’d rather not smash it on my driveway.”
Frank looked at him sharply, and saw, for the first time that day, the intelligent member of the Bar Association he had met in the courtroom — not the clowning klutz of the past hour or so.
Newly smiled and said, “Play around with the GPS if you like. This may take a while.”
He was hobbling into the store before Frank could respond.
Frank knew a clear invitation when he heard one, and hesitated only long enough to try to figure out if Newly was setting him up somehow, or worse, setting the department up for problems by using him in some way. But he couldn’t see how Newly could use this against him, and if it meant he’d know where Irene was right now, he’d risk it.
He wasn’t going to ignore his instincts; he was going up there. If she didn’t need him, fine. She might even be angry with him. At that thought, he smiled to himself. It wouldn’t be the first time.
But the next thought sobered him — it was one thing to imagine that he might hike up there for no real reason, that she was fine. It was another to think of her hurt or in danger. If she was in trouble and he stayed home, he’d never forgive himself.
By the time Newly came out, he had written down every set of coordinates that had been stored in the GPS unit’s memory during the two days Newly was in the mountains, and the GPS unit had been returned to the backpack.
“Did you get everything you need?” he asked Newly.
“Yes. And you?”
He hesitated, then said, “Yes. Tell me why you’re helping me.”
“Oh, I could try to make this sound quite innocent, and say I’m returning a kindness; that your wife was very good to me while we were hiking. She even went so far as to doctor my smelly, blistered feet. But it wouldn’t be the truth.”
He fell silent, and Frank wondered if he was going to leave it at that. But then he said, “A policeman comes to my hospital room. A man not connected with the case. He tells me that he is concerned about his wife. I involve him in some foolish business so that I can consider my situation. I have no difficulty believing that he is there for the reason he says he is; he’s willing to take on demeaning errands in order to talk to me. He’s genuinely worried about her. I’m concerned about her, too.”
“Why?” Frank asked. “Has something—”
“Nothing. Nothing to be alarmed over. Not yet.”
Frank’s hands tightened on the wheel. “Does Parrish have something planned?”
“Undoubtedly.” At Frank’s look of alarm, Newly quickly added, “I don’t know what he has planned, and I don’t know if it involves your wife, except — well, no, I don’t have any idea of what he has in mind.”
“You’re his lawyer!”
“Yes, but he doesn’t confide in me. Not at all — I’ll swear that to you, if you’d like. If I didn’t feel certain that he’s about to do something that will endanger his chances of avoiding the death penalty, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now.”
They had reached Newly’s street, and the lawyer gave Frank his address. It was all Frank could do to concentrate on the house numbers painted on the curbs. It was an expensive neighborhood. Not many criminal defense lawyers made it this big, he knew. He found Newly’s sprawling Spanish-style home. He pulled into the driveway and turned off the engine.
“You think he has some plan for Irene,” he said to the lawyer. “You started to say so earlier.”
“Nick Parrish . . . studies her. Stares at her.”
Frank swore.
“Yes,” Newly said. “I agree.”
“I need to know — I need to know everything you can tell me about where they were headed. Yes — I wrote down the coordinates. But where were they going from the last position?”
“I don’t know.”
“Newly—”
“I don’t know! Punching me in the nose won’t help you.”
He relaxed his hands, made himself think. “The ranger who took you out — was he going to rejoin them?”
“Yes.”
“How? Did they name a place?”
“No . . .” Newly grew thoughtful. “I was not very clear-headed at the time, but . . . oh! Now I remember! He
