hair tickled his neck, not when he realized she tasted of coffee and loneliness.
This is the worst thing you could do, he told himself. This is going to get you in trouble. Again.
But he let Addie play the Fates, spinning out the length of the kiss and cutting it when she saw t. Then he let himself into Roy’s apartment, intent on crawling into bed and forgetting the last ten minutes of his life. He had just begun to cross the darkened living room when a light snapped on. Roy sat on the couch, in his robe and pajamas. “You hurt my daughter,” he said, “and I will kill you in your sleep.”
“I didn’t touch your daughter.”
“Bullshit. I saw you kiss her, right through the keyhole.”
“You watched? What are you, some kind of peeping Tom?”
“Well, what are you? Some kind of gigolo? You get yourself hired and boink the business owner, so that you can steal her money in the middle of the night and run?”
“First off, she hired me. And second, even if I was stupid enough to do something like that, don’t you think I would have targeted the jewelry store owner or a banker?”
“Addie’s better looking than any of them.”
Jack unzipped his coat and threw it angrily on a chair. “Not that it’s any of your business, but Addie kissed me.”
“She . . . she did?”
“Is it so hard to believe?”
The old man stood up, a smile playing over his face as he started back toward his bedroom. “Actually,” he mused, “it is.”
Jordan strolled through the doors of the Carroll County Superior Court, his eyes falling into the familiar routine of scanning rooms to see which ones were involved in hearings and skimming over the sorry souls awaiting their fifteen minutes of testimonial fame. He felt naked in his Oxford cloth shirt and pullover sweater-he who used to wear Armani to try cases.
It was not that he’d ever planned on leaving the law permanently; he had just wanted to get away from it for a little while, and Salem Falls was as good a place as any to lose oneself. He had the money to rest on his laurels for a year or two, after those last few cases he’d tried down near Bainbridge, which had been particularly enervating. Each direct examination and cross-examination grew harder and harder to force from his throat, until Jordan realized that his job had become a noose, notching tighter with each client he defended.
Maybe it hadn’t been his job, though. Maybe it had been his relationship with his private investigator.
If anyone had told Jordan ten years ago that he’d want to get married again, he would have chuckled. If anyone had told him that the woman he chose would turn him down, he’d have laughed himself into a hernia. Yet that was exactly what Selena had done. Turned out her best investigative work had targeted Jordan himself-revealing human weaknesses he would rather never have learned.
He made his way to Bernie Davidson’s office. The clerk of the court was always a useful person to know. He was responsible for scheduling cases, and access to that came in handy when you really wanted to take a trip to Bermuda in March. But more than that, he had the ear of every district judge, which meant that things could get done much more quickly than through the normal channels-a motion slipped right into a judge’s hands, an emergency bail hearing stuffed into a jammed calendar. Jordan knocked once, then let himself inside, grinning widely when Bernie nearly fell out of his chair.
“Holy Christ-if it isn’t the ghost of Jordan McAfee!”
Jordan shook the other man’s hand. “How you doing, Bernie?”
“Better than you,” he said, taking in Jordan’s worn clothes and ragged haircut. “I heard a rumor you moved to Hawaii.”
Jordan slipped into a chair across from Bernie’s desk. “How come those are the ones that are never true?”
“Where are you living now?”
“Salem Falls.”
“Quiet there, huh?”
He shrugged. “Guess that’s what I was looking for.”
Bernie was too sharp to miss the
This is the worst thing you could do, he told himself. This is going to get you in trouble. Again.
But he let Addie play the Fates, spinning out the length of the kiss and cutting it when she saw t. Then he let himself into Roy’s apartment, intent on crawling into bed and forgetting the last ten minutes of his life. He had just begun to cross the darkened living room when a light snapped on. Roy sat on the couch, in his robe and pajamas. “You hurt my daughter,” he said, “and I will kill you in your sleep.”
“I didn’t touch your daughter.”
“Bullshit. I saw you kiss her, right through the keyhole.”
“You watched? What are you, some kind of peeping Tom?”
“Well, what are you? Some kind of gigolo? You get yourself hired and boink the business owner, so that you can steal her money in the middle of the night and run?”
“First off, she hired me. And second, even if I was stupid enough to do something like that, don’t you think I would have targeted the jewelry store owner or a banker?”
“Addie’s better looking than any of them.”
Jack unzipped his coat and threw it angrily on a chair. “Not that it’s any of your business, but Addie kissed me.”
“She . . . she did?”
“Is it so hard to believe?”
The old man stood up, a smile playing over his face as he started back toward his bedroom. “Actually,” he mused, “it is.”
Jordan strolled through the doors of the Carroll County Superior Court, his eyes falling into the familiar routine of scanning rooms to see which ones were involved in hearings and skimming over the sorry souls awaiting their fifteen minutes of testimonial fame. He felt naked in his Oxford cloth shirt and pullover sweater-he who used to wear Armani to try cases.
It was not that he’d ever planned on leaving the law permanently; he had just wanted to get away from it for a little while, and Salem Falls was as good a place as any to lose oneself. He had the money to rest on his laurels for a year or two, after those last few cases he’d tried down near Bainbridge, which had been particularly enervating. Each direct examination and cross-examination grew harder and harder to force from his throat, until Jordan realized that his job had become a noose, notching tighter with each client he defended.
Maybe it hadn’t been his job, though. Maybe it had been his relationship with his private investigator.
If anyone had told Jordan ten years ago that he’d want to get married again, he would have chuckled. If anyone had told him that the woman he chose would turn him down, he’d have laughed himself into a hernia. Yet that was exactly what Selena had done. Turned out her best investigative work had targeted Jordan himself-revealing human weaknesses he would rather never have learned.
He made his way to Bernie Davidson’s office. The clerk of the court was always a useful person to know. He was responsible for scheduling cases, and access to that came in handy when you really wanted to take a trip to Bermuda in March. But more than that, he had the ear of every district judge, which meant that things could get done much more quickly than through the normal channels-a motion slipped right into a judge’s hands, an emergency bail hearing stuffed into a jammed calendar. Jordan knocked once, then let himself inside, grinning widely when Bernie nearly fell out of his chair.
“Holy Christ-if it isn’t the ghost of Jordan McAfee!”
Jordan shook the other man’s hand. “How you doing, Bernie?”
“Better than you,” he said, taking in Jordan’s worn clothes and ragged haircut. “I heard a rumor you moved to Hawaii.”
Jordan slipped into a chair across from Bernie’s desk. “How come those are the ones that are never true?”
“Where are you living now?”
“Salem Falls.”
“Quiet there, huh?”
He shrugged. “Guess that’s what I was looking for.”
Bernie was too sharp to miss the
Similar Books
