Jeanne Stein - Legacy

“Jason?”

He looks tired and scared, and I open the door and motion him inside.

“What’s the matter?”

The kid stares down at his shoes and I realize he’s wearing the same clothes he had on when I saw him at his house yesterday. I point to a chair. “Sit. I’ll make coffee.” I get it going and check out the small, under-the-counter refrigerator we keep in the office. “There’s not much here, but there are some day-old bagels. Are you hungry?”

He still hasn’t said a word. I go ahead and pull out the bag and a carton of cream cheese. Having a human partner who eats real food has come in handy twice now in the last twenty-four hours. Thank you, David.

I don’t press Jason until he’s eaten half a bagel and had a few swallows of coffee. Then I sit down opposite him. “What happened to you?”

Jason finally meets my eyes. “I didn’t tell you everything,” he says.

“About?”

“My stepmother. Gloria. What I overheard the day my dad was killed.”

“Want to tell me the truth now?”

He nods, starts fiddling with the coffee cup.

“Tell me.”

“I did overhear my dad and Laura the morning he was killed,” he says. “It wasn’t about any kind of criminal investigation. He was arguing with her about something he’d done to a colleague. I don’t know the details. It didn’t make sense then. Whatever he did cost somebody a lot of money, and Dad thought the guy was coming after him. He sounded scared. He wanted us to leave. Laura said she wouldn’t go. She ran out, and Dad ran after her.”

“What happened then?”

“I went into his study. I found something.”

He dips a hand into his pocket and pulls out an envelope. I recognize it as the one I found in his room. He offers it to me, and I take it.

While I open it, he says, “I didn’t know what it meant until I saw the newspaper yesterday.”

My own paper is open on the desk where I left it after getting Dad’s call. He taps the article about his father. “I think they were right. I think Dad took the formula and sold it. I think somebody at that Benton company killed him.”

“SO WHY THE LIES, JASON?”

He frowns bitterly. “I hate Laura. She doesn’t even try to be nice. When she moved in, the first thing she did was go through the house and throw away anything that belonged to my mother. Do you know what she said to me last night? She said the best thing my dad could have done for us was to die. That it saved us a lot of trouble.”

He wipes a hand across his eyes. “She didn’t know about the lawsuit or what Dad had done. She didn’t really care who killed him, she just wanted to make Gloria look guilty.”

“So, you know for sure that she found out about Gloria and your father?”

“She must have. My dad told her someone was after him. She lied to the police anyway.”

“And the gun, did you plant that so I’d find it?”

“Yeah. I figured you’d found it when I checked last night and it was gone. I kept waiting for the police to show up.”

“Where did you get it?”

“It’s Laura’s. She keeps it in the glove compartment of her car.”

“Which you saw when you were out shopping with her. You’ve known all along it wasn’t the murder weapon.” Only a kid’s logic would make moving it and planting it in so obvious a place seem a reasonable thing to do.

Jason is quiet for a moment. “What’s going to happen now?”

“Good question. Gloria’s lawyer is attempting to get a search warrant as we speak. It will take the police about five minutes to prove it wasn’t the murder weapon.” I lean back in my chair, eyeing him. “Why didn’t you go home last night?”

He looks at me as if I’ve performed a magic trick.

“I saw you yesterday. You came home before I could leave. You were wearing the same clothes you’re wearing now.”

“But I never saw you.”

“You weren’t supposed to. Now answer my question.”

His features contort with an expression that’s half panic, half anger. “Laura heard me talking to Gloria last night. She knows I planted the gun. She threw me out of the house.”

“Where did you spend the night?”

“Here. I got the address from your card. I didn’t know where else to go, and I thought I should talk to you this morning.”

“How did you get here? It’s a damn long walk from Fairbanks Ranch.”

He reaches into his jeans and pulls out a set of car keys.

“You drove? Jason, you’re fourteen. Where did you get the car?”

He mumbles something I don’t quite catch. The key chain’s logo matches the hybrid in David’s parking space. “You didn’t steal a car, did you?”

He shakes his head. “No. It was my dad’s. I’ve been driving since I was twelve. Learned on our ranch in Wyoming. We have so many cars, I doubt anyone will even notice it’s gone.”

I stand up, grab both sets of keys, his and mine, and motion for him to join me. “Come on. We’ll worry about returning the car later. Right now we’re going to see Gloria’s lawyer and you’re going to tell her what you told me. After, we’ll get you home. I’m pretty sure Laura can’t keep you out. She’s committed a crime by deliberately lying to the police. If anyone will be spending the night away from home tonight, it’s likely to be her.”

There is one other thing.

“How involved are you in Gloria’s suicide attempt?”

A half shrug. “I only bought the pills and made the nine-one-one call. She made me leave before she started taking them.”

“The police have the pills. Are they going to find your fingerprints?”

A smile. “No. I bought everything in boxes. Paid cash at different grocery stores. When I got them home, I took out the bottles wearing rubber gloves. I burned the boxes and the bellman uniform. I didn’t touch anything in the room. There shouldn’t be anything to connect Gloria and me in that hotel.”

Thank you, Law and Order . At least some of the lessons sunk in. Jason missed the episodes about ballistics, but he learned how to cover his tracks. Unless he got caught on a hotel security camera. If he did, we’ll hear about it soon enough.

God, what was Gloria thinking? Jason is a kid, but she certainly should have known better. There’ll still be a phone record of calls between them, although that can be explained away because Jason and Gloria know each other through his father. Condolence calls, Detective Harris, that’s all.

“Okay, let’s go see Gloria’s lawyer. Don’t talk about anything except what you heard the day your father was killed. Don’t volunteer anything about the gun. She knows I found one. Let’s hope she hasn’t already reported it to Detective Harris. No more lies. No more saying what you think will get Gloria off.”

I take him by the shoulders and make him look me in the eye. “There isn’t anything else, is there?”

He looks ready to cry. “I wanted to help Gloria. I wanted to make the police look somewhere besides at Gloria. Now all I’ve done is screw things up and make her look guiltier. Why are the police going to believe anything I have to say now? Unless Laura backs me up, it’s my word against hers.”

“Not necessarily.” I tap the newspaper. “You may have corroboration. Right here.”

JAMIE SUTHERLAND’S OFFICE IS LOCATED ON ONE of the posh top floors of a high-rise that has come to be known as the Darth Vader building. It’s tall, black and pierces the skyline like a sword. Her door says “Sutherland, Talmadge and Gates, Attorneys at Law.” Her name is first. Senior partner. For one so young, it’s quite impressive.

I called to let her know we were on the way and she’s waiting for us in the reception area. I introduce her to Jason as she leads us into a book-lined corner office with a view as impressive as her title. Once we’re settled into richly upholstered visitors’ chairs, she urges Jason to begin.