“Ajax,” Norm welcomed him, with a smart twinkle in his blue eyes. “So Darrell pawned me off on you, hmm? What a smart man.”
Then he wrapped me up in a hug. “Hello, Rebecca. How are you doing? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, I’m okay. Really.”
He whispered in my ear, “If you ever want help with anything, I’m here for you.”
News traveled fast around Black Wolf County. I was sure Norm had heard about the troubles between me and Ricky, and I understood the kind of help he was talking about. Among the DWIs, estate plans, and petty criminal cases that were his bread and butter, Norm also handled the occasional divorce.
“Well, come on back,” he told us. “Let’s chat.”
He led us to a four-season porch overlooking the backyard and the thick forest. Norm’s house had started small, but he’d expanded it with a second story, a finished basement, a detached garage and workshop, and a multilevel deck, all of which he’d built himself, with help from his son, Will. In the middle of the snowy lawn, I could see an elaborate swing set Norm had constructed years earlier. I’d pushed Will there when he was just a little boy, but since then, he’d turned seventeen, grown to six foot two, and become a high school running back.
I took a seat on a wicker sofa, but Ajax remained standing, as if he could use his height to intimidate Norm. I knew that wouldn’t work. Norm simply eased into a cushioned armchair and took a sip from a glass of orange juice. He wore an L.L.Bean checkered flannel shirt, cream-colored khakis, and heavy wool socks with no shoes. He always looked comfortable in his surroundings, whether it was at home, at the courthouse, or deep in the woods.
Norm was in his midforties, rangy and lean, with thinning blond hair and long sideburns. He was a rarity around here, in that he wasn’t a native. He’d been born in Madison but had grown up hunting and fishing in this part of the world thanks to his father. After he graduated from law school and married his wife, Kathy, he’d whisked her away to Black Wolf County, bought this house, and built up a legal practice in an area that didn’t trust lawyers. People had mixed feelings about him from the start. He was a Sierra Club Democrat in a region where mine workers thought the environment was code for taking away their jobs. Even so, there was a legal niche to be filled in this area, and he filled it. When you got caught doing ninety with six empty cans of Schlitz in the front seat, you needed someone like Norm.
“Gordon Brink,” he said, leaping to the correct assumption about why we were there. “Wow, that’s a shock. Just horrible. I talked to the coroner about it, and he filled me in. I wouldn’t wish that kind of death on anyone. Not even Gordon.”
“The coroner told you about the crime scene?” Ajax asked with surprise.
“Oh, sure. He wouldn’t do it with anyone else, but Ross and I go way back. He knows that if you arrest somebody, I’ll probably be the one defending him. Anyway, I suppose you want to ask about the argument I had with Gordon last week, right? Ruby told you about that?”
I watched Ajax deflate as Norm took the air out of his big news. “Yeah, what was that about?”
“Well, you’ve met Gordon’s son, right? Jay? Smart kid. Sort of quiet and intense, but a decent boy. He transferred into the high school in October when Gordon arrived in town. The other kids gave him a hard time — some really terrible stuff. Will felt bad about it. You know Will, he likes everybody, everybody likes him. He made a point of reaching out to Jay. The two of them have become friends.”
“I’m betting Gordon didn’t like that idea,” I said.
Norm shook his head. “No, he most certainly did not. I mean, it was obvious that Gordon and Jay had a bad relationship. As a father, I get that. Will and I have always been close, but even with him, the teenage years haven’t exactly been Saturday in the park. That’s just the age. But Gordon seemed to have no clue how difficult it was for Jay around here. Empathy isn’t exactly a job requirement for partners at white-shoe law firms.”
“Get to the argument,” Ajax said impatiently. “What was it about?”
“In the middle of Ruby’s deposition, Gordon pulled me outside. He told me to keep Will away from Jay. He accused me of using my son to goad Jay into spying on the litigation. Needless to say, I didn’t take that well. I told him that I would never exploit my son like that, and that if either of the boys tried to give me inside information about the case, I would have shut them down on the spot. I also told him that he should be grateful to Will, because Jay had no other friends around here and was incredibly isolated and unhappy. Gordon told me to mind my own business, and I couldn’t really object to that. It wasn’t my place to interfere. So I let it go, and that was the end of that. When we went back inside to continue the deposition, Gordon acted as if nothing had happened. He was a master at compartmentalizing things.”
“It must have made you mad,” Ajax insisted. “Gordon attacking you and your son like that.”
“Of course it did. But not mad enough to kill him.” Norm’s mouth bent into a tiny smile. “Not even during a monster’s moon.”
“Where were you on Sunday evening?” Ajax asked. “I didn’t see you at the 126.”
“Kathy wasn’t feeling well. We stayed home.”
“Can anyone verify that?”
“No. The two of us watched a movie on our new VCR. I got her a copy of Wuthering Heights. She loves Olivier.”
Ajax sat down next to me and scowled like a chess player who didn’t see any winning moves. None of this was going the way he’d expected. When he didn’t ask anything more, I leaned forward on the sofa and took over the interview.
“Norm, do you have any idea who could have done this to Gordon?”
“I really don’t. It’s shocking and completely unexpected. However, if you’re looking at anyone on the plaintiff side of the litigation as a suspect, I can tell you, you’re barking up the wrong tree. Yes, a lot of people were angry at Brink, but I made it clear to the women and their families that any kind of violence or illegal behavior worked against us. The last thing we need to do is give the judge an excuse to rule against us on key motions.”
“That didn’t work out too well for Erica Brink,” I pointed out. “She got a face full of pig’s blood.”
“You’re right. Except that wasn’t us, either.”
“No?”
“No. Erica wasn’t the target, and neither was Gordon. Jay was. It was kids at school who did it. They simply hit Erica by mistake.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“I am. Will told me.”
“Do you know who did it?”
“Yes, I do, but I’m not going to tell you. Sorry, but it’s not my job to help you do yours. Anyway, Will laid into the kids who did it, and you don’t want to mess with my son. They won’t do it again.”
I shook my head, because Norm had an answer for everything, and his replies left us nowhere to go.
“We talked to Sandra,” I told him.
“Yes, I heard about that,” he replied smoothly. “Please don’t do that again without me present. She’s my client, and I don’t want her answering any questions without counsel.”
“Even if she’s innocent?”
“Because she’s innocent,” Norm said.
“Okay. Well.” I found myself stumbling, like Ajax. “If it was no one on the plaintiff side—”
“Then was it someone on Gordon’s side?” Norm continued calmly. “I have no idea about that. I didn’t see any of his people outside of the deposition proceedings, and hardly any of them said a word to me. They were all eager young associates. None of them struck me as Jack the Ripper, but as Darrell likes to say, you never know.”