bench warrant that’s been issued against you in”—she looked down at her notepad— “Williamson County, Tennessee?”
In the half second CJ afforded himself to look in Daniel’s direction, he saw the blood drain from the man’s face. When he turned back to face the crowd, he hoped he wasn’t grinning.
“I don’t know anything about that,” he said, which wasn’t really a lie.
Graham was at his side a moment later, a firm hand on his elbow.
“I’m sorry, Deborah, but we have no further comment on that,” Graham said. “Thank you all for coming. Please see Ms. Carlson if you would like to schedule a follow-up interview.”
Even though the press conference had officially ended, the reporters continued to call out questions, and not a one of them that CJ could hear had anything to do with Graham’s campaign. As calmly as he could, with the cameras rolling, Graham escorted CJ away from the microphone and into the waiting sphere of his campaign manager, who, without once losing his smile, removed the new political liability from the scene.
On the way back to Adelia, CJ had lost count of how many times he’d thanked himself for driving solo to Albany. He could imagine what was going on in the other cars, or back at Graham’s office in the capitol, and had no wish to be a part of it.
It wasn’t his fault. He hadn’t figured that Janet would have called the cops. And who would have thought that something like that would come up at a press conference anyway?
He’d covered the more than two hundred miles back to Adelia at the speed limit. He couldn’t risk getting pulled over and having them find the out-of-state warrant. Then, as Richard had predicted, he would wind up spending time in jail. That aside, though, he couldn’t banish his grin, because he’d accomplished two things in one distasteful afternoon. He’d gotten Dennis out of jail, and he’d been absolutely no help to his brother. Of course, there might well be ramifications for his own career, but he’d been taking shots at that on his own for a while now.
When his phone rang he thought about leaving it in his pocket, especially since New York was a no cell phone while driving state, but there were few enough people who had the number and he was curious. He checked the number and, his smile growing, answered it.
“Hello, Elliott.”
“Where are you?”
“Almost back ho . . . almost back to Adelia. Why?”
“Why? Because you’ve broken into the Top Ten videos of the day on YouTube, that’s why.”
CJ couldn’t tell if Elliott thought this was a good or a bad thing. Wasn’t any publicity good publicity?
“Did they get my good side?” he asked.
“I’ll tell you what they got. They got you flushing your career down the toilet.”
At least he now knew where his agent stood on the matter.
“Aren’t you going a little overboard, Elliott? What are they going to do? Remainder all my books?”
“If by all, do you mean the slightly over fifty thousand of your latest masterpiece that people have actually paid for?”
“Ouch,” CJ said.
“Ouch is right.” CJ heard some ambient noise in the background, maybe the sound of angry fingers punching keys, a muffled voice, then Elliott was back. “Listen, CJ. You have to lay low while I figure out what to do. You hear me?”
“I hear you.”
“No more press conferences. I’m amazed one of those cops standing around you didn’t put you in cuffs right there. How would that have looked to all the middle-aged women who buy your books?”
“Who knows? It might have helped things. You know, the whole bad-boy writer thing.”
“Until they hear you were pinched for breaking into your ex-wife’s place. Then you’re just another stalker.”
The way Elliott said that last bit left CJ at a loss for words. He drove in silence for about a quarter mile, until Elliott said, “Hey. You still there?”
“She’s not my ex yet, Elliott. And technically it’s still my place.”
He hung up, and Elliott didn’t try to call him back. As SR 44 turned into Buckley, taking him into Adelia, he found his good humor beyond reclaiming.
Chapter 15
It was five o’clock in the afternoon when CJ parked the Honda behind Kaddy’s. He took the back steps to his apartment, opened the door for the dog, and then followed Thor back down. As he stood on the asphalt waiting for his friend to do his business in the grass along the back fence separating the hardware store from Adelia’s only cigar