Dark Tort

about?”

“Her studies, her work, my work, my clients, the law firm, the people there. Dusty wanted to…get ahead. She was ambitious, and I was flattered that she wanted my advice about this or that.”

“This or that?”

“What she should wear to a lunch meeting with big clients. Whether she should take golf lessons. That kind of thing.”

“Did Ms. Routt have any problems with anyone in the law firm? Was she scared of someone on staff there?”

Of course, this was what I’d been wondering ever since I’d raced across the street. Who, who, who? And yet I was still unprepared for this question.

“Mrs. Schulz? I’m asking you again. You said Louise Upton was hard on her?”

“No, no, not really. Louise Upton just enjoyed savoring her power, that’s all.” I thought for a minute. “Dusty did have to be careful about protocol at the firm. One time, at a staff meeting I was catering? Dusty’s uncle, Richard Chenault, asked a question about how a particular kind of will could avoid probate. Nobody seemed to know. Finally Richard said, ‘Come on, Claggs, for God’s sake! This is your area!’”

“Claggs?”

“Alonzo Claggett, one of the associates. He’s really a great guy, and he cared about Dusty. He came tonight, after I found her—”

“We’re getting ahead of ourselves. Back to this meeting.”

I blew out air. “Well, as all the lawyers were filing out, Dusty motioned her uncle aside. She whispered to him that you could avoid probate with the kind of estate they were discussing by setting up a particular kind of irrevocable trust. I didn’t really understand the details, but I gather she had them correct.”

“Then what happened?”

“What happened? Richard wouldn’t let Alonzo Claggett forget it. In other meetings, he’d joke that maybe instead of asking Alonzo a question, he’d just consult with Dusty. It was funny to everybody but Alonzo, and Dusty hated it.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because she told me. At a lunch I catered for the lawyers and their wives, Nora Ellis, Donald Ellis’s wife, scolded Dusty. Nora said that Dusty shouldn’t give legal opinions, since she wasn’t a lawyer. In fact, she wasn’t even a paralegal yet. And Ookie Claggett, Alonzo’s wife? She went out of her way to ignore Dusty through that whole lunch. All over one intelligent remark from Dusty, who was just trying to please her uncle.”

“You’re sure it was only one?”

“Well, it was the only one I witnessed. Maybe there were others.”

“Maybe Mr. Chenault began asking for help from Dusty when he should have been consulting his associates.”

I shook my head. “I think Dusty would have told me, if that had been true.”

“Who did Dusty hang out with at the law firm?”

“Only one other person besides me. She was good buddies with Wink Calhoun, the firm’s receptionist.”

“Wink? Ookie? Claggs? Where do these people get their names?”

I was so tired, I laughed. “I don’t know.”

“Spell Wink’s full name for me, would you?” This I did. Then Britt said, “Did they go for lunch together? Hang out on the weekends?”

“Yes, Dusty and Wink were friends. I saw Wink over at the Routts’ house sometimes, and I know Dusty went to see her.”

“And at the firm, were they friendly?”

“Sure.”

“With each other and the lawyers, or just with each other?”

It was all I could do not to start laughing again. “When I serve breakfast, from Monday through Thursday? There’s a dining room, with two big dining tables. The staff—Wink, Dusty, and Georgina, their paralegal who’s now in Hawaii with the other attorneys—would always sit at the second table. They didn’t really mix with the bigwigs.”

“The bigwigs?”

“You know. The lawyers. I mean, the lawyers were okay, but—”

Britt poised his pen over his notebook. “Describe them to me. How’d you get hired by H&J in the first place?”

“I was referred by Brewster Motley. He’s a friend of Richard Chenault, who’s the head honcho. Brewster is a criminal attorney who—”

“Yeah, I know him,” Britt interrupted. “Looks like a beach bum, talks like Perry Mason. Did he get along with Ms. Routt?”

I frowned. “I don’t even think they knew each other.”

“Can you name the rest of the staff that’s in Hawaii?” Britt tilted his baby face as I recited the names. In the fluorescent light of the interrogation room, his skin looked pale and clammy. “Describe Richard Chenault to me.”

“Late fifties, combs his silver hair straight back, so he always looks like he just got out of a swimming pool. A strong guy, and proud of it. Does a lot of bodybuilding, I think.”

“And the kind of work he was doing with Dusty?”

“I don’t know exactly. Wills, estates, that kind of thing. That’s what they do at H&J.”

“Chenault easy to get along with?”

I smiled. “I wouldn’t go that far. He is imperious. And he loves to play jokes on me.” I told him about the gin in the coffee, the moths in the tablecloth, the green food coloring in the eggs.

“He just sounds like a ton of fun.”

“He sort of is, really. He fell in love with a friend of mine, a doctor.” I told him about K.D. and the altitude sickness. “They moved to a big house in Aspen Meadow and Richard bought a partnership in Hanrahan & Jule. But he had a little something on the side, and it wasn’t asparagus. K.D. found out, and now they’re getting divorced.”

“Did Richard Chenault get along with his niece?”

“I’m telling you, everybody seemed to get along with Dusty. And really, because she was working so hard for Richard, it had gotten to be that I didn’t see her a whole lot outside of the firm, except for our cooking lessons together.”

Britt asked, “You live across the street from her family, right?”

“Yes.”

“They get along? Any problems?”

“They all get along. No problems. Really, they’re great. Sally, Dusty’s mother, adores her, as do both her grandfather, who lives with them, and Dusty’s little brother, Colin.”

“Go on.” When I gave him a quizzical look, he said, “Tell me more about her family.”

“Dusty’s father, Richard’s brother, took a hike while Sally Routt was pregnant with Colin, Dusty’s very little brother. He left her with nothing but debts, and hasn’t been heard from since. Sally was forced out on the street, literally. One of the first things she did was to take back her maiden name, Routt. Sally’s father, John, lives with them, because he was blinded in prison.”

Britt’s forehead furrowed. “Blinded in prison?”

“Back before rabbits were the guinea pigs for cosmetics companies, those companies tested their products on prisoners.” Britt closed his eyes and shook his head. “John Routt was a guinea pig for a cosmetics company testing mascara, and the stuff blinded him. Dusty loves…loved her grandfather. He’s one of the reasons she went to work for a cosmetics company after high school…she said she didn’t want that to happen to anybody else. Naive, but sweet, which is the way Dusty was.”

“So she went from a cosmetics company to a law firm? Just like that? Seems like an odd leap, for a young woman, anyway.”