beings. I don’t know how they compare to facing a tornado.”
Lineberry nodded and looked down.
Jerry had stayed outside in the Porsche, while Tyler had taken a table near them and was sipping on a cup of coffee. Pine eyed Jerry through the restaurant’s broad front window.
“How long has Jerry been with you?” asked Pine as she sipped her iced tea.
“About five years. He’s former Secret Service.”
“Is that right?”
“Does that surprise you?”
“That you would hire former Secret Service as security? No. They’re some of the best in the world.”
“What then?”
“He escalated a situation with me back at your house that he didn’t need to. I know a lot of Secret Service, both active and retired. They don’t do that. They’re calm, respectful, and professional. They defuse until that doesn’t work anymore. Escalation is never their first move unless someone has a weapon out.”
Lineberry glanced toward the street where the Porsche was parked. “Well, he’s done a good job for me.”
“What about the other guy?”
“Tyler Straub came from a private security firm. A good man.”
“Why so much security, Mr. Lineberry?”
“Please, it’s Jack. Not to toot my own horn, but I do have great wealth, and unfortunately with that, one becomes a target.”
“Any threats?”
“There have been, yes. Some are generic, you know, I’m a capitalistic bastard draining the lifeblood from the world. Others have come from former employees and even one ex-client who went a bit mad and thought we had ripped him off.”
“And you didn’t?”
Lineberry smiled. “If I made a habit of ripping off clients, I would not be in business long.”
“Bernie Madoff did okay for a long time.”
“We’re independently audited every year and the investments we hold for our clients are in real companies and other securities. We’re totally transparent. Their reports come directly from those companies and concerns they’ve invested in. We do not make up our own statements, other than to show overall investments and performance by our firm, which we are legally required to do.”
“So what was this guy’s beef?”
“That instead of making him a hundred million dollars in profit in five years, we only managed to make him fifty million. That still represented a doubling of his initial investment, a pretty damn good return over that time frame, when most everyone else was getting half that return.”
“And he really had a beef with that?”
“He sued me, then he threatened me. Then he came to my office with what he said was a bomb.”
“What happened?”
“He’s currently in a secure psychiatric hospital. I think all that money addled him.”
“So I guess money really can’t buy you happiness.”
“No, but it can buy you freedom and convenience.”
“I don’t mean to be rude, but why the sudden lunch invitation?”
“I was in Andersonville and was coming here anyway. Then I spotted you.”
She shook her head. “It’s in my DNA to be skeptical. So I’m thinking for a busy man like yourself there has to be another reason.”
Lineberry wiped his mouth and laid down his spoon. “Okay, maybe there is.”
“I’m listening.”
“I’ll be blunt. What happened to Julia?”
It suddenly hit Pine that she should have been expecting this query. “Why?”
“She was a friend, a good friend. I know what happened to your poor father. I’d just like to know that she’s okay now.”
Pine eyed him appraisingly. “I guess it depends on how you define okay.”
He grimaced. “That sounds rather ominous.”
“It’s been a long time and you’ve had a whole other life since then. I know you were friends, but…”
“We were all young, though I was the oldest in the group. And the friends you’re around when you’re sort of starting out in life are important ones. And I never had any family of my own, so I guess I sort of adopted everyone else’s kids as my own. It tore me to pieces when Britta and Myron lost both of theirs.”
“An accident and an overdose.”
“Yes.”
“What sort of accident?”
“Is that important?”
Though Pine really couldn’t remember them she said, “We were kids here. We played together. You don’t have a monopoly on that sentiment.”
Lineberry looked thoroughly admonished. “Yes, yes, of course. Well, Joe was cleaning his shotgun and it discharged.”
“He was cleaning a loaded weapon?”
“I believe he’d been drinking.”
“Where did this happen?”
“In North Carolina. He was living there then.”
“And Mary? Britta said it was an overdose?”
“Heroin, I think.”
“She was a longtime user?”
“No, I don’t think so. I believe it was her first time.”
“And her last.”
“Yes. Mary died first, and Joe about a month later. It really tore them up.”
“But they seem to have recovered, to the extent