“A glass of pinot grigio,” Lacy said.
“Same,” Margie quickly agreed, and the waitress was gone.
Lacy glanced right and left to make sure whatever they said could not be overheard. It could not. The tables were spaced far enough apart, and a steady roar emanated from the bar and drowned out everything else.
Lacy said, “Okay. So you don’t live here and I don’t know your real name. I’d say we’re off to a slow start, which I’m accustomed to. However, as I think I told you, I waste a lot of time with people who contact me then clam up when it’s time to tell their stories.”
“What would you like to know first?”
“How about your name?”
“I can do that.”
“Great.”
“But I’d like to know what you’ll do with my name. Do you open a file? Is it a digital file or an old-fashioned pen-on-paper file? If it’s digital where is it stored? Who else will know my name?”
Lacy swallowed hard and studied her eyes. Margie could not hold the stare and glanced away.
Lacy asked, “You’re nervous and act as though you’re being followed.”
“I’m not being followed, Lacy, but everything leaves a trail.”
“A trail for someone else to follow. Is this someone the judge you suspect of murder? Help me here, Margie. Give me something.”
“Everything leaves a trail.”
“You’ve said that.”
The waitress hustled by, pausing just long enough to set down two glasses of wine and a bowl of nuts.
Margie appeared not to notice the wine but Lacy took a sip. She said, “So, we’re still stuck on the name thing. I’ll write it down somewhere and keep it off our network, initially.”
Margie nodded and became someone else. “Jeri Crosby, age forty-six, professor of political science at the University of South Alabama in Mobile. One marriage, one divorce, one child, a daughter.”
“Thank you. And you believe your father was murdered by a judge who’s now on the bench. Correct?”
“Yes, a Florida judge.”
“That narrows it down to about a thousand.”
“A circuit judge in the Twenty-Second District.”
“Impressive. Now we’re down to about forty. When do I get the name of your suspect?”
“Real soon. Can we slow down a bit? Right now it doesn’t take much to rattle me.”
“You haven’t touched your wine. It might help.”
Jeri took a sip and a deep breath and said, “I’m guessing you’re around forty years old.”
“Almost. Thirty-nine, so I’ll turn forty soon enough. Traumatic?”
“Well, sort of, I guess. But life goes on. So, twenty-two years ago you were still in high school, right?”
“I suppose. Why is this relevant?”
“Relax, Lacy, I’m talking now, okay? We’re getting somewhere. You were just a kid and you probably never read about the murder of Bryan Burke, a retired professor of law.”
“Never heard of it. Your father?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Thanks. For almost thirty years my father taught at Stetson Law School in Gulfport, Florida. In the Tampa area.”
“I’m familiar with the school.”
“He retired at the age of sixty, for family reasons, and returned to his hometown in South Carolina. I have a thorough file on my father which I’ll give you at some point. He was quite a man. Needless to say, his murder rocked our world and, frankly, I’m still reeling. Losing a parent too young is bad enough, but when it’s murder, and an unsolved murder, it’s even more devastating. Twenty-two years later the case is even colder and the police have all but given up. Once we realized that they were getting nowhere, I vowed to try everything to find his killer.”
“The police gave up?”
She drank some wine. “Over time, yes. The file is still open and I talk to them occasionally. I’m not knocking the cops, you understand? They did the best they could under the circumstances, but it was a perfect murder. All of them are.”
Lacy drank some wine. “A perfect murder?”
“Yes. No witnesses. No forensics, or least none that can be traced to the killer. No apparent motive.”
Lacy almost asked: And so what am I supposed to do?
But she took another sip and said, “I’m not sure the Board on Judicial Conduct is equipped to investigate an old murder case in South Carolina.”
“I’m not asking for that. Your jurisdiction is over Florida judges who might be involved in wrongdoing, right?”