The argument never came. Instead, Patricia smiled at me. “Then it looks like we’re on the same page. I could definitely eat.” She glanced over at Sapphire. “And that smell is driving me near insane.”
“I don’t usually discuss business over dinner, but I think we can dispense with that nicety just this once. Agreed?”
Thank the Goddess for small favors. I had been afraid my sister would hold fast to her rule, and I wanted to get on to Archie sooner rather than later. “Agreed.”
It didn’t take long to fill our plates and sit down at the smaller table in the kitchen. With it just being the three of us, there wasn’t any need to go into the formal dining room for the meal. Besides, eating in the kitchen was just, well, cozier. Easier to make good friendly conversation.
Which I fervently hoped was what we were about to partake in. At this point, it could go either way. I really wished I knew Patricia a bit better right about now.
Sapphire let us take a few bites first. Then, apparently, she just couldn’t stand it any longer. “So, Patricia, am I to understand that you know what the deal with the Tomlin favor is?”
Patricia swallowed the bite in her mouth and reached for a drink to chase it down before answering. I knew a delaying tactic when I saw it. She didn’t want to answer.
“I do.” She paused. “But to be honest, I’m hesitant to discuss it with you. Surely Arch has his reasons for not doing so? Especially if he shares so freely with you?”
Sapphire gave her double arched eyebrows. “I thought we had an agreement here. Food for talk.”
“True, but I don’t recall stating what that talk would be.”
The eyebrows stayed up.
Finally, Patricia blew out a breath. “Here’s the thing. If I tell you, then Arch will know that I told you. And things are rocky enough between us as it is. You know that. We’ve only just reconciled our friendship in the last year, thanks mostly to Opal, here. I don’t want to risk that.”
The eyebrows lowered, but Sapphire didn’t seem happy about it. “And if I promised not to tell him I knew?”
“He’d know. Trust me. That man has his ways of knowing things.”
“So, you aren’t going to tell me?”
Patricia shook her head. “If I thought that it would help the situation, I would. Friendship or no. But I just don’t see what knowing this tiny little secret could do for you. It was a long time ago, and truthfully, I don’t think it was all that big of a deal. Not nearly so big as what the men seem to think it was.”
“Then why, when my husband shares everything else so freely with me, does he clam up every single time I mention the Tomlins?”
“That’s between you and Arch, Sapphire. You do know that, right? Do you really think it would be right to go behind his back and ferret the information out of me?”
Sapphire looked down at her plate. “If it meant I could help him, then yes, I do think it would be right.” She hesitated and her voice quivered just the tiniest of bits. “I think Archie might be in trouble. And I think it involves the Tomlins.” She raised her eyes to mine, our gaze meeting across the table. “Why else would he risk his perfect court record for a boy he has to know is guilty?”
I took a couple of deep breaths as silence fell. I mean, what else was there really to say after that? And Patricia didn’t seem to be budging on her not telling the secret. That left only one solution, in my mind.
“Eat up gals. We’re taking a road trip,” I said.
“We are?” Patricia asked.
I nodded. “Well, me and Sapphire are, and since you don’t have a car here, I kind of thought you might want to join us.”
“How nice of you,” she said. There was more than a hint of sarcasm in her voice. “Can I take a wild stab at the destination? Mineheart Law, correct?”
“Yup. A man just doesn’t have the right to keep secrets from his wife. Especially if said wife just happens to be my sister. I respect your decision not to talk, and in a way, I even applaud it. This needs to come from the man himself.”
“I agree.”
I glanced over at Sapphire, who still hadn’t said anything. “Are you in?”
Even as I watched, her face set into a stubborn expression that I remembered so well from our younger days. She was so in.
Chapter 5
The offices of Mineheart Law were every bit as impressive as Archie’s mansion of a home. And with good reason. This was what paid for all of that luxury. Sure, the Minehearts had some old money stashed away for future years, but the brothers were doing pretty dang well at not having to touch it, according to Sapphire.
I’d been there during the day and seen with my own eyes how busy the place was. The money flowed through this office like water. It wasn’t a cheap affair to hire a Mineheart lawyer. They were that good. Sapphire hadn’t been exaggerating about Archie’s perfect court record. The man had never been beaten. And in all the years he’d been practicing law, that really said a lot about his legal prowess.
Made me wonder even more what this darn secret could be too. Must be a pretty dang powerful one for Archie to risk a lifetime record. And with all the evidence stacked against young Tomlin, I really didn’t think even he stood a chance of winning this one.
Sapphire let us in with her key, and we didn’t make it far before we heard raised voices coming from Archie’s office. We stopped where we were and listened. It might not have been the right thing to do, but it’s what we did, anyway.
The second voice belonged to Merlin, Archie’s brother and partner. “You need to end this. Now. You know as well as I do that boy robbed those banks, and you’re risking this firm’s very reputation by defending him. I don’t care how good a friend you are with his father.” There was a pause. “Don’t tell me you think you can get him off, either, because you’re good, but no one is that good. So why are you risking everything for an outcome that’s written in the stars already?”
Sapphire took a deep breath and walked over to the office door. Me? I’d have waited to hear Archie’s response. But then again, I didn’t have to go home to live with the man afterward.
“I’d like to know the answer to that myself, Archie.”
Merlin whirled around to face us at the sound of Sapphire’s voice. Then he turned back to Archie.
“I had no idea they were here. I swear.”
“Of course you didn’t,” Sapphire said. “We only just got here. So, if it will ease your minds any, we didn’t hear much of the argument.” Then she looked her husband dead in the eyes. “But for what it’s worth, I’m on Merlin’s side on this. I think you need to tell us why you’re doing this.”
“So do I,” Patricia said.
Archie looked at her. “You haven’t...”
“I have not. But I have to say, I don’t understand why you are keeping this from your wife.” She glanced at Merlin. “And apparently your brother as well. You realize you are all partners, right? Don’t you think they have a right to know?”
He swallowed but finally gave a small nod. “So be it.” His eyes met Sapphire’s gaze and then Merlin’s. “But be forewarned. Telling you will change nothing. You won’t talk me out of this.”
“Stop beating around the bush and tell them already,” I said, losing my patience. “We have other, more important things to discuss, but we aren’t going to get to them until we clear this up. So get on with it.”
Sapphire gave me an odd look. But the ball was in Archie’s court.
“You probably know that Joshua Tomlin and I grew up together. The two of us and Martha Donaldson. We were mates, the three of us. Practically inseparable.” His fingers started fiddling with a paperweight on his desk. “When I turned twelve, I started coming into my powers. I was testing them out one day, something my parents had warned me repeatedly against doing by the way, and I started a fire.”
“Oh, dear,” Sapphire said. “Was anyone hurt?”
He shook his head. “No. It was out in the middle of the woods, but i
t could have gotten bad quick. If Martha and Josh hadn’t been there, it would have. We got it put out in pretty short order, but it took everything we had to do it.”
“But anyone in their right mind would have helped a friend in that situation. Especially a good friend,” I said, still not seeing the relevance to the current situation.
“They would have and did,” Archie said. “But afterward, I wanted to show my gratitude in a more visible way.” He fingered a small scar on the palm of his hand. “I swore to both of them that if they ever needed the favor returned, they had but to ask it. Then we sealed the bargain by becoming blood brothers and sister.”
“You made it a blood oath?” Okay, so that changed things.
He nodded. “The whole blood brother thing came from some book one of us was reading at the time. But it was kind of cool. It connected us even more than we’d already been connected.”
Sapphire was frowning. “And why did you feel you couldn’t tell me this?”
Archie looked up at her. We were still standing, and he was still sitting behind his desk. “Because you would have called me silly to risk my career for an old called in favor. You would have tried to stop me.”
I could feel my sister bristle even with Patricia standing between us. “I most certainly would not have! You made a blood oath, Archimedes. Those are not to be taken lightly.”
His eyes widened. “You’ll stand behind me on this?”
“Of course.” She hesitated. “But I’m afraid Merlin has an excellent point. Why even bother to come to you with this? Does Joshua think you can get his son off on a technicality or something?”
It was a long minute before Archie answered. As we all wanted to hear his answer, we waited. In dead silence.
“Because he never asked me to win this thing. I think he knows that even I have limitations there, although I’m doing my level best to find a way out for him. There doesn’t seem to be one.”
“Then why come to you and ask you to risk your reputation for this? Doesn’t sound like the kind of thing a friend would do,” Merlin said.
Another hesitation from Archie, but finally his shoulders dropped. “This can’t go farther than this room. Are you all agreed?”
Only after each and every one of us agreed did he go on. “He came to me for two things. The first I did to the best of my ability. I got the judge to lower the bond amount to get Flynn out of jail. The second, I’m working on, but it isn’t going well. That is to delay the trial for at least another month.”
The room got quiet after that, as we all took in exactly what that meant. “He’s going to do a runner,” Patricia said, giving voice to what we all were thinking.
“I have absolutely no proof of that. At all,” Archie said. “But yeah, I think that is the plan. Not just Flynn either. I think the entire family is bailing with him.”
“Hm. If they bail, that would still be a bit of a black eye on the firm, but it wouldn’t technically be a court loss, now would it?” Merlin seemed to brighten a little.
At least until I hit him on the arm. Not lightly either. “There are more important things at stake here than a perfect court record.”
Archie gave me a sad smile. “There are few things in life more important than that blasted record to my brother.”
“So sue me for being proud of you. My perfect record went down in flames less than a year into my practice. I kind of want to see how long your streak can go. That’s why I hate this so much. But at least now, I understand a little better.”
That statement seemed to startle Archie. “You do?”
Merlin took a deep breath and nodded. “As Sapphire said, you made a blood oath. Honoring it isn’t really up for debate, now is it?”
I glanced around the room. Everything seemed to be out in the open, so now seemed as good a time as any to get to the second reason for us being there. “First of all, is there anything we can do, right this minute, to help you honor that oath?” I asked.
Archie shook his head and closed the file in front of him. “I’m afraid not. I’ve just about reached the end of my rope on this one. But I’ll try again tomorrow.” He stood and grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair. “Let’s go home.”
“Actually, I have some rather urgent business I’d like to talk about first. And here is as good a place as any to do so.”
Sapphire just looked at me. “I knew that lucky visit from the two of you had a purpose.”
“It did. But it involves Archie, not you.”
Sapphire stood a little taller. “If it involves Archie, it involves me.”
I blew out a breath. “Okay, I’ll give you that. But it directly involves Archie, and only indirectly involves you. Now can I please go on?”
She made a little motion for me to continue.
Staring straight into Archie’s eyes, I asked him flat out. “Would you please tell me why your spell mark is on the back of old man Grayson’s neck?”
Archie did a double-take. “What?” Then glanced at Patricia and back to me. “What the devil has that got to do with this?”
“Nothing, but I still need you to answer.”
“Okay,” he said, drawing out the word for all it was worth. “Old man Grayson served with my dad in the Army. Saved his life and thusly mine too, as I hadn’t yet been born. Dad made me promise to continue the protection spell on Grayson once he passed. I renew it every month.”
Patricia and I spared a glance. Okay, one down.
“And why was your spell mark on Willis Brown’s car?” Patricia asked. Okay, so much for letting me lead. But then, she knew the details of the other cases, and I didn’t. The news clippings hadn’t mentioned the spell marks.
Archie’s eyebrows furrowed. “Because his mother asked me to do a protection spell on it. She didn’t like that he was driving a foreign car.” Again his gaze went from Patricia to me. “Now before you ask me any other questions, I think I’d like to know what this is all about.”
“We’ll have a couple more questions to ask you to be sure, but it sure as heck looks like you’re being framed, Archimedes,” I said. “One last question, if you don’t mind. Who would know about all these spells you’ve been doing for friends?”
He stared at me for a minute, but I didn’t budge. “No one. I don’t go broadcasting what I do or there would be a line outside my door. I’m in the business of law, not spellcraft.”
Well, that was a puzzle.
“Do you record them anywhere?” Patricia asked, one step ahead of me.
He nodded and pointed to a shelf on the far wall. An empty shelf.
“What the devil?” He strode over to the shelf, glancing around the floor beneath it.
“Who the bloody heck took my spell journal?”
Chapter 6
“I will take a wild stab at this and guess that book isn’t warded just to you,” I said. The resulting influx of color to Archie’s cheeks gave me the answer to that one. No. It wasn’t.
“I didn’t feel the need to ward the book,” he said, bristling. “It’s in my own bloody office!”
“Only now it isn’t, dear, is it?” Sapphire said, gently tapping on Archie’s arm. “Do you have any idea at all who might have taken it?”
“I do not. I don't meet with clients here in my office. I use one of the conference rooms.”
I bet that good old Joshua met with him right here in this very room, but I kind of figured everyone got that. Besides, before I could point that out, Archie gave me a stern look of determination.
“I think it’s about time the two of you come clean. What the bloody heck do you mean I’m being framed? Framed for what?”
All eyes were on us, and Patricia caved first. “Maybe we should take this to one of your conference rooms, Arch? Standing too long after a heavy meal isn’t always a good idea.”
Within a matter of minutes, we were all seated at a long and—as always when it came to the Minehearts—impressive oak table. At least the executive style leather rol
ling chairs were comfortable. Patricia was right on this one. Sitting down was a very good thing after eating a good helping of my sister’s lasagna.
Merlin went to the fridge in the corner and brought back an armful of bottled waters. Once each of us had taken a sip to gather our thoughts, Archie turned again to Patricia. “I’m still waiting, just so you know.”
She nodded. “I know.” After the briefest of hesitations, she pulled the envelopes out of her bag and passed them across the table to him. “See for yourself.” Sapphire scooted her chair closer, and Merlin stood behind him to better see the contents of the packets. Patricia and I sat right where we were. We already knew what they held.
When Archie’s eyes finally raised to meet ours, they looked worried. “Someone is targeting people from my spell journal.”
“It certainly looks that way, doesn’t it? Which brings us back to sister’s question. Who could have taken it?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I truly don’t know. That’s my office, and when I’m not there, it’s locked up tight.”
“What about your cleaning crew?” Sapphire asked. “You’re still using Fran and her daughter, aren’t you?”
“Yes. And they have keys to my office, but they are good people. I can’t see them doing this.”
A little light bulb went off in my head. “Wait a minute. Fran Goldman?”
Archie nodded. “Yes. Is her last name important?”
“Oh, I think it could be,” I said. “Fran’s son, Mark, is the bank president over at the Union Valley Bank. Last I heard, after Flynn and his buddy robbed them, the bank immediately went under investigation. Mark is in more than a bit of trouble himself right now. I can’t think that Fran would be happy about you defending Flynn.”
And the fact that Mark had taken a runner didn’t help the investigation any, either. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out that he’d been involved in the whole thing. But mothers don’t tend to think like that when it comes to their own children. I’m sure in her mind, Flynn was the only bad guy on the scene,
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