The Lady Has a Past (Burning Cove #5) - Amanda Quick Page 0,16
be her normal self this morning. I’m well aware that there are some serious issues involving professional ethics here. Raina is my employer, after all, and she did make it clear that she was leaving town on a personal matter. I have a duty to uphold Kirk Investigations’ reputation for honoring client confidentiality. However—”
“The hell with professional ethics and client confidentiality. Raina isn’t a client anyway. She owns the firm.”
“Yes.” Lyra brightened. “There is a lot of gray area here.”
“There’s nothing gray about it. We’re going to find her. Did you get anywhere in your investigation?”
Lyra went around behind Raina’s desk and opened the large, leather-bound desk calendar. “Her appointments last week and yesterday were all routine, assuming you can call the Adlington case routine.”
“Except that she sent you to the Adlington interview.”
“She thought it would be good experience for me. It seemed like a simple, straightforward client interview.”
“Go on. What else did you check out besides her calendar?”
Lyra closed the calendar and opened the center drawer of the desk. She took out a notebook. “She uses this to record memos of telephone conversations with her business contacts and her clients. Unfortunately, she keeps the notes in shorthand, but the dates are plain to read, and so are the phone numbers and addresses. The last note is about the Adlington case. There’s nothing after that. I was in the process of going through her files to see if there has been any recent activity. She keeps very good files.”
“Raina used to work for a small law firm in New York that was in the trust and estate business for several generations,” Luther said, his tone impatient.
“Yes, she mentioned that.”
“Did she?” Luther’s brows rose. “I’m impressed. Raina doesn’t usually talk to people about her time in New York.”
“Well, I tend to ask a lot of questions. Besides, one can hardly miss her classy East Coast accent.”
Amusement gleamed briefly in Luther’s dark eyes. “I can see why Raina says you have a talent for investigation work.”
Lyra’s spirits soared. “Did she tell you that?”
“Yes.”
“That’s . . . very nice to hear.” Lyra cleared her throat. “As I was saying, there is nothing on her calendar that indicates today was going to be anything other than normal here at Kirk Investigations, and so far I have found no notes indicating recent phone calls to any of the businesses or people in her file of contacts.”
Luther gave her a thoughtful look. “Kirk Investigations is a two-person agency, and of those two people, you are the only one who has had an unusual experience recently.”
“Yes, and last night Raina did her best to take my mind off what happened at the Adlington residence, but aside from her concern for me—she was very understanding—I detected nothing unusual in her behavior.”
“Neither did I.”
And you know her ever so much better than I do, Lyra thought.
“I assume you took her home after you put me in a limo with one of your drivers?” she ventured.
“Yes, I took Raina home,” Luther said.
“I don’t mean to intrude on your privacy, but did anything take place that might have . . . upset her?”
“You mean, did we quarrel?” Luther’s jaw tightened. He walked to the window and looked out at the street. “No.”
“May I ask if you, uh, shared a nightcap?”
“I left her at three this morning,” Luther said. He turned around. “That’s what you want to know, isn’t it?”
Lyra breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes, thank you. I don’t mean to pry, but I’m trying to establish a timeline.”
“A timeline?”
“Raina says that’s the first thing to do in a case. It makes sense. I grew up in the shipping and freight business. Timing is everything in that world, too.”
Luther was clearly intrigued now. “Go on. Tell me about your timeline.”
“Given our own personal recollections of the evening, I think we should assume that whatever disturbed Raina and sent her away from Burning Cove happened sometime between approximately six o’clock this morning and, at the latest, eight.”
Luther studied her for a moment, curiosity replacing the cold steel in his eyes. “What makes you think you can narrow the time window to a couple of hours?”
“Raina stopped in here at nine. She was on her way out of town. That means her suitcases must have been in the trunk of her car. She wasn’t sure exactly how long she would be gone, but she estimated three or four days. It takes time for a woman to pack for a trip of that duration.