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“Maybe he picked something different for this safe,” Talia said. “Not a birthday.”
“Maybe, but he was a creature of habit. I guess I got one thing from him honestly.” Then she knew. “Honestly,” she murmured again, then twisted the dial and popped the door. “Daniel’s birthday. Daniel will get a kick out of that.” The judge used the birthday of the one man he couldn’t corrupt, but who tortured himself over the sins of his father.
Arthur had thought Daniel weak. He thought the same about me. The judge was mistaken, she thought as she drew out several bound ledgers and journals. Bingo.
Talia came to sit on the floor beside her. “He must have thirty years of records in here. Why not use a safe-deposit box?”
“He didn’t trust banks. Marcy should be in this one.” Flipping pages, she found the entry. “My God. He wanted seventy-five thousand dollars from the Lintons. No wonder they couldn’t come up with the money.”
“So what happened with Borenson?” Talia asked.
“Hell.” She ran her finger down the page. “He says that the girl’s ‘handler’ stepped in and threatened Borenson and he ‘folded like a house of cards.’ ”
“Handler?” Talia asked. “So she really was soliciting?”
“Sounds like it.” Susa
“Another co
Susa
“It fits. Chase called me when we were driving from the Lintons’. Luke found one of Mansfield’s pictures from the bunker-a man with a walking stick, like Charles Grant’s.”
Susa
“Because you were so pale I thought you’d pass out, and you got paler as we got closer to this place. I figured I’d let you deal with one stress at a time.”
“You’re right, I guess. But Charles Grant?” She was still numb. “He was Daniel’s favorite teacher. He was everybody’s favorite teacher.”
“He also may be a killer. What else does the journal say, Susa
Susa
“I’m sorry, honey,” Talia whispered. “You can stop now.”
“No. I need to know. But today… this… He’s turned Borenson against me and this will not stand. The next time I make a demand, the defendants will just whine to Borenson and he’ll let them off with a damn slap on the wrist. Borenson’s weak. I told him to just get rid of that upstart Legal-Aid idiot Alderman, but did he listen? Hell no. Before it was his own business when Alderman threatened him. Now, he’s cutting into mine. Dammit, this place costs money to keep. The bills are staggering. They will not cut off my income.”
Dread was pooling. “He did it for money. For this house.” And he’d known. “He knew what happened to me.” With trembling hands she flipped pages until she got to the January when she’d woken up in a hidey-hole, bruised, bleeding, forever changed.
“Apparently, Charles Grant had been trying to blackmail my father out of the money he’d blackmailed from the defendants in his courtroom.” Her lips curved bitterly. “It’s ironic in a totally twisted way,” she murmured, then went still, her dread confirmed.
“That prick Grant came by tonight with pictures of Simon fucking Susa
Susa
Talia pressed a tissue into her hand, then took a tissue for herself. “I’m so sorry, Susa
Abruptly Susa
“He instigated it,” Talia said fiercely. “I know it.”
Susa
The two of them sat quietly for a long moment, then Talia looked over at her. “It sounds like your father and Mr. Grant were in an all-out war, with Judge Borenson a pawn they traded. But then, nothing happened. No fireworks, no accusations. Borenson retires to the hills, Grant goes on teaching, your father goes on judging and they both go on extorting. No murdering rampages.” Talia paused. “Not until Simon rose again.”
Susa
“So Grant pushed Borenson to look the other way, to ignore sham evidence.”
“I think so. Then Marcy Linton gets arrested and the battle comes to a head. Maybe my father knows Mr. Grant’s involved with Marcy or maybe it’s just really bad karma, but Grant uses what he’s got on Borenson to get Marcy a new trial and reduced sentence.”
“Your daddy wasn’t happy. So how did they achieve this truce?”
Susa
“But Simon wasn’t dead.”
“No. My father made it look like he was because he knew my mother would never stop looking for him unless she believed he was dead. My father went away and came back with a coffin he said held Simon’s remains. There’d been a Mexican autopsy and the body inside was burned beyond recognition. But they still needed a death certificate, signed by an ME.”
“I read that the body inside the coffin was under six feet tall and Simon was six-six.”
“No ME would have mistaken that body for Simon’s, even with the charred skin.” She held out the book for Talia to see. “Arthur recorded receipt of one death certificate, signed by the ME, who was also the town doctor.”
“The ME was complicit.”
“Had to have been. The date Arthur says he received the death certificate was the day after Simon disappeared. The day before we got word Simon had died in Mexico.” Susa