Страница 48 из 75
“Hoo-yah!” she said, and he laughed.
“You say it like an army man.”
“Okay, how do you say it?”
“Hoo-Ah!”
It did sound cool, and male in the extreme. “Forget it, I took Latin. Thanks for coming by. Sit down.”
“Thanks.” He eased into the chair across from her desk, linking his fingers loosely between his legs. He was smiling at her with brown eyes that looked surprisingly sympathetic. “I’m sorry about your client.”
“Thanks.” Be
“You had quite a night last night. How are you doing? Did you get any sleep?”
“Some. I’m okay.” Be
“No thanks. I ate already.”
Be
“I feel bad for you, and frankly, I’m worried about you.”
“Me, why?”
“Because somebody got killed. Somebody close to you.” David’s smile vanished, and his jaw set. “I did a little research online last night about your twin. I read all the newspaper articles from the murder trial, and all the information about her. We don’t know how long she’s been back in town, but if you look at her moves in a series, a logical series, it’s a very dangerous scenario.”
“What do you mean?”
“Alice is on the attack, and her attacks are escalating. She has attacked your reputation, your home, and an animal you love. And now possibly your client.” David’s eyes turned dark and bored into her. “You see where I’m going with this?”
Be
David shook his head. “Not only that.”
“What?”
“I think you’re next.”
Whoa. Be
“It’s not out of the realm of possibility, and you have to take measures to protect yourself.”
“But I’m not sure she’s the one who killed Robert.”
“You can’t take any chances. You have to behave as though she did. You have to protect yourself, and you can’t let it go just because so much else is going on.”
“You’re scaring me.”
“I don’t mean to, and I know this isn’t my business.” David leaned forward. “I’m just saying that last night, when you found out about the murder, you flew out of the house. It was like everything else went out of your head, including Alice. You didn’t think twice about the danger to yourself, even though we had just found out how she’d broken in. Even though she had just tried to kill Bear.”
Be
“I bet you didn’t think about her this morning, either, in the aftermath of last night.”
“I thought about her,” Be
“What I’m saying is, you have to end this. You have to stop her. You have to get her. You can’t afford to keep disregarding your enemy because your friend was killed, or because you have a law firm to run.” David gestured at her wall of fame. “I read about you last night. You’ve accomplished a lot in your life, and you have too much on your plate. I can’t even begin to imagine what it takes to run a law firm. It isn’t my expertise.”
Mine either, she almost said.
“My expertise lies in another area. This area. I teach how to wage war, and how to win. I believe it’s the same whether it’s a real battle, a simulated battle, or any other conflict. War is war. It can be everywhere and anywhere.”
Be
“I can tell you, from my experience, that you have an enemy who isn’t distracted. Alice is following a plan of attack, and she’s acting without hesitation or remorse. She’s aggressive and she’s going forward. And you’re directly in the line of fire.”
Be
“I’m concerned. I like you, and I wouldn’t feel so great if you got yourself killed.”
Be
“It’s your cooking I would miss. Also your dog, who loves me, I can tell.”
Be
“My point isn’t that I can and should help.” David raised a finger like the instructor he was. “That isn’t my point. Even though I am the best man for the job, come completely free, and have nothing better to do.”
“Nothing?”
“All I have to do is work out.”
“No job? What do you live on?” Be
“I’m still drawing my pay, and I’m a saver.”
Now that was suspicious. “Did you always want to be in the military?”
“Yes. I was ROTC in high school, a battalion commander.”
“Why did you want to do that?”
“It suited me.”
Okay. Be
“You’re getting in a lot of personal questions here. Don’t think I don’t notice.”
“Where you live is personal? Then what’s your weight?”
He smiled. “I live on Spruce, at Twentieth, in an apartment I rent month to month. I don’t know how long this break will be. Long enough to help you through this.”
Be
“I know you can’t.”
Be
“Because Alice knows what you look like.”
Oh. Be
“She can see you coming. In fact, she’s been following you. And, since you and your law firm represented her, she knows what all of your associates look like. She’s met them, hasn’t she? They were in photos together in the newspapers, taken on the courthouse steps.”
“Yes. She knows all of us but Murphy, and I bet she’s seen a picture of her on our website.”
“And she even knows your investigator. The one you mentioned, I forget his name.”
“Lou Jacobs. He’s sick anyway.”
“And you don’t have the money to rent a cop.”
“Not really.”
Be
“What is it?”
“The way I see, the problem is simple. Alice is following me, but I don’t know where she is.”
“True. I did some searching last night and she’s not listed anywhere in the city or the suburbs.”
“She’s made herself invisible, except that she’s following me. And that’s how I can find her. You follow her, following me.” Be
David was listening. “So I track you, that’s the plan?”
“Yes. It shouldn’t last too long, maybe three days at most. I hate to take so much of your time, but if you’re offering, it’s a plan.”
David nodded. “I have plenty of time, and it won’t take long. Then we turn her in and they question her for the murder of St. Amien, and prosecute her for the theft of your wallet and the diamonds. I assume once we have her out in the open, you can tie her up pretty good in legal red tape.”