“I hope you’re not going to offer me money to go away.”
She shook her head a little, but I didn’t think she meant no.
“That would be very disappointing, Erin.”
I could almost see her changing tactics. “We certainly don’t want to insult you,” she said.
“Glad to hear it. I like Lee and I respect him greatly. As for you…”
She raised an eyebrow.
“I like you too.”
“That’s nice to know.”
“Yeah. But it does make things difficult.”
“I don’t see why it should.”
I smiled. “I think you do.”
She said, “Look, would we rather you weren’t here? Yes, we would. Would we rather you went away? Yes, we would. Lee likes you more than you know, but he will be very upset if you get into this and mess it up. So will I.”
“Is that supposed to make me cut and run back to Denver?”
She looked unhappy, and this time I did not smile. I said, “So far you’re not doing too well, Erin. I know you’re a better negotiator than this. I know you know not to come into a situation and ruffle your adversary, unless it’s some knucklehead like Archer who takes offense at everything. And at this moment I am your adversary. If you want me to be your friend I’ll be happy to do that. But
She leaned back in her chair. “God, you’re touchy this morning. Did you have a bad night?”
“You might say that. I’ve got my own moral dilemmas to work out.”
The waitress brought my coffee. I ordered lots of calories and she wrote that down and went away. Erin said, “The last thing we want is to get in the way of finding out who killed Mrs. Ralston.”
“Now that’s a much better start.”
“But I don’t see how we’re doing that.”
“That’s why I’m here. I’ll tell you if you do.”
Abruptly she said, “Okay, we’ll level with you. That’s what I was told to do anyway.”
“Told when?”
“Last night after you left I called Lee from my room. I told him you’re here asking questions about the book. His instructions to me were simple. ‘Tell him the truth,’ he said. That’s all.”
“That’s what I would expect from Lee. So why didn’t you just do that?”
“My own judgment call. A lawyer never wants to tell a third party anything about her client’s business, even when the client tells her to.”
“See? Right has a way of winning out over treachery and guile after all. Now you can get off to an even better start by telling me what book we’re talking about.”
“A handwritten journal kept by Richard Burton when he was here.”
“Gosh, that almost sounds like one of the Charlie Warren books.”
“At this point we don’t know whose it was, originally.”
I looked dubious.
“Look,” she said testily. “Archer has a book. He wants to sell it. He claims it’s been in his family for generations. He says he has rock-solid provenance.”
“And the thought of Mrs. G’s books never occurred to you?”
“Of course it occurred to me, do you think I’m stupid? That’s the first thing Lee and I did when the subject came up: I sat him down and went point by point over what had happened to the old woman, and what would happen if this turned out to be a stolen book.”
“And what conclusion did you come up with?”
“That Lee would be at risk if that turned out to be the case.” She shrugged. “He wants to take that chance.”
“And give up the book if he has to.”
“Yes, of course. That’s the chance you take if you want to play the game. In all likelihood there’ll never be a challenge. All the people are dead.”
