"Cary, hi," Daisy said. Still hidden in a dark corner on the other side of a concrete wall, Diane could detect no sign of anxiety in the young woman's tone. "I got your messages; that's why I'm here. What's going on? Did you find out something that will help my mom?"
"Uh, yeah, sort of," Cary replied. In her mind's eye, Diane pictured him peering into the darkest corners the garage, searching for any sign of Roger MacPhee. "Why don't we go upstairs and I'll update you on what's been going on."
Roger must have been well hidden, for Cary made no comment on his presence. In the best case scenario, Daisy would accept Cary's suggestion to go up to the law office, and then tell him that Roger was lurking in the parking garage. And in the meantime Roger would get into his car to wait, giving Diane an opportunity to get the hell out of there.
Unfortunately, the best case scenario was not to be.
"Oh, no," Daisy said, not sounding the least bit apologetic. "I'm sorry, I have somewhere I need to be. I don't have time to go upstairs. Can you just tell me here?"
Diane's heart sank. Daisy clearly was not looking to get away. In fact, she was speaking loudly, as if she wanted Roger to hear everything she said to Cary.
Cary, to his credit, seemed to be given pause by her refusal and didn't immediately comply. Diane wished she could see his face from her concrete hideaway as he repeated his invitation to follow him up to the office. Carefully she inched closer to the edge of the dividing wall, hoping to catch a glimpse of the drama playing out on the other side.
"It's not nice to eavesdrop, Ms. Lockhart," came a gruff, male voice from behind her.
She spun around to find Roger MacPhee had snuck around the other side of the dividing wall and was now standing six feet away from her, pointing a rather large gun at her chest. The exhausted, but dapper, gentleman she remembered from her first meeting with grandfather and granddaughter was gone, replaced with a hard looking man dressed in black, smirking at her with unnerving calm.
"Mr. MacPhee," she bluffed, knowing it was pointless even as she spoke, "What are you doing here? Are you in some sort of danger?"
"Funny," he said, walking a few steps closer and then gesturing with the gun. "Walk."
Unable to think of any other options, Diane obeyed, walking out from behind the wall to find Cary facing away from them, still trying to convince Daisy to leave the garage with him. Daisy, on the other hand, was looking straight in their direction and her eyes widened in shock when she saw them.
"Look who I found skulking around in the dark like an oversize roach," Roger announced. "Ms. Bitch, Managing Partner herself."
Cary spun around, then stopped short at the sight of the gun in Roger's hand. He turned back to Daisy. "Daisy, get behind the car," he commanded.
Daisy ignored him. "Grandpa, what are you doing with that gun?" she asked, doing a passable job of sounding horrified.
"Oh, give it a rest, girl," Roger snapped. "It's over. She heard everything." He jabbed the gun into Diane's side and she gasped in pain, hands moving to protect her ribs.
"Diane?" Cary asked, "What's going on here?"
"They're in it together," she managed to gasp, before Roger silenced her with another hard poke with the gun.
"What's going on," he said conversationally, "is that the jig is up. And my granddaughter I are getting the hell out of Dodge. So I suggest you come stand over here with your boss and behave yourself until I decide what to do with you." He pointed the gun at Cary and jerked his head in Diane's direction.
With one last confused look at Daisy, Cary complied. "Are you okay?" he whispered to Diane, as Roger crossed the short distance to where Daisy was standing by the car.
"I think so," Diane said. Her side hurt, and she would probably be bruised, but she didn't think he had done any serious damage.
"Shut up!" Roger yelled at them, waving the gun for effect, before going back to speaking quietly to Daisy.
Diane couldn't hear what they were saying from where she stood next to the concrete dividing wall, but she could see Daisy getting more and more agitated, her forehead creasing in anger and her mouth twisting as she argued with whatever Roger was telling her. After a few minutes, her furious gaze fell on the two lawyers.
"You!" she shouted, marching across the parking garage to stand in front of Cary. "This is all your fault. I said from the start I wanted you working on Karen's case! Only you, not her!" She jabbed a furious finger at Diane.
"Diane's a great lawyer, and she's my boss," Cary said. "Your mother had a much better chance of being found innocent with her helping."
"Exactly!" Daisy shouted. "Karen was supposed to be convicted! You idiot, don't you get it? They were going to give away my mother's land, Cary!"
And then, with almost an audible click, everything fell into place in Diane's mind, just as the sound of sirens reached her ears.
"The two men had lunch the day before the murder, because John wanted to tell Roger he had decided to donate the land he inherited from his late wife, Roger's daughter, to the Illinois Nature Preservation Society. In Roger's view, that land should belong to Daisy, who is his daughter's only child. Daisy, when her grandfather told her about it, agreed." Diane set down her wine glass and picked up her fork, selecting a tomato from her salad.
Kurt's eyes narrowed. "So they killed him," he said.
"Yes. John's will specifically left the land in question to his daughter rather than Karen, so when he died before the donation was finalized, the land became Daisy's. I'm not sure if it was their hope all along that Karen be arrested, but when she was, they tried to ensure her conviction as a way of keeping suspicion away from them."
"How so?" Kurt asked. He picked up his knife and cut off a piece of steak.
"They were counting on Cary being incompetent," Diane explained. "Daisy asked him to take the case because she knew he was interested in her, knew he was inexperienced in criminal law, and thought she could manipulate him into providing a poor defense for Karen."
"They didn't count on you becoming involved." Kurt set down his steak knife and picked up his water glass.
"Right. I always supervise my new associates closely; it's part of my job to mentor young lawyers. And, I admit I may have taken a bit of a personal interest in this case even over and above that." Her lips quirked into a smile as she looked at Kurt. When he heard about the previous night's incident on the news, he had called her immediately to make sure she was all right. She had downplayed her sore ribs, which were now a lovely shade of purple, and agreed to have dinner with him the next night.
"Their bad luck," Kurt said, returning her smile. He reached over and picked up her hand. "But good luck for me."
Diane squeezed his hand in return. "For me as well."
They continued eating quietly, both contemplating the crime that had brought them together and their bizarre experiences in the woods.
"Do you think he knew?" Diane asked after a while, setting down her knife and fork and taking a sip of wine.
"That his daughter was involved in his murder?" Kurt shook his head. "No. I think he thought Roger was acting alone. That was the name he wanted us to know."
Diane nodded contemplatively. "I hope that's so. I can't imagine knowing your own child…" she trailed off, the end of the sentence too awful to voice.
Kurt reached out and took her hand again. "All I know is he was happy when he left that night."
And that was true; she knew it like she knew her own name. Wherever John Patterson was now, he was happy.
And, as she looked across the table at the man this strange case had brought into her life, so was Diane.
The End
A/N: Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed the story! :)