Deadly Valentine (31 page)

At first she'd reminded herself that she'd achieved her goal. She was now able to resume the quiet life she'd created for herself. After Jack left, she'd gotten herself off the floor and to the phone. She called her clients, eager to explain the situation and resume her practice. She'd only been able to reach two; one who told her she'd already been replaced, and another who unconvincingly said he'd think about re-hiring her. The rest she left messages for even though she was sure they'd all checked their caller ID and purposefully hadn't answered her call.

Once the calls were made, there was nothing to distract her from the knife-like pain in her chest. Perhaps watching TV or reading a book would help, but it didn't. Apparently Friday night TV was dedicated to romantic shows for all the loveless people who didn't have a date. It didn't help that all the shows had a Valentine's Day theme. She didn't fare any better with her books, which were all mysteries, but included a romantic subplot. Short of dying of heart break, all she could manage was to hide under a blanket on her couch.

She knew she'd gotten up once or twice to eat a bowl of cereal. It was one of those brands with a complete day's worth of vitamins packed into a single serving. She'd managed to choke down a half days worth of fortified goodness before her throat had closed up from the pain that she feared she'd live with for the remaining days of her life.

The rest of time she was on the couch, under her blanket, letting time go by. How long she'd been there, she didn't know. When her pity party was interrupted by a phone call, she considered not answering it. That would take more energy than she had. But then she thought it could be a client ready to hire her back. Wasn't that what enduring this pain was all about?

She rolled off the couch and found the phone on her dining room table next to her client list. She noted that it was dark outside, but she wasn't sure if it was early morning or evening. She checked her watch. Just after six, but was it am or pm.

"Hello?"

"Tess?"

It sounded like Daniel. She didn't want to talk to him, but before she could hang up he said, "The Martin kid lawyered up. He's asking for you."

Tess rubbed her eyes as she tried to think who Daniel was talking about.

"Want me to call the public defender's office?" he asked.

Martin? Martin? Then it came to her. Derek. And she remembered Jack's parting words.
Keep Danny boy away from Derek.

"No. Give me 45 minutes. Leave him alone until I get there."

"Jesus Tess. What kind of place do you think we're running -?"

Tess didn't want to get into it, so she hung up. She moved as quickly as she could considering the gaping hole in her chest that threatened to bring her to her knees with every breath. She showered and dressed still uncertain as to what day it was or whether it was early morning or evening. She turned the radio on in her car as she drove to the police station hoping they'd give the time. It was Sunday evening. She'd wallowed nearly two days.

"Where'd you find him?" Tess asked as she walked through the station with Daniel.

"On campus. He says he was out of town with a friend.

"Is this your case?" She wasn't going to argue with him about a conflict of interest for investigating his father's attack, but she wanted to know so she could use it if she needed to.

Daniel stiffened. "No. But I want to watch. It is my father after all."

"I want to talk to him alone. You'll have to watch later."

"He's in here," Daniel said putting his hand on the door knob to one of two interrogation rooms. "Are you alright Tess? You don't look well."

Like you care
, Tess thought. "Can you leave us?"

He shrugged and opened the door.

"Ms. Madison. Thank god you're here!" Derek jumped up as if he were going to run up and hug her. Catching himself, he extended his hand.

Tess took his hand. "Did you tell them anything?"

His expression grew worried. "Yes. I mean I answered some questions. But, I don't know." He looked like he was on the verge of crying. It struck her that he was so young. Too young to be caught up in this mess. "They started asking me questions like I killed someone or something."

"They're investigating an attack."

"What attack? I didn't hurt anybody."

Tess sat next to him hoping her closeness and ability to make eye contact would help him calm down and focus.

"Derek I'm going to ask you some questions based on what I know. I need you to answer truthfully. Can you do that?"

He stared at her for a moment. "What if I say something that accidently gets me in trouble? I've seen it on TV where someone tells the truth and they still get in trouble."

"I'm your lawyer. What you tell me is just between you and me."

"Really?"

She nodded. "Where were you Wednesday night at about 2 am?"

"They asked me that. I told them I was in my dorm room."

"Was anyone with you?"

"No."

"Don't you have a roommate?" Tess asked.

"He was with his girlfriend. He sleeps at her place a lot."

"How about pizza? Did you order any? Take a break with friends?"

He shook his head. "I had a big test in my lit class. I needed to do well."

Tess paused as she pulled a pad of paper out of her purse. She hadn't wanted to start with the notes right away because she was afraid it would make Derek more nervous than he already was.

"The police deputy says your car was parked on Colonial Avenue that night."

"No. My car was at the university."

"Are you sure about that?" Tess asked watching his face for any sign that he might be lying.

"Yes."

"Did you let someone borrow it?"

"No." His brows pulled together. "Colonial Avenue?"
            "That's right."

"I was there Tuesday night. Not Wednesday." His eyes widened in panic. "Is that bad?"

"Where on Colonial?"

"At this lady's house. Ms. Draper. Mr. Valentine asked me to set her up."

"Set her up?"

"Yeah. She's going to be working for him from home and she needed her computer and Internet set up. He asked me to do it."

"What night was that?" Tess asked testing his memory and his story. She knew Daniel would do it, so she might was well get him ready.

"Tuesday. I drove down from Washington that night. The day I saw you in Mr. Valentine's office. Remember?"

Tess nodded. She felt a mixture of relief and guilt at knowing what Jack had asked Derek to take care of. Why hadn't he explained that to her when she asked? "Are you sure it was Tuesday?"

"Positive. You can ask her."

You can be sure of it
, Tess thought. "This is good Derek," she said wanting to reassure him. "If she can verify the date, that will help you." It still didn't clear him for Wednesday night, but Tess thought it was a plausible enough story to be true.

"The police found your car in a vacant lot off Spouse Street."

"I left it there when Joe and I drove to Myrtle Beach this weekend. We went in his car."

"Why not leave it on campus?" Tess asked.

"Joe didn't want to come all the way in town."

"Is Joe a student?"

"Not here at JT."

"The police found parts of computers in your trunk."

"Can they do that? Just go through my car like that?" He looked her incredulously.

"Sometimes they can. Where are the parts from?"

"I do computer work. To save money, sometimes I salvage parts."

The police were making a big leap to think used computer parts were part of a broken computer from Tom's house, unless Derek had broken pieces in his car. "Are any of these parts broken off from laptops?"

"Sometimes casings and stuff get broken. Mostly I just try to save the hardware."

"You also had a gas can."

"I have lots of stuff in my car. I don't understand why it's anyone's business." She noted his annoyance and hoped that he could hold it together long enough to talk to the police.

"These are the questions the deputy is going to ask. Consider them practice. By knowing the answer, I can make sure you don't say anything that will get you more trouble."

He shrugged. "Okay."

"There was a fire and a broken computer at the scene of the attack I told you about."

"On Colonial?"

"Right."

She could see now that he understood how the police would be suspicious of him. "It's all just a coincidence," he said, panic rising in his voice.

Tess reached out to pat his hand. "I think it's going to be okay. Can you tell me about the gas can?"

"My gas gauge is broken and I forget to check the mileage when I gas up. So I run out of gas a lot."

Tess couldn't help but feel sorry for the boy. In the end he was another one of Daniel and Jack's casualties.

"Have you called Ja- Mr. Valentine?"

"No," he said shaking his head. "I don't want to bother him."

"When we're done here, you should call him."

"Do I need bail?"

"No," Tess said with a laugh. "I just think he should know. He'll be able to confirm that he sent you to set up the computer on Colonial."

"Oh yeah."

"I'm going to tell the detectives that they can come question you now. You tell them what you told me. If I stop you, don't say anything, okay?"

He nodded.

As she predicted, Detective Johnson asked the same questions she had with only a view minor variations. When he tried to intimidate Derek, Tess intervened. With or without her there, Tess knew that Derek's story would have been checked out and he'd most likely be cleared. She knew that Detective Johnson and hopefully Daniel knew it too. She began to wonder if Daniel's purpose in telling her about Derek the other day was simply to get her to second guess Jack.

"This was pretty weak," she said to Daniel once she sent Derek home.

"A lot of investigative work is following leads that turn out to be nothing. If he'd answered our questions, we would have checked out his story and he'd be in his dorm already. It was his idea to call you."

"So you agree that Derek is just a poor student who unfortunately works for Jack?" Tess said.

"It was solid work, Tess," he defended himself. "I'm tired of you thinking otherwise."

"I'm pretty tired of it all myself." Not wanting to have the same argument yet again, she turned to leave.

"Before you go," he said catching up to her. "Do you know anything about a Cora Peterson?"

Tess nearly asked him if he was going through Jack's rolodex to find an accomplice. But then she wondered if maybe Daniel was making the connection between Cora and Delia.

"I've met her," Tess said.

"And?"

"And what?" She hoped he didn't ask if he thought she was capable of murder because her run in with Cora confirmed she probably was.

"How well do you know her?"

"Not well. To be honest, I don't think she likes me."

"Why not?"

"I don't really want to go into it." While she did want him looking into what Asa was doing that night, she felt certain the whole Cora/Delia/Jack/Senator thing would be used against Jack somehow. Fortunately, even if she wanted to tell, she couldn't.

"That dead secretary of the Senator's was her daughter."

Tess kept her face expressionless.

"It's curious that Jack would be friends with a woman whose daughter worked for the Senator?"

"Why? People know and meet all sorts of people," Tess said.

"True. But in this case…"

She could tell Daniel was trying to get her fill in some gaps, but she kept quiet.

"What's really weird is Asa's connection to it all," he continued when she didn't take the bait.

"Really?"

He gave her an irritated look. "Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about, Tess. You're the one that said we needed to look at the information Asa had."

"True. But it's not your case. I can't talk about it to the police and I certainly can't talk about it to you."

"We have only Jack's word about this information. And this weird series of connections. If anything it makes us want to look deeper at him, not less."

There's a surprise
, she thought. "You can look as deep as you want, Daniel, as long as you focus on finding truth."

His eyes flashed with heat. "We need to talk to Jack and Cora."

"By 'we' you mean Detective Johnson right?"

"Yes," he said not hiding his exasperation. "It's my family Tess. I can't help but want to stay in the loop. But I'm not investigating. I wouldn't want his defense lawyer to use conflict of interest or suggest the case is tainted at trial."

Tess ignored his sarcastic tone. She took out one of her business cards and turning it over she wrote down a phone number. "You'll have to have Johnson call this man to arrange it."

Daniel took the card. "Who's this?"

"He's Jack's lawyer. Business lawyer, until he hires a defense lawyer. If you want to set something up, communicate with Brad."

He tried to hide the look of victory, but didn't do a very good job. "I see."

"I don't think you do. I've got to go."

"Wait." Daniel put his hand on her arm. Tess jerked it away.

"I uh… I have some news about my dad." Daniel said.

Tess wanted to know how Tom was doing, but the anger and pain wouldn't let her listen to Daniel. "I hope he's well." She moved away from him.

"Hey? Don't you care?"

Tess rounded on him. "I do care. But right now I'm not feeling very friendly towards my fair-weather friends."

"What?"

"Now that I'm not Jack's lawyer, you want to tell me how your dad is doing? I've been worried sick. Afraid for him. But no one would tell me how he was. And now all of a sudden because I don't represent Jack, I'm worthy of the information?" Tess could feel more words bubbling up, but she didn't want to stay and make a scene in front of Daniel's police buddies. She turned and hurried away before he could come after her again.

When Tess arrived home, her neighbor Allison was at the door with her five year old son Quinn. Tess mustered a cheerful smile. “Hi.”