American library books » Other » In Self Defense by Susan Sloan (phonics books .TXT) 📕

Read book online «In Self Defense by Susan Sloan (phonics books .TXT) 📕».   Author   -   Susan Sloan



1 ... 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 ... 79
Go to page:
you get what you pay for.”

“Just for the hell of it, why not let’s go have a little talk with James Lilly?” Dusty suggested.  “After all, he was Durant’s assistant, and he has sort of a relationship with his wife.  Maybe he can shed a little light on all this.”

***

“I try very hard to stay out of people’s personal lives,” James Lilly said when Dusty and Erin found him cleaning out his desk at the Nicolaidis Building.  “Did I know that Mr. Durant was engaged in . . . extracurricular activities?  Sure, I did.  He didn’t exactly make a big secret of it.  He was always asking me to make dinner reservations for him and send flowers and stuff.  But other than accompanying Mrs. Durant to a charitable event now and again, I don’t know that I could tell you anything about her personal life.”

“You accompanied her to quite a few charitable events,” Dusty pressed.  “Did you ever notice her paying special attention to anyone else?”

“No,” James said.  “Certainly not the way I think you mean.  Why are you asking all these questions anyway?  I thought Mr. Durant’s death had been ruled an accident.”

“We’re taking another look,” Erin told him.

The pale eyes widened ever so slightly behind the glasses.  “Well, as I said, I couldn’t tell you very much about Mrs. Durant’s personal life,” he reiterated.  “But if you wanted to know about Mr. Durant’s personal life, seeing as he’s dead and all, and couldn’t care, I could maybe be more helpful.”

“Stephanie Burdick,” Erin said without preamble.

James rolled his eyes at that.  “She lasted a lot longer than any of the others,” he said.  “Usually, it was a couple of months, and then he’d get bored and move on.  But Ms. Burdick was still around, even after a couple of years.”

“Was it serious?”

“Well, I don’t know what you mean by serious, but she was certainly keeping him interested.”

“Do you know if he ever considered a divorce?”

James looked uncomfortable at that, and Erin leaned in.  “If you know something, Mr. Lilly, please tell us.  It could be very important.”

“At the beginning of last year, he asked me to find him an attorney,” James said reluctantly.

“What sort of attorney?”

“A divorce attorney.  He said he had already talked to one, but he was looking for a second opinion.”

“Did you find him one?”  Dusty asked.

“Sure.  There are lots of divorce attorneys around.”

“And was the second opinion more to his liking?”

“I don’t know.  He never said.”

“Did Mrs. Durant know that her husband was talking to divorce attorneys?” Erin inquired.

“I think it would be safe to say that she did,” James said with a chuckle.

“Why?”

“Because you always know what’s on Mrs. Durant’s mind.”

“What do you mean?”

James looked from one detective to the other, afraid he had made a mistake.  “Look, I don’t want to talk out of turn here,” he said.  “These people have been very good to me, and I owe them a lot.”

“This is important, Mr. Lilly,” Dusty told him.  “Or we wouldn’t be asking.”

“Well, obviously, Mrs. Durant wasn’t happy about it,” James said.  “In particular, she wasn’t happy about Ms. Burdick.  I overhead part of a conversation in Mr. Durant’s office.  She was reaming him up and down about how his string of tarts didn’t bother her, but someone like Stephanie Burdick was a whole other story, and he wouldn’t like what would happen if he didn’t end it right away.”

“Was she any more specific than that?”

James was now clearly uncomfortable with the nature of the conversation.  “She said there were ways of taking care of things that didn’t have anything to do with divorce attorneys,” he told the detectives reluctantly.

***

“Do you think she set the whole thing up, right from the beginning?” Mark Sundstrom asked the two detectives seated across the desk from him.  “The stalker?  You?”

“No,” Erin replied.  “The stalker is real, we know that.  We’ve got him on tape.  We know his history.  We believe she simply saw an opportunity, and took advantage of it.”

              “If you must know, we think the stalker may have set it up,” Dusty said.  “But of course, we have no idea how, and we have no way of proving it.”

“Clever guy, is he?”

“Our profiler says he’s smart, but not as smart as he thinks he is,” Erin told him.  “I think she may be wrong.”

Sundstrom sighed.  “It’s not the strongest case I’ve ever taken into court, but I guess I’ve tried weaker ones,” he said.  “Let’s see what a grand jury thinks.”

***

Eight weeks after the death of Richard Durant, the grand jury handed down an indictment, having found sufficient cause to charge Clare Durant with the murder of her husband.  Rather than having Dusty and Erin go to Laurelhurst and take her away in handcuffs, she was allowed to surrender herself, which she did, at ten-thirty on a Thursday morning, with her attorney at her side.

“Don’t say a word unless I tell you to,” David instructed her.  “I’ll do all the talking.”

Clare was more than happy to leave everything to him.  It was actually nice, for a change -- a relief, really -- to let someone else do the thinking and the talking for her.  She went through the booking process of being fingerprinted and photographed, feeling deeply humiliated, but without comment.

Tipped off no doubt by the police, the media were everywhere.  Reporters shouted at her, microphones were thrust into her face, cameras assaulted her from every angle.  She was quickly whisked away to a private location while an arraignment was scheduled.  But then the cameras followed her into the courtroom, where she got to say “not guilty” in a surprisingly clear voice.

A trial date was set, and by two o’clock that afternoon, she was on her way back home, after posting a million dollar bond, as the defendant in what was doubtless going to be the one of the most explosive cases in Seattle’s history.

***

Clare was in the library, ensconced in front of a warm fire.  The television set was on, but she

1 ... 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 ... 79
Go to page:

Free e-book: «In Self Defense by Susan Sloan (phonics books .TXT) 📕»   -   read online now on website american library books (americanlibrarybooks.com)

Comments (0)

There are no comments yet. You can be the first!
Add a comment