Back Against the Wall by Janice Kay Johnson

Author:Janice Kay Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-10-17T13:07:06+00:00

Chapter Ten

PARKING HIS UNMARKED police car, Tony studied the elegant stucco building in front of him. Painted a muted gold, accented with a wrought iron gate, it housed the law firm of Longley, Parsons & Schaaf. Complete with an arched opening leading into a small courtyard with a fountain, it had the look of a Spanish mission.

One of the three reserved parking spots was empty. In the other two were a Cadillac Escalade and a silver Lexus. He’d done some research before leaving the station and knew Longley drove the Escalade. Gleaming black, shiny gold trim, massive. Tony kind of doubted the attorney ever intended to haul anything in it.

With regret—yep, there was that word—Tony had instructed Beth to go ahead digging through the boxes in the backyard. He had sent an officer to help her and to be present if she found anything of interest. He’d decided he had greater priorities—and that he had to trust her.

He had also asked which of her parents’ friends had called her after hearing she’d found her mother’s body.

“Debra Abernathy, which isn’t any surprise,” she’d said promptly. “The others were Michael Longley and Tim Oberholtzer. Mr. Oberholtzer said he’d talked to Dad but hadn’t gotten a good idea of what was really happening and was worried about Dad. Mr. Longley sounded deeply concerned about how this was affecting all of us.”

Hearing her puzzlement at that, Tony moved Michael Longley to the top of his interview list. He had called the law firm the minute they opened this morning and been told that Longley would fit him in at ten o’clock.

Tony wore dress slacks and shoes and even a tie today, although given how hot the day already was, he couldn’t make himself put on the suit coat. He’d have done it for court, but not for anything less. Still, he liked to look as professional as the people he was interviewing, and he planned to tackle an attorney and a banker this morning.

A slick-looking young man in a spiffy gray-on-gray suit led him into the back, passing conference rooms and offices without names. Michael Longley’s had his in gilt letters on a frosted glass pane in the door.

The man behind the desk rose to his feet and said, “Thank you, Jeff,” in clear dismissal. Then he came around the desk—cherry wood, at a guess, and as shiny as the Escalade—and held out a hand. “Detective Navarro.”

Tony and he shook, the assessment mutual. “Mr. Longley.”

Longley looked to be in his fifties, dark hair shot with silver, but he was handsome, lean and athletic, just as Alan Schuh was, and maybe five foot ten. Deeply tanned—did these guys spend a lot of time on the golf course?—so that his skin was as dark as Tony’s, sharpening the effect of his gray eyes. Spending that much time in the sun or a tanning booth didn’t seem smart, but he looked good and had an air that probably worked especially well with female clients and jurors.

He

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