Weak Flesh by Jo Robertson Page A

still occupied his cell.
    Gage stood up and closed the office door.
    "Did you recognize him last night?" Gage asked after he'd sat down again. "Have you seen him before?"
    Meghan frowned and tugged at the folds of her plain gray dress which hung rather shapelessly on her small frame. "I don't think so," she said in an evasive manner, "but Mrs. Carver said he was one of Nell's beaus. Is that true?"
    Gage considered the wisdom of confiding in Bailey and then decided he'd already involved her in the search of Nell's bedroom. "Hayes insists he was in love with Nell and she with him."
    A strange look came over Bailey's face.
    "What do you know?" he asked sharply.
    "Nothing." Meghan lifted her head mutinously and glared at him. "And it's a ridiculous thing for him to say, anyway. If Nell had been serious with one of her young men, she would've confided in me."
    Even as she made the declaration, Gage saw doubt flit across her face. She might've thought the two of them were fast friends, but their relationship must've changed. Things always changed, in Gage's experience.
    "Are you sure of that, Bailey? You were away at school for several years while Nell remained here."
    "Well," she said slowly, "it is true that Nell and I haven't been as close as we once were." She bit her bottom lip. "Our waning friendship was ... sad. I suppose I didn't know her as well as I did when we were children."
    Gage saw that the admission was painful to her. "Hayes seems quite taken with her and very broken up about her death," he ventured. "I think his feelings are genuine."
    Bailey pounced on the words. "Do you think he might have had something to do with her death?"
    "Love is a powerful emotion. If Nell didn't return his affection ..." Gage left the words dangling between them for a moment or two. "And of course, Jim Wade is equally certain that Nell was madly in love with him."
    "Pshaw!" Bailey exclaimed. "That pompous little rooster of a man thinks all women are mad for him."
    Gage repressed a grin. "Isn't it possible though?"
    "I should hope Nell was too discriminating to be taken in by the likes of James Wade."
    Gage drummed his fingers on the desk blotter and contemplated the level of Nell's sensibility. "She seemed to be fond of a great many men."
    Bailey rose and strode around the office as if her small body needed additional space in which to express her thoughts. Her colorless dress flapped about her legs, occasionally showing a surprisingly trim ankle. Gage watched the seriousness of her pacing with some amusement, but remained silent.
    She paused at the window, looking out so that she presented only her profile to him. "Sometimes Nell showed poor judgment, I admit."
    She slanted a look at him from the corner of her eye as if expecting him to disagree. "She was flighty and whimsical – " Here she paused to fight back tears.
    Gage rose and went to her, placing his hand on one shoulder, marveling at how it dwarfed her. "But Nell was your friend."
    He spoke gently. "This is why you cannot assist me in the investigation, Bailey." One of the many reasons she could not be involved, he thought. "You cannot be unbiased in the matter."
    She sniffled and shrugged away from him. "Still the ring is the sort of bauble a man like Wade could afford, don't you think?"
    Gage watched the emotions play over her face, her brain figuring and re-configuring the possibilities. She crossed the room to look into the reception area where Henderson worked at the counter. He caught her eye and waved in a friendly manner. She smiled at him and waved back.
    When she relaxed and softened that intense expression she usually wore, she looked quite pretty.
    "But I could be wrong, of course," she continued, turning back to Gage, her arms crossed over her chest. "Nell so loved to be admired, you know. I am sorry to say such a thing about my friend, but you are right. She did enjoy male attention."
    What an unlikely friendship they'd forged, Gage thought. Nell, impulsive and