Fern Michaels: Tuesday’s Child

“I have some firming-up calls to make. And then I’m going to pay a visit to Clayton Hughes, Adam Star’s attorney. We need to have a talk. I’d like to get it over with before… well, I’d just like to get it out of the way, and the sooner the better.”

Jay was suddenly all business. “Do you want me to go with you? When you don’t take notes or record the conversation, you always forget half of what went on. With me there, it won’t happen.”

Jay was right, and she knew it. “Do you have the time?”

“Of course. Weren’t you listening when I told you about what was going on?”

“Of course I was listening. My mind wanders these days for some reason. So, if you’re ready, let’s head over to Mr. Hughes’s office. We might as well walk-it’s just a few blocks. It’s hot out but not so humid, so we should be okay. Though I think it might rain later today,” Kala said fretfully. “How long do people stay in a coma, do you know?”

“Sometimes years,” Jay said cheerfully to get Kala’s goat.

“Sometimes I really hate you, Jay Brighton.”

“You could never hate me, Kala. Hatred just isn’t in you. And five will get you ten, the reason you were late this morning was because you stopped at St. Gabriel’s to do a little praying.”

“Smart-ass,” Kala shot back as she reached for her purse. “That young priest, he called you, didn’t he?”

Jay laughed. He was still laughing when they walked through the revolving doors out into the bright summer sunshine. “Sun’s out; don’t think it’s going to rain.”

“It’s going to rain, my knee hurts. It always rains when my knee hurts.”

The partners walked along in silence until they came to a four-story brick building covered in ivy. The building housed mostly lawyers, but the fourth floor was allocated to CPAs’ firms. Some of the best in the city. Kala knew that because she used Kuczkir, Bernstein, Friedman, and Schwager for all of her firm’s accounting needs.

Clayton Hughes’s firm was on the second floor. Kala opted for the steps, Jay following behind her. She opened the door and stepped through into another old world. Hughes, Hughes, and Dempsey was one of the oldest, most prestigious firms in the city. No new associates were ever taken on unless one of the old guard died. No one had died in years, leaving the majority of the lawyers in the seventy-plus age bracket.

Kala marched up to the receptionist and looked down at her and the desk. Both looked like they had survived the flood on the ark. Kala handed a business card to the elderly woman, smiled, and said, “I’m here about Adam Star. Would you ask Mr. Hughes if he could spare me a few minutes? I promise I’ll be brief.”

“No need for briefness, young lady. Clayton is just practicing his putting in his office. I think he’ll welcome some company. Go right on in, third door on the right. Tell him I said it was all right.”

Jay rolled his eyes as he followed Kala down the hall. Kala knocked softly and was told to enter.

Clayton looked up from his stance, his putter clutched in a death grip.

“Your receptionist said it was all right to come back here. I’m Kala Aulani, and this is my partner, Jay Brighton. We’re here about Adam Star.”

“Ah, yes, Adam. Sad business. Very sad business. The hospital just called a short while ago and said it was touch-and-go. I expected you sooner. Didn’t you just retire, Miss Aulani? I think I heard something about that the other day.”

“I did retire. I mean, I am retired, but then Mr. Star came to my office and set me back a few days. I need to talk to you. I want to understand all of this.”

“Yes, I’m sure you do. Please, take a seat, and I’ll tell you what I can.”

Clayton Hughes was round. He was pink-cheeked. His bald head was pink, too, so it was hard to tell where his head ended and his cheeks began. He had the shrewdest blue eyes that Kala had ever seen and a nose that hooked over his upper lip. He was dressed in a bright yellow Lacoste T-shirt and wrinkled khaki pants. He wore golf shoes. He leaned forward, and said, “Ask me what you want to know, and if I can answer the question, I’ll answer it, and if not, I won’t. It’s that simple.”

Kala thought about it. His client was still alive, so attorney-client privilege prevailed unless Adam Star had given Hughes permission to discuss his affairs.

“How did Mr. Star kill his wife? He didn’t discuss that part of it when he made his confession. I think my client has a right to know how it was done and why Ryan Spenser wasn’t aware of it.”

CLAYTON HUGHES’S RUDDY ROUND FACE SEEMED TO CLOSE IN on itself. “I think I should give you both a little background as to how I came to be in the position I’m in at present. This firm represented Audrey Star’s parents and, at their demise, Audrey herself as the heir to their fortune. There were no other siblings, in case you didn’t know that. Actually, there were no distant cousins or aunts or uncles either.

“Abner Star, Audrey’s father, made his original fortune in, of all things, storage lockers. He then deployed that fortune in many other ventures that generated staggering revenues. You’ll receive all of that information when the final accounting is turned over to you.

“When Audrey came to me and said she was getting married, I wanted her to have a prenuptial agreement drawn up. She adamantly refused. She said she was in love with a fine young man, and she wasn’t starting off her marriage with distrust. I argued with that young woman until I was blue in the face, but she simply would not budge.

“When she and Adam returned from their monthlong honeymoon, Audrey came back to my office and wanted all of her holdings, the whole ball of wax, transferred to her husband. She told me at the time Adam did not know what she was doing. She planned to tell him once it was a done deal. A giant surprise of sorts. ‘An over-the-top wedding present,’ was how she put it. Once again I argued, but when she threatened to take her business somewhere else, I had to agree to her demands. The young woman simply would not listen to anything I or our other lawyers had to say. So in the end, we did what she wanted. As far as I know, they had a wonderful marriage. They went from vacation to vacation, seeing the world, and always coming back to the Dunwoody residence to fall back and regroup until their next adventure.

“There was one other thing Audrey was adamant about, and that was not taking her husband’s name. None of us here at the firm could figure that out. Everyone refers to Adam as Adam Star, but his legal name was Adam William Clements. Not that that matters, but it is something that you need to know. For some cockamamie reason, Audrey wanted Adam legally to change his last name to Star. At first he refused, and he kept refusing, but he finally gave in and had his name changed. All Audrey would say, once the name was changed, was that now they, as a couple, were Star and Star. I guess she thought it was romantic.

“As far as I or anyone else here at the firm knows, their marriage was quite blissful. From time to time I would see something in the society pages, but for the most part they were just two very private people. They donated to every charitable organization in town. They lent their names to whatever would help those less fortunate. The socialites in town referred to them as a truly golden couple. In a sense they were. Audrey was a very kind woman with a true patrician beauty. Adam was handsome, always tanned, kind, and outgoing. Audrey called him her Adonis.”

Jay leaned closer to the desk. “I’m sensing we are about to hear the ‘aha’ moment about now.”

The shrewd blue eyes focused on Jay. Hughes nodded.