Zack raised an eyebrow. “Am I ever going to know what’s in there?”
“After my client does,” she said. “That’s the way it works, remember?”
Zack chuckled and looked between Margot and me. “Exactly what I need in my life, another ethical guide.”
Margot met his gaze. “An ex-boyfriend of mine said men get the women they deserve.”
Sean was smooth. “Then the men of Falconer Shreve are lucky. I understand that you’re joining us.”
“I am,” Margot said.
“That’s good news for me,” Sean said. “It appears I have a lot to learn.”
“We all do,” Margot said. “That’s why they call it ‘practising law.’ I’ll call you later, Zack.”
Zack and I saw the two of them out and watched as they drove off.
“Alone at last,” Zack said. “How was your day?”
“More questions than answers,” I said. “Let’s save the talk till later.” I moved behind him and started rubbing his shoulders. “Your neck is tight,” I said. “You need a swim.”
“A martini works quicker.”
“But the effect doesn’t last. Swim first, then a drink.”
“You’re tough.”
“But I’m fun. Come on, let’s get our suits on.”
We’d just started our swim when Taylor came in from school. “Anything you need me to do?”
“Sure,” I said. “You can make dinner.”
Zack came over and grabbed the edge of the pool. “I’ll take care of dinner,” he said. “Where do you want to go?”
Taylor was quick off the mark. “The Chimney,” she said. “I am so in the mood for liver.”
“Fine with me,” I said. “There are days when only organ meat will do.”
“That’s settled then,” Zack said. “Want to put on your suit and join us, Taylor? Your mother is counting my laps. You can distract her.”
“You always tell me to do what Jo says. Besides, I really, really want to get back to this painting I’m working on.” She gave him her winsome smile. “If it turns out, you can have it for your office.”
Zack groaned and pushed away from the pool’s edge. “We pay for our pleasures in this world,” he said. Then he began moving his powerful arms and propelling his body through the water. Unprompted, he did ten extra laps, but he beamed when I said it was time to towel off.
We took our drinks outside. When Zack took his first sip, he closed his eyes with pleasure. “That was worth waiting for.”
“Deferred gratification,” I said. “So any new developments in the case?”
“Nothing good. Ginny came over this morning. Her position is not enviable. She had a motive. She had the opportunity and, of course, the fact that she pulled the knife out of Jason’s chest and contaminated the crime scene doesn’t endear her to the cops. Plus her prints are all over the place, so it’s a real mess.”
“Any luck finding Francesca?”
“Nope. I’m batting zero for two.” He took another sip. “And the cops found $50,000 cash in Jason Brodnitz’s house.”
My heart sank. “So Jason is
“Yep. It appears that you’re the new owner of Margot’s red scarf.”
“I wish I wasn’t.”
“Me too. I’m not looking forward to telling Ginny. When she came over this morning, she was hopeful. She knows she’s in deep, but she believes in the system, and she’s really looking forward to being at the lake. She thought that while they were there, she and the girls could come up with some way to honour Jason.”
“And now they’re going to have to deal with this. Zack, this is going to be tough on Margot too. After our day in Wadena, we were both certain Jason wasn’t the man in Cristal’s life.”
“Mandy Avilia knew something?”
“In retrospect, I guess she didn’t. Mandy told us about a game Cristal played: she’d subtract the number of letters in her boyfriends’ names from the number of letters in her name. The remainder was supposed to be the number of children they’d have together. Cristal wanted three children.”
“So ‘three’ was her ideal.”
“Yes, and Jason Brodnitz, like Cristal, had thirteen letters in his name. Margot thought that was a good sign. But I guess the discovery of $50,000 cash in Jason’s house trumps his coming up zero in Cristal’s name game.”
“It’s not unheard of for evidence to be planted,” said Zack. “You and I both thought there was something fishy about the fact that Bree Steig was carrying around a piece of paper with Jason’s phone number written on it.”
“There’s a difference between a number on a paper and $50,000. That’s a pretty substantial investment.”
“Not if you want to frame somebody.”
“You really don’t believe Jason was the man in Cristal’s life, do you?”
Zack shook his head. “I didn’t know the guy at all, but sometimes you have to go with a gut feeling. I think Brodnitz had a lousy couple of years. I think his ego had been bashed around and I think he made investments for prostitutes because no ‘respectable’ clients would come within a hundred feet of him. I think it’s even possible he was laundering money, but I don’t think he was that sadistic creep Cristal was involved with.”
“Neither do I,” I said. “So we’re back to finding out who that sadistic creep really was. She never said anything to you about her past?”
“We didn’t trade life stories. I was with Cristal for one reason and we both knew the reason.” Zack put down his drink. “Now you have that ‘how-did-I-end-up-married-to-this-prick?’ look on your face.”
“That’s a lot to read into one expression,” I said. “I don’t think you’re a prick. I just think it’s an odd world where a man and woman can do something as intimate as make love and not know anything about each other.”
“Cristal and I didn’t make love, we had sex. That’s a whole different thing.”
“She was more than just a body, Zack. Today when we were in Wadena, I caught a glimpse of the woman Cristal was. If we’re going to untangle this mess, I think we have to go back to the beginning.”
“Which is…?”
“The man Cristal fell in love with in university.”
“I didn’t know Cristal went to university.”
“Well, she did, and she got pregnant in her first year. Margot’s sister, Laurie, was pregnant at the same time. Laurie told me that when she and Cristal talked about their lovers and the babies they were carrying, Cristal just glowed.”
“So what happened?”
“Laurie didn’t know. Cristal came back to Wadena when the semester was over without a baby and without a wedding ring.”
“But if the guy Cristal was with in university moved along, he wouldn’t be connected with her life here in Regina.”
“He would if he came with her. Zack, Mandy told us that her sister had only ever loved one man. She also said that Cristal did everything her lover told her to do, but it was never enough, and at the end she realized that and decided to get out.”
“And so he killed her, and if we find the boyfriend, my client will be off the hook.” Zack rubbed the bridge of his nose – a sure sign of weariness with him. “God, I wish it were that easy. Maybe it will be. The cops have the same information we have. Right now, their computers will be smoking. Debbie Haczkewicz won’t be satisfied until she knows everything about the men on that list.”
“The boyfriend’s name wouldn’t be on that list.”
“I know, but in my experience, if you throw enough rocks in the water eventually the bottom feeders come up to see what’s happening.”
CHAPTER 13
The first rock to hit the water was Cristal’s will. When Margot called to fill him in, Zack picked up a pen and
