The Way of Grace (Miller's Creek Novels) (19 page)

Elena
easily
sidestepped the question.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I did some checking up on you. Graduating at the top of your law class is a major achievement.
I’m glad I’m going to be your
mentor.”

“Thanks
.”
Overcome by
the need to escape
Elena’s persuasive
and cloying
charm,
if only
long enough
to maintain her ability
to
think straight
, Grace glanced around
. “Is there a restroom close
by?”

“Yes.” She pointed out her door, across the reception area to a small door. “Right
over
there.”

“
I’ll be back in a second.” She crosse
d the reception area,
bathed in the same plush carpeting, opened the door
,
and flipped on the light switch. Her eyes landed on the toilet paper holder. Empty. A quick search in the drawers beneath the si
nk turned up nothing.
She’d just have to ask Elena.

As she drew closer to Elena’s office d
oor,
cracked e
ver so slightly, the
woman
’s voice
sounded
from the other side
, hushed and
determined. “She’s been here
a f
ew minutes. I’m telling you,
we have to watch out for her. She’s smarter than you give her credit for. She graduated first in her
cla
—”

Elena
grew silent for a moment,
then
came back in, her voice stronger. “I don’t care how naïve
you think
she is, I’m telling you we’ll have to keep an eye on her. Yes, she’s important to our plan, but this
isn’t going to be a cakewalk.
You’re
gonna
have to turn it up a notch in the charm department.”

The air grew still and quiet again, her heartbeat pounding so loud in her ears, Grace was sure it was audible
in the next county
.
Elena’s
words about graduating first in her class lodged in Grace’s brain. Was Elena referring to her
? If so, why did she think she think she
needed to be watched out for?
And who
was she talking to
? Grac
e st
ruggled to keep her breathing shallow
, tuning her ears to the faintest sound.

Finally Elena spoke again. “Yeah, well, she’s also pretty attached to A
ndy Tyler, and that’s not a good thing
.
You know he’s on the list.”

Her muscles froze, making breathing impossible
.
Andy on a l
ist?
What list?
Her brain raced.
Elena
was
talking about her and her connection to Andy.

“
Listen, we’ll have to talk about it later because I
need to make
another call.
”
Talking ceased
, and
faint musical tones sounded as Elena punched buttons
. “
This is Elena. I can’t talk
long.
What do you need?
”
Again a pause.
“
Just
say
you do
n’t remember if the defense asks that question
.”

Invisible hands
claw
ed
at her throat, threatening to suffocate her. She brought a hand to her
neck.

“Talk to you later. Bye.” The phone banged
against the receiver and a whisper of steps grew louder and closer.

Grace
scrambled across the carpet
to the
bathroom
door, pivoted
,
and pretended to exit,
when Elena called out
from
her doorway
. “Did you hear something?
”

She gave her head a casual shake
. “No. What?”

Elena’s eyes narrowed to cat-like slits.
“Nothing.
Must have been my imagination.”
She
stared at Grace a moment longer
then headed to the exit. “
Right now they’re holding the job
opening
at my request. I
t won’t last forever
, so you need to give me your answer ASAP
.
Come on, I’m hungry.
”

The following Monday, Grace once more sat in the M
iller County
Court
house, her thoughts on Matt. She’d been more than relieved when he’d showed up at church
yesterday
and even more
pleased
when he’d asked her to lunch
.
Afterwards, they’
d walked to the creek and sat near the w
ater to talk, and though he
questioned her new hairstyle and clothing, he’d done so respectfully. Her lips curved into a smile.
Just knowing that
for now he
planned to stay
in Miller’
s Creek made everything better. While i
t was
still
too early to tell if
things
would work out between them,
at least
now she
had the chance to find out
.

Jason shifted positions to her left
. Even though Andy still refused to put her on the case, he
requested she
attend the trial
to observe El
ena in action to
hopefully uncover any weaknesses
.
The idea was laughable. Elena wasn’
t the type to show
chinks in her armor.
Nor would she
make careless
mistakes.

Grace
moistened her lips and
thought back to her dinner with Elena on Friday night. The other attorney had
once more grow
n
quiet and
reticent, and more than once
,
she’d
looked up from her plate to find Elena staring at her
, almost
as if she were scheming up
some sort of
plan
.

A
chair
scraped
against the floor
and
brought her attention back to the trial.
On the other side of David Simmons, Andy
rose
to his feet, ready to cross-examine
Scott Evans,
a witness Elena had called to the stand.
“Mr. Evans
, you stated previously
that you were in the car with David Simmons on the evening of December twelfth of last year. Is that correct?”

“Yes
sir.”

“And
two other people,
Gregor
y Johnson
and Michael Bedford, were
with you
as well
?”
Andy perused the yellow legal pad he held in his hands.

“Yes
.”

“
You mentioned that
David only pretended to be Michael’s friend, that behind his back, David made him the brunt of jokes.”

Scott Evans nodded.

“And
how
was your re
lationship with Mr. Bedford
?”

“Okay, I guess.”

“So you never made derogatory comments behind his back?”

The witness
fidgeted
a bit before answering the question
. “
I guess I did sometimes.
”

“So it’s safe to say that you and David held similar views of Michael Bedford?”

Evans
rubbed his cheek
.
“Yeah.”

Andy approached the witness stand
in a non-confrontational way
. “
Did Michael
hang out with you guys
on a regular basis
?”

“
Not normally, but it wasn’t unusual for David to invite other people to hang with us.”

“And what kind of activities did all of you typically enjoy during these
times
?”

“
Just the usual, playing basketball or football—you
know,
guy stuff.”

On the other side of the courtroom,
Elena
twisted her lips
then lowered her head.

Grace
’s
spirit
quickened,
and a frown drew her eyebrows in tight
.
The witness’s
response bothered Elena, but why?

Andy resumed his questioning.
“
It’s alre
ady been established that you’
d all had a few drinks, but on the night in question, how much did you have to drink?
”

Scott Evans practically bored a hole in
the back wall of the courthouse
. Finally, Evans level
ed his gaze to Andy. “I don’t remember.”

Grace’s
pulse blasted off,
jack-
hammering in her ears,
her mind zoned in on the
phone call she’d inadvertently eavesdropped on
only a few days ago
.
Elena had
mentioned
those very words—
“
I don’t remember
.
”
She stole a quick glance at the prosecutor. She looked nonplussed, like she wasn’t the least bit bothered by the answer. Was Elena guilty of
influencing witness testimony?

Andy
grew agitated
and strode closer to the stand, his legal pad raised in the air
.
“Oh, c’mon, surely you
can do better than that? Don’t you know how much you had to drink?
One?
Two?
More than that?”

Evans swallowed hard. “I don’t think I had any more than anyone else if that’s what you’re asking.”

Grace couldn’t maintain her focus on the drama unfolding before her.
Her
head pounded
, and she raised fingertips to massage the sudden ache in her temple
. S
he had no
proof for her suspicions
of Elena
. Anything she said would be nothing but hearsay, and
she couldn’t just
go around accusing well-respected members of society without something to back it up.

A shudder ripple
d down her spine, sending
bumps
along the skin of her arms and legs, her mind gyrating
with questions. T
here was more at play here than she understood.

Why had Elena intro
duced her
to her family, given her several hundred dollars’ worth of clothes, taken her out for dinner, told her about the possible job, offered to be her mentor
?
Was she just being nice, or was she attempting to buy her off
?
And w
ho
was on the other end of Elena’s
phone
conversation? More
importantly, what list was Andy on?

Everything around
Grace faded away
,
as
she
rested an elbow on the rail and
spun
a strand of
hair
around one finger
.
S
omething was
amiss
,
and it revolv
ed around Elena. And somehow or another, she had to figure it out.
Grac
e released a
shaky breath
.
She
had no choice.