Catherine Coulter - Born To Be Wild

“I’m sorry. That was insensitive of me. Since this just happened you might still be hurting.”

“I might,” he said, not turning.

“Okay, it’s none of my business. Why did you come back to Goddard Bay?”

“I told you, I’m a lawyer.”

“Accept my condolences.”

“Actually, I came back to run for district attorney.”

“Yes, I know about that. You got it on your first try?”

He nodded. “I’ve got a good name around here, the right name.” He gave her a lopsided grin. “At least right enough to be elected the Goddard Bay County district attorney. I like putting bad guys away and I like living here.”

“Aren’t you awfully young to be a D.A.? Do you have any experience?”

“Sure. I was an assistant D.A. in Manhattan for four years, and before that I clerked with an appellate court judge, Judge David Reed, in the Ninth Circuit.”

“Well, then, it sounds like you’re qualified for the job to me.”

He inclined his head. “Thank you.”

“Are you having fun?”

“Fun? I never thought of it that way-well, okay, yeah, I really enjoy it, particularly most of the time I spend in the courtroom.”

“Sounds like you’re as much an actor as I am.”

“Could be,” he said after a moment.” He stopped. “You want to take a rest before we turn around and run back?”

“Where?”

“Over here. See that twisted pine? I like that the sea’s nearly bowled it over onto itself.”

As she followed him to the bent pine, he said over his shoulder, “I’m not a controlling jerk.”

“Maybe not.” Mary Lisa leaned her back against the tree and he hunched down beside her. “I thought it was either that or maybe a dud in bed. That would be a sure deal breaker for Kelly.”

He looked appalled. “Hmm,” was all he said.

Mary Lisa thought of Mark Bridges, her ex-fiancé, and a couple of wannabe movie stars she’d dated pretty seriously over the past three years. “I’ve come to the conclusion that most good-looking men are so self-absorbed no one really exists for them outside themselves. Their pleasure’s what’s important, no one else’s.”

“I’d say the same about some good-looking women. Take you, for instance, Ms. Beverly. Are you a dud in bed because you’re beautiful and self-absorbed?”

She laughed. “Yep, that’s me, so beautiful, I’m self-absorbed. I’m going back now. Good-bye, Mr. Goddard.”

She was off and running before he got to his feet. He didn’t try to catch her, just stood for a while by that gnarly old tree and watched her until she disappeared in the distance.

Just his damned luck. The beauty queen was Kelly’s sister.

“I wonder why the killer would leave a perfectly good driver there lying beside the body,” Kelly said at dinner that night. “Surely he-or she-knew it would be a big clue for Jack Wolf.”

George said, “I spoke with John today. His office is deeply involved now. He’s got two very good investigators on his staff and Jack agreed to use them. You’re right about that Callaway. I’m glad I don’t own any.”

“Are you still using Nikes, Dad?”

“I’m a Tiger fan-what else would I use?”

Kathleen said, “Olivia told me that Jack won’t leave them alone. She says he’s going to arrest one of them because he can’t very well let this go unsolved. She doesn’t know what to do.”

“She needn’t worry too much since Milo hired Patricia Bigelow,” Kelly said. “The rumor is she was there for the very first interview with the Hildebrand family. She’s a barracuda.”

George nodded. “I hope if I’m ever sued, she’s not the opposing counsel-she’s very bright, committed, as intense as they come. I’ve sometimes thought it a pity that Horace is such a longtime friend and only a middling lawyer. I’d hire her in an instant.”

Kelly said, “Detective Lambrowski, who’s an investigator in the D.A.’s office, said she was hinting at a police conspiracy. That had him huffing around.”

“What did John Goddard say?” Mary Lisa asked.

Kelly buttered a dinner roll and didn’t answer her. Her mother said, “As I understand it, neither John nor Jack is saying much of anything. But I’m so very worried about Olivia. She’s scared. How I wish Monica were here this evening, she’d know what to do.”

“And what would Monica do, Mother?” Mary Lisa asked, and immediately wished she had stuck her knife through her tongue instead. Was she nuts?

“Your sister,” Kathleen said slowly, staring Mary Lisa down, “is a very clearheaded, focused individual. I will have to phone her in the morning and ask her what she thinks. I’ve always wondered if there was graft involved in the police department since Jack Wolf came here three years ago. He’s from Chicago, you know.”

“Graft about what, Mom? With whom?”

“Well, Mary Lisa, you’ve been gone for a long time, haven’t you? No one would expect you to know much of anything about what’s happening in Goddard Bay.”

“Okay,” Mary Lisa said. “But it was just a question, really.”

Kathleen said, “Patricia Bigelow is Milo Hildebrand’s lawyer in a lawsuit he has pending against John Goddard’s father, Thomas. Olivia says Thomas Goddard is going to lose. And now his son is persecuting Milo, on his father’s account.”

Mary Lisa rolled her eyes, she couldn’t help it.

Her mother ignored her. “Why wouldn’t John want to help his father? Or Chief Wolf, for that matter? He and John Goddard went to school together. It was the Goddard family, with John’s recommendation, that asked Jack to come out here, and then helped him get elected chief of police. So there’s some payback owed there. If they push Milo as a suspect, it could ruin him, and maybe the lawsuit goes away. John Goddard and Chief Wolf have a lot of leeway to push the investigation in any direction they wish. Everyone knows that.”

George said, “I’ll tell you why that couldn’t happen, Kathleen. Thomas Goddard is a businessman, did his share of wheeling and dealing in his younger days, but this lawsuit with Milo Hildebrand, from what I’ve heard about it, is more of a nuisance than a threat to Thomas. As for John Goddard, he’s so honest I worry for him because there’s room for gray in the world and I’m not sure he knows it when he sees it. He wouldn’t bring charges against Milo Hildebrand unless he was convinced he was guilty. Nothing less.”

“I can’t believe you’re defending John, Dad,” Kelly said. “Look what he did to me, your own daughter. He’s ruthless, and he’d do anything to be governor, whatever, like Mom said.”

Mary Lisa saw anger in her father’s eyes-her eyes. It was so rare, she stared at him, mesmerized. But when he spoke finally, his voice was calm, with only a bit of sarcasm leaking through. “Oh? Did he tell you he wanted to be governor, Kelly?”

“Well, not in so many words, but I do know him well enough to know he can’t be trusted. He didn’t do well back east so he came back here where his family has influence. His father got him elected district attorney, and that’s who he owes his allegiance to.”

Her mother looked ready to jump into the fray again, so Mary Lisa quickly said to her sister, “I met John Goddard running on the beach this morning.”

Her sister froze for a second, and when she spoke, venom was thick in her voice. “I’ll bet he told you he dumped me, didn’t he? He’s a liar, Mary Lisa. Don’t you believe anything he said.”

“You don’t believe he would say anything like that about you to me, your sister, do you?”

Kelly looked uncertain, but her anger flared again. “Yeah, he’d say anything about me to anyone. He’s furious because I gave him the boot. Men like him can’t deal with being rejected.”