See No Evil

Julia hesitated. “No.”

“But?”

“No buts.”

“You don’t know, do you? But that’s okay. You don’t have to know. What you want is to protect her rights. She’s a minor child who has a troubled past and she has rights. But because she’s a minor, she needs a guardian and I’m confident I can prove Crystal Montgomery is unfit to make decisions on Emily’s behalf during this time.” Iris glared at Julia. “My question to you is, can you do it?”

“Of course I can,” Julia snapped. “She’s my niece. My brother is dead, I can’t-” She stopped. There was no way she was going into detailed family history with this woman. Iris’s job was to protect Emily’s rights. That’s it. “I love Emily. I will do what I have to do to protect her.”

Iris nodded. “I’d like to retain Dr. Dillon Kincaid for the defense.”

“Kincaid? He usually works for Stanton.”

“Unfortunately.” Iris fanned herself. “What a hottie. I’ve hired him for psychiatric evaluations and he’s good at his job. His credentials are impeccable. But I want him because he usually works for your people. If we hire him to evaluate Emily, they can’t use him for their side. We want him on our team. We’re building our case, Julia.”

“Okay.” Julia had worked with Dillon several times-for the prosecution. She respected him greatly, and if anyone had to probe Emily’s psyche, she’d rather have Dillon do it.

“Good, because I already called him. He’s meeting us here at nine this morning.” She glanced at her watch. “Six hours. Glad I don’t need a lot of sleep. Next step, we need to bring in a private investigator. We need to verify everything the police say and do, follow up on our own leads, interview friends, neighbors on our own. Our goal is to find holes in the prosecution.”

“If it gets that far!” Julia had been pacing. She finally sat down, defeated. “They may not even charge Emily. They might not have a case against her.”

“True, but when was the last time you heard of a detective telling someone to get an attorney? They know something we don’t.” Iris made a note. “I have Bruce Younger on retainer. He’s a top investigator, the best I have-”

“I’ve already called Connor Kincaid.”

Iris didn’t hide the surprise in her eyes. “Yet another Kincaid? Isn’t Connor the cop you screwed in the Crutcher case?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Iris,” Julia said, feeling weary. She explained the history. “Three years ago Emily ran away from home. I hired Connor to find her. He told me if Emily ever needed help again to call him.”

“Why did he agree to help in the first place?”

Julia squirmed under Iris’s scrutiny. “Emily was just a kid. Thirteen at the time. And-” She shrugged. She’d asked Connor because she trusted him and knew he was good. But she’d had to appeal to his sense of family and honor to get him to agree to work for her. She felt guilty she’d compared Emily to his own teenaged sister, but it worked and that’s what counted.

And then he’d found Emily and brought her home and she hadn’t spoken to him since.

Iris started with another question, then stopped. “Why didn’t Emily’s mother hire the investigator?” she asked.

Julia’s jaw tightened. “She thought it was a stunt for attention and that Emily would come home on her own when she was hungry.”

“Was it? A stunt?”

“No.”

“Then why did she run away?”

“I don’t know,” Julia admitted. Emily had refused to talk about it.

“Well, we just nailed Crystal Montgomery’s coffin shut. You’re as good as in as Emily’s guardian.” Iris glanced at her watch. “I’m going home for a couple hours, make some calls, then come back here before nine. If you can bring in Connor Kincaid, more power to you. He knows cops, and we can use some inside information. But I’ll admit, I’m surprised he’s given you the time of day.”

SIX

“Late night?”

Connor Kincaid halted within arm’s reach of his front door, keys in hand. He knew that voice. A low rumble, quiet, too damn sexy. Slowly, he turned and faced her.

Julia Chandler.

She leaned against the porch’s support beam. As Connor stared Julia straightened, her casual manner all too brief, layering on the take-no-prisoners prosecutor image she had perfected. Top to bottom, she was a piece of work. Richly textured blond hair, put up tight on her head so no one knew how long it really was; aristocratic bones, long and elegant; a curvy figure hidden underneath sensible, expensive lawyer suits. And those legs. Those legs never ended.

She looked tired, and her makeup was less than perfect. Several strands of long, wavy hair had escaped, softening her pretty face. He put that aside. He didn’t care about her, her appearance, her life. She’d helped destroy his career, everything he believed in, everything he thought he was.

Yet Julia didn’t have the decency to stay away. No, she’d called on him to find her niece three years ago- begged him, manipulated him. Used him and his family. “What if it was your sister? What if Lucy ran away? Emily’s even younger. I don’t trust anyone else with her safety.”

Trust. Julia Chandler didn’t know the meaning of the word. But she loved her niece and the comparison to Lucy worked. Family meant everything to him, and Julia knew it, used it. It wasn’t the first time.

She stood here on his porch to try to manipulate him again. Try was the operative word, because Connor wasn’t going to fall for her plea this time. He’d heard the hot news about Montgomery’s murder driving back from the gym. If she thought he gave a shit, she was even stupider than he thought.

He should have said no the first time. He’d definitely say no now.

Tossing his keys back and forth, palm to palm, he stared down the prosecutor. He didn’t care how many perps she put in prison, how many rapists she went after or murderers she convicted. Five years ago, as a hot new assistant district attorney, she’d had his balls in her brass palm. Julia forced Connor to do something he’d sworn he’d never do. Squeezed until he turned in his resignation.

“You’re the last person I expected to be waiting on my doorstep.”

“I need your help.”

“Oh? I thought you were here to take me to bed.” He let his eyes roam from her head to her full breasts, down to her narrow waist and long, long legs. He wished he didn’t find her so damn attractive; it would be much easier to hate her.

She reddened at his obvious perusal and he gave a half smile. “There’s at least five hundred certified dicks in San Diego, I’m sure one of them would be more than happy to take your money and do whatever job you have.”

“May I come in for a minute?”

“No.”

“Connor, please. This is important.”

“It’s always important with you.”

“I don’t want to have this conversation standing here.”

“I don’t want to have this conversation.”

The change in her demeanor was almost imperceptible, but Connor watched carefully. Her left hand clutched her purse, her right flexed. “If it weren’t for Emily, I wouldn’t be here at all.”

“Don’t do that. Don’t use Emily as a way to get to me.” Why did he expect better from her?

“I’m not, it’s just-”

“I heard about Montgomery’s murder on the news. I have no desire to get involved in a police investigation.