problem now,” he said, “is what I was afraid of when I found out the questioning was tomorrow—I can’t get Stephanie here until Wednesday. We’re going to have to try to postpone things—”
“Oh, I don’t want it put off any longer. I want to get it over with,” Celeste said, sounding even more alarmed.
It was alarm Mara understood and she cut Jared Perry off when he seemed on the verge of simply waving away Celeste’s anxiousness.
“I know you’re sure that just telling your story tomorrow will put an end to everything and you want that to happen,” Mara said. “But it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
Celeste again turned her now-ashen face to her grandson. “Will the authorities let the questioning be postponed? Won’t it look like I’m stalling?”
“I don’t know if they’ll agree. But we’ll do all we can, and we don’t care if it looks as if you’re stalling—”
“I care,” Celeste said, sounding slightly panicky.
“All you have to care about is getting out of this and Stephanie is the woman for that. Let her do your worrying. She’s the best in her field and she’s on the job as of now,” he said with what sounded like admiration.
Mara wondered if it was admiration for more than just the attorney’s expertise.
“What will this cost?” Celeste asked.
“It won’t cost you anything,” Jared assured. “I know this woman, she’ll be doing it as a favor to me—she owes me one—and whatever expenses come up, I’ll cover.”
Mara’s curiosity about Stephanie and her relationship with Jared Perry increased.
But she concentrated on Celeste, who nodded her acceptance of the financial arrangement but was still more drawn-looking than she’d been since her identity had been revealed and this entire situation had blown up. And Mara was beginning to wonder if she should have turned Jared Perry away at the door after all.
“When will we know if the questioning is postponed?” the older woman asked timidly.
“Not until tomorrow. But as soon as I hear, I’ll call you.”
Celeste nodded and swallowed so hard it was evident even through her many chins. “I think I need to get to bed now, if that’s all right.”
“Good idea. We want you on your toes,” he decreed.
Mara again helped the older woman out of the recliner. “Are you okay?” she asked Celeste.
Celeste smiled miserably. “Maybe being naive wasn’t so bad. I just don’t want anyone thinking that I need fancy lawyers and postponements and wheeling and dealing to cover something up.”
“No one will think that,” Mara assured her. “You have the right to the best defense and that’s all this is. Even if it has happened fast and…furiously.”
Celeste nodded once more but still looked uncertain.
“Go let the brandy do its job and get some rest,” Mara urged.
Another nod. Then Celeste turned to her grandson and took his hand in both of hers. “Thank you for coming. And for wanting to help.”
“I am going to help, you can be sure of that.”
It was somehow cold comfort but still Celeste muttered, “Okay…”
Then she said good-night to both Mara and Jared and left them alone again in the living room.
Only when Mara heard Celeste’s bedroom door close did she turn to Jared Perry.
“I’ve been trying to get her to agree to having a lawyer. I just couldn’t make myself scare her into it.”
One eyebrow arched at her. “Are you saying I shouldn’t have?” he challenged.
“I’m just saying I couldn’t and maybe just a little lighter touch would have been—”
“I believe in doing what needs to be done—whatever that is, whatever it takes,” he said as he put on his coat. “But then I’m usually the person who comes in and gets things turned around when no one else can bring themselves to do it.”
Take-No-Prisoners Perry. Mara could see it.
And maybe because of that and because of the change that had overtaken Celeste before she’d gone to bed, Mara wavered a bit in thinking that what he’d just accomplished was an altogether good thing.
“It is better for Celeste to have a lawyer, isn’t it?” she said with a hint of uncertainty of her own now.
“A lawyer who isn’t an overworked, underpaid, uninvolved, uninterested public defender? Much.”
“This woman you’ve hired—or enlisted—she’ll do everything possible for Celeste?”
He narrowed those ice-blue eyes at her. “Am I hearing suspicion of me again?” he asked, the challenge once more in his tone as he referred to her earlier questions through the door.
“I don’t really know you. And you don’t really know Celeste. You wouldn’t be a wolf in sheep’s clothing, coming in here to pressure her into something you have set up to hurt her rather than help her, would you?”
That seemed to amuse him slightly because a small, slow smile made one side of his mouth creep upward. “Now why would I do that?”
“There are people who believe that Celeste was in on the bank robbery and that she killed her lover’s partner. There are people who think that at the very least she was an accomplice to it all. And there are other people who think that even if she didn’t commit those crimes, there should be consequences for having left her husband and sons the way she did.”
“I’m not any of those people.”
“But you could want to get back at her for your grandfather’s sake or because she abandoned your father or…I don’t know, for not being a doting grandmother when you were a kid.”
That apparently amused him even more because the other side of his sexy mouth joined the first in an uptilt. “Actually, I’ve always thought my grandmother and I might be kindred spirits if we ever got to know each other. So no, I don’t have anything to get back at her for. I honestly am here to help her.”
Mara knew he could just be saying that to cover his tracks if he intended to do damage to Celeste. But she had no way of telling whether he was lying.
And she had lobbied for Celeste to have a private attorney. Now that Jared Perry had accomplished that, Mara didn’t have much choice but to trust him. And to hope for the best. But that didn’t keep her from worrying just the same.
She raised her chin at the man who stood tall, strong and sure before her. “If you’re lying and you do anything to hurt her…”
Her threat made him smile
