called a little after three and said that the public statement had been approved. If they received the release in the morning, a joint press conference with the chief of police and the state attorney would be held tomorrow afternoon.
Almost as soon as he hung up, Jack received another call.
“Hello.”
“You fucked up my mark.”
“Who is this?”
“Shut the fuck up and listen. Nobody fucks me over and gets away with it. I heard about your orchestration of this whole deal. You may think you’re a big shot but you’re wrong. I don’t work alone and my partners aren’t nice guys like me.”
“Don’t even think about going near Julian.”
“It’s not about Julian anymore. It’s about you, big shot. You’re gonna get yours. It may be tomorrow, it may be the next day, but it’s gonna happen. You can take that to the bank.”
“You don’t scare me, Collins. If people like you scared me, I’d have folded my tent up a long time ago. Have a nice day.”
Jack called Henry right away and told him about the conversation.
“I’m inclined to call the police. What do you think?”
“It was probably a throw-away phone so they won’t be able to trace anything to Collins. They may question him, but that will only make him and whoever his so-called friends are a little bolder. Collins anticipates that you’re going to call the police. He’s prepared for that. Why don’t you let me look into it.”
“I don’t want you doing anything that could get you in trouble.”
“I’m going to look into this whether you call the police or not, Jack, so it doesn’t really matter to me.”
“Okay, I’ll hold off for, say, forty-eight hours.”
“That’ll work.”
Dinner was at an intimate little Italian restaurant in the town of Apache Hills. There were no more than ten tables in the place, each with a white linen tablecloth. They ate by candlelight with a nice bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, the lighting so subtle that Jack could hardly read the menu.
“This is such a lovely area of the state. The more I stay here, the more I like it,” he told Danni while taking a break from his delicious eggplant parmesan.
“When are you going home?”
“I don’t know. I think I might stay a while. I’m in one of Ron’s empty condos and, according to him, I can stay as long as I want.”
“You don’t have any pressing matters at home?” Danni asked.
Jack laughed. “Nope. I’ve got a gardener who takes care of the property, and Henry comes and goes whenever he likes. There’s not a whole lot there for me these days.”
“Henry told me about your wife Pat and how much you loved her.”
Jack didn’t respond right away. He was surprised by the remark, and any mention of Pat usually set him back for a second or two.
“What did he say? I don’t know if I could put that feeling into words.”
“It’s not really what he said, it was the way he said it. He was quite fond of her himself.”
“They became great friends in a short period of time. Henry used to read to her when she could no longer do it herself.”
Danni could see the sorrow in his eyes. Maybe this subject wasn’t such a good idea.
“I’m sorry. We don’t have to talk about this.”
“No, no, it’s fine. I had some terrible marriages before Pat. I was a very successful lawyer, but I was dead inside. She taught me for the first time how to really love somebody, but she’s been gone now for a few years. She’ll always be with me, but I have to move on.”
“Are you sure you’re ready?”
“You’re never sure of anything in this life, are you? But I can feel Pat kicking me out the door. She wants me to be happy and she’s in a place where jealousy and all that other stuff don’t matter.”
“How do you know?”
“I don’t really. I just feel it, and I trust my feelings. I believe in the universe and that Pat is part of the universe. I guess about now you’re thinking ‘This guy is nuts. I’d better get out of here.’”
“Not at all. You’ve got something that works for you. That’s what we’re all searching for.”
“And what works for you, Danni Jansen?”
“I’m not sure. The universe sounds good. I need to move on from a lot of things. I just can’t seem to get there.”
“You will over time.”
“I’ve heard that line—time heals all wounds. It hasn’t worked for me, not in my personal or my professional life.”