After the introductions were made, the attorney insisted that they call him Max.
“Doctor Morganstern speaks highly of you,” Nick said. “Isn’t that right, Noah?”
Noah didn’t say a word. He simply moved closer to Jordan and folded his arms across his chest. His expression was impassive. Slow to warm to anyone, Noah always was skeptical, and Max, vouched for or not, had yet to prove his capability.
“We appreciate you taking this on and getting here so quickly,” Nick said.
Max’s gaze was locked on Jordan. “I could never say no to Doctor Morganstern.”
“Why is that?” Noah asked.
“He’s done a lot of favors for me over the years,” he said and then turned to Jordan. “Is there somewhere we could talk in private?”
Jordan thought about suggesting the chief’s office but quickly changed her mind. The small room with the door closed would be too claustrophobic.
“There really isn’t anyplace private here,” she said. “We could sit outside on the bench, I suppose, if you don’t mind the heat.”
Max had a lovely smile. “That’s not a problem for me. I’m used to the heat. Where’s the chief of police?” he asked then. “I should talk to him first and find out what the charges are. It would be nice if we had his cooperation sharing information.”
“Yeah, well, that’s not gonna happen,” Noah said.
“Chief Haden’s a woman,” Nick said. “And Noah’s right. She’s not going to cooperate.”
“And why won’t she?” he asked.
“She’s locked in a cell around the corner,” Nick explained.
Max asked the obvious. “And why is that?”
“I arrested her,” Noah said.
Jordan thought Max didn’t look the least surprised, but then as an attorney he was certainly adept at hiding his reactions.
“I see,” Max said. “And what was the reason for her arrest?”
Nick explained, and when he was finished, Max scratched his jaw and asked, “Are there any other surprises you would like to mention?”
“Did Doctor Morganstern explain why I needed an attorney?” Jordan asked.
“Yes, he did. He told me you found a little something in your car trunk.”
Carrie waved to get Jordan’s attention. “I’ve got Deputy Davis on hold,” she said. “Who wants to speak to him?”
“I will,” Noah said as he walked around Carrie’s desk and picked up the phone.
Max glanced into the hall that led to the jail cell. “I’m going to try to talk to the chief,” he said.
“Why?” Nick asked.
“I want to find out what she has.”
“You’re wasting your time.”
Noah’s conversation with the deputy lasted less than a minute. After he had identified himself, Noah told the deputy that his boss was under arrest and he needed to get to the police station as quickly as possible.
Max’s conversation with Haden lasted much longer, though it didn’t start out well. Jordan winced over the woman’s crude vocabulary, but within minutes Haden had stopped yelling, and she guessed that Max had somehow charmed her.
“What do you think?” Nick asked. “It’s gotten real quiet in there.”
“Maybe Max convinced her to be reasonable,” Jordan suggested.
“It doesn’t matter,” Noah said. “He’s wasting his time.”
“He won’t let her out, will he?” Carrie worriedly asked Jordan.
Max returned to the front office. “The chief of police doesn’t think she wants to get an attorney’s advice, and she agrees that it would be prudent to cooperate with the FBI. She’s also agreed to let us step outside and have our conference, and when we’re finished, we’ll sit down with her.”
Noah shook his head. “That’s not gonna happen.”
Max ignored Noah’s remark. “And what do you think about letting the chief off the hook?” he asked Nick.
Nick glanced at Noah before answering. Jordan thought her brother was a bit amused by the question. Did Max expect him to override Noah?
“My partner just told you that’s not gonna happen, and that means it’s not gonna happen.” Before Max could argue, Nick continued, “The deputy is on his way here. Jordan and you can talk to him.”
Max looked directly at Noah and said, “Doctor Morganstern warned me about you two. He said you’d give me trouble.”
Noah shrugged. “We don’t make trouble, but when push comes to shove, we shove. We get the job done.”
Max nodded and placed his hand on Jordan’s shoulder. “Shall we step outside?”
Nick opened the door. “Jordan, now that your attorney’s here, I’m going to drive to Bourbon and look at the body.” Turning to Noah, he asked, “You’ve got this covered, right?”
“I’ve got it,” Noah assured him.
Max picked up his briefcase and walked with Nick and Jordan outside. Noah followed and pulled the door closed behind him.
The stifling air took Jordan’s breath away. She didn’t think she could ever get used to this kind of heat.
After Nick had left, Max sat down on the bench next to her. He opened his briefcase, removed a notepad and pen, and was snapping the leather case shut when Noah began his interrogation.
“Where’d you go to law school?”
“Stanford. When I finished, I joined a law firm on the West Coast and worked there until four years ago.”
“Why did you leave?”
“I wanted a change.”
“Why?”
Max smiled. “I got tired of defending Silicon Valley boys who were stripping their dot-com companies. I decided to move back home and start over.”
Max’s answers were as rapid as the questions.
“I appreciate any help you can give me,” Jordan said, interrupting Noah’s interrogation.
“I’ll do what I can,” he answered warmly. He glanced up at Noah. “I’ll need to speak to my client alone.”
After scrutinizing the situation for a second, Noah turned to go back inside the police station. “Jordan, you need anything, you call me,” he said.
“I will,” she promised.
Unlike Noah, the attorney didn’t grill her for answers. He simply asked her to take him through the events, beginning with the wedding she had attended and her first encounter with the professor.
Max listened intently and made notes as she went through her actions that morning. When she reached the part about J. D. Dickey’s assault, Max raised an eyebrow.
“I told Chief Haden that I wanted to press charges,” Jordan explained. “But she refused.”
“Did she give you a reason why she wouldn’t arrest him?”
Jordan shook her head and explained what she had heard about the relationship between Haden and the Dickey brothers.
“I’ll definitely be speaking to Deputy Davis when he gets here,” Max said. “I assure you that J. D. Dickey can be brought in on charges. You’ll probably have to stay in Serenity a little longer than you planned…”
“I don’t know,” Jordan replied hesitantly. “I think I should just let it go, get out of town, and leave this whole nightmare behind me.”
“I understand,” Max said. He gave her a sympathetic look and touched her hand. “You just let me know, and we can see that Mr. Dickey pays for what he did to you.”
Noah stood at the window watching the conversation between Jordan and Max outside. Jordan kept her eyes on her knees as she talked, and he could tell she was recalling the details of her day. Max Garcia wrote on his pad and cast a caring glance at her from time to time. “Lawyers,” Noah mumbled with mild disgust.
Suddenly a car pulled up to the curb, and a man wearing blue jeans and a plaid shirt got out, walked over to Max and Jordan, and shook their hands.
Carrie looked through another window. “That’s Joe,” she said.
Joe Davis was a young man, but he already had deep worry lines in his forehead. He immediately spotted the gun when Noah walked out to join them.
“Are you the agent I spoke to on the phone?” Joe asked. “Clayborne, right?”
“That’s right,” Noah answered, stepping forward to take his hand. “I hope you’re nothing like the chief, because if you are, we’ve got a big problem.”
“No, sir, I’m nothing like her,” Davis assured him. “This is one hell of a mess. I was out on a friend’s ranch and my wife couldn’t reach me until I got back. I’ve had three calls from three council members. The president will be over shortly.”
“His reason for coming here?” Max asked.
“He wants to personally fire Chief Haden. They’ve been looking for a reason to get rid of her, and now with a false arrest and a failure to press charges I’d say they have grounds enough. They’ve all had to put up with complaints about her over the last year. In the past couple of months the complaints have escalated.”
“You’re the man in charge then,” Noah said.
He nodded. “I told the council members I would take over until they can find a replacement.”
Davis turned his attention to Max. “Is your client ready to talk to me?”
Jordan nodded. And the questions started all over again.
Chapter Thirteen
J. D. WAS IN A FRENZY. HE KNEW HE NEEDED TIME ALONE TO GET a handle on his temper before he did something else he would later regret. He drove down a dirt road on an isolated stretch of flat land outside of Serenity, his hands gripping the steering wheel, fishtailing around one curve and then another, damn near losing control of his truck as he sped on. Dust fanned out around the truck, and he could barely see where he was going because of the grime that covered the windshield. He almost drove into a gully but swerved to the right on two tires and bounced back onto the road. He slammed on the brakes then, jumped out of his pickup, and started kicking the door while he cursed his own stupidity.
He was in such a panic, it was hard to think straight. He knew he’d messed up, but he couldn’t do anything about that. It was too late. Randy was as mad as a hornet at him but had promised he’d try to smooth things over.
Damage control. That’s what it was all about at this point.
He knew what Cal would be saying to him right now if he knew about this terrible situation. His cellmate in prison would tell him to take responsibility for his failure and then try to understand what went wrong. Learn from your mistakes. When a job goes bad, it’s imperative to figure out what went sour before taking on another job. Any fool knew that. Yes, that’s what Cal would say. He was such a wise man.
And what had J. D. learned? He’d learned that he’d gotten too damned greedy. He’d had a real sweet life with his new career until the professor came along and put all sorts of big ideas into his head.
He hadn’t wanted the sweet life to go away, and he certainly didn’t want to go back to prison and this time maybe get stuck with the needle for premeditated murder.
Luck just hadn’t fallen his way, that was all. He’d gone back to Jordan Buchanan’s room at the motel twice but couldn’t get in. The first time, Amelia Ann had been inside running a vacuum. The second time, there had been a couple of electricians installing new lights outside the room’s door.
He stopped kicking his new truck and fell back against the fender. Wiping the sweat and dirt off his forehead, he tried to concentrate. The bitch had messed everything up. No, that wasn’t true. She’d complicated his life, but she hadn’t ruined it. He could still fix things. He’d fix her too, he decided. Yeah, he’d fix her.
First things first. He had to finish the job, and that meant keeping Jordan Buchanan in town until he could figure out what she knew. What were the possibilities that she knew why the professor had to be silenced? Zero to none, J. D. figured.
Still, he had to be certain.
Chapter Fourteen
THE ORDEAL WAS FINALLY OVER, AND BY SEVEN-THIRTY THAT evening Jordan had been cleared of any and all charges. As soon as the new chief of police had been given the official time of death—with a three-hour window—and had checked Jordan’s alibi, she was free to go.
Jordan had accounted for her every moment the evening before. She realized how fortunate she was that she had never been alone, only when she’d gone to bed for the night, but Professor MacKenna had been long departed by then.
The president of the town council insisted on firing Maggie Haden while she was still behind bars. He also insisted that Chief Davis not let the woman out until he had left the station.
Maggie didn’t take the news of her termination well.
“You had to have known this was coming,” Davis told her.
Her response was predictably vile, and as she was gathering up her personal possessions and throwing them into a cardboard box, she went into a tirade about sexual discrimination.
“People have complained to the council about me because I’m a woman. You never could stand it that I got the job and you didn’t. You’ve been needling the council to fire me.”
“You aren’t going to take any responsibility for your actions today?” he asked.
“I’m getting a lawyer, and I’m going to sue every one of you. You won’t have a penny to piss on when I’m finished.”
“Listen here. You shouldn’t be making any kind of threats. It took a lot of fast-talking to convince Agent Clayborne to drop the assault charge. He could still change his mind.”
“It was a trumped-up charge.”
The box she’d filled was in the center of the desk. She looked down at the contents, then picked it up and hurled it against the wall.
“I don’t need any of this junk.”
“You need to leave here now.” Davis tried to take hold of her arm.
She jerked away. “Don’t get too comfortable sitting behind my desk. You won’t be chief of police for long. My attorney will force the council to give me back my job. I’ll be wearing my badge and gun before you know it. Then you’ll be officially terminated. My first order of business will be to get rid of you.”
Jordan had walked to the end of the sidewalk with Max to say good-bye, but she could still hear Haden’s voice loud and clear. Max handed Jordan his business card with all of his phone numbers, including his private cell number. He told her to call him anytime, night or day, if there were any other problems.
