there was more information available.
Martha sat, practically twitching with excitement. “Oh, my. Did Mister Appleton know Mister Peterson?”
“They served on some charity committee together, evidently. Played golf, too. Appleton wants to be part of whatever fund we set up for Todd.”
“How wonderful.”
“It will be,” Paul agreed, but sorrow took that moment to hit him again at the loss of his friend. Todd had had so much to give. He had been so full of life.
“I know, Mister Jameson,” Martha said, rising to pat his shoulder before she left. “We’ll all miss him.” She hesitated, as if to say something else, but didn’t. “I’ll get right on this with Mister Pratt Sr., and call Ms. Hagen. If I may suggest it, sir…”
“What?”
“You might want to let her detour to the mall or at least to a clothing store before she comes to the office.”
Thinking of the tops and jeans he’d randomly selected, Paul nodded. “Good idea. I’ll contact the cops and tell them ten forty-five.”
“Eleven at the earliest, sir.” Martha said firmly. “She’ll need a bit of time.”
Thinking of his sisters, Paul nodded. “Right. Eleven. Thanks.”
As she closed the door, Paul pulled the detective’s card from his wallet and dialed.
“Tibbet,” the man answered with impatient irritation.
“Detective, this is Paul Jameson. I need to move our meeting to at least eleven.”
“Why?”
“Ms. Hagen has nothing to wear.”
Tibbet barked out a laugh. “Are you serious?”
“In this case, yes. Remember? House fire, no stuff. Suitcase in the Extended Suites destroyed? No stuff. Women have to have some stuff. Hell, in that situation even I’d have to have some stuff.”
Tibbet was briefly silent, then laughed again. “Yeah, even a guy would need to regroup. You think it’s safe to let her do that, though? This guy’s escalating already, so…” Tibbet let the sentence hang.
“I’ve got it covered. Private duty. Unobtrusive.”
“Good. I’d say I’d help, but the budget sucks, you know? Anyway, I’ll be there around eleven-fifteen. If she’s not there yet, we’ll go over some things.”
“Is she still a suspect?”
“Don’t know yet. Lab’s not back in.”
Hanging up, Paul shuffled through the papers on his desk. Ten folders, neatly aligned, contained all the info he and Todd had planned to discuss. He scooped them together and pulled out the fat legal-size folder with all of Todd’s estate planning.
“Martha?” He waited for her to answer his hail before asking, “Is Myra available for a few minutes?”
“I’ll see, Mister Jameson.”
He wanted Myra, the firm’s foremost estate planning specialist, to go over all of the estate issues with him one more time. He didn’t want to be without answers if the police asked specific questions.
By the time he was done with Myra, it was eleven. There was no sign of Torie or Tibbet.
Which meant he had time for more coffee. He felt like he’d already drunk a gallon of it, but with so little sleep, the punch of caffeine was a necessary evil.
He was filling his mug when Martha found him.
“Detective Tibbet is here, Mister Jameson.”
“Of course, I’ll be right there. Would you check on Ms. Hagen’s progress?”
“I will, yes. I’ll just follow you with Detective Tibbet’s coffee, then see if she’s on her way.”
“Thanks.” They rounded the corner and he greeted Tibbet. “And I believe Missus Prinz has coffee for you? Yes. Great, let’s go into my office.”
He sat down behind the desk, keeping the professional distance. What he wanted to do was grab Tibbet’s annoying little notebook and read it. Or stuff it down the man’s throat.
“So, Detective, what can you tell me about all of this?”
“Not much, Mister Jameson. Wheels turn slow, if you know what I mean. Nothing’s back on the car yet. They’re still running prints from the hotel room, but I don’t know if they’ll find anything. Hotel rooms are full of prints, especially if the maid service sucks.”
“Did you get the notice of our complaint?”
“Yep. I guess you filed it first thing.”
“As promised,” Paul said. Reconsidering his tactics and his thoughts about allies, he decided to try for a more friendly approach. “I know the other part isn’t on you, but I hope that whoever snagged the notes and let that shit leak gets at least a hand smack for blowing information to the press.”
