Best Kept Secrets(104)

I'm sure that everything he tells me is the truth, he just doesn't

tell me everything. I know he loved Celina. He wanted to

marry her after my father was killed. Maybe she said no one

too many times."

"Conjecture and more conjecture. So, that leaves Lambert.

What about him?"

Alex lowered her head and stared at her bloodless fingers.

"He's the most likely suspect, I believe."



Greg's chair sprang forward. "What makes you say that?"

"Motive and opportunity. He might have felt his best friend

was displacing him and killed her to prevent it."

"Pretty viable motive. What about opportunity?"

"He was at the ranch that night, but he left."

"Are you sure? Has he got an alibi?"

"He says he was with a woman."

"Do you believe him?"

She gave a short, bitter laugh. "Oh, yes. I can believe

that. Neither he nor Junior has a problem with women."

"Except your mother."

"Yes," she conceded quietly.

"What has Lambert's alibi got to say?"

"Nothing. He won't tell me her name. If she exists, she's

probably still around. Otherwise, what difference would it

make? I'll work on tracking her down when I get back."

"Who says you're going back?"

Up till now, Alex had been pacing. Returning to her chair,

she appealed to him. "I've got to go back, Greg. I can't

leave it up in the air like this. I don't care if the murderer is

the governor himself, I've got to see it through to the finish."

He nodded toward the telephone on his desk. "He's going

to call me this afternoon and ask me if you're off the case.

He expects me to say yes."

"Even if that would mean leaving a murder unsolved?"

"Judge Wallace convinced him that you've got a bee up

your ass and that this is a personal vendetta."

"Well, he's wrong."

"I don't think so."

Her heart stopped beating. "You think that, too?"

"Yep, I do." He spoke softly, more like a friend than a

boss. "Call it quits, Alex, while we're all still speaking to

each other, and before I get my tail in a real crack with the

governor."

"You gave me thirty days."

"Which I can rescind."

"I've got just a little more than a week left."



"You can do a lot of damage in that amount of time."

"I could also get to the truth."

He looked skeptical. "That's a long shot. I've got cases

here that need your expert touch."

"I'll pay my own expenses," she said. "Consider this my

vacation."

"In that case, I couldn't sanction anything you did out

there. You'd no longer have the protection of this office."

"Okay, fine."

He shook his head stubbornly. "I wouldn't let you do that,

any more than I'd let. my teenage daughter go on a date

without a rubber in her purse."

"Greg, please."

"Jesus, you're a stubborn broad." He withdrew a cigarette

from the pack, but didn't light it. "You know the one thing

that intrigues me about this case? The judge. If he turned out

to be as crooked as a dog's hind leg, it'd really get our

governor's goat."

"You're mixing metaphors."

"What have you got on him?"

"Nothing more solid than dislike. He's a persnickety little

man, nervous and shifty-eyed." She thought a moment.

"There is something that struck me as odd, though."

"Well?" he asked, sitting forward.

"Stacey, his daughter, married Junior Minton weeks after

Celina's death."

"Unless they're brother and sister, that wasn't illegal."

She shot him a sharp look. "Stacey's not ... well, not

Junior's type, you know? She still loves him." She recounted

the incident in the powder room at the Horse and Gun Club.

"Junior's very attractive. Stacey isn't the kind of woman he

would marry."

"Maybe she's got a golden *."

"I'll admit, I never thought of that," Alex said dryly. "He

didn't have to marry her to sleep with her. So why did he,

unless there was a very good reason? In addition to that,

Stacey lied to me. She said she was home unpacking after a



trip to Galveston, but failed to mention she'd been in the

stable that day."

Greg gnawed on his lower lip, then poked the cigarette in

his mouth and flicked the lighter at it. "It's still too weak,

Alex." He exhaled. "I've got to go with my gut instincts

and call you off."

They stared at each other a moment, then she calmly