The Witness

  She bubbled in laughter because he winked at her.

  “I built that building you’re now occupying, laid a good number of those bricks when my hands were still too soft to have calluses. I figure I can fix it up for you while you’re off being questioned by those reporters. Anything you want to add to the boy’s list?”

  She swallowed hard at the thought of Connor as a boy but gamely bobbed her head. “It’s a good starting list, and you can feel free to add whatever else you think he has missed to it.”

  “Good answer.”

  Connor held out her key ring. “I do, however, like the doorbell.”

  “Old screech? Sure, I thought you might. I put that in for the grandkids that used to spend their Saturdays pushing the button and darting away down the sidewalk. Now get going before you’re late, and drive her nice, Connor. No sirens and speed just because you’ve got the toys.”

  Connor leaned over and kissed the man’s cheek. “Yeah. Bye, Gramps. She’ll be back sometime this afternoon.”

  Marie kept her hands firmly around the cup of hot chocolate and didn’t try to come up with a good-bye as Connor steered her out of the deli. “That’s your grandfather?” she whispered.

  “On my mother’s side—when he claims me.”

  “I like him.”

  Connor grinned at her. “So now you’ve met two people who aren’t going to care that you are rich. Think you’ll meet a few more today?”

  “Probably not.”

  “Then I’m in exclusive company. I like that, and Gramps is too old to do much more than flirt.”

  She laughed so hard she nearly bobbled her hot chocolate. “Thank you, Connor.”

  “Nerves gone?”

  “Entirely.”

  He nodded, satisfied. “We aim to please. The car’s over this way.”

  “Do you plan to challenge the will and the fact more was left to a nephew than his own daughters?”

  Marie struggled against the lights to know which direction she should face to answer that question. The reporter who asked it had already shot four zingers her way, and she could feel the anger turning her stomach into knots. “No, the will provisions are fine. Next question?”

  “Will the charity work you spoke about be concentrated in this community?”

  “We’ll coordinate with the already generous giving Daniel has announced and see what else we might do together, mainly in the area of literacy and the arts for youth.” She smiled at the reporter she could see off to the right of the bright lights. “Yes, your question?”

  “What’s the T stand for? Your middle name?”

  “I could say my mother never told me, and I think I wisely never asked; but I’ll simply say it’s not worth repeating.”

  Low laughter told her she’d at least made one clean answer. “Yes?” She nodded to the man beside Daniel.

  “Would you characterize your reaction as grateful, stunned, surprised? How’s it feel to be told you have a rich father?”

  “I already have a very rich father in God; this just closes a loophole I wasn’t aware of here on earth. And it is nice to know the man I met through the gallery was also the man my mother loved many years ago.”

  Daniel was moving toward the podium now, and she was relieved to have only a couple more questions to go in her self-imposed fifteen minutes of fame. “Yes?”

  “Are you planning to settle in this area or are you going to travel the world for a while and choose somewhere more, say … warm and sunny … as the place you’ll reside?”

  Laughter met the reporter’s question.

  “While Hawaii has its appeal for the next month, this is home. I’m comfortable we’ll stay in this area.”

  “Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.” Daniel took over the podium with an ease she could only envy, one hand sliding into his pocket and the other resting against her lower back to keep her from immediately turning for the privacy of the hall. “As you’ve asked many times for more details on the trust and will arrangements of my uncle’s estate, and given they will be public knowledge once signed by the judge, I’ve arranged for copies to be available today; please see my assistant, and she’ll be able to provide them for you. On behalf of the family I’d like to caution again that interview requests should come through the Benton Group if you want to have any chance of hearing a yes. We’ll be coordinating several over the course of the next two weeks. I thank you for your time and your patience; that concludes the press conference.”

  He nodded toward the back, and the technician killed the microphone. Daniel offered a smile and whispered, “You just survived your first trip into the lions’ den.” He shook his head at the reporters beginning to crowd forward and gestured toward the side door. “What do you say to a few minutes of walking through the roses to relax?”

  He had her through the crowd before she realized he’d maneuvered them through. Once out of the small auditorium she took her first deep breath and smiled at him. “Thank you, Daniel. I couldn’t have done that without you.”

  “You did great.”

  “Better than great,” Connor added, and she turned to see him behind her. “Security needs you out front, Daniel, something about a legal filing?”

  “The tender offer was arriving today; thanks, Connor. Keep Marie company? I won’t be a minute.”

  “Not a problem at all.”

  Marie smiled at Connor and took the soda can he held out. “So I did okay?”

  “Massacred them, Marie; though I thought that question about your dress was going to throw you.”

  “She’s the fashion editor for the paper. I saw her early on and had prepared for that one. She’s one of the few reporters I at least knew by name.”

  “Well, they all know yours now. I imagine there won’t be many quiet walks to the deli for coffee in the next few weeks without someone asking you a question about something.”

  She drank her soda and just smiled at him. “That’s tomorrow’s problem.”

  “Your nerves are gone again. I like that. My company seems to work wonders.”

  “I think it’s called relief. I heard via the grapevine that it’s your day off. Why did you stay? I know you were going to give me a ride home, but Daniel could do that.”

  Connor laughed. “And miss the biggest news event of the day?” He let her off the hook with a shift in the question. “As for the day off—I decided to spend it flirting with you. My grandfather is so far my only serious competition; I think I can take him.”

  She blinked and laughed. “Find me another soda, okay? I’m parched. Then let’s enjoy the roses and walk paths that I apparently now partly own.”

  “See, wealth is going to fit like a nice glove sooner than you think. You want another diet soda or something flavored?”

  “Orange if they have it.”

  Connor pointed to the bench by the trellis of climbing roses. “Sit over there. I don’t want to be losing you.”

  “Sure.”

  She watched him head back inside, and she turned toward the roses he had pointed out. It was lovely out here in the covered walkway. She was aware even as Connor left that she still wasn’t entirely alone. The man Daniel had introduced earlier as one of the Silver Security, Inc. staff was standing off to one side of the door, near enough he’d be between her and anyone coming through those doors who wasn’t on the cleared list. She smiled at him briefly, and he smiled back but stayed where he was at. She supposed she’d get used to that kind of quiet, polite watcher eventually. He looked deadly professional and had rather spooked her when first introduced; she’d noticed even Connor had given him a second glance to make sure he knew where the man was standing.

  She walked around the trellis toward the waterfall. She was wealthy, she knew who her father was, and all those crazy if-only plans she’d thought of over the years were possibilities for her now. And she wasn’t ready for this. Tears wanted to fall for no reason at all, and she pulled in a deep breath and then another. She trailed her hand throug
h the water cascading down carefully stacked rocks and smiled rather sadly at her own falling sense of joy. All her dreams come true but one, and she was too overwhelmed to take it in and enjoy the moment.

  She turned away from the water.

  Connor sat on the bench by the trellis, patiently watching her. The second soda she’d requested sat on the bench beside him, and he looked to about have finished the one he had gotten for himself. He smiled and held out a couple napkins. “Your fingers are going to turn blue; that’s practically ice water.”

  “You explored it earlier?” she asked, taking the offered napkins.

  “This entire place is an exploration wonder. Did you know Daniel has heated lamps under the bench seats so they stay nicely warm on cold winter days?”

  “That I didn’t know.”

  “The gardener told me. And there are butterflies released within the walkway to help the roses grow, though I don’t know about that rationale. I think they’re just pretty creatures to go with pretty flowers.”

  She took a seat beside him on the bench.

  “Want to spend the day exploring? This place, maybe drive out toward the lake and find some ducks to watch? You’re not dressed for walking far, not in those shoes, and there’s not a mall in the city that didn’t have a few hundred TV sets turned to that interview, so wandering in to get new footwear is probably not a good idea.”

  “Peter’s going to be a while with the construction?”

  “Even if he’s done, I bet a good portion of that reporters pool just moved to camp outside your gallery for your return home.”

  “Daniel already asked me to stay for a late lunch.”

  “Ask him to make it for dinner instead. He’ll understand. It’s not like you aren’t going to be seeing him just about every day for the rest of your life.”

  She smiled. “An exaggeration, but there’s a point in there. I’d like to change, but I can do that at the gym where I keep a bag, rather than brave the construction work going on at the gallery.”

  “Problem solved. Come on, Marie. Let’s blow this place and have some fun. It’s not every day you announce to the world you’re the luckiest lady around.”

  “Tracey is too.”

  “I guarantee she was watching that news conference and beaming with pride at your answers. She’s probably got Marsh entirely too flustered at her joy.”

  “They’re coming home early, she said. They’ll be back tomorrow midday.”

  “Yeah, I talked to Marsh last night a few minutes after you did.” Connor got to his feet and held out his hands. “Today there’s no more business to deal with, just time to let it settle.”

  She slid her hands into his, wishing she understood this man and why he was willing to be the counterbalance to the craziness she had going on in her life. As far as she could tell he was doing it because he wanted to, and that hadn’t often happened in her life with guys. And on him the money wasn’t sticking as a fascination or a problem, and that just didn’t fit.

  “You’re wealthy, Connor, aren’t you? That’s why all this kind of slides past you as no big deal.”

  He smiled. “I’m a cop, Marie. No one gets wealthy on what the city pays.”

  “You’re ducking the question.”

  “My grandfather owns a few of the buildings we passed today; would that do? I’m not wealthy, but there’s enough to do what I want, and beyond that, money isn’t something I particularly worry about. Though I admit your cousin probably holds a few of the family pennies in that investment pool he manages. My grandfather was never a man to let a building project go by without betting a couple bucks on its success.”

  “You’re one of those guys who drives a pickup truck, hunts on weekends, watches NASCAR races, and has a couple million sitting in the bank?”

  He laughed. “Watching the NASCAR races I’ll admit to. Quit trying to figure me out—my mom hasn’t done it in thirty-odd years—and just take what you see as what you get. There really isn’t a lot of layers to figure out.”

  “Right, and I’m a natural in front of cameras.” But she smiled. “I’ll quit trying so hard if you promise tomorrow I can wipe away all the embarrassing points of today and you’ll kindly forget they happened. I get too chatty after a morning like this one.”

  “I can be as forgetful as needed.” He directed her toward the walk path and gave a quiet nod to the security man. “How about a perfect rose to press into your scrapbook to remember today by?”

  Marie glanced back, and the Silver Security employee was gone. “What was that about?”

  “Transportation. They even do fill-ups if you ask very nicely.”

  “You’re kidding me.”

  “Well, maybe a little.”

  “Connor—”

  He squeezed her hand. “Cops and security guys, we do our own thing. It’s best not to ask until we’re somewhere over a very long meal. There’s nothing wrong—I promise you that—just well-done planning clicking like it’s supposed to.”

  “You’ll explain that sometime.”

  “Yep.”

  “Then I’ll ask later. I’d like a pink rose for the scrapbook. Something so pink it makes the color pink proud.”

  “And try to say that tongue twister ten times fast.” He chuckled and pointed out a rosebush. “There.”

  “Yes, that’s perfect.”

  Connor tried to remember the last time he’d eaten a waffle cone with just plain vanilla ice cream and couldn’t place it, short of maybe a state fair when he was a teenager and an occasion equally designed to impress a girl. “The fudge would have helped.”

  “It hides the vanilla,” Marie protested. “They make the smoothest ice cream in the state, and you want to hide it under a layer of sugar.”

  “Tell me you at least like mustard on your hot dogs.”

  She laughed and reached up to wipe his chin with a napkin as the ice cream dripped. “I do. And I love corn dogs on a stick and saltwater taffy and cotton candy.”

  “So next time we’ll come back to the fair when it’s actually open.” He hadn’t known the fairground had a few concession stands open year-round to serve those who worked at the livestock barns and managed the grounds and staffed the weekend convention hall, but Marie had known. So he was wandering across the racetrack trying to avoid stepping in horse droppings while eating a very cold, very plain, vanilla waffle cone for an early dessert.

  “Hold on; your sleeve is about to come down again.” She stepped close enough to turn up the cuff twice.

  He got in the last two bites of the cone while she finished squaring the corners of his shirtsleeve. The sun was warm on his back and the afternoon pleasant; it was good to be outside with her. And since it was incredibly hard not to just tip her head to the side and kiss her as he’d like to, Connor kept his eyes above her head on the clouds lazily floating past and thought about his odds of maybe talking her into canceling on Daniel for dinner too.

  “There, that’s better.”

  Connor rested his arms on her shoulders rather than let her step back and checked his watch behind Marie’s head. His grandfather should be done with the security changes by now. He looked down to meet her startled gaze. “I’m seizing the opportunity presented to me.”

  She had a nice blush; he liked that about her. “Want to find dinner to go with that dessert?”

  “I promised Daniel I’d be there at seven.”

  “Phones are good for apologies; I can stick a pocketknife into a tire and give us a flat so you can have a real excuse.”

  “That wouldn’t be fair.”

  “All’s fair in love and war.”

  “He’s my cousin; the analogy doesn’t fit.”

  “Then how about time is of the essence? I go back to work on Monday. No more days off for way too long in my future.”

  She smiled. “Why not just say it was a great afternoon and we’ll go out on top?”

  He sighed. “We could do that if we must. I could even call you late, late tonigh
t to chat if you give me that new private number you’re not supposed to give out to anyone.”

  She rested her head against his chest and laughed. “I feel like a teenager on a date again, Connor. It’s been an incredibly long while since I could say that.”

  “I’m kind of enjoying the flashback too. You, lady, can be very good company.”

  He dug out his car keys and pushed the button to remotely unlock the car doors. “Want to pull through McDonald’s and order like a zillion french fries to go and pass them out to every kid we pass?”

  “You’re not a cop; that’s got to be a fake badge or something. Your sense of humor never grew up.”

  “Or something. It’s a nice gold shield, and they only give those out to boys that play well together. If you don’t want to do the zillion french fries, how about finding a speakerphone and calling Tracey and Marsh? We can compare notes on who goofed off the most today. All they probably did was ski or something tame like that. We did duck calls.”

  She swiped the keys out of his hand. “I’m leaving while I can still breathe. I’ve been laughing so much my ribs ache.”

  Connor followed her, pleased to see the joy was real and all the traces of nerves were truly gone.

  Those nerves would be back this weekend, when she realized the Silver Security guys were still around her, when the chief told her Amy was still alive, when the inevitable cutting words were said by someone who envied the money—he couldn’t stop those things, but he’d done what he could. For a brief few hours he’d forgotten about being a cop and the murder cases on his desk, waiting for his return. And she’d forgotten about the risks that came with the changes in her life. He wouldn’t have given this day back for anything.

  He walked to join her. “You’ve got the keys, but I’m not letting you drive. It goes against the guy’s code of honor or some such rule in life.”

  She perched on the hood of his car and held out the keys. “I changed my mind; let’s stop by McDonald’s for some fries.”

  “I was kidding, Marie.”

  “I know. I’m not.”

  He took the keys and flipped the ring around to find the one for the trunk.