So it was the spring, then. The source itself. He had to find it.
He did not sleep. About an hour after he got back into the bed, Claire woke slowly, letting out a soft groan before stretching and rolling over to face him, and he leaned over and kissed her. When he did that, her eyes opened for the first time and he saw a flicker in them, a trace of anger. What am I doing in bed with you? her eyes seemed to say. You left. Why am I here with you again?
It would be that way, though. It would have to be. A smooth return wasn’t reasonable; too much had happened, there would have to be awkward, painful moments. But he could minimize them. He could try to do that.
“Morning,” she said, and he had a feeling she was thinking the same thoughts.
“Morning.”
She sat up, pulling the sheet up to cover herself, and ran both hands through her hair, then held them to her face, eyes lost in thought.
“Is that a What have I done? look or a What do we do now? look?” Eric said.
“Neither,” she said, and then, “both.”
But she smiled, and that was enough. He kissed her again and this time she returned it without the same flicker in the eyes.
“What we do now,” she said, “is the simple part. Today, at least.”
“Yeah?”
“We go home.”
He looked away.
“Eric?”
“You said we would talk it out in the morning,” he said. He had his hands pushed hard against the mattress, to still the shaking lest she notice.
“I also said that I would not stay.”
“There’s something I need to do,” he said. “Something I need to resolve first. Once it’s resolved, I’ll leave with you. I promise I will leave with you. But first there are a few things I need to know. Document who the boy’s uncle was, for one. That will be a legal help, Claire, maybe an important one.”
She didn’t respond. He felt desperation creeping on.
“I need you to understand, Claire, that what I’m going through, what’s happening to me, it’s powerful. It is strong. So I’m just struggling to deal with it, figure it out.”
“I know that.”
“Twelve hours, then. Give me that much. Give me one day.”
“What can possibly be accomplished in a day?”
“I can try to get the answers I just told you I needed,” he said. “If I can’t do it by then, we’ll leave, go home, and figure the rest of it out from there.”
I can find that spring in twelve hours. I better. I sure as shit better.
“My preference,” she said slowly, “would be to get in the car and head north. No pausing for loose ends, breakfast, even a shower. Just go. That would be my preference.”
He waited.
“But if you need the day, take the day,” she said. “We’ll leave tonight, though?”
“Yes. We will leave tonight.”
She stared into his eyes for a long time before nodding. “All right. In that case, I guess I’ll go ahead and take the shower.”
She slipped out of the bed naked and walked into the bathroom, beautiful and elegant as she moved through the dim light, always comfortable in her own skin. He watched her go, thought, my wife, savoring the sound of it.
She’d just closed the door when the phone rang.
He rolled onto his side and lifted the phone, said, “Yeah?”
“Eric. How you holding up, son?”
“Hello, Paul,” Eric said, voice flat, and the bathroom door opened and Claire peered out.
“I’ve heard that you ran into some trouble down there.”
Ran into some trouble, yes. Just like I did in California, just like you’re sure I’ll do again, and you want to play the role of the protector for your daughter now, prove to her yet again that I was a mistake, you passive-aggressive prick. He wanted to shout it all, but Claire was standing there at the bathroom door, watching him as if he were taking a test, and he said only, “It hasn’t been a real good week.”
“So I’ve gathered. Claire is with you?”
“Yes.” And she’s going to stay with me, Paul, and I will stay with her, your influence be damned.
“Good. Listen, I’ve been trying to help. I’ve been trying to find out who hired this man Murray, the one who was killed.”
“Uh-huh.”
“The investigations firm has been hiding behind attorney-client privilege so far, but when I called them, I said I’d be representing you-”
“You did what? I haven’t asked you to-” Claire stepped out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around her now, and Eric stuttered for just a moment, interrupted by her return. It was all the gap Paul needed to plunge ahead.
“I thought it was imperative that you know who hired this man before you made any decisions on how to act, so I pointed out that their client might be protected by his attorneys but that they had to disclose said attorneys, if nothing else. If anyone was going to stonewall, it had to be the law firm. They didn’t like that but I mentioned a district attorney friend who’d be happy to call them and clarify the issue and possible repercussions, and they gave me the name of the firm: Clemens and Cooper.”
“Terrific,” Eric said. “But if all they’re going to do is keep up the secrecy-”
“Well, the thing is, I have a few friends at Clemens and Cooper. I put in a call to one and said, without any explanation, that I understood they represented a man named Campbell Bradford and I needed to know which partner handled his interests. He just called me back this morning to tell me I was wrong-they don’t represent Campbell, but they do represent his son.”
His son. Alyssa’s husband.
“His full name,” Paul said, “is Lucas Granger Bradford. Does that mean anything to you?”
Claire was at Eric’s side now, her hand on his arm. Her touch seemed hot on his skin, a cold shiver rippling through him.
“Yes,” he said. “Yes, it does.”
“He’s married to the woman who hired you, correct?”
“Yeah,” Eric said, but that wasn’t the point of interest-the first and middle names were far, far more fascinating.
“Okay. Well, I called Lucas this morning. He told me you had called him last night and threatened him?”
“What? Paul, that’s insane. I’ve never spoken to the man. And Claire was with me, she was here the whole-”
“I believe you, son. Of course, I believe you. I told Lucas he had some issues he was going to need to respond to, explained the criminal charges that could be brought his way if any withholdings put you or my daughter in jeopardy or sent undue police pressure your way. He was resistant. I was persistent.”
Eric almost grinned despite himself. About damn time Paul’s abrasive personality worked for him instead of against him.
“Did he tell you anything?”
“Not much. But he did say that the reason he hired a detective involved a letter written by his father, who is now deceased. The letter made some unusual claims, and he wanted to have it checked out before it hit the legal system. Evidently, the old man wanted this letter attached to his will, part of his estate order.”
“What did it say?”
“He won’t disclose that. He just said that he was sure the letter was the ravings of senility and that’s what he intended to prove with the detective. He told me that he had not informed his wife of the situation, and he was unaware of her hiring you. When he found out she had, he asked his investigator to call you off.”
“There’s a hell of a lot more to it than that,” Eric said. “He didn’t try to call me off, he tried to pay me off. It’s not so innocent, Paul.”
“I’m sure it isn’t. This is all that I’ve got so far, though. I’m trying to help.”
“You have helped,” Eric said. “Paul, you absolutely have helped.”
Lucas Granger Bradford.
Yes, this was help, indeed. Paul was still talking, but Eric could no longer focus on his words. He was carrying on about the need for an attorney and people he could recommend, and Eric cut him off.