“I’m not saying anything that everyone else in the room isn’t thinking. You are the attorney that defended that guy Dixon, and now you got that client who was murdered. Body reduced to bones. Kind of an odd coincidence.”
“Really?”
“You must think there is a connection.”
If law school had taught her anything it was to turn an attack back on the attacker. “You know so much about me, and I know so little about you.”
Robert frowned, but if Angie thought he’d trip into some long explanation of the demons that had brought him here she was mistaken. In seconds, he slipped behind a steel veil. “Maybe another day.”
She folded her arms over her chest.
Forty minutes later the meeting ended, and Angie found herself grateful to stand. She rarely remained after the group to chitchat with the others.
She’d just reached the top step of the banister leading out of the church basement when she heard steady, purposeful footfalls on the staircase. It didn’t take a glance over her shoulder to know who followed. Robert had an energy that radiated and announced his presence.
“Angie,” he said.
She exited the staircase and moved to the sunny, wide-open lobby of the church. The warmth of the sun gave her a calming sense of connection. “Yes, Robert.”
“I didn’t mean to go after you back there.”
Sitting he’d been intimidating, but standing he overwhelmed. He stood over six-five, and his shoulders filled the average doorjamb. Her pulse throbbed faster in the base of her neck. “You were just asking questions. No harm, no foul.”
“Are you sure?” He dipped his head a fraction as if to whittle off some of his height. She guessed this was a practiced move he’d done a thousand times before.
“No worries, Robert.” She checked her watch. “And I don’t mean to be rude, but I have a meeting in a half hour.”
“Of course.”
She tossed him a smile because it seemed the right thing to do and turned.
“Interested in coffee?”
She hesitated. “I have a meeting.”
“Yeah, but you’ll be here next week won’t you? I could tell by the way you sat in that room that you’re a regular.”
“You could tell that by just looking at me?”
“You act like you’re in charge of the group.”
“That’s Sara’s job.”
“But people glance to you when they speak. I mean they look at Sara too, but they want your approval just as much.”
“You’re mistaken. I’m in the same boat as they are.”
“In their eyes, you are the leader.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “Nothing like being captain of the Titanic.”
His grin broadened. “So is that yes or no to the coffee next week?”
Instinct had her shaking her head even as curiosity tempted her to say yes. “I don’t think so.”
He grinned. “So that’s a maybe.”
“You’re persistent.”
“So I’ve been told.”
“If I see you next week, we’ll see.”
He cocked a brow. “If?”
She didn’t like being pushed. “Like I said, if I come to the meeting.”
He slid his hands into his pockets and leaned forward. “I bet you almost never miss.”
This guy had known her for less than an hour, and already he sensed things about her that few recognized. Not good. And more than a little unsettling. “Take care, Robert.”
She turned and left without glancing back, but she felt the steady weight of his gaze on her even after she pushed through the front door and hurried down the street. With each step she resented Robert more and more. Who was he to interlope on her group and read her as if she were a book? Who the hell was he?
And of course, she had no answer.
Chapter 16
Friday, October 7, 8:45 A.M.
Angie sat at her desk, grateful to have her meeting behind her, a mug of hot coffee beside her. The papers on her desk remained neatly stacked and piled as she lifted a silver letter opener and sliced open the back of an envelope.
She scanned e-mail, surprised to see a note from Dr. Evans. She clicked it open.
Dear Angie, I am pleased to tell you that the results of your CT scan, chest x-ray, and blood work are NEGATIVE.
Angie stared at the last word: NEGATIVE. Her heartbeat pulsed in her chest. She released a deep sigh letting it carry the worry from her body.
NEGATIVE. She smiled.
For this year she’d dodged another bullet. She was cancer free. Evans said that she should have no worries. But the elevated blood levels had added a layer of stress she couldn’t shake until now.
Her mother had been dead by forty-eight of the same cancer, and she’d seen firsthand how devastating her death had been. As much as she’d loved her mother, she was in no rush to follow her.
She printed out the e-mail, neatly folded it, and replaced it in an envelope, which she tucked in her desk drawer. She deleted the message from her in-box and recycling bin. She’d told Eva, but Charlotte and Iris didn’t know she’d had cancer, and she planned to keep it that way.
Her mind clear, she turned her attention to the mail. It included news from a subpoena company, discovery documents from a North Carolina attorney, and several notices from other clients. It was the last letter that sent a jolt down her spine.
The handwritten envelope was from a private detective, Bill Patterson. She’d done him a few legal favors, and he’d repaid the deeds with investigative work.
Angie had had Bill look into Blue Rayburn’s past. Though Eva had never asked Angie to delve into her past, Angie had decided she needed to know more about the man who’d been her father’s friend and her mother’s seducer.
Angie ripped open the manila envelope and pulled out the typed report. Bill was efficient, and if there’d been facts to dig up about Blue, then he’d find them.
Ms. Carlson,
Per your request, I have investigated one, Elijah “Blue” Rayburn, 57 years of age. Mr. Rayburn was born in North Carolina to low-income parents and joined the Navy when he was seventeen. He was dishonorably discharged three years later. He traveled around a lot in his twenties before settling in Alexandria, Virginia. He took a job in the security department at the Talbot Natural Museum.
Angie sat back in her chair, staring at the typed words. She’d known Blue had worked for the museum but had never known what he’d done before that.
Within a few weeks of his hire, Mr. Rayburn rose to the rank of head of security at the museum, where he remained for a year. Twenty-eight years ago, he married Marian Carlson and the two had a child, Eva. After leaving the museum, there are no employment records for Mr. Rayburn. After three years of marriage, Mr. Rayburn left his wife and child and moved west. He established a wilderness exploration company and married, though I doubt the marriage was lawful. He fathered a son. Mr. Rayburn was arrested several times for assault, but charges were dropped when witnesses later refused to testify. Mr. Rayburn’s home burned to the ground several years ago, and shortly after that he left his second “wife” after twenty years of marriage and vanished. At this point his trail dies out completely. I have been unable to locate Mr. Rayburn.
I have enclosed several photos of Mr. Rayburn.
Angie set the letter aside and opened the smaller envelope marked PHOTOS. She pulled a black-and-white photo of Blue when he was in his early twenties and, judging by his uniform, still in the Navy. He and Eva shared the same dark hair and high slash of cheekbones. He had been a darkly handsome man who looked as if he radiated energy.
He was the mirror opposite of her father, a tall, slender man who avoided the sun and loved his books. Frank Carlson had been steady and focused but not exciting.
The next photo was a group picture that appeared to have been taken in front of one of the museum’s collections. There were ten people in the group, her father included. All men and all in their early thirties. They appeared genuinely happy as if the photo had just been snapped during a celebration.