Hi, Lorena, my name is Alex Mahan. Sorry this is so random. I’m looking for information about Bruce Gibson and Daniel Gibson. I read an old news article written about their deaths where a secretary with your name was at their law firm way back when. Was that you? I think I may be related to them and was hoping you might be willing to talk to me. If so, please message me back. I’d really appreciate it!
I went back to searching the university archives but could barely focus. How could I after discovering that the man I knew as my father-in-law, mentor, and friend was actually someone else? Did Carol know anything about this? Had Joe also hidden it from her? If so, why? And did any of this have anything to do with the money Joe had invested in my company? I got a new message alert on my phone from Facebook. As I’d hoped, Lorena Myers had responded to my message right away.
Hi, Alex, I’d be happy to speak with you about Bruce and Daniel. I still have such warm memories of both of them. Please feel free to give me a call. If you’re in Dallas, I’d love to meet you.
She’d typed her phone number. I bolted from the library while dialing.
NINETEEN
I pulled up to a luxury one-story condo complex with lush landscaping surrounding multiple walking trails. Lorena Myers had told me over the phone that she’d sold her house and moved into a unit here after her husband passed away two years ago. The condo allowed her the flexibility to travel more frequently to visit her kids and grandkids, who lived in different parts of the country. Lorena was quite the talker. I hoped that might prove to be helpful. I knocked on the door to her unit, and a woman in her late sixties with a gray bob haircut wearing jeans and a red sweatshirt answered right away. A white poodle yapped away at her feet.
“Hi, Alex, come on in,” she said, leading me inside.
“I really appreciate this, Lorena. I’m only in Dallas for the day, so it means a lot that you made the time to talk to me.”
“Of course. I don’t have much going on today anyway. My gardening group got canceled this afternoon. Margie is sick again. Can I offer you some tea? I have a fresh batch of my favorite hibiscus made up.”
“Sure. That would be great.”
“Please have a seat.”
The condo had a small living room off the kitchen. I could see through the patio doors that the building backed up to what looked like a central garden area with fountains and benches. I took a seat on a flowery couch. The poodle had stopped barking but was still sniffing at my shoes. I reached down to pet the dog, and she rolled over for me to scratch her stomach. Lorena returned a few seconds later with two glasses of tea.
“Zoe loves a good belly rub,” she said, smiling. She handed me the tea, and I took a quick sip. It was awful, but I made a yum sound and set it on the glass coffee table.
Lorena jumped right in. “I still think about Bruce and Daniel quite often. Such wonderful guys. It was so tragic for me and everyone when they passed.”
“How long did you work for them?”
“I was with Bruce for four years when Daniel joined him after graduating from law school. Daniel was so smart and so enjoyable to be around. He just had this magnetic way about him that always made everyone feel better. It was hard to accept that such a promising life had been cut so short.”
I wanted to tell her he had actually gone on to live out a life of real impact. “Were there other staff besides you?”
She nodded. “Two law students who clerked when not in class.” She wrinkled her forehead. “What were their names again? Linda and . . . Roger? Oh, I just can’t place their last names right now. Getting older has really messed with my memory. They were with us for only a brief time before the accident. Of course, the firm closed right after.”
“What can you tell me about the day of the accident?”
She pressed her lips together. “Such a sad day. They flew out really early to El Paso. They had a morning meeting with a client. I was in the office all day, catching up on paperwork. I think Linda was there with me, researching a case for Bruce. I got a call midafternoon from someone who worked at the small airport outside of El Paso. I think he said Bruce had written down our office phone number in a log somewhere. The man told me that their plane had exploded almost immediately after taking off. Two men were inside, and neither one had survived.” She put her hand to her chest. “I still feel nearly the same devastation today that I felt in that moment so many years ago.”
“It was Bruce’s plane?” I asked.
“Yes, he liked to fly. He was flying well before I started working for him. The little plane allowed them to take on clients from around the state. So he and Daniel would fly off to various places a couple of times a month.”