“Get in here. I want to talk to you.” Limping to favor his toe, he led his son back into his den. “Stoke up that fire, will ya?”
When the flames were licking fresh logs, Junior faced his father. “What is it? Not business, I hope. I’m taking an official day off,” he said around a yawn, stretching like a sleek cat.
“Alex Gaither.”
Junior pulled down his arms and frowned. “She was all fired up about that burial business when she came in, wasn’t she? But you brought her around.”
“I only told her the truth.”
“You made it sound as convincing as a good lie.”
“Will you be serious for once?” Angus barked.
Junior looked baffled. “I thought I was.”
“You listen to me,” Angus said sternly, aiming a finger at his son. “Only a damn fool would laugh off her determination to get to the bottom of this thing. Even if she is a good-looking woman, she means business. She looks soft, but she isn’t. She’s tough as boot leather when it comes to this murder case.”
“I’m aware of that,” Junior said sulkily.
“Ask Joe Wallace if you don’t believe it.”
“I do. I just find it hard to take her seriously when she looks as good as she does.”
“You do, huh? Well, I don’t see you doing anything about that, either.”
“I asked her out here for drinks, and she came.”
“What have you done since then?”
“What do you want me to do? Court her like some snotnosed kid? Go the flowers and chocolates route?”
“Yes, goddammit!”
“She’d never fall for that,” Junior snorted, “even if I could do it with a straight face.”
“You listen to me, boy. You’ve got life good. You drive a new Jag every year, wear a big, diamond-studded Rolex, go skiing, deep-sea fishing, and to the horse races whenever you feel like it, and you gamble big.
“But if this little lady has her way, she’ll bust us. Yeah,” he said, reading his son’s frown correctly, “you might have to go out and get a job for once in your life.”
Angus reined in his temper and continued in a more conciliatory tone. “She hasn’t got a prayer of turning up any evidence. I think she knows that. She’s throwing darts into the dark and hoping to hit one of us in the ass. Sooner or later, hopefully, her arm’ll get tired.”
Junior chewed on his lip and said glumly, “She probably wants a court trial as much as we want a racetrack. That’d be a real coup for her. It’d launch her career.”
“Damn,” Angus grumbled. “You know how I feel about that. I don’t like all this career bullshit. Women don’t belong in courtrooms.”
“Where would you keep them? In bedrooms?”
“Nothing wrong with that.”
Junior laughed shortly. You won’t get an argument from me, but I imagine you would from millions of working women.”
“Alex might not be working for long. It wouldn’t surprise me if her career was riding on the outcome of this investigation.”
“How do you mean?”
“I know all about Greg Harper. He’s ambitious, sees himself in the attorney general’s seat. He likes his people to win convictions. Now, if I’ve got him figured right, he’s letting Alex do this because he smells blood, our blood. If we got our tails in a crack over this murder business, he’d get his name in the headlines and gloat every step of the way because there’s no love lost between him and the governor. The governor’s nose would be ru
bbed in shit and so would the racing commission’s.