Jack pushed back his chair and stood. “We’re done here.”
Finley stood more slowly. Jack was already at the door by the time she pushed in her chair. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Davis.”
“She’s marked,” Davis said quietly. “You’ll see. They all are.”
Then he launched into fervent prayer.
Jack didn’t say a word until they were through security and out of the building. “Son of a bitch! Holmes is up to something. He’s added a new level to this twisted game of his.”
When they’d settled into his vehicle and had the air struggling against the heat, Finley reminded him, “You can’t play a game without a willing participant. She came to see him. What does that tell you?”
Jack’s mouth stayed shut in that thin line of fury while he drove through the gate.
“It tells me,” Finley went on, “that Sophia Legard has reason to be worried. To jump through hoops. What do you think will happen when Siniard or the DA get wind of her little visit? She just wrote guilty across her forehead.”
“I want to talk to her. Get her side of this story.”
“Is that Jack the attorney talking or Jack the lover?”
He shot her a look. “Are you really asking me that, O’Sullivan?”
He barreled into traffic. Finley held on to the armrests.
He was pissed. He never called her O’Sullivan. She was his namesake.
“It’s a reasonable question under the circumstances,” she argued.
He drove. Said nothing.
“She’s our client,” Finley pressed. “Of course you need to find out why she felt compelled to visit the bastard. But the emotion I’m hearing in your voice is about more than the case. I’m not saying your heart is involved,” she said when he continued the silent treatment. “I’m saying your ego is leading you. For whatever reason, she has dragged you into this case. And maybe you feel like you have to do a better job protecting her this time or some stupid macho thing like that.”
“She trusts me.”
“Does she? She had an affair with you. Is this about trust or about malleability? She called, and you came right back to her aid as if five years hadn’t passed. As if,” Finley emphasized, “the two of you hadn’t drifted apart.”
The next thirty seconds were filled with mumbled curse words. Mostly aimed at the possibility that Finley was right.
She was. No question. Sophia was counting on Jack to believe whatever story she gave him.
“She and I are going to have a serious discussion.”
“Not without me,” Finley warned.
“See if you can get a meeting. Now. Right now. The three of us.”
Most of the trip back to Nashville was spent with Finley calling Sophia’s cell and home number as well as Cecelia’s and Olivia’s cells. No one answered. Jack was so furious at their client he drove straight to the Legard mansion. There was no answer at the gate.
With him even more disgusted and still as mad as hell, he drove back to the Drake. Finley decided not to mention what she’d discovered about Derrick or the second warning from what was no doubt a Holmes follower. Jack had enough on his plate. He was teetering on the edge, and she wasn’t about to be the reason he stumbled.
“You okay?” she asked when he made no move to get out of the vehicle.
“I fucked this one up, Fin. Didn’t see what was coming. I feel like I’ve walked into a setup, but the endgame is unclear. I’d prefer you step away from the case and let me finish this one alone.”
“What?” She laughed. “You think anything about this case could damage my reputation any worse than it already is?”
“Fin.”
“Forget it. We’re in this together, Jack.” She reached for her door. “So don’t go messing around with Jim Beam. I need you.”
He nodded and reached for his door.
They were two of a kind all right. Broken and too damned hardheaded to admit defeat.
18
5:00 p.m.
The Murder House
Shelby Avenue
Nashville
Finley drove back to Shelby Avenue. She parked in the drive and stared at the murder house. For the first time since she’d moved in, she didn’t feel at home. And she felt utterly alone.
She pressed her forehead against the steering wheel. Jack wasn’t the only one who’d stepped in it. She’d missed something with Derrick. How was that possible? Her entire career had been based on her ability to read people and anticipate their actions to some degree.