Chapter Thirty-Eight

Avi Kaufman was in his office when Keith Mars arrived. Luke saw the former sheriff and wondered nervously what was going on. Quickly, he went through his files and found the ones that he had been planning to deliver to Avi later that afternoon. There was no reason to wait, though, so why not discreetly take them in now?

Curiously, neither Avi nor Mr. Mars stopped talking when Luke entered the room. They both acknowledged him with a nod and continued on as if he hadn't come in.

"I'm not sure how I can help you, Mr. Mars," Avi stated, his hands folded in front of him on his desk. "It disturbs me to no end that you've been going through my clients files. My clients prize their privacy. I'm surprised I haven't received any calls to date regarding your interrogations."

"Your clients' secrets are safe with me, Mr. Kaufman," Keith assured. "What I'm concerned about is how several of them were unaware of certain investments they had made."

"Yes," Avi agreed, "That worries me as well." At that point, he looked up at Luke and asked abruptly, "Was there something that you needed, Mr. Haldeman?"

"No, Sir...err, I mean, yes, Sir," Luke sputtered, trying and failing to be nonchalant and not ill-at-ease, "Just...I have a question when you have a minute, Sir."

Impatient with Luke's ineptitude, Avi waved him away and said, "I'll find you when I'm done here. Now, can you close the door on your way out?"

"Of course, Sir," Luke said with a nod as he backed out the door and closed it behind him.

Sitting at his desk, tapping his foot on the floor and his pen on another file, Luke tried to pay attention to what he was doing but he kept glancing toward Avi's door. The moment he saw Mr. Mars exit the room, Luke was out of his chair and hurrying toward him as quickly as he could without breaking into a run.

"Mr. Mars," he said as he reached him just before Keith had made it back to the reception area.

"Yes?" Keith responded to his name, turning to study the slightly scruffy but still well-kempt and athletic looking dirty blonde. "Is there something I can help you with, Mr. - what was your name again?"

"Haldeman," was the response he received along with a rather eagerly held out right hand, "But you can call me Luke. I went to school with your daughter, Mr. Mars. She helped me out one time and...well, I'd like to speak to her about something that happened at the reunion. If I give you my number, do you think you could have her call me? I'd like to meet with her, sometime soon."

Keith's dark eyes seemed to bore right into Luke's blue-grey ones. It was surprising that the young man didn't look away with all that nervous energy he was emanating. With a single nod, Keith finally said, "Alright, Son. You give me your number, I'll give it to Veronica. I make no promises regarding whether she'll call you or not or when. She's a little preoccupied right now. If you watch the news and know my daughter, I'm sure you know what I mean."

"Yes, Sir," Luke replied with a small but nervous smile and a hesitant nod. He reached for a pen and sticky note from the receptionist's desk and hurriedly wrote down his contact information to hand to the other man.

Taking the small scrap of paper, Keith gave the younger man a nod and said, "I'll see that she gets it."

"Thank you, Mr. Mars," Luke replied gratefully, "I appreciate your help."

When Keith arrived home, he checked in with Mac and found that Logan and Veronica had been by but had left again several hours before. He was about to give Veronica a call and see where they were at when he heard voices from outside the door. He went to glance out the window and confirmed what he thought: Logan and Veronica were discussing something quietly before coming in.

He waited for them to enter, acknowledging them both with a nod when they did. Immediately, he said, "I have a message for you, Veronica, to call Luke Haldeman when you get a chance." He watched her carefully when he said this to see if he could decipher what exactly that name may mean to her.

"Luke?" Veronica said in confusion with wrinkled brow. She looked up at Logan and saw that he seemed to recognize the name more than she had.

"TJ," Logan responded evenly, "Me, Troy, Luke...remembering now?" he asked.

"Haldeman? That was his last name?" Veronica asked and watched as Logan nodded. "You had any association with him since high school?" she wanted to know next.

"Nope," Logan denied with a shake of his head. His dislike of their former classmate reaching out to Veronica was clear in his dark eyes. His jaw clenched and his hands fisted and released several times involuntarily.

Snickering with twinkling blue eyes, Veronica teased, "What's this? Jealous of a guy I haven't seen in a decade?"

"Just remember, until recently, you hadn't seen ME in a decade either," Logan returned darkly.

Rolling her eyes and grinning in amusement, Veronica said acerbically, "Just remember, if I wouldn't have dated him in high school, no way in hell would I date him now!"

That brought a smirk to Logan's features and slowly he nodded, "Alright. I get it. Toning down the jealous streak now."

"Thank you!" Veronica declared cheerfully before turning back to her father and asking, "Did he say what he wanted?"

Shaking his head, Keith said, "No. He just said that you'd helped him out once and he wanted to talk to you about something that happened at the reunion."

"Doesn't sound case-related," Veronica decided, "I'll give him a call but it can wait till tomorrow. Did we come up with anything new today, by the way?"

"Unless you did, 'we' did not," Keith answered caustically.

"Damn," Veronica responded with a frown, then turned to Mac, "You gonna be here in the morning?"

"Yeah," Mac responded, "And I've got some of what you were asking for but it's taking longer than I'd hoped."

"Ok, then I guess we just call it a day and see where we pick up tomorrow," Veronica suggested before adding with half-smirk and half-grin, "After all, tomorrow is another day."