I ignored Rudy’s comment about the affair. But he was onto something. Michael must have been involved in something pretty bad to get him killed. This entire situation was a complicated knot of moral and ethical issues I wasn’t quite sure how to fix.
“Rudy, listen to me. I’m stuck. I can either lose my license to practice law for releasing privileged company information or get hemmed up in an obstruction charge in a murder case.”
“So you’re gonna sit on top of information that could help the police find Michael’s killer?” Rudy shook his head.
“I told Anna I would look into it a bit, but then she’d have to go to the police.”
Rudy looked at me with a knitted brow then stared out into the distance. “I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t Michael’s wife immediately go to the police to give them info to find her husband’s killer? Why would she call you? Humph . . . sounds suspicious.”
Rudy’s armchair detective work was making me both uncomfortable and frightened. Maybe he was right. Maybe I was being gullible, and Anna was setting me up. Lord knows she had every reason to. I was sleeping with her husband and she knew it. But according to Anna, it was because I was sleeping with her husband that she called me. Me and Anna, the defenders of Michael’s spotless reputation.
This whole thing was beyond bizarre. Here I was helping people I shouldn’t be in alliance with and chasing after my brother, who was knee-deep in the middle of a murder and disappearance of lawyers he shouldn’t even know.
The cold gusts picked up. An eddy of dry leaves skittered near my feet. The women began packing up their young charges.
“Maybe I’ll go to the police.” I hated cops and Detective Bradford hadn’t changed my mind either. I closed my eyes briefly to break Rudy’s stare. “Listen, I’d better get back to the office.”
Rudy handed me the documents and shook his head again. “Be careful up there, Ell. I know you’re the boss and all, but it seems to me that you’re completely justified in going to the police under these circumstances.”
I glanced at Rudy. This was the second time in one day I’d been warned to be careful on Twenty. But it wasn’t as easy as Rudy made it seem. I had let Sam down so many times before. Good, bad, or otherwise, he was still my brother. And I wouldn’t send him back to prison for something I knew he didn’t do.
Rudy and I headed back to the office, in lockstep silence, before my cell phone rang. I fished it from my pocket and checked the caller ID.
“Uh . . . why don’t you go on ahead. I need to take this call.”
Rudy’s eyes narrowed in confusion.
“It’s personal.”
Chapter 22
I retreated back to the park to answer the call. “Sam! Where are you?”
Sam’s tone was cheery and upbeat. “Hey, Ellie, what’s up?”
I eased back onto the bench in the playground. “Where have you been? I’ve been calling you! Why haven’t you called me back?”
“I guess I’ve been busy.” Sam chuckled into the phone.
I gave an exasperated sigh. “Sam, I don’t have time for games. Why were you at my office last week?”
“I stopped by to meet with a guy I’m working for.”
“You’re working for somebody at Houghton?!”
“You’re not the only one who gets to work for the big shots. I was over there last Monday to meet the guy.”
Sam knew people at my job?! I shot up from the bench. “Why didn’t you tell me? What guy? Who?”
“Jonathan Everett . . . you know him?”
“Jonathan Everett?! Of course, I know him. What kind of work are you doing for him?”
Sam chuckled. “The kind of stuff that pays better than working in a hardware store.”
“This isn’t funny, Sam. What the hell are you doing for him?” I yelled into the phone.
“Look, the guy just needed some help—”
“Needed some help with what?!”
“Why are you yelling? And why are you so interested in my business all of a sudden?”
“The police have you on security tape walking into the lobby of Houghton the day before my boss was killed.”
“What?”
“Sam, listen to me. My boss was killed last week, and the police probably think you did it.”
“What the hell are you talking about?!”
“Geez, don’t you watch the news? An executive was murdered at Houghton last week.”
“I didn’t kill anybody! The Everett guy hired me to do some insurance surveillance work. Just tail someone for a few days. That’s all. If the police are investigating a murder, maybe they’re looking at the wrong Littlejohn, huh?”