Perri watched it and then turned away. Her eyes and face stung.
“Wonder why she did it. I guess it gets the original video ever more attention. The press revisits it because she spoke out,” Cal said.
“Or maybe she just did it out of kindness. Cal, I hate to kick you out, but I need to go.”
“Um, sure,” he said. “We’ll talk later. I’ll check in with you, make sure you’re all right.”
“I’ll be fine. That’s not necessary.”
“I saw a news report this morning. Two people attacked. On social media one of the local news stations says that one of the victims is Matteo Vasquez.”
She said, “Is he OK?” She betrayed no emotion on her face.
“They just say they’re in the hospital. A crowbar was left at the scene.”
“I know you think I’m capable of violence…”
“You were here last night,” he said. He softened his voice. “I’m sorry for what I said the other night, about everything, you attacking Jane, suggesting that you could be involved. I was upset. I don’t want the divorce. And…I know you couldn’t take a crowbar to two people.”
“But you thought I could burn down a house with people in it.”
“Perri…”
“We are in this together,” she said. “We have been in it together since David died. I know I hurt you with the divorce. I’m sorry you’re hurt. I never wanted that. But us not being married doesn’t mean I don’t care deeply about you or that we’re not still a team when it comes to David’s memory, or to getting through this nightmare.” So tell him about Shiloh. She started to and then stopped. She had watched Shiloh leave after Vasquez, but that didn’t mean he’d followed the man. It wasn’t proof. Still, the police would have to be called. Shiloh could accuse her of being a coconspirator, even though she had known nothing of his plan. Guilt wrenched her. She would be at the station all day. And she would know nothing more about who had started this. If she knew…she could cut a deal with the police, and both Shiloh and whoever was Liv Danger would both be caught. But how long until the police knew Vasquez had talked to her and to Shiloh at her house? If Matteo awoke and could talk, it would be soon. She was running out of time, so she had to act now.
The words started to form and then failed her.
“Are you all right?” Cal asked her.
“Yes,” she managed. “I guess.”
Cal watched her, concerned, as if he knew she was lying to him. “OK,” he said. “We’re in this together. I’ll talk to you later.”
He left. Ten minutes later, she headed for Highway 71 East, and drove to La Grange.
*
Randy Franklin wasn’t happy to see her. He knew who she was the moment he answered the door. “What do you want?”
“To talk to you.”
He looked past her. “Why, Mrs. Hall?”
“Who is it, Randall?” she heard an older woman’s voice call.
“A former client with a question, Mom.” He stepped out onto the porch.
“I’m sorry to bother you, but this is important, and now your voice mail message says you are shutting down your practice.”
“The rent’s paid for the next three months. I’ll see then.”
“Are you waiting out a bad situation?” she asked bluntly.
“My parents are both ill. I needed to come home to take care of them. Why is this any of your business?”
“Brent Norton.”
His mouth thinned.
“His daughter, Jane, came to see you and the very next day you basically vanish.”
“How did you know that?”
“Jane told me.”
“That’s not how it is.”
“She told me quite a bit late last night on my porch. Like the fact that she came back after you left town. She stole two files from your office—one on my son, one on her father. Here’s the weird thing. She says the file on her dad doesn’t list a client.”
“The client was anonymous. I was paid in cash.”
“That would seem to violate some kind of licensing, I would think. An off-the-books job?”
He said nothing.
“There have been several people attacked and hurt who were connected to my son’s crash. When you vanished, I thought you were one of them. But you’re just here, hiding, and the attacks have changed. Gotten directly violent. Almost like someone else has done them.” She wanted to see what Randy Franklin would say—he hadn’t been hurt, or damaged, he had just withdrawn from Austin.
“Are you accusing me?”
“I don’t know. Who was the client who hired you to follow Brent Norton?”
“If I told you, there wouldn’t be a point to anonymity, would there?”
“Did someone come after you? Threaten you?”
“I’m not having this discussion.”
“Matteo Vasquez is in the hospital. I assume as a journalist he won’t be scared off by the attack on him; he’ll redouble his efforts, and other journalists are going to close ranks around him and write about this now. I don’t think you just came out here for an extended stay. I can either aim him at you or away from you. Who was the client?”
He didn’t answer.
“Are you scared, Randy? Did someone threaten you? What Brenda Hobson wanted most was her house. What Shiloh wanted most was his fiancée. Both, lost to them. What matters most to you? Your parents, that they’re safe?” She took a step forward. “If you’re scared of being killed, me knowing the secret means you’re safer. Don’t you see that?”
Either he was tired of hearing her or she convinced him he couldn’t stay silent. “My client was his wife. Laurel Norton.”
She had to struggle to keep the smile of triumph off her face. “Why?”
“She wanted him shadowed. Who he met with, who he spoke to, where he went.”
“And then he ended up dead.”
“I had nothing to do with that.”
“But…his file. Jane told me there were spreadsheets in it. Was he hiding cash?”
“How did she manage to steal my damn files?”
“She’s clever. She always has been; it was easy to forget, considering how she was after the wreck,” Perri said.
Randy Franklin gave a disgruntled sigh. “I took those spreadsheets as insurance.”
“From his computer?”
“No, he had printed those spreadsheets out. I copied them and took them from his rented office. But I don’t know where the spreadsheets came from.”
“Was he cheating?”
“No, not a sign. But…in her reports about Brent, she did not want any mention of your husband.”
Perri frowned. “What does that mean?”
“If I saw Cal and Brent meeting, or having lunch, I was not to report it. She did not want Cal’s name in any reports.”
How strange. “Why would Laurel ask that?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I can suspect.”
She made herself say the words. “That there was something going on between her and Cal?”
“Maybe. And if she filed for divorce against Brent, she didn’t want Cal’s name in the proceedings.”
“How long did you follow Brent?”
Now the pause was long and she thought he wasn’t going to answer her. “Until he died.”
His meaning, so blandly said, took a moment to sink in. “Wait. You followed him to his uncle’s house that day?”