The prevailing theory being that a robbery had gone bad.
The father resisted and ended up on the wrong side of the blade.
That left the girl.
A witness.
So she had to go too.
There were no solid leads or suspects.
Even to this day.
Ordinarily it wouldn’t have been much of a story, except the guy was richer than God and everyone wondered what the wife would do afterwards. Most expected her to live it up. Who wouldn’t? She was young, beautiful, filthy rich, and single.
But, strangely, she actually grew despondent instead.
She threw herself in front of a bus.
When Christina came out of the shower, Aspen told her the story.
“He was President of Tomorrow, Inc.?”
“Right.”
She scrunched her face.
“We had major litigation against that company,” she said. “We represented Omega in a federal case in D.C. against Tomorrow. An antitrust case based on predatory pricing. Our client got a judgment against Tomorrow for over a hundred million dollars.”
“Wow.”
“They appealed and managed to dodge having to post a supersedeas bond,” she added. “But the case comes up for oral argument next month.”
“Do they have any basis for reversal?”
“According to the powers that be, no. So Tomorrow’s on the verge of writing a very big check to our client.”
Aspen spun around in her chair.
“This is getting too complicated,” she said.
“Forget about it,” Christina said. “Obviously it has nothing to do with Rachel. We need to stay focused on Derek Bennett the weirdo sadist and not Derek Bennett the antitrust lawyer.”
“You’re right.”
She looked at her watch.
10:42.
“I’m ready to hit the sack.”
“Let’s do it.”
Christina had only one bed, but it was big enough that neither of them felt uncomfortable sharing it. They said goodnight and snuggled in. Five minutes later Aspen said, in a very low voice, “Are you sleeping yet?”
“Yes.”
“Robert Yates got killed on July 22nd. We need to find out if anyone from the law firm was in New York at that time.”
Christina moaned.
“Go to sleep.”
With a gut full of pancakes, Draven kissed Gretchen goodbye under a cloudless Colorado sky, pulled her T-shirt up and licked her left nipple, and then pointed the front end of the Granada towards the cabin, intent on getting everything done today that he needed to get done. In a perfect world, he would have just waited at the farmhouse until Swofford called and said the coast was clear. But he figured it would be smarter to head out now and get Mia Avila the hell out of there before Gretchen started to freak out again, or came up with some wild idea to bring the woman inside and feed her.
His story was already thin.
He didn’t know how long she’d actually believe it.
Better to not press his luck.
So he headed down the road.
It was times like this that he wished he had Swofford’s number, or-better yet-actually knew who Swofford was. But the rules had been set up long ago, and the communications only went one direction, and always came to him from a mystery voice calling from a public phone.
“It’s safer for everyone that way,” Swofford said.
So far, the arrangement had been good.
Swofford always came through with the money.
How the hell did Swofford get the clients?
That was the question.
Draven could cut Swofford out of the deal altogether if he could just solve that little puzzle. And why shouldn’t he? After all, he was the one doing all the heavy work and taking all the risk.
Well, most of the risk, anyway.
He skirted around downtown Golden and headed west, winding into Clear Creek Canyon, one of the most beautiful places on the face of the earth, with its steep rock walls and frothing mountain river. The radio reception immediately went to hell.
Then, shit!
He noticed that the gas gauge read full. There was no way that could be right, not with all the miles he’d driven. The goddamn thing must be broken.
So how much gas did he have left?
Probably not much.
He could be riding on fumes for all he knew.
So, what to do?
Suddenly the bitch Mia Avila moaned and started to move.
He was just about to tell her to shut up when the engine sputtered and died.
Goddamn it!
He managed to get onto the shoulder, barely clear of the road. When the woman moaned again, something exploded in Draven’s brain and he punched her in the head so hard that his hand felt like it broke.
The moaning immediately stopped.
He wasn’t sure if he’d killed her or not.
Ten seconds later a cop car pulled behind him and turned on the light bar.
Draven waved at them, as friendly as he could, and walked over. “No problems,” he said. “I just ran out of gas. Someone’s bringing some up and should be here pretty quick.”
The driver got out.
“You’re awful close to the road,” he said.
“I’m over as far as I can get,” Draven said, which was true. “Like I said, they should be here pretty soon.”
The cop scratched his nose and surveyed the area.
“I’m just worried that someone’s going to come around the corner a little too tight and clip you.”
Draven shook his head and said, “I think I’m okay.”