Brock said, “Here. I had photostats made. Each one of you men can take one.” He placed the pile on the table.
They read in silence and then the heavy man said, “It looks safe enough to me. What about it, Ed? Davis? You, DeMorra?”
“Everybody seems to agree. Take it away, Lieutenant.”
Blaskell clapped his big hands once, and headed for the door, grinning.
Brock said, “Do any of you gentlemen have any objection to my leaving with my client? You, Mr. Crees?”
“We can have a talk in the next office,” Crees said.
The three of them went in. Crees said, “I can’t make a decision. I’ll have to make a report and recommendations.”
“What will you recommend?” Brock asked.
“That the case against Mrs. Talbott be dropped.”
“I’m sending Mrs. Talbott to a good accounting firm. You’ll have revised returns in at the local office as soon as the probate court confirms Mrs. Talbott’s ownership of the money I recovered.”
“That will be satisfactory, I believe.”
“Don’t you say anything else?” Beth demanded, hearing her voice go shrill. “Don’t you say you’re sorry about frightening me, and accusing me of lying to you, and—”
“Easy, Beth,” Brock said softly, his words just a bit distorted by the wire that held his jaw immovable.
“If you feel an apology is in order, Mrs. Talbott, I’m willing to apologize.”
She turned, quite blindly, toward the door. Brock went out with her, left her in the car while he performed the other errands. He came back and drove slowly across the city. The rains had washed the air clean. Summer was on the way.
“You’ll recover enough to pay back your sister and start from scratch, Beth,” he said.
“How about your fees?”
“I think we’d better have discussions about that. A lot of discussions. Every free evening we ought to get together and discuss that problem.”
She didn’t answer his smile. She looked at him gravely. “Brock, I’m on the rebound from a lot of things. From Roger, mostly, I guess. I’ve liked being with you. I guess you’ve sensed that.”
“It took some tepid drinks to find out.”
“That was the drinks talking.”
“And how about being kissed in the hospital?”
“Pure sympathy and — gratitude.”
“How can I make a proper pitch with my mouth full of wire?”
“Brock, you don’t mean any of this. It’s just proximity, and a sort of protective instinct. Let’s be rational. We don’t want to start anything. The case is finished, Brock. It’s over. You’ve got me out of terrible trouble. I’ll never forget it.”
He parked on a quiet street. He leaned back, with a beatific smile. “You know that little girl I mentioned? With braces? I’ve never forgotten her, either. And never felt exactly the same until you came along.”
“You’re just being silly!”
“Yep.” He reached for her, and she slid as far away from him as she could get. He put his arm around her shoulders.
“Brock!” she said. She reached for the door handle, and as she grasped it, she remembered that you had to push it down to open the door. Something within her had come alive again at the touch of his arm, his hand. She pushed up on the door handle, pushed up with all her strength. After all, if the darn- door wouldn’t open, there certainly wasn’t anything she could do about it.
“Silly darn thing,” she heard herself saying, and her voice was too soft. Maybe he didn’t even hear it.
