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But if Celeste wanted her nearer than that, Mara wouldn’t refuse her and perched on an ottoman near the recliner.
Once she had, Celeste’s attention centered again on her grandson.
And so did Mara’s.
She couldn’t help it. Jared Perry was just such a presence in the small space and as Celeste let him know how she’d kept tabs on him and the rest of the Perry family over the years, Mara took more specific stock of what made up the handsome hunk sitting across the room.
His sable-brown hair had a reddish hue where the sun had kissed it. It was cut short on the sides and longer on top, but so meticulously that there was almost an art to the style. His nose was slightly flat across the bridge, with no-nonsense nostrils. His lips were slightly thin, but somehow lush just the same. He had cheekbones that weren’t terribly pronounced but sat atop hollows that dipped into a sharp jawline, and a chin with a stubborn firmness to it. There was the shadow of a beard that added to his smoldering good looks but seemed too rugged to go with the sophistication of his attire.
And then there were those eyes—eyes Mara could now see were so light a blue they were almost colorless. Remarkable, mesmerizing eyes that left her thinking that, if he wanted to, he could make any woman go tongue-tied and entranced with just the right kind of glance.
“Let’s get to the reason I’m here tonight instead of waiting to see you at a more civil hour.”
Jared Perry’s voice—like deep, dark cognac—penetrated Mara’s study of him even though he wasn’t addressing her.
“I want to talk to you about getting a decent defense attorney,” he said to Celeste in an all-business tone that cut to the chase.
“Oh, I don’t think that’s necessary,” Celeste responded with the same not-overly-concerned attitude she’d maintained all through the week.
And with that Mara felt compelled to enter the conversation.
“It is necessary,” she said, eager for another opportunity to say what she’d been saying from the start. “You should have an attorney who isn’t a public defender. You’re going to be questioned by the FBI, state police, detectives and the D.A. tomorrow, and your public defender has spent all of ten minutes on the phone with you.”
“But that doesn’t matter because I didn’t do any of what those people will be questioning me about,” Celeste insisted, just as she had multiple times.
“Still,” her grandson said forcefully, “you don’t know what kind of evidence they’re going to come at you with or how it might be slanted. With a bank robbery and now the remains of the second robber unearthed to cast suspicions of murder you’re in no position to take this in stride.”
Obviously Jared Perry was well informed. But Celeste was busy shaking her head at his argument.
“I’m not taking it in stride, Jared. It’s just that I didn’t do anything,” she said again.
“So let the attorney I bring in say that for you,” he said, going on to outline all the reasons it was imperative for Celeste to have an accomplished lawyer.
He was eloquent but he didn’t pull any punches, and in the process he made Celeste’s situation seem very dire regardless of her guilt or innocence. He was so blunt, in fact, that there were a few times when Mara flinched at what he said. Yes, every worst-case scenario was possible if things didn’t go Celeste’s way, but his harshness stunned Mara and clearly shook Celeste who went from what had seemed to be complacence to all-out, color-drained-from-her-face fear.
He must have seen it, too, because when he’d finished he said, “I’m sorry to take the hard line here, but I’ve been in touch with the family and when they told me you were sticking with a public defender I couldn’t believe it. I knew somebody had to come in here and not sugarcoat things for you. You need a lawyer—a great lawyer—and that’s all there is to it.”
“He is right,” Mara put it in a softer tone. “You know I think it’s in your best interest, too.”
Celeste raised the glass of brandy she’d only been sipping at and threw back what remained of it. Then, for a long moment, she stared blankly at the floor before she said in a weak voice, “I guess I was being naive. If you’re both so sure—”
“I’ll put in the call right now,” her grandson said, whipping out a razor-thin cell phone as if he’d been champing at the bit for the go-ahead.
Seeing that the older woman had wilted in her chair beneath the weight of all her grandson had said to her, Mara reached over and squeezed Celeste’s hand.
“It’s a good thing to do,” Mara assured her, relieved that someone had at last persuaded Celeste, even if she wasn’t thrilled with the method. “It can’t do any harm for you to have a competent lawyer.”
“It can if it makes me look guilty after I’ve already told the authorities that I don’t care about a lawyer because I have nothing to hide,” Celeste whispered what had been her contention all along.
Mara hadn’t thought Jared Perry was listening but apparently he was, because before she could reassure Celeste he said, “It doesn’t make you look guilty. It’s no more than they expect of someone in your situation.” Then, without missing a beat he began talking into his phone.
“That’s true,” Mara confirmed before standing and going back to the kitchen, returning with the brandy and refilling Celeste’s glass.
The older woman again downed the cheap liquor as if she needed it to steady her nerves.
Then Jared Perry was off the phone and his focus was again on his grandmother—although now that he seemed to have taken over there was no family feeling in the air. Mara had more of a sense that she was witnessing what it was like to have him barge into a board meeting to announce that he had suddenly acquired the company.
“The 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 full-out—a broad, amused grin that put creases down his cheeks and would have been something to marvel at if Mara hadn’t suddenly been so concerned about his intentions.
“What will you do to me?” he asked with barely contained delight
Unfortunately Mara didn’t have any threat at all, let alone a good one.
So she merely stood her ground and said, “This had just better be what you’re saying it is.”
“Careful, I don’t think you know who you’re dealing with.”
“Careful yourself, or you might end up cut off at the knees.”
Mara didn’t know where that had come from or how she’d managed to make it sound as ominous as she had. She also didn’t know what she would possibly do if he pushed it. But still she stared him down—navy blue eyes locked unwaveringly with ice-blue.
Until he blinked.
Not because she’d won the stare-down, but because he couldn’t laugh without breaking it.
Then he said, “Relax, Mama Bear, I only came to help your cub.” He sauntered to the door, opened it and then added, “I’ll be in touch,” before he walked out and closed the door behind him.
Mara deflated, realizing that meeting Jared Perry had had its own impact on her as it rippled through her like an aftershock.
An aftershock that brought with it something a little tingly.
Something a little tingly and, surprisingly, somehow exciting.
Chapter Two
Jared Perry was out of bed at 5:00 a.m. Monday morning and on the phone to his assistant in New York by 5:05. That made it 7:05 a.m. New York time so he knew Lloyd was answering at home. It didn’t matter. Lloyd was used to Jared calling him at all hours.
After rattling off questions concerning his newest takeover—a sporting-goods business in Colorado—and giving Lloyd instructions for the day, Jared took a shower, shaved, did some paperwork, phoned his man in charge of the revamp of an international electronics firm based in London and watched the clock until the more reasonable hour of 8:30 a.m. That was when he called Stephanie to see what kind of headway she was making with the postponement of Celeste’s questioning.
The news was not what he had been hoping for.
Authorities had already delayed the interrogation in order to gather and organize their information, Celeste had a public defender appointed to her so she was represented, and there was no reason for officials to put off her questioning any longer. The fact that Celeste had had a last-minute change of mind regarding representation was Celeste’s—and Stephanie’s—problem. The stage was set, investigators and the district attorney had made travel arrangements to Northbridge, and they were firm in their determination that today be the day.
“That’s it then? It’s happening without you?” Jared asked.
“I spoke to the public defender and he’ll still be there, only now as my proxy while I participate through a conference call. I’m sorry, J., but that’s all I can do on such short notice. I have a death penalty hearing today and tomorrow and I can’t leave until it’s over.”
“I’m worried that if you’re not here to coach her, Celeste might say something she shouldn’t.”
“I’ll call her in an hour or so and talk to her, do what coaching needs to be done that way. But all that’s really expected of her today is that she tell her story. Of course there will be questions, but to some extent, at this point, investigators and even the D.A. are still on a fact-finding mission.”
“It looks like more than that to me when they have a guard posted outside her apartment.”
“That’s because there’s been some concern that she might flee. After all she’s managed to keep under the radar for over forty years, which is why there’s been talk of arresting her just to hang on to her. But the local cops have successfully kept that from happening and I don’t expect that there will be an arrest today either. I think what the feds, the state guys and the D.A. will do is hear out Celeste, take whatever information she gives them back to their own corners, go over it, compare it to the facts and figures and decide where to go from here. If they do opt to arrest her it won’t be for a day or two and by then I’ll be in Montana to handle whatever comes up.”
Jared knew that questioning whether or not Stephanie had done her best was unnecessary, so he ended the conversation with a thank-you.
