“My God,” he whispered, his lips compressed. “What are you going to do? Sue me for failing to comply with the terms of a contract or something?” He stopped and was silent. Finally he responded, “I’m sorry. I was inconsiderate. I didn’t think.”
“I have to take this in the other room, and I want to go and get Emmet now,” she said, wanting to conclude the conversation. She started toward the living room when Benjamin stopped her.
“Can we try again? We’ll go away somewhere or something, maybe to Palm Springs. Then my mind will be clear.” He laughed nervously. “I’ll read books. You can give me lessons. It’s never to late to learn….I was a real pig, huh?”
Lara smiled at him, the first smile of the day. She set the tray down and leaned back against the kitchen counter. “Yes, you were,” she said. She thought of this elegant man standing before her: the manicured nails, the five-hundred-dollar suit, the starched lavender shirt with his initials embroidered on the pocket. He was a far cry from Ted Rickerson, but for some reason he just didn’t stack up. The detective seemed alive, living on the cutting edge. He saw and felt her pain. And something soft rested inside Ted Rickerson, something incredibly gentle and compassionate. England was self-absorbed to a fault. “Let’s go inside.”
As soon as Lara walked into the living room with the tray of food, her eyes started searching frantically. “Where’s Josh? she asked.
“He’s sitting right there under the tree, Lara,” Irene said, looking out the window.
Lara handed her the tray and went outside to Josh. “Want to go and get my friend now?” she said.
“Yeah, I guess. What’s wrong with him anyway?”
Lara explained Emmet’s condition as they crossed the courtyard. Once they were inside the condo, she introduced them. “Emmet, this is my nephew, Josh. Josh, this is one of my closest friends, Emmet Daniels.”
Josh just stared at Emmet. Then he cleared his throat and looked at Lara as if to ask her what he was supposed to do now. Emmet hit the button on his chair and headed to his office. Lara placed a palm on Josh’s back and they both followed.
“Do…you…like video games?” Emmet said.
“Sure,” Josh answered, looking around the room and then back at the terminal. He watched as Emmet stuck his head into the metal contraption and started typing on the computer.
“If you want, you can come over and play later. I have almost every game. You’re welcome to use my system anytime you want. I’m deeply sorry about your mother, Josh.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Josh said. “That’s cool, you know. That thing you put on your head. And your wheelchair is cool too. Is that electric?”
They headed back across the courtyard, Josh asking Emmet about every question he could think of and Emmet doing his best to answer him. He asked him how long he had been sick, why he had to use the metal cage to type, how he went to the bathroom, what he did for a living, how fast his wheelchair would go. Lara was thankful when they finally reached the door. She wasn’t certain Emmet appreciated Josh’s interrogation. Some of these questions Lara had never even asked herself.
Once they were inside, they all just sat there and looked at each other. Irene and Phillip finally started chatting about office politics and one of the cases he was studying in law school. Benjamin England was brooding and obviously bored. Funerals and grief didn’t appear to hold his attention. Josh sat on the floor; Emmet’s wheelchair was right next to Phillip.
“Emmet,” Lara said, “I thought your computer was broken last night.”
“I…have…friends,” Emmet said slowly. “They all have…computers.”
“Oh,” Phillip said, turning to Lara, evidently assuming that he must speak or interpret for Emmet just because he was sitting next to him. “I guess he’s saying one of them brought another terminal over for him. Is that what you’re saying, Emmet?”
Emmet nodded.
No one lingered. After they ate, Lara was silent and introspective, staring out the window until people got the hint and stood to leave. There weren’t a lot of memories to share, she thought, looking around the room; these people were not her family. Her family was gone except for Josh. On his way out, Phillip jumped up and said he’d wheel Emmet back to the condo.
Josh gave him a nasty look. “It’s an electric chair, dummy. He doesn’t need anyone to push him.” Then he stood and looked at Lara. “Can I go back with Emmet?”
“Sure, honey,” she said, thankful that she might have a few moments alone with Irene.
While Irene stood at the sink rinsing off her plastic containers to take home, Lara stood next to her. “How well do you know Phillip?”
“Me?” Irene said nervously, pointing a finger at her chest and facing her friend. “He’s your secretary, Lara. Why? Isn’t he doing a good job for you?” Irene seemed strained, tired. She looked at her friend with compassion.
“I don’t know. He’s worked for a lot of the judges. I thought he had worked for you once.”
“No,” Irene said. “He worked for Westridge. He even worked for Evergreen for a short time about two years ago. Very competent man from what I hear.” Her face relaxed and she smiled. “I’ll trade with you in a minute. Just let me know.”
That said, Lara filled Irene in on the situation with Evergreen. She didn’t tell her all the details. Rickerson had said to keep it under wraps, but she had to talk to someone and Irene was her friend.
The tall blond judge stopped and wiped her hands on a dish towel. “Well, that’s just nonsense,” she snapped. “Evergreen is a crusty old goat, but the most respected man I know. He’s certainly not…a pedophile.” Just the word seemed to be more than she could utter.
“What do you know about him, Irene?” Lara asked, leaning against the kitchen counter. Irene knew Evergreen well. They had lunch all the time. If anyone knew about Leo Evergreen, it would be Irene Murdock.
“What do you want me to say?” She was somewhat defensive. “He’s an intelligent, decent man. His wife died, you know, a number of years ago.”
“Do you know anything about his son?”
Irene arched her eyebrows and shoved her glasses back in place on her nose. “His son?”
“Rickerson wants to talk to him.”
“We used to see him all the time but not lately. You know, we were all friends when Elaine was alive. He went to school at the conservatory in Santa Barbara. He’s a musician. A flutist.” She paused, her face stern. “You know, Lara, if Evergreen were a child molester, which I think is complete madness, how would he recruit his victims? He couldn’t risk hanging out around schools or anything. He’d have to keep a very low profile.”
“Most child molesters can’t risk exposure,” Lara quickly responded. That was the truth. In most cases they were respected members of the community, had good jobs, went to church every Sunday, paid their bills.
“Well, I can’t see discussing this,” she said. “I think it’s absurd.” She paused and her face softened. “I’m concerned about you, Lara. So is Leo. He thinks very highly of you. He would be aghast if he ever heard these insinuations.”
“Thinks highly of me, huh? Sometimes he sure doesn’t act like it.” Lara didn’t want to get into a discussion about her improprieties. Not today. Not the day she’d buried her sister.
“It could be Phillip, Irene. He has access to court information. He’s been borrowing a lot of money lately and acting strange. What if he was victimized by a pedophile years ago and Ivory and Sam got their hands on the pictures? The man who broke into the condo last night was tall and thin.” She paused, staring out into space. “Phillip could even be a pedophile himself. I don’t know anything about his personal life. Not once has he mentioned a girlfriend.”
Irene kept looking at Lara and blinking her eyes. “I think you’re getting paranoid, Lara. The stress…” She stopped and cleared her throat. “Maybe you should get Dr. Werner to prescribe a tranquilizer for you.”
Lara grimaced and looked away. Irene though
t she was cracking up. Maybe she was right.
“How’s it going with the boy?” Irene said, changing the subject, deep concern in her eyes.
“Josh?…Oh, Irene, it’s been tough. And I mean really tough. It was almost a relief when Social Services took him, but I know underneath it all, he really needs me. I just don’t know how to reach him.” Lara took a sponge and started wiping down the countertops. “Hey, you raised two sons. You know all about teenage boys. Is there some trade secret or something?”
Irene smiled and her face came alive. She loved her two sons and was extremely close to them. If you ever wanted to see Irene Murdock smile, all you had to do was mention them. “With my boys, I always tried to keep them busy, involved in something positive. You know, Little League, things like that. Matt played golf. That’s a great sport for a young man. It teaches them to be polite and mannerly. There’s no bad element on the golf courses. If they have too much time on their hands, they’ll just get into trouble.”
Lara rubbed her chin. She couldn’t see Josh playing golf or baseball. He wasn’t the type. But Irene had a point about keeping Josh busy. She remembered his desire to be a weight lifter and thought they might join a health club after they moved back into the house in Irvine. “Thanks, Irene,” she said.
The other woman looked at her and then moved close and collected her in her arms. “Honey, I’m so torn up over what’s happened to you. It just breaks my heart. You’re such a good person to go through all this tragedy.”
Once Irene had stepped back, Lara shrugged her shoulders. “Just life, I guess. You have to learn to take the bad with the good. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much good lately.”
Irene put all the containers in a grocery sack and carried them into the living room, leaving them by the door. They stood there for a while, both of them deep in thought. “This thing about Evergreen, Lara…I think you have to convince yourself that this detective is leading you astray. If I were you, I would distance myself from these accusations and distance myself from this man. He could destroy your career with this foolishness.”
Lara’s face flushed with emotion. “How can I distance myself, Irene? My sister was murdered.”
“Okay,” Irene said, “let’s run through the cases we’ve handled. In most of mine, they’ve had some novel way to attract young children. I had one man who was a Boy Scout leader. Leo just doesn’t fit the profile. I don’t know about Phillip. You might have the police look into his affairs if you think there’s something questionable there, but not Leo. How in the world would an older man like Leo attract young children? Can’t you see how illogical this whole line of thought is?”
It was like a million flash bulbs were popping in Lara’s mind at one time. An image flashed in her mind of Josh at the computer console—the revered video games he was always talking about, the games he was playing right now with Emmet. “I’ve got to go, Irene,” she told her.
The other woman looked at her as though she’d lost her mind. “What do you have to prove this, Lara? Do you have some evidence? Let me see it and then maybe I’ll take this whole thing in a more serious vein.”
“No,” Lara said, her face flushed with excitement, wishing she could tell Irene about the pictures, “but I have an idea.” She almost pushed Irene out the door and closed it behind her. “You go on home,” she told her. “I’ll call you later. And don’t mention this to anyone. Promise me.” Irene mumbled a response, but Lara didn’t listen. She was sprinting across the courtyard in her stocking feet, leaving the other woman standing there with her mouth gaping open.
The door to the model condo was open and Lara let herself in, walking straight to Emmet’s bedroom. What she saw and heard there stopped her right in her tracks. It’s the little things in life that make a person think there’s really someone up there surveying the damage, she told herself—like a god.
Emmet and Josh were glued to the computer screen, little flashing images darting everywhere. Emmet would tap out something really fast and the images would move. Then Josh would laugh and do the same. Laughter. She was actually hearing laughter on this gray day, this day of death. She had never even heard her nephew laugh.
“What are you two doing?” she said lightly, stepping up behind Josh and peering at the computer screen.
“We’re playing Lemmings,” Josh said enthusiastically. “Emmet’s got Super NES. You know, Super Nintendo. He’s good, man. He’s got everything over here.” He looked up and smiled. “Every video game in the world…all the latest stuff. And he’s got a modem too. He can do all kinds of things, get almost any kind of information you want. He’s got this thing called Prodigy. It’s rad, totally rad. You can get sports statistics on it, order concert tickets. You said you’d buy me a computer.”
Lara waited until the game was over and then sent Josh out on his bicycle. He didn’t want to go. He wanted to stay and play with Emmet. Josh certainly didn’t try to speak for Emmet. As far as she could see, Emmet’s disability was nothing to Josh. They talked the language of common ground. “Go,” she said after he ignored her first request. “Leave us alone a minute.”
“What’s going on?” Emmet typed out as soon as Josh left.
“Emmet, I have this thought. We’ve looking for a man who may be a child molester. He has access to a computer. Is there any way he could lure children with his computer?”
“Lure…?” Emmet typed out. “How?”
“You know, you mentioned that message board. Could he talk to them that way, get them to meet him somewhere?”
“Anything is possible,” Emmet typed. “How old are the children?”
“Prepuberty…eight to, say, thirteen.”
“If they were older, there would be more possibilities. I need to think this through,” he typed. “Give me time. I’ll work on it. What’s his name?”
“There’s two names, two people. One’s a well-known public figure. He’d never use his own name.”
Lara knew that both Evergreen and Phillip had a computer.
“I…see,” Emmet said, then continued typing. “People are peculiar, Lara, even people with something to hide. I read a lot. I like true-crime stories. Many times they use part of their own name, their initials, something similar so they won’t forget. If you want me to help you, please tell me his name.”
“I’ll tell you,” she said, “but you must not mention these names anywhere. No one must know, Emmet. Please, these people may be innocent and we can’t be responsible for slandering them. That wouldn’t be right.”
“I…see,” he said. “The…names, Lara?”
“Leo Evergreen and Phillip Ridley.”
Emmet turned from the computer with a questioning look. “Phillip…your secretary?”
Lara nodded. She expected an interrogation. But Emmet was not Irene Murdock. He simply turned back to his computer.
“I’ll…begin now.”
As she watched, Emmet typed in the name Leo Evergreen. Then he tapped a series of letters and numbers, and the screen was covered with words containing some portion of the name. She let herself out and went to find Josh.
Chapter 18
Madeline Murphy met Lara Tuesday morning at eight o’clock at the condominium and agreed to allow Josh to return. “We never wanted to cause a problem for you, Judge Sanderstone,” she said politely. “We were just doing our jobs.” The woman stumbled over her words a few minutes longer, making small talk about the weather. “You can pick your nephew up tonight. He should return to school tomorrow, however. I spoke with him and I think he’s eager to be with you. See, this cooling-off period served its purpose. I told you a little time—”
“Right,” Lara said, cutting her off, rolling her neck around as she locked the door to the condo. Her neck was so stiff that she could barely move. “Excuse me, but I must run or I’ll be late for court.”
After the morning session, the jury panel on the Adams matter had risen to four people and that was because they were moving fast, extremely
fast for some reason. Voir dire, the process of selecting a jury, is the very essence of courtroom monotony. A lot of judges actually fell asleep. By noon, Lara had a splitting headache and couldn’t wait to put the day behind her.
“Your friend Emmet is a nice man,” Phillip told her at lunch. Rickerson had told her to avoid Evergreen, so she’d had him bring a salad to eat in her chambers. He set down the salad and then stood in front of her desk. “You know, I’m in the Big Brothers’ program, Lara. Maybe I can spend some time with your nephew, take him to the movies or something. I’m sure this has been very difficult for him. My father died when I was twelve, so I know how he feels.”
“You never told me you were in that program, Phillip,” Lara blurted out, her fears and suspicions soaring now. Being a Big Brother was the perfect way to reach children. Her hack stiffened and she dropped her hands in her lap, willing herself to appear calm. “How do you manage being a Big Brother with law-school and a full-time job?”
“It’s just one day a month. Besides, it looks good on my resume.” He smiled. “I come from a big family. I’m the oldest of five kids.”
“Are you seeing someone, Phillip? You know, a girl?”
His eyes looked right through her as if he knew exactly what she was thinking—that he was gay. “I was, Lara,” he said, just a touch of sarcasm in his high-pitched voice, “but we broke up recently. I have a little too much going on with my life right now to get involved in a serious relationship.”
“So do I, Phillip. Listen,” she said, changing the subject, not wanting to be too obvious. Eager to tell Rickerson the information she had just heard, Lara said, “Are you absolutely certain the Detective Rickerson hasn’t called me?” Discounting the case, Lara couldn’t get the detective out of her mind. Every night before falling asleep, she let her thoughts drift to him. It was a way to push the demons aside, she thought. But with each day her fantasies were more real, her desires more pronounced.
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