Tuesday’s Child

openly scoffed at that suggestion, and for his point of view, he had been declared a hostile witness.

So where in the damn hell was the journal? Sophie Lee had been adamant about there being one. Adam Star, hostile witness or not, had backed up the fact that his wife had indeed kept a journal, though he thought she only wrote in it on her good days. Previous nurses who hadn’t wanted to get involved in a messy murder trial had selective memories. A few nurses said they thought Mrs. Star wrote in something from time to time, others said absolutely not, the patient just watched television.

Spenser realized his career was over regardless of what he did from that point on. He had cut corners, but always in the interest of justice. He did what he had to do. To the best of his knowledge, he had not broken a single law. All those other cases he’d prosecuted were now going to come back and haunt him. The lawyers would nitpick every little goddamn thing they could. The cases would be tied up in the courts for years and would probably never end. Unless he could find the damn journal. If he couldn’t find it ten years ago, how was he going to find it now?

He wasn’t. That was the bottom line. As much as he wanted to believe Kala Aulani had it, he knew she didn’t. If Sophie Lee had it, she would have turned it over to her attorney. That just left Adam Star. And Adam Star or Adam Clements, whatever the hell his name ended up being, was now dead. Unless Spenser could find a direct line to hell, he was never going to locate the journal.

Spenser sniffed the aromas wafting out of the kitchen. He hoped the mess in the Crock-Pot turned out to be as good as it smelled. He forced his thoughts back to the matter at hand. And that’s when he had his epiphany. Did he have the guts to act on it?

Spenser leaned his head back and closed his eyes and thought about Sophie Lee. Maybe, just maybe, he could salvage this whole disaster.

Sophie Lee walked on the beach with Sula at her side. She felt better than she’d ever felt in her whole life. Kala had called and said the state of Georgia was going to meet Kala’s demands. She was going to have so much money she wouldn’t know what to do with it. They were wrong. She knew exactly what she was going to do with it, and with the Star fortune, too.

She absolutely loved it in Hawaii. As each day wound down, she thought more and more about making the island her home. If she needed a stateside fix, she could always head for the mainland.

Sophie was tanned and toned, the muscles in her legs and thighs like steel with all the sand walking she’d done these past weeks, ten miles in the morning, ten miles at night. She had developed superior upper body strength, what with all the swimming she’d been doing. The swimming pleased her more than anything. She’d conquered her fear of the water, thanks to Sula, who swam with her every day as she perfected her breaststroke. If ever there was a time to take on the world and Ryan Spenser, this was the time. But did she really want all that upheaval in her life? She simply didn’t know.

But did she really want to let it all go? Wasn’t that why she had a lawyer? You couldn’t unring the bell, everyone knew that. Whatever, if anything, was going to happen to Ryan Spenser would happen regardless of what she and Kala would decide to do. In the end, Kala could take care of all that. All she wanted now was to get on with her life. More to the point, make a new life for herself. If she elected to live in the past, she’d never move forward. All that was important to her these days was that the people she loved and cared about the most finally had hard and fast evidence that she hadn’t murdered her patient. That, she had decided, was enough for her to start to lay the groundwork to begin a new life. She could do that, too. She was mentally and physically strong and getting more so with each passing day.

The only thing that remained to plague her was Audrey Star’s missing journal. Adam Star must have taken it and hidden it somewhere. She realized they would probably never know what had happened to it. It was strange, though, that Adam had not mentioned it in his deathbed confession. Was it that unimportant, or was it too important to talk about? The point was moot now, she assumed, with both Audrey and Adam dead.

The sun was starting to go down, so Sophie turned and headed back to the house where she was living. She was tired, but it was a good kind of tired. In her whole life, she had never gotten this much fresh air or exercise. She poured herself a big glass of pineapple-mango juice and got a chew bone for Sula before she headed to the lanai, where she collapsed onto a flower-patterned lounge chair. Sula hopped up next to her and curled up in the bend of her knees.

Sophie clicked on the remote, and the news came on. She watched it, paying attention to what was going on locally. Then the newscaster switched to the national news, and she watched Ryan Spenser outside the courthouse. He looks terrible, she thought.

There was something different about him, though. Was she mistaken, or was the man being humble? She was mistaken; Spenser didn’t know the meaning of humble. Or did he? Only time would tell.

Sophie had no idea how close to the truth she was or how soon everything would be resolved, one way or the other.

Chapter 19

“THIS IS REALLY A SNAPPY LITTLE CAR, PATTY,” KALA SAID, GETTING out of the two- seater and smoothing down her skirt. “I like it.”

“I like that it’s affordable. Nick got it for me. I don’t mean he paid for it-I’m paying for it-but he got me a rock- bottom price on the deal because of his endorsement for Ford. Gets great mileage. I just love red. I feel important for some reason. I never ever thought I’d be driving a racy convertible. Guys really look at you when you drive a convertible, did you know that?” Patty grinned.

“What does Jed think about that?” Kala asked.

“Jed’s cool with it. He’s cool with everything. That’s why we get on so well. He’s a great lawyer, Kala. He cares about his clients. He really does.”

“I know that. Why else do you think I hired him? He does more pro bono work than any other lawyer in this town. You know,” Kala said, looking around, “I’ve never been here to Nick’s house. I don’t know why, but I thought, considering his golfing status and all that, that he would live in some fancy gated community.”

Patty laughed. “That’s what everyone says. He’s no snob. He is who he is, and, guess what? He mows his own grass, too. Last year he painted the house. Jed and I helped him. You could do Nick the biggest favor in the world if you’d tell him where Sophie is so he could call her. He’s in love with Sophie-you do know that, right? Always has been, from the time we were little kids. I think Jon was in love with Sophie, too.”

“I know. I will tell him, but just not yet. Sophie is still in a fragile state. I don’t want anything to go awry. He can handle a few more days of not knowing. You said something about lunch, right? I hate to admit it, but I’m starving. Nick won’t give us yogurt, will he?”

“No. But I think lunch will probably be a bit of a surprise. We didn’t give him all that much notice. And he’s also a tad upset with you because you won’t tell him where Sophie is. Just so you know.

“Come on, let’s walk around the back. He likes to eat out on his patio. Nick is an outside kind of guy.” Patty shouted a greeting as she turned the corner at the end of the house. “We’re here!”

Two magnificent golden retrievers bounded over to Kala and Patty, then skidded to a stop. Both held up their paws to be shaken. “Kala, meet Jam and Jelly. Girls, this is Kala.” The dogs sniffed Kala’s shoes; then, satisfied that she was a friend, they trotted over to their master, who held out his hand to Kala.

“Nice to see you again, Kala. Where the hell is Sophie?” he barked.

“Safe,” Kala barked in return. “Now that we’ve settled that question, what’s for lunch?”

Nick, all six feet four inches of him, stared at Kala to see if she’d say anything else. “Okay, as long as she’s safe. As to what’s for lunch, help yourself,” he said, as he gingerly lowered himself to a padded chair.”

“Oooh, this looks good,” Patty said as she popped covers from the bowls on the table. “Ah, the famous Mancuso salmon salad straight off the grill, garden salad, fresh from your garden over there at the back of the yard, warm rolls that you did not make from scratch, and the leftover rice pudding complete with raisins that you made last night. Homemade sun tea. A feast, Nicky. Served on fine plastic plates that are disposable.” Patty giggled. In spite of himself, Nick laughed heartily.

Kala loved the sound of Nick’s laughter. It reminded her of Ben.