AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We both know it is.”
“It’s not. Let’s go inside and do something that is.”
“Right. We’ll have that naked conversation when we’re alone.” He kisses me fast and hard before releasing me. “Come on.” He takes my bag and gives me a pointed look. “Kind of small.”
“Big enough,” I say, breezing past him and into the hallway before turning to wait on him. “But I need to get my computer out of it so that I won’t be dragging other things out with your crew.”
He shuts the door and sets my bag against the wall. “We certainly wouldn’t want your clothing all over the house, now would we? For instance, hanging off a lampshade.”
I’m already squatting by my bag, unzipping it, and my gaze jerks upward to his. “That’s where my, ah, garment was at?”
“Yes,” he says, his eyes alight with mischief and amusement. “That is exactly where it was at.”
I grab my MacBook and zip up my bag before standing back up, at which time I decide to find out how much trouble awaits me in the other room. “Has the Walker clan left the premises?”
“Yes,” he says, his hands settling on his hips. “They came in like a hurricane, asked a ton of questions, and then left.”
“Didn’t you say they had a lead?”
“Yeah. They think the wife did it.”
My brow furrows. “The wife? You mean the victim’s boyfriend had a wife?”
“My client’s wife.”
“Oh. Wow. Do you think she did it?”
“They have me leaning that way, but what I think doesn’t matter. What I prove or what she admits does.”
“All you need is reasonable doubt.”
“I have reasonable doubt. You know that isn’t enough in these cases.”
“It’s supposed to be,” I say.
“Would have, could have, should have,” he says, motioning me toward the archway that leads to the kitchen and the parts of the house I have yet to see.
We walk through that archway and pass the kitchen to enter the room on the other side of the stairwell, which is not so unlike the living area. The room is rectangular, wrapped in windows, with the same mahogany hardwood, only in this case there is a thick gray pile carpet covering most of the sitting area. On top of it is an L-shaped gray sectional with several low cushioned chairs. Reese’s co-counsels are each on the floor, on opposite sides of the gray marble rectangular coffee table, their computers in front of them. “Cat,” Reese says, his hand at my lower back, “meet Elsa and Richard.”
“Hi,” I say. “How’s it going?”
Elsa and Richard give me steady, unreadable stares. “Hi,” they say in near unison.
“I’m Richard, not Elsa,” Richard says, with a completely straight face. And it is a handsome face, with sharp features, hard, and framed by longish, wavy brown hair.
Elsa, on the other hand, is pretty, blonde, with a heart-shaped face and about ten years older than me. With manners, too, it seems, as she says, “Nice to meet you, Cat.”
“You look like Elsa,” Richard comments.
Elsa snorts. “If only I were so young, but I’m not, so thank you, Richard. I’ll take that comparison.” She looks at me. “Come sit. I’ve read your column. I’m a fan.”
“Agreed,” Richard states, his tone dry and unexcited, but I’ve had the impression from his courtroom presence that this is his normal.
“Thanks to both of you,” I say, chatting with them just a short bit about nothing much.
Reese breaks up the nothing chit chat by having me sign a confidentiality and consulting agreement before paying me one dollar for my services. “We’ll work out compensation later,” he promises.
I smile and he smiles, because we both know what I want, and it’s not money. It’s him, naked, and in all kinds of ways. That shared moment doesn’t pass without notice but I don’t really care. At this point, it’s over, and we all get to work. I’m settled on the floor at the end of the coffee table and Reese moves to stand at the window with his back to us while he stares out over the city, most likely seeing nothing but what’s in his head. “I still think it was the boyfriend,” Elsa says, as I’m reading through the Walker notes.
