“Right. Mrs. Vang didn’t know you had the check and didn’t know Kao was trying to collect the money without her cooperation. She didn’t say much about that, but I could see the information hit her hard. Evidently Kao figures he’s the head of the family, so he’ll take control of the money. Then he’ll pressure his wife into doing what he wants her to do.”
“But this is America,” Nina said, “and Mrs. Vang owned half their store. Half the money is hers.”
“That’s right.”
“Thanks so much for going the extra step, Paul. I never would have forgiven myself.” Nevertheless, Nina felt sad. The family had cracked. The insurance money couldn’t save them as a family. She couldn’t fix that no matter how hard she tried.
“None of this has anything to do with the file,” Paul insisted. “You had a gut feeling something was wrong and you made me look into it and we prevented a major injustice.”
Nina pulled into the Starlake lot and turned off the ignition. “I don’t expect to fix all the problems in the world. I just wish I could.”
“Take a step back,” Paul advised. “One more thing. I also went to the last known address of the boyfriend Vang shot during the second robbery attempt. It’s a dump under a freeway overpass. I was looking for information on the second robber. The people who live there now are from Alabama and never heard of the kid or his family. I think, since you knew nothing about a second robber, whoever has your file doesn’t know either, so there’s been no contact. I don’t think we need to worry that there’s danger coming from that quarter, and I couldn’t do any more on it today. We have two other files demanding attention, so I quit for now. Is that okay?”
Holding the phone to her ear, Nina walked into her building. She waved at the real-estate ladies in their office, walking all the way to the other end of the hall to her office, thinking: Was this new information enough to appease her gut-level worry about this case? How far could she go? She now understood Kao Vang’s demand for immediate payment. She didn’t like hearing that there was another loose end, a second robber even the police didn’t know about-but this could go on forever.
She was satisfied that the Vangs were safe and unthreatened. Her duty now was to give them their money and provide them that resource as they flailed around trying to solve their other family problems.
“Go on down to Palo Alto and turn that eagle eye to the campground case,” she said. “I’ll tear up the joint check and issue two separate checks, half and half, from my trust account, then have a courier deliver them to Mr. and Mrs. Vang separately on Monday. I just want more time to let things settle in my own mind. They’ll get their money. We can’t get involved any further. It’s already Thursday, so first day of business next week.”
“Good plan,” he said.
He knew she was delaying, but that was her choice. The jerky, sudden twists and turns of the case continued to make her apprehensive. She needed to sit on the information for the weekend and didn’t want to rush into something she would regret.
“Vang won’t be happy to be outfoxed by you and the wife.”
“Tough,” Nina said. “I understand. He’s been hurt. He feels the money is his because of his injury. He’s the father of the girl who precipitated all the problems and the head of the family. But the money can’t make up for all that. The money is for the business, which Mrs. Vang put her toil into, too. So we do this our way. Give me Mrs. Vang’s address.”
He did.
“Now, there’s a final issue. Who took the files.”
“Right.”
“Do you think, after you visit Palo Alto on the campground case, and after you interview Ali Peck up here on the Cruz case, that you could zero in on which of our three favorite people had means and motive, et cetera?”
“You mean Lisa Cruz, Jean Scholl, and Riesner. You want alibis for the night the Bronco was stolen?”
“We’ve been stamping out wildfires all over,” Nina said. “But overall is this burning smell from the big question we haven’t had time to address.”
“I’ll hang on to the hose until I keel over.”
Nina heard the fatigue in his voice. “I’m sorry to ask so much,” she said. “But nobody ever said I was easy, even back in the days when I was.”
He laughed and she hung up, opening the door from the hall to to the outer office. No clients awaited.
Sandy, bent way over in her chair, filing, sat up when she heard the door. “Good,” she said. “Mountain of messages on your desk.”
“Anything important?”
“Well, Jack called twice. He said call him back.”
Nina closeted herself and answered the other messages. She wrote out two Vang checks while Sandy got ready to go. At just after five, Sandy appeared at the door, saying, “So long.”
“Have a good night, Sandy.”
“Don’t be takin’ any files home, now.”
After Sandy left, Nina picked up the phone message from Jack, put it down and started to get up and leave, sat down, and picked it up again. She wasn’t sure she liked Jack’s sudden devotion. He called her almost every day now with thoughts, advice, and reprovals. She had latched on to him in the first moments of panic, and she was grateful that he had been available and willing to help, but…
Putting her feet up on the desk, she thought about the three cases. The Vangs were under control. Brandy and Angel were safe and Stinson had been caught, although Paul still needed to find out where Bruce Ford had gone. That left Kevin Cruz, the desperate cop she couldn’t represent anymore. She had cleaned up the harm as well as she could. She could do nothing more for him.
She flashed to the moment when he had grabbed her, to her disgust at his touch and the nascent fear she now felt. What he had done was an incomplete gesture, so fraught, like an obscene promise that must be kept. Why had Kevin gone so far? He didn’t need her comfort as much as he needed her skills as a lawyer. He knew that. Then why? She searched but could not find a reason why. She didn’t feel able to tell anyone about Kevin. Paul would overreact. Kevin was her client and she couldn’t turn on him for one very bad move, go to the police or something. He was already in so much trouble.
She hugged herself, remembering. He could have hurt me, she thought. Then she topped that thought: It’s not over with Kevin.
She called Jack. Predictably, he was still at his office. She imagined him on a high floor of the Transamerica Pyramid, at a wide mahogany desk, an Italian lamp’s hot halogen rays broiling his Harvard blotter.
“I’m just checking in,” Jack said. “What happened with Taylor and Vang?” The depth of his interest extended beyond his casual words. “Did Paul find everyone?”
“Vang is under control,” she told him, and explained, then went on to tell him what had happened at the women’s shelter with Cody Stinson.
“Paul could have handled that better,” Jack said. “Should have held on to the guy at the Hilltop and called the cops.”
She knew Paul wasn’t happy with the way things had gotten away from him either. “So easy to second-guess people, isn’t it?” she said.
He laughed. “No need to defend him, honbun. He’s capable of a mean left hook if I get too rough with him.”
She couldn’t believe he had resurrected the hated nickname of their married days. Through her teeth, she said, “As for the Cruz file, Paul plans to interview Ali Peck tomorrow to try to find out how the secret came out. Kevin’s asked her but I need Paul to cover that ground again.”
Jack asked more concise questions and Nina responded concisely.
“You still have no idea who took the files?” he said.
“For purposes of discussion, we’ve narrowed it down to three potentials, Jeffrey Riesner, Jean Scholl, and Lisa Cruz, but you know, Jack, I have stepped on many toes up here. It could be someone I can’t imagine.”
“Are you putting Paul to work on it?”