and Dorothy had tried to be understanding and supportive in his struggle. Cole told them that heâd come out to San Francisco because there wasnât any real empathy regarding his situation in the Midwest. He was trying but people just didnât understand.
So the Elliots invited him to stay with them and their children until he got settled in. In the next month, Jeff âlostâ a watch and they had a daytime break-in where the burglar got away with most of Dorothyâs jewelry. Dinners became upsetting for the children when Uncle Coleâs place would be set and he wouldnât show up. On top of that, Cole had two minor traffic accidents while he was driving Dorothyâs car, both of them the other driverâs faultâexcept that in both cases the other car had fled. Finally, when one of the girlsâ piggy banks that had held four hundred dollars turned up missing, theyâd told Cole he had to go and not come back.
So they understood Hardyâs decision. He was a friend to have gone to the jail in an emergency and make sure he got into the detox. They didnât expect him to do anything else.
But for his own peace of mind, Hardy did want to eyeball the man and get to the bottom of this confession. What had Cole said? Glitskyâs behavior had stuck in his craw as well. It wasnât that he thought Cole might be innocent, but the fact that everyone was treating him as though it had already been proven bothered the lawyer in Hardy.
He didnât need certainty beyond a reasonable doubt. He was ready to cast Cole off in a heartbeat, but he couldnât let go completely until heâd at least totally satisfied himself that the man had actually killed Elaine.
Then let him be damned. Hardy wouldnât care.
5
I n the womenâs room at Rand & Jackman Law Associates on Montgomery Street, Treya Ghent tried to fix her eyes, but she knew it was a losing fight. Between the horrible, senseless murder of her dear friend and boss Elaine Wager and the unrelenting demands of her wonderful but high-maintenance fourteen-year-old daughter Raney, she had averaged less than three hours of sleep for the past four nights.
She was at work this morning because she didnât want to use up any more sick days frivolously. She needed to keep a bank so that she would be available if her daughter absolutely needed to have her stay home to care for a real illness, or to counsel her during a real crisis. And Treya didnât kid herself. Raney was a teenagerâshe was desperately going to need her mother from time to time in the next couple of years, just as Treya had needed her own mom. And thank God Raneyâlike Treya had beenâwas the kind of child who would ask.
Certainly she wasnât going to waste any of those precious sick days on herself âshe hadnât missed a day of work for anything related to herself in six years. They paid her to be here and contribute and she wasnât going to let her employers down. They counted on her.
But the eyes were going to betray the fact that this morning at least she was a functional zombie, and she hated to have anyone, much less Clarence Jackman, the firmâs managing partner, see that. When sheâd gotten the summons that Jackman wanted to see her in his office, sheâd been sobbing quietly in her little cubicle.
And why not? How could somebody have killed Elaine? It had wrenched her heart when sheâd first learnedof it, and the pain hadnât let up much since. Elaine had been a friend and confidante; they often joked that they were sisters separated at birth. She and her boss had been the same ageâthirty-three. Both were smart, neither of them entirely black or white. Intuitively, they both understood that the sometimes vast differences between their social standing, their jobs and their prospects were merely the products of background, education andâthat greatest of all variablesâluck.
She
So the Elliots invited him to stay with them and their children until he got settled in. In the next month, Jeff âlostâ a watch and they had a daytime break-in where the burglar got away with most of Dorothyâs jewelry. Dinners became upsetting for the children when Uncle Coleâs place would be set and he wouldnât show up. On top of that, Cole had two minor traffic accidents while he was driving Dorothyâs car, both of them the other driverâs faultâexcept that in both cases the other car had fled. Finally, when one of the girlsâ piggy banks that had held four hundred dollars turned up missing, theyâd told Cole he had to go and not come back.
So they understood Hardyâs decision. He was a friend to have gone to the jail in an emergency and make sure he got into the detox. They didnât expect him to do anything else.
But for his own peace of mind, Hardy did want to eyeball the man and get to the bottom of this confession. What had Cole said? Glitskyâs behavior had stuck in his craw as well. It wasnât that he thought Cole might be innocent, but the fact that everyone was treating him as though it had already been proven bothered the lawyer in Hardy.
He didnât need certainty beyond a reasonable doubt. He was ready to cast Cole off in a heartbeat, but he couldnât let go completely until heâd at least totally satisfied himself that the man had actually killed Elaine.
Then let him be damned. Hardy wouldnât care.
5
I n the womenâs room at Rand & Jackman Law Associates on Montgomery Street, Treya Ghent tried to fix her eyes, but she knew it was a losing fight. Between the horrible, senseless murder of her dear friend and boss Elaine Wager and the unrelenting demands of her wonderful but high-maintenance fourteen-year-old daughter Raney, she had averaged less than three hours of sleep for the past four nights.
She was at work this morning because she didnât want to use up any more sick days frivolously. She needed to keep a bank so that she would be available if her daughter absolutely needed to have her stay home to care for a real illness, or to counsel her during a real crisis. And Treya didnât kid herself. Raney was a teenagerâshe was desperately going to need her mother from time to time in the next couple of years, just as Treya had needed her own mom. And thank God Raneyâlike Treya had beenâwas the kind of child who would ask.
Certainly she wasnât going to waste any of those precious sick days on herself âshe hadnât missed a day of work for anything related to herself in six years. They paid her to be here and contribute and she wasnât going to let her employers down. They counted on her.
But the eyes were going to betray the fact that this morning at least she was a functional zombie, and she hated to have anyone, much less Clarence Jackman, the firmâs managing partner, see that. When sheâd gotten the summons that Jackman wanted to see her in his office, sheâd been sobbing quietly in her little cubicle.
And why not? How could somebody have killed Elaine? It had wrenched her heart when sheâd first learnedof it, and the pain hadnât let up much since. Elaine had been a friend and confidante; they often joked that they were sisters separated at birth. She and her boss had been the same ageâthirty-three. Both were smart, neither of them entirely black or white. Intuitively, they both understood that the sometimes vast differences between their social standing, their jobs and their prospects were merely the products of background, education andâthat greatest of all variablesâluck.
She
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