Page 24 of Nobody's Fool

I don’t say anything.

She glances back at Arthur. “Didn’t we hire a private investigator to take photos?”

“We hired him to break the prenup. Mission accomplished.”

“So that whore Britney gets off scot-free? Oh no. I want that bitch outed. She was my neighbor for God’s sake. My friend. And then she—”

Here I make a mistake. I say, “It wasn’t Britney Griffin.”

That surprises her. “It wasn’t?”

In for a penny… “No.”

“So who was it?”

“I don’t know a name.”

She steps up closer to me. Courtney Booth is very attractive and far taller than I—statuesque, modelesque, and I confess she smells great. “Why haven’t I seen the photos?”

I look toward Arthur.

Arthur says, “It doesn’t matter, Courtney.”

“Don’t tell me what matters, Arthur. You work for me, correct?”

“Yes.”

Courtney is still glaring at me. “I want to see the photos. All of them.”

“There are a lot,” I say. “It’s a big file.”

“I don’t care.”

I nod. “Fine,” I say. “I can email them to you.”

“You do that.”

With one last glare she must have learned at soap-opera-acting school, Courtney spins and struts away. Arthur moves next to me. We wait until she’s in the elevator.

Arthur asks, “Did you watch Tad Grayson get released?”

“I did.”

Neither one of us says anything for a moment.

“The head lawyer ELI assigned to overturn his conviction,” Arthur says. “She works here. Her name is Kelly Neumeier.”

I flash back to the lawyer who spoke at the prison. “I know.”

“She worked the case pro bono.”

“I know.”

“Kelly is good, Kierce. Ethical. Principled. I like her.”

I don’t care, but I don’t say that. I don’t blame the lawyer. I don’t blame the system. I blame mostly me, but I don’t bother with that right now. “His conviction wasn’t overturned,” I say.

“Right,” Arthur says. “It was vacated.”

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