Reasonable Doubt (10 page)

“Charms, huh?”

“Oh yeah. You’ve got charm in spades.”

“I guess you’ve worked your way to the inside now.”

Ellery took a sip of coffee and watched Sarah. To her credit, she didn’t squirm under the careful dissection. She seemed almost amused at the examination. “Your confidence is attractive.”

“Some people find it kind of off-putting.”

“Some people don’t know a good thing when they see it.”

“Why did you stop practicing law?”

Ellery barely kept from spitting out her drink at the abrupt curveball. Instead she swallowed, slowly and carefully as she worked her facial features into what she hoped was a neutral expression. “Guess you were tired of being under the microscope.”

“You can put me under the lens all day. I enjoy you watching me, but I’m also curious about you and why you’ve made the choices you have.”

Ellery held up her cup. “How do you like this choice so far?”

“The coffee’s topnotch and so is your ability to deflect.”

Wow. Ellery had to give Sarah credit. She didn’t pull any punches. “You have a very interesting way of flirting with someone.”

“Flirting is for amateurs. I’d like to get to know you better and I’d like for you to get to know me. Both of those things require honesty. I call it like I see it.”

Ellery hid for a moment behind the cup of coffee as she contemplated the gauntlet that Sarah had just thrown down. She was definitely interested in getting to know Sarah, but Sarah’s confidence signaled she was after more than a casual assignation. “As long as we’re being honest, you seemed a bit more rakish when I last saw you. I definitely got a playgirl vibe that night.”

“And you’re disappointed now?”

“No, not disappointed. Surprised maybe.”

“I’ll admit my go-to instinct is playgirl, but I’m working on that. Someday I’d like to settle down, fall in love, raise a family.”

Ellery heard a trace of wistfulness in Sarah’s voice and she asked, “Is there a particular reason you haven’t done any of those things yet?”

“I let the job get in the way.”

Ellery started to tease that most of the fraud unit investigators she’d run across worked pretty regular hours and how could it be so hard to settle down if that’s what Sarah really wanted, but she sensed there was more to it than that. More that Sarah wasn’t willing to share. Since she had things of her own she wasn’t interested in sharing, she decided to change the subject. “Tell me about your family. Where did you grow up?”

“The question is where didn’t I grow up. My dad’s an admiral in the navy. My mom was the dutiful spouse until she found something more interesting to occupy her attention while stationed in Turkey. She stayed there when Dad’s orders brought him back to D.C. Eventually, he remarried someone who had a better idea of what she was getting into.”

“Are you close with either of them?”

“Not really. I try to see them a couple of times a year, but it’s hard to find the time.”

Ellery filed these facts away with the others she’d gathered. She’d sort through them all later, but for now her impression of Sarah was a jumble of contradictions. Before she could process the high points, Sarah interrupted her thoughts.

“Now it’s your turn. Family?”

“Mom and Dad are still married. She’s a law professor at Northwestern and he’s supposedly retired from practice, although I think he gets her clinic students riled up now and then about some interesting, newsworthy case.”

“Raised by two lawyers. You have my deepest sympathies.”

“Hey, I thought you liked lawyers. Isn’t Danny Soto a good friend of yours?”

“I like her despite the fact she’s a lawyer.” Sarah laughed. “I’m kidding. Mostly. So, back to you. You were raised to follow in your parents’ footsteps.”

“Something like that. Mom and Dad practiced together when I was young, but Mom got tired of the push and pull and quit private practice to teach. I started working at the firm when I was still an undergrad. I followed Dad around and learned the ins and outs of the business until I finally graduated from law school and joined him in the practice.”

“So, at some point your dad moves to Chicago with your mom and you up and quit.”

“Something like that.” Ellery took a sip of coffee as she contemplated how much she felt like sharing. She hadn’t told anyone about the catalyst that had spurred her to quit, but the slow buildup before she’d left her practice had been a long time coming. Her new career didn’t involve late night phone calls from indignant clients, power-hungry prosecutors, and eccentric judges. Now it was just her, making broken relics into something new. “Like anything, it had run its course.”

“I hear you.” Sarah met her eyes, but her expression indicated her mind was far away.

“How about we call a truce on delving into each other’s past and plan a little future activity?”

“And what’s wrong with the present?”

“I guess I just figured you might have to get back to the office. Or do you federal employees often take whole afternoons off?”

As if on cue, Sarah’s cell phone rang. She picked it up and glanced at the screen. “Sorry, I have to take this. I’ll be right back.”

Ellery watched her walk across the room, out of earshot, marveling at how different this date had been compared to the several she’d shared with April. April had always been willing to fill their time with conversation if it revolved around her, and Ellery had been fine with that since it meant she didn’t have to talk about her feelings or the real reasons she’d left her practice. She’d thought she’d been fine with it, but now that Sarah, full of questions, had appeared on the scene, she found she didn’t entirely hate the attention, even as it made her squirm. Something about Sarah’s laser focus made her feel like the most important person in the room. For someone who’d left a high profile practice thinking she would like to try to just blend in, the feeling was at once disconcerting and exhilarating.

“Sorry about that,” Sarah said as she strode back to their table. “I need to get back to the office. Guess that answers your question about us federal employees. You can rest in comfort knowing that your tax dollars are hard at work.”

“Too bad. I was hoping to steal you away for the rest of the afternoon. Maybe show you my studio.”

“Raincheck?”

“Definitely. I’m going to be a bit swamped before the show Friday, but I’ll see you there, right?”

“You can count on it.”

Ellery watched as Sarah walked out of the shop and lowered herself into a shiny midnight blue Corvette. Her initial surprise at the expensive make was quickly replaced by the realization it was the perfect choice. Sarah Flores was as sleek as her ride.

*

Sarah sped back to the office wondering what was so urgent and secret that Mason couldn’t tell her about it over the phone. She’d hoped to spend the afternoon with Ellery, but she’d have to be satisfied with the conversation they’d shared which had been surprisingly revealing. Raised by lawyers, Ellery had probably fallen into the profession rather than it being a dream of her own, which explained why she’d grown tired of it.

But she’d been good. Better than good. Based on the Internet searches Sarah had done the night before, Ellery consistently ranked in the top of her field according to both her peers and former clients. She’d taken over her father’s practice which had included a variety of types of work, but what she really excelled at was criminal defense and she’d won many high profile cases that others had thought were doomed to conviction.

Sarah knew to be that good, you had to have passion. What had killed the passion for Ellery? She’d watched carefully as Ellery discussed her parents, the practice, and her new profession. The light in her eyes had brightened as she moved from subject to subject, and it was clear her passion had transferred to her new work, but Sarah detected lingering regrets about her former line of work. Did she miss it? Did she miss the attention?

Sarah pulled into the parking lot of the field office and shut off the engine. Now that she was back at the office, she needed to focus. She wasn’t sure why she cared so much about Ellery’s past. If she was still a big shot criminal defense attorney, their careers would curtail their chance of any kind of meaningful relationship. She should be glad things had turned out the way they did.

Mason and Liz were at her desk when she walked in. She chose to ignore their furtive looks. “Are you two prowling my desk for donuts?”

“Do you have any boxes of the WHI files other than the ones that were on your desk?”

Sarah forced herself to remain calm while she considered the question. Something was up. Mason’s usually easygoing tone was short and brusque, and Liz looked like she was about to throw up. There was something in those records that tied WHI to the group who’d carried out the bombing, and someone besides the assembled group realized it. The case was about to slip out of her grasp. She should be glad.
You wanted to get away from the real crime, and terror couldn’t be more real, right?

But the bombing had been personal, if only because she’d been blocks away when it happened. She and her friends could have died. Ellery could have died. Lots of people had. She’d helped pull them from the wreckage with her own two hands.

Let it go
. As she thought the words, she realized they weren’t going to give her a choice. In a few seconds, she’d answer and the remaining files in her file cabinet would be hauled off to be examined by someone she hoped was qualified enough to decipher them.
Let it go
.

She reached down and unlocked the cabinet next to her desk and pulled out a box. “Here are the files I was looking at earlier. No more boxes.”

Mason took the files and left without another word. Sarah confronted Liz. “What the hell was that all about?”

“He pulled me into his office after he finished up a conference call. Pressured me for an update. I couldn’t tell him we had absolutely nothing, so I mentioned the wire transfers. I made sure he knew we didn’t have anything concrete. Thirty minutes later, he came out and told me to box everything up, that ‘our resources were being redirected.’”

Sarah nodded, schooling her expression into one of nonchalance instead of the supreme satisfaction she felt about the split-second decision she’d made when she’d handed over the box. She believed Liz, but she didn’t know her well enough to trust her with the information that, while she’d told the truth about not having any more boxes of files, she still had a copy of every last one of them on her laptop at home.

Ellery glanced at her cell phone and saw Meg’s number displayed on the screen. Again. It was her third call in the last fifteen minutes. She looked at the clock on her dashboard. Her father’s plane had already landed and he’d be walking out of the airport any second, leaving her no time to pull into the cell phone lot and take the call. She wondered which of their old clients was insisting on meeting with her now. Probably Amir again since Naveed’s new court date was coming up soon. At some point she was going to have to refuse to be pulled back in, and she made a mental note to meet with Meg next week to let her know she was just going to have to be more firm with their former clients.

On her second circle around through the parking structure at Love Field, Ellery spotted her dad walking toward a shiny red Porsche Cabriolet. She angled her truck into a space directly behind the expensive sports car and rolled down the window. “Dad, over here!”

He looked up at the sound of her voice, his furrowed brow showing his confusion. She called out again and he finally redirected and made his way over to the passenger door. She put the truck in park and hopped out to meet him. “It’s good to see you,” she said.

He stuck out his hand. “Good to see you too.” He glanced back at the Porsche, a touch of wistful in his eyes. “I guess you’ve got new wheels.”

She placed his one suitcase into the rear seat and motioned for him to climb into the truck. She waited until she was behind the wheel, pulling away from the curb before responding. “I sold the Porsche. It wasn’t real practical for my new line of work. Plus, the money came in handy. Don’t you like my new ride?”

He glanced around the interior. She could tell he was fishing for something nice to say. She didn’t care what he thought. She was proud of this truck. It might not be as luxurious as her fully loaded sports car, and it certainly wasn’t as fast, but it was practical. It wasn’t like she could load some curbside find onto the hood of her Porsche.

He finally offered his appraisal. “It’s very roomy.”

She laughed and he joined in. Even after all the years they’d lived and worked together, she continued to be astonished at how different she was from either of her parents. Neither one of them had even pretended to understand how she could walk away from a lucrative practice to start a business making furniture. She imagined they’d had many conversations about the waste of her law degree and years of networking they’d put into the firm. At first, she’d cared enough to try to make them understand, but she’d quickly realized despite the DNA they shared, she would never define success the same way they did. While that was okay, she held some small hope that when her father saw her studio and tonight’s show, he’d finally get her.

“Are you hungry?” she asked. It was just after nine and they were near one of her favorite breakfast spots.

“Breakfast would be great.”

She took a right turn onto Mockingbird and drove toward Market Diner while they talked about easy, inane subjects like the weather. They were almost at the restaurant when her phone rang again. Damn. She’d meant to turn it off after she picked up her dad. She looked at the screen. Meg again. She’d already left three messages. Ellery’s thumb hovered over the ignore button. She could hit ignore and then shut the phone off. Meg would leave more messages and she could deal with them later. Or, she could pick up now and make it clear she was not to be disturbed for any legal work. Probably not a bad conversation for her father to witness. She answered the call. “Hi, Meg. Miss me?”

“Where are you?”