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“One moment, Ms. Jenkins. I’ll see if he’s available.”
About forty seconds later she heard a click followed by “Collins here. You’re Peter’s wife?”
“I am. He asked me to call you to talk about representation and pay the retainer.”
“Yes. We should do that in person. I have some time this morning if you can drop by.”
She glanced at the address on the card. It was in downtown Bellevue, in one of the high rises.
“It’ll take me about forty-five minutes to get there. Does that work?”
“I’ll be here.”
“Thank you. I’ll see you soon.”
She hung up then started the car and drove out of the parking lot. Her visit with Peter was supposed to be two hours, but she’d been there less than thirty minutes. The law offices weren’t that far from Erica’s house, so she should have enough time to speak with Mr. Collins and be back around when she’d told Mara she would be.
Traffic was kind so less than forty minutes later she was being shown into a large west-facing conference room with a view of Lake Washington and the Seattle skyline. The polite receptionist offered her an assortment of beverages, but Allison refused them. She just wanted to get on with the meeting.
About a minute later, Raymond Collins entered. He was in his fifties with gray hair and blue eyes. His face was nondescript. He looked more like a high school teacher or a grocery store supervisor than a sought-after lawyer.
“Allison?” he said with an easy smile. “Nice to meet you.”
They shook hands and he took a seat across from hers.
“You’ve obviously talked to your husband.”
She nodded. “Earlier this morning. He said you were willing to represent him.” She paused, not sure what to ask. “Is he in a lot of trouble?”
“It’s not great. He’s been charged with several felonies and there could be more to come. They want Peter to cooperate and he wasn’t willing to do so until he had a good lawyer. That annoyed them, so now they’re going to let him cool his heels in jail a little longer until they talk to him.”
She nodded, not sure what to do with the information. “There’s no way we can make bail. It’s a million dollars.” They didn’t have anywhere near that much in collateral.
“Peter said the same thing. I’ll work on getting it reduced, but I’m not sure that will help. We need to get Peter and the feds talking. Which is what I’m going to do. He told you about the retainer.”
“That you’d need one? Yes. He said that.” She swallowed hard. “How much is that?”
“Thirty thousand dollars.”
If she’d been a fainter, she would have collapsed for sure. “That much?” she asked in a whisper.
“Helping Peter is going to take a lot of hours. Do you have the money?”
“I’ll get it.”
She had to. There was still nine thousand from the cash plus the few dollars she had on hand. She thought of the money Erica had given her. While she knew it was probably wrong to use that, she wasn’t sure she had a choice. But even that wasn’t enough.
She twisted her hands together. The movement caused her diamond engagement ring to catch the light. She could sell that and maybe her car. Combined it might be enough.
“I’ll get it,” she repeated.
“When you do, I’ll get started.”
She wanted to ask if he could start now, but already knew his answer. He didn’t trust Peter and by association, her. She had to find thirty thousand dollars. If she didn’t, Peter was never getting out of jail.
Allison told herself to be grateful. Being pregnant and having Jackson with her had probably influenced the jeweler who had bought her wedding set. She had forty-four hundred more dollars than she’d had two hours ago. She could take out six thousand in cash on the credit card. If she sold her car, she would have enough to pay the lawyer. She wouldn’t have transportation but that was a problem for another day.
She ignored her bare left hand and weird sense of being naked. It was just a couple of rings. Given everything else happening, did they really matter? They were just things.
