David Baldacci: Split Second

The overall look was not that of a classic beauty, but Michelle was probably the girl who was always faster and smarter than all the boys. In high school she likely had every male gunning to bethe first to steal her virginity. From the look of the woman, though, he doubted any had succeeded on anything other than Maxwell's terms.

Well, he said silently to the TV screen, there is life after the Service. You can start over and re-create yourself. You can be reasonably happy against all the odds . But you never do forget. Sorry, Michelle Maxwell, I speak from experience on that one too.

He checked his watch. Time to go to his real job drafting wills and leases and charging by the hour. Not nearly as exciting as his old occupation, yet at this stage of his life Sean King was very much into boring routine. He'd had enough excitement to last him several lifetimes.

King backed his Lexus convertible, top down, out of the garage and headed off to work for the second time in eight hours. The drive took him through winding roads, fabulous views, the occasional wildlife sighting and not much traffic, at least until he hit the road into town, where the automobile volume picked up some. His law office was located on the appropriately named Main Street, the only avenue of consequence in the downtown area of Wrightsburg, a small and relatively new township halfway between the far larger municipalities of Charlottesville and Lynchburg.

He parked in the lot behind the two-story white brick town home that housed King Baxter, Attorneys and Counselors-at-Law, as the shingle hanging outside proudly proclaimed. He'd gone to law school thirty minutes away at the University of Virginia before dropping out after two years and opting for a career in the Secret Service. At the time, he wanted more adventure than a stack of law books and the Socratic method could provide. Well, he'd had his share of adventure.

After the dust settled from the Clyde Ritter killing, he'd left the Secret Service, finished his degree and opened a solo practice in Wrightsburg. It had now expanded to a two-lawyer firm, and King's life was finally clicking on all cylinders. He was a respected counselor and friend to many of the most prominent in the area. He gave back to the community as a volunteer deputy police officer and inother ways as well. One of the most eligible bachelors in the area, he dated when he wanted and didn't when he didn't. He had a wide assortment of friends, though few who were intimates. He liked his work, enjoyed his free time and didn't let much rattle him. His life was marching itself off in carefully constructed and unspectacular measure. He was perfectly fine with that.

As he got out of the Lexus, he saw the woman and contemplated ducking back inside, but she'd already spotted him and rushed over.

"Hello, Susan," he said as he pulled his briefcase out of the passenger seat.

"You look tired," she said. "I don't know how you do it."

"Do what?"

"Busy lawyer by day, police officer by night."

"Volunteer deputy police officer, Susan, and only one night a week. In fact, the most exhilarating thing to happen last night was swerving my truck to miss hitting a possum."

"I bet when you were with the Secret Service, you went days without sleep. How exciting, if exhausting."

"Not exactly," he said, and started to head to his office. She followed.

Susan Whitehead was in her early forties, divorced, attractive, rich and apparently dead set on making him her fourth husband. King had handled her last divorce, knew firsthand the number of impossibly annoying quirks the woman had, how vindictive she could be, and his sympathies lay entirely with poor husband number three. He was a timid, reclusive man so smashed under the iron fist of his wife that he'd finally gone off on a four-day drinking, gambling and sex spree in Las Vegas that had been the beginning of the end. He was now a poorer but no doubt happier soul. King had no interest at all in replacing him.

"I'm having a small dinner party on Saturday and was hoping you could come."

He mentally checked his calendar, found Saturday night free andsaid, without missing a beat, "I'm sorry, I've got plans, thanks anyway. Maybe another time."

"You have a lot of plans, Sean," she said coyly. "I'm really hoping that I fit into them at some point."

"Susan, it's not good for an attorney and client to become personally involved."

"But I'm not your client anymore."

"Still, a bad idea. Trust me on that one." He reached the front door and unlocked it before adding, "And you have a great day." He went inside, hoping she wouldn't follow. He waited a few seconds in the foyer of the building, breathed a sigh of relief when she didn't charge in, and headed up the stairs to his office. He was almost always the first in. His partner, Phil Baxter, was the litigation arm of the two-person firm, while King handled all the other areas: wills, trusts, real estate, business deals, the steady moneymakers. There was a lot of wealth secreted in the quiet nooks and crannies around Wrightsburg. Movie stars, business tycoons, writers and other enriched souls called this area home. They loved it for its beauty, solitude, privacy and local amenities in the form of good restaurants, shopping, a thriving cultural community and a world-class university down the road in Charlottesville.

Phil was not an early riser-court did not open until ten-but he worked very late, the opposite of King. By five o'clock King was usually back home, puttering in his workshop or fishing or boating on the lake that his house backed up to, while Baxter labored on. The two consequently made a nice match.

He opened the door and went in. The receptionist/secretary wouldn't be there yet. It was not quite eight.

The chair lying on its side was the first thing that caught his eye, and after that the items that were supposed to be on the receptionist's desktop but were now strewn across the floor. His hand went instinctively to his holstered gun, only he had no holster or gun. All he had was a really kick-ass codicil to a will he'd drafted that wouldintimidate only the future heirs. He picked up a heavy paperweight from the floor and peered around. The next sight froze him.

There was blood on the floor by the door leading into Baxter's office. He moved forward, holding the paperweight ready; with his other hand he pulled out his cell phone, dialed 911 and spoke quietly and clearly to the dispatcher. He reached out his hand to the doorknob, thought better of it and pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket so no prints would be smeared. He slowly eased the door open, his muscles tensed, ready for an attack, yet his instincts told him that the place was empty. He looked into the darkened space and used his elbow to flick on the light.

The body was lying on its side directly in front of King; a single gunshot wound to the center of the chest, exiting out the back. It wasn't Phil Baxter. It was another man-very well known to him, though. And this person's violent death was about to shatter Sean King's peaceful existence.

He let out the breath he'd been holding in, and it all hit him in a blinding instant. "Here we go again," he muttered.

The man was sitting in his Buick and watched as the police cars pulled up in front of King's law building and the uniformed officers raced inside. His appearance had changed much since he'd sat playing the role of an old man whittling in front of the funeral home while John Bruno was being carried away. The suit he'd worn that day was two sizes too large, to make him look small and emaciated; the dirty teeth, whiskered face, moonshine flask, whittling and a wad of chew in the mouth were all carefully designed to draw the eye to him. And the observer would come away with an indelible impression of who and what he was. And that conclusion would be absolutely incorrect, which was the whole point really.