There was a message on Carver’s office answering machine the next morning from Norton’s attorney, Jefferson Brama. In a smooth but booming voice, Brama informed Carver that he was in Del Moray and would like to see him later that day. He left a phone number for the Surfside, an ocean-view hotel on Cortez Way, a finger of land jutting out to sea, then crooking south at the first knuckle to run parallel to shore. It featured the best beach in the area and was a magnet for tourists with too much time and money. When the attraction waned and they departed, they still had too much time.
Carver called the number, asked for Brama’s extension, and as soon as the phone on the other end of the connection was answered, he hung up. Brama was in his room, which was what Carver wanted to know. The Surfside was only fifteen minutes away.
He gripped his cane and stood up, slipped his gray sport coat on over his black polo shirt, then left the office and crossed the already-baking parking lot to where the Olds sat in partial shade. He’d take the initiative by determining the time and place of his meeting with Brama, and by making an incursion into Brama’s territory.
Something about what he knew of the man, and the voice on the answering machine, made him think his best strategy was offense.
The Surfside was a twenty-story building that looked like a stack of blue-and-white ice cube trays. It was one of half a dozen luxury hotels lined side by side on the most expensive real estate in Del Moray. The spacious lobby, all tile and glass and polished stainless steel, added to the icy impression and seemed as cold as the inside of a refrigerator. All of the buildings on Cortez Way were air-conditioned almost to the point of frost. The wealthy clientele seemed to require it. Carver had seen women wearing bikinis, high heels, and mink jackets cruising the exclusive shops on the palm-lined avenue. They seemed one with the blue herons and flamingos roaming the immaculately tended grounds of the hotels, exotic and not at all out of place.
Carver had no trouble getting Brama’s room number from the desk clerk. He didn’t phone upstairs before riding the elevator to the nineteenth floor. It got colder the higher he went.
When he knocked on the door to Brama’s room, it opened almost immediately.
A sixtyish, potbellied man with steel gray hair combed straight back without a part looked out at Carver with bright blue eyes. He was medium height, wore pleated, pin-striped gray dress pants, a white shirt, and broad paisley suspenders. He smelled strongly of cologne. The scent wasn’t offensive, like McGregor’s bargain brands. Brama smelled clean and expensive. His sleeves were rolled up neatly and he was holding a white towel, still absently going through the motions of drying his hands.
“I thought you were room service,” he said. His blue gaze flicked up and down Carver, hesitating only a moment as it took in the cane. Brama smiled. “Please do come in, Mr. Carver.”
Brama had a corner suite. The cream-colored drapes on the wide, right-angled window were open to reveal a vast view of sea and shore. A tiny palm-top computer sat next to the phone on a table by the cream leather sofa, a coiled black wire connecting it to the base unit.
As soon as Brama closed the door, there was another knock. “Excuse me,” he said to Carver, and reopened the door.
This time it really was room service. Brama instructed the bellhop to carry the covered tray out to the balcony.
“Help yourself to something from the service bar,” he said to Carver, pointing to the wood-paneled door of a small refrigerator set in a credenza near a desk. “There’s enough on the tray for two, I’m sure.”
Carver got a bottle of Perrier water from the refrigerator and walked toward the sliding doors that led to the balcony, the tip of his cane leaving deep, round impressions the size of quarters in the plush blue carpet.
There was a sweeping view from the balcony. The white hulls of boats from the marina dotted the ocean, and far out to sea an oil tanker and a cruise ship were visible, squatting on the horizon like islands. A gull soared past, lower than Carver, and seemed to glance up at him with amused disdain; what was a human with a cane to a creature with wings?
The bellhop placed the tray on a white, decorative iron table and whipped the white cloth napkin from it to reveal a squat silver tea or coffee pot, a wicker basket of assorted pastries, and two plates whose contents were concealed beneath silver covers.
Brama held the room service check steady in the breeze and signed it with a flourish, poked his gold pen back in his shirt pocket, then tipped the bellhop with a five-dollar bill.
As the bellhop left, Brama smiled and motioned for Carver to sit opposite him in one of the matching wrought iron chairs. Carver did. Brama waited until he was seated before sitting down himself. He had a beaming, friendly smile. Carver knew that behind it, Brama was assessing him.
“There’s enough tea here for both of us,” Brama said, “if you’d prefer that to bottled water. And do help yourself to a roll.”
Carver declined the tea but chose a small cheese Danish. Brama tucked a large white napkin into his collar and removed a silver cover from a plate of bacon and eggs, another cover from over a grapefruit half that had a maraschino cherry perched in its center like an exposed secret heart. He began eating with obvious enjoyment, saying nothing, playing the good host but putting Carver slightly ill at ease, waiting for him to fill time with words and possibly say something unwise. Carver knew the game. He sipped Perrier water and enjoyed the view.
Finally Brama lifted his napkin for a moment to dab delicately at his lips, which were curved in a faint smile. “I’m going to subpoena your friend Beth Jackson,” he said. “And possibly you.” He gave his tea bag a final few dips in his cup of water, then lifted it by its tabbed string and placed it on a saucer. “I’m sorry about having to do that, but you’re both eye witnesses to the Women’s Light bombing.”
Carver showed no reaction. “Is that why you wanted to talk?”
“Not entirely. Do you feel uncomfortable speaking with me without legal counsel present, Mr. Carver?”
“No. I have no reason to feel uncomfortable.”
“That’s a fine, forthright answer, even if some, quite wrongly, would deem it a foolish one. I wouldn’t think the highest of a man who would voluntarily sit across from an attorney in a conversation that might involve a homicide if he felt uncomfortable doing so.”
“I didn’t see much that morning. And nothing that would help your client’s case.”
“I prefer witnesses who didn’t see much, but remember what they did see.”
“When the bomb went off, I was sitting in my car half a block away.”
“That gives you distance, objectivity. I like that in a witness.”
Carver felt like someone being blocked whenever he moved a checker.
“Your friend Miss Jackson is another story,” Brama said,
“She is,” Carver said. “She was closer.”
“Yes. I’m truly sorry about that.” Brama sipped his tea. “I’m not so much interested in what you saw the day of the bombing, Mr. Carver, as I am in what you’ve seen since. I understand you’ve been investigating, plying your trade-as well you should-and that she is working on a series of articles for Burrow.”
“She’s plying her trade, too,” Carver said.
Brama waved a strip of bacon he’d been about to bite into. “Of course, of course. As she should be, working to ease the shock and memory of her experience. Do believe I’m not trying to pump you for information, Mr. Carver.”
“Of course.”
“I’ve learned that true and useful information is a shy creature that most often comes unbidden in its own time and place. And I understand perfectly well that your personal interests lie with the prosecution in this case.” Brama took a generous bite of scrambled egg, then a sip of tea. “But before we get into legalities, I thought we might speak off the record.”
“Are you going to try to convince me Norton’s innocent?”
“No, we won’t get into that.”
“I’m not sure he’s guilty,” Carver said.
Brama sat back and smiled at him. His right eye picked up the blue of the sea and glinted in the sun like a diamond. “Oh? Why not?”
“There’s been another clinic bombing, and your client’s in jail and obviously couldn’t be the perpetrator.”
Brama smiled wide, winked, and shook his head. “It doesn’t suit you to play dumb, Mr. Carver.”
“I don’t consider myself overly smart.”
“Well, that’s fine. That’s sensible. A man who sees himself as uncommonly intelligent probably isn’t.” Brama leaned forward. There was a dark droplet of tea on his chin. “But forget intelligence. What about instincts? Do you have good instincts, Mr. Carver?”
“Sometimes.”
“Ah! So much more important than intelligence, especially in your line of endeavor.” The drop of tea plummeted and made a vertical streak on the white napkin tucked into the neck of Brama’s shirt.
“What about your other client?” Carver asked.
Brama stared at him across the table, letting his eggs cool in the breeze. “What other client?”
“Reverend Martin Freel.”
“Oh! He truly isn’t connected with the Norton case except in the most peripheral manner. The FBI, your friend Wicker, will attest to that.”
“Sometimes a man like Freel uses the Bible as a shield to guard and conceal his true self,” Carver said.
“That certainly is a bare, undeniable fact about some people.” Brama tasted a bite of egg, decided it was cold, and lowered his fork. “But it isn’t true of Reverend Freel. I know the mind and soul of the man.”
“What do you know about his marriage?”
Brama slowed his hand almost to a stop as he lifted his tea cup.
“I know for sure it’s a sound and joyous union. Reverend Freel and Belinda Lee are in love in the best and most wholesome sense of the word.”
“Have you ever seen the reverend with Adelle Grimm?”
“Adelle who?”
“Grimm. She’s the widow of one of the murder victims.”
“Ah, Dr. Grimm the late abortionist. Why would Reverend Freel be with his widow?”
“Perhaps because of love not in the best and most wholesome sense of the word.”
Brama sat motionless, then let his jaw drop as if he were momentarily speechless. If he was feigning shock, he was good at it. Carver couldn’t decide if he was acting or was honestly surprised.
“Do tell me you’re joking, Mr. Carver.”
“Can’t do that,” Carver said.
Brama laughed loudly, incredulously, as if he thought a romance between Freel and Adelle Grimm was as likely as one between a plant and an animal. The laugh sounded genuine. “Well, I do admire someone who doesn’t joke about such things, Mr. Carver. But I can assure you, on or off the record, there is nothing to the notion of any sort of, er . . . romantic involvement between Reverend Freel and Adelle Grimm.”
“People lead secret lives,” Carver told him.
“Oh, everyone does. But Reverend Freel is my client. I know his secrets.”
Carver decided he should be the one to end the conversation, to keep Brama off balance-if he actually was off balance. If he’d ever been off balance in his life. “There are secrets and then there are deep, dark secrets,” he said.
“And how did you come by what you consider to be knowledge of Reverend Freel’s deep, dark secret?”
“Since I’m going to be subpoenaed anyway,” Carver said, “I prefer to save that answer for when I’m under oath.”
“Well, ordinarily that would be wise of you, only I don’t intend to enter into that area of inquiry.”
“Maybe the prosecution will.”
“Oh, I do doubt that,” Brama said. “It’s not a thing to be taken lightly, spreading tales when the facts aren’t known and proof isn’t forthcoming.”
“The longer we talk, the more you sound like an attorney.”
Brama poured hot water into his cup and dropped in a fresh tea bag. “Mine’s a twenty-four-hour-a-day occupation, I’m afraid. Like yours, Mr. Carver.”
Carver pushed back his chair, scraping its iron legs over the balcony’s concrete floor, and stood up.
Brama didn’t try to stop him from leaving, which meant he’d accomplished his purpose. He’d wanted to talk with Carver to determine what he knew about Freel and Adelle Grimm, and to warn him, however subtly, about a libel suit if he continued to defame the reverend. It didn’t shock Carver that Brama had somehow found out about him following Adelle and seeing her meet Freel at the Blue Dolphin Motel. An attorney of his stature and with his connections would have informants, but not necessarily ones who knew all the facts. Or maybe Freel or Adelle had noticed Carver observing them and informed Brama. Either way, Brama had to be aware that he might not know everything pertinent about his clients. It had to be a worry.
Carver smiled down at him. “Don’t interrupt your breakfast. I’ll show myself out.”
“We should talk again,” Brama said. “I enjoyed it.”
Carver nodded, leaned his weight over his cane, and turned to walk back inside the room.
Brama unconcernedly resumed eating his scrambled eggs with obvious appetite and enjoyment.
But Carver knew they were cold.