Kill All the Lawyers

across the restaurant.

Bored, maybe. Or ill at ease. Steve couldn't tell which. Just who was she, anyway?

'Whoops, that's mine,' Steve said, reaching into a pocket for his cell phone.

'That's so rude,' Irene said.

'I didn't hear anything,' Victoria said.

'It's on vibrate.' Steve flipped the phone open and punched a button. 'Hey, Bobby. No, Maria may not spend the night. Why not? Because her mother owns automatic weapons.'

Steve noticed Victoria staring at him. Was there just a hint of suspicion in those green eyes? Man, he couldn't get anything past her.

'See you later, kiddo.' Steve flipped the phone closed.

Bobby had not called. No one had. But Steve had clicked three photos of Amanda, from her strawberry blond hair to her six-pack abs.

SOLOMON'S LAWS

5. When a woman is quiet and reflective, rather than combative and quarrelsome, watch out. She's likely picturing the bathroom without your boxers hanging on the showerhead.

Fourteen

THE SERPENTINE PATH

One week after the birthday bash, a cold front was pushing down from Canada. The orange groves upstate braced for freezing temperatures. The TV reporters wore their colorful parkas and warned people to bring their dogs and cats and ferrets indoors. And an even deeper chill settled over the offices of Solomon amp; Lord.

Driving to the office, Steve reviewed the events of the past week. The deep freeze started on the way home from dinner with The Queen. They had just passed the port where the cruise ships were lined up in a neat row like the fleet at Pearl Harbor. Then, out of the blue, a sneak attack. 'You were absolutely horrid to my mother,' Victoria said.

'Not once I learned she's gonna be rich.'

'You promised to be nice. Then you went out of your way to be horrid.'

'Horrid' being the word of the day, Steve figured. A word doubtless passed down from The Queen to The Princess like an heirloom necklace.

'And you were monstrous to Carl Drake,' she continued.

' 'Monstrous' is a little strong, Vic.'

'All right. Ill-mannered and boorish.'

'Often boorish. Seldom a bore. That's me. As for Drake, I don't trust a guy with polished nails and a phony accent.'

She glared at Steve long enough for him to stage a strategic retreat.

'Okay. Okay. If I offended anyone, I'm sorry.'

Even a semi-apology didn't placate Victoria, so now, a week later, he waited for both cold fronts-the Canadian and the Episcopalian-to pass.

Driving the old Mustang solo across the causeway with the top down despite the chill, listening to Jimmy Buffet ask 'Jamaica Mistaica,' Steve took further inventory of the past seven days. He and Victoria had spent the time running back and forth to court, going through the motions of looking for a new abode. . and not making love. Victoria hadn't slept over once, a world record schnide. Steve had dropped a few casual mentions about having a quiet dinner, and got shot down three nights in a row. Victoria had other things to do- dinner with Jackie Tuttle, shopping with her mother, even legal research, of all the lousy excuses.

He had called his father for company, but the old man was in the Keys on his fruitless search for the missing boat captain, Oscar De la Fuente. Steve just hoped Herbert was making a fuss everywhere he went so word would get back to Kreeger.

Feeling lonely, Steve wanted to spend time with Bobby. Maybe they'd rent a pitching machine at the park, hit some balls. But the kid was hanging out with Maria. Girls will do that, split up guys and keep them from taking their practice swings. At least Bobby had helped download the photos of Amanda-the-Niece from Steve's cell phone.

'A hottie,' Bobby had proclaimed as he printed out the pictures.

'How old, you think?'

'Old. Twenty, maybe.'

Just yesterday, Steve had tried to engage Victoria in a discussion about Kreeger and Amanda. 'So what do you think? Niece or girlfriend or something else?'

'What difference does it make?'

'I need to gather everything I can on Kreeger. Knowledge is power.'

'Uh-huh.'

'C'mon, Vic. I'm asking for help here. You're really good at sizing up people. The way you pick juries, it's amazing.'

'Oh, please. You're so transparent.'

'See what I mean? You knew I was gaming you. But it's still true. You're better in voir dire than I am. So tell me, when you looked at Amanda, what did you see?'

She sighed and seemed to give it some thought. 'The top she was wearing. It's right off the rack at The Gap or Victoria's Secret. But the jeans were True Religion. Expensive. And did you notice her shoulder bag?'

'Should I have?'

'I don't know how you could miss it. Kiwi green. Alligator skin. Probably a Nancy Gonzalez. At least fifteen hundred dollars.'

'I know a poacher who'll get you the whole gator for a hundred bucks.'

'And those sandals with the hundred-millimeter heels …?'

'You measured them?'

'I can tell. They're Blahniks. You don't want to know the price.'

'This is good, Vic. Very good.'

'Why?'

'Because all those dollars add up to a girlfriend of a guy with money.'

'What an unbelievably sexist statement. Maybe Amanda earned the money. She could be a model. Or a personal shopper at Saks, where she gets a discount. Or she could work for her uncle Bill.'

'Bill Kreeger has one sister with two sons. And he's never been married. He doesn't have a niece.'

'So if you already knew. .'

'I needed to know what you picked up. I've been looking for a way to get inside Kreeger's head.'

'And you think his girlfriend will help you?' Sounding skeptical.

'What if I proved to her that he was a killer?'

'She'll never believe you.'

'Maybe I can get close to her, establish my credibility.'

'How?

He gave her his best lounge lizard smile. 'Using all my charm.'

'That and a baseball bat ought to do it.'

'Have a better idea?'

'All I'm saying, Steve, even assuming you can find Amanda, and you start trying to hang out with her, the first thing she'd do would be tell Kreeger.'

'Maybe that's not such a bad thing. Especially if it puts more heat on him.'

Victoria gave Steve one of those looks that would wilt petunias. 'So, now you're going to hit on Kreeger's