Trying to mask the flicker of hurt she felt, Joanna looked away.
She had worked at the Davis Insurance Agency first as a receptionist, and later as office manager, from the moment she graduated from high school eleven years earlier. Before Andy’s death, Milo had been grooming her to take over much of the selling end of the business as well. Was he really finding it so easy to replace her?
“You’ve found someone then?” she ventured tentatively, dreading his answer.
Milo’s cheerful grin wounded her to the soul.
“Yup,” he said, sounding proud and almost gleeful. “Lisa took the last of her licensing exams just last week. The results came in today’s mail. I won’t be able to start taking her out on calls with me, though, until after we find a new receptionist. That could be a whole lot tougher proposition.”
Joanna was dumbfounded. “I see,” she mumbled.
Milo nodded. “Lisa’s had her hands full, working on the licensing exams and trying to stay ahead of the regular workload as well.”
Especially since she was doing it behind my back, Joanna thought bitterly. She said, “What happens if I don’t win, Milo? Does this mean I’m out of a job?”
“Are you kidding? We’ll still need to hire a new receptionist. If I have two full-time agents working for me, I’ll finally start getting to take some time off. In fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if my wife voted against you today for that very reason. She has her mouth all set for us to go on a two week cruise in the Caribbean come January. If you win she might not get to take it.”
One of Milo’s golf-playing buddies showed up then. Marianne took Joanna by the arm. “The candidate looks as though she could use some fresh air Come on.”
Linda Kimball caught sight of Burton the moment he stepped inside the door. He was green alright, the same shade as in the wedding pictures and in the video she’d taken of him and the kids when they got off the teacups ride at Disneyland.
His hair was standing on end. His clothes looked as though he’d slept in them.
Linda was at his side before he was ten feet into the room. “Where the hell have you been?” she demanded in a tense whisper.
“I’m looking for Uncle Harold,” Burton answered wanly. “Have you seen him? His Scout’s out back in the lot. He must be here somewhere.”
“believe me,” Linda returned coldly, “if Uncle Harold were here, I would have seen him. I’ve been watching this door like a hawk. Now how about telling me what you’ve been up to, mister. I’ve been hearing all kinds of rumors, and I don’t like any of them. Come to think of it, I don’t much like the way you smell, either.”
“Linda, please,” Burton said, glancing anxiously around the crowded room. “Do we have to talk about this here? Couldn’t we have this discussion later?”
“We’re discussing it now!” Linda answered, her voice rising in pitch. “Right this very minute!”
Burton took her arm and guided her back to the door. “Come on, he said. “People are listening.”
“Listening isn’t all they’ve been doing,” Linda replied. “They’ve been talking a blue streak. Everybody in town knows you’ve been out drinking. How come you spent the afternoon at the Blue Moon up Brewery Gulch?”
Burton Kimball’s shoulders sagged. “You know about that?”
“Damned right I know about it. You’d better tell me what’s going on.”
But something about Burton’s careworn face, his desolate expression, muted the worst of Linda’s anger. “What’s wrong?” she asked more quietly, once they were outside.
Burton leaned against the wall of the building.
“I quit Uncle Harold’s case,” Burton said. “He’s going to settle with Holly out of court.”
“Why on earth would he do a stupid thing like that?”
Burton shrugged hopelessly. “Who knows? He’s going to split the ranch in half. When he gets done, there won’t even be enough left for Ivy to make a living.”
That was it. Ivy again! Linda might have known Ivy would be at the bottom of it. She had known her husband for fourteen years and had been married to him for twelve. She had never for one moment doubted that Burton loved her and their two children, but from the beginning she had always known that Ivy Patterson came first.
“And I did something awful,” Burton continued. “If he wanted to, Uncle Harold could see to it that I was disbarred.”
Linda felt a clutch of concern. “What did you do?”
“I told Ivy about Uncle Harold’s decision,” Burton said. “I got all tanked up, called Ivy, and breached my lawyer-client privilege. I can’t believe I did it. That’s why I’m looking for Uncle Harold. I’ve got to find him, try to make things right.”
“You know Uncle Harold would never disbar you,” Linda said confidently. “Not in a million years.”
“He should,” Burton Kimball replied grimly. “I certainly deserve it.”
“No, you don’t.”
Linda reached out to hug him then, wrapping her comforting arms around his chest, ignoring the stench of booze that lingered around him like a foul-smelling cloud.
Gratitude flooded through Burton Kimball.
Linda was steady and dependable. Like Uncle Harold, she, too, was salt of the earth. He was lucky to have a woman like her in his life. Leaning against her, he closed his eyes and inhaled the shampoo-clean fragrance of her hair.
He never saw the car coming, not until it was far too late. If it hadn’t been for Joanna Brady, Burton and Linda Kimball both would have been smashed flat, just like that, embracing each other and resting against the building.
Without Joanna’s timely intervention, not only would the speeding car have flattened Burton and Linda Kimball, it would have done exactly the same thing to Reverend Marianne Macula.
WHEN MARIANNE and Joanna stepped out of the building, the clear night air was a relief after the crowded, overheated, and smoky convention-center floor. Still stung by what she regarded as Milo’s underhanded actions, Joanna was eager to talk but she wanted some privacy.
Just outside the entrance near the curb, they encountered an embracing man and woman who seemed in need of some privacy of their own. Joanna led Marianne across the street.
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting to all this?” Marianne asked after listening to what was on Joanna’s mind. “It looks to me as though Milo thought you already had enough on your plate without adding in the complications of helping Lisa study for and pass her insurance exams.”
But Joanna wasn’t entirely mollified. “So you think he was being considerate instead of sneaky?”
“That’s my opinion,” Marianne replied. “Opinions are just exactly that-not worth the powder it would take to blow them up. But why not give him the benefit of the doubt?” They had walked through the park as far as the base of the steps leading up to the Copper Queen Hotel, then they had stood at the bottom of the steps to talk. Now, though, aware of the autumn chill, they started back toward the convention center.
The events of the last few months had instilled a new wariness in Joanna Brady. She observed things about her more; things that before would have passed unnoticed.
While they stood at the base of the steps, Marianne had been standing with her back to Main Street while Joanna faced it. Twice in five minutes’ time, she had seen the same red car pass by on the street.
Something about it had piqued her interest and attention. Maybe it was the speed, or rather the lack thereof. The car was going exceptionally slowly. Maybe it was the make and model.
The Cadillac would have been a standout car any where. Or maybe it was the color. Under the mercury-vapor halogen lights, the bright-red paint job glowed deep purple.
Chilled and ready to go back inside, Marianne and Joanna headed back toward the building. Marianne was talking, saying something neither of them could remember later. With her face turned toward Joanna, Marianne had just stepped out of the crosswalk and up onto the sidewalk when, with a squeal of tortured rubber, the accelerating car lurched half onto the sidewalk less than half a block away.