“Yes, quite sure, thanks,” Kerry replied.

“No presents, then? No cars, boats, mink stoles?” The sarcasm was biting.

“No. I buy my own cars and boats, and I have no idea what I would I do with a mink stole in Miami.” Kerry returned the volley.

“So you’re saying you live on your own?”

“I live with a roommate,” she corrected.

“But you pay all your own bills?”

I try to. “Yes.”

Shuffling of papers. “When did you last live with your parents, Ms.

Stuart?”


302 Melissa Good

“Four and a half years ago.”

“That was while you were attending college?”

“Yes.”

“Which, I take it, your parents paid for?”

“Actually,” Kerry cleared her throat, “I went on scholarship.” True, though her parents had paid for everything else, including her clothes, and books. Spending money, on the other hand had come from her part-time job in the campus bookstore.

“Lucky you.” The man leafed through a few sheets. “While you were living with your parents, did you have any reason to suspect your father was involved in illegal activities?”

Kerry considered that question seriously. “No,” she finally answered, meeting his eyes. “I didn’t.”

“Really? You seem like an intelligent young woman. Are you saying you never once saw anything you thought was out of the ordinary?”

Kerry’s pale eyebrow lifted slightly. “Define ordinary,” she replied.

“Ordinary for you is probably not ordinary for me, given who my father is and the media spotlight our lives were generally held in.” She went on before he could comment. “It never crossed my mind, no, that my father was involved in any breech of the law.”

“Why not?”

“Excuse me?”

“Why not, Ms. Stuart? Isn’t that what politicians do, nowadays?”

The investigator circled her and leaned on the table. “Almost to be expected, don’t you think?”

Kerry studied his face, which was not unpleasant to look at. Given the last few years in politics, with what had gone on and the circus the leadership of the nation had become, he was probably more right than wrong. But she shrugged. “Honestly, it’s not something I spend a lot of time thinking about.”

He stood up and lifted a hand towards her. “Or you weren’t encouraged to think about it.”

Maybe. Kerry thought back to her younger years. Politics were something her father had never, ever discussed with her, or her sister, or even Michael. On the other hand, since she’d left home, the subject had never interested her either. She shrugged. “I think I just have drastically lowered expectations.” Ooo. The guys on the council didn’t like that.

“So, you’re saying it is something you’d expect someone like your father to do?”

“That’s not what I said.”

“You said you had drastically lowered expectations, did you not?”

“Well, yes, but—”

“That is what you said, wasn’t it?”

“I said I don’t expect politicians to have a higher standard of conduct than anyone else,” Kerry clarified.

“Ah, but shouldn’t they, Ms. Stuart? After all, we elect them to be our representatives, to act in our best interests, after all. Don’t we?”


Eye of the Storm 303

“Yes, but as far as I know, sir, they aren’t a different species.” This guy was starting to annoy her. “Most of the time people act in their best interests, not someone else’s, so the fact that elected officials act like the rest of us does not, sir, surprise me.”

“Interesting. And yet, you stated that you had no inkling of an idea that your father was…allegedly…accepting bribes, maintaining an entirely different family, and consorting with racists.” He paused. “Were you, then, not surprised to hear the allegations when they came out?”

“Yes, I was surprised.”

“Why? If politicians are like the rest of us, then why be surprised?

Since you stated you don’t hold them to any high standard, is that right?”

“I don’t.” Kerry paused. “But I do hold my father to higher standards, because he is my father, not because he is a politician. So yes, sir, I was surprised.”

“Interesting double standard, Ms. Stuart. You don’t find that a contradiction?” the lawyer asked shrewdly.

“Life is full of contradictions, sir,” Kerry answered quietly.

He studied her, a faint smile playing across his lips. “Yes, isn’t it?”

They were definitely different. Ceci watched Kerry under questioning, her body language indicating wary alertness and her answers guarded but straightforward. Had it been Dar up there, a smile touched her lips, Dar would have been all over the lawyer, challenging his questions, and dominating the table with her restless energy.

Just like Ceci herself would have been, she admitted privately.

Kerry, on the other hand, preferred a more low keyed, more reasonable attitude that still used her intelligence to make her points with accuracy. I bet she and Dar make quite a team in the office. The ultimate good cop, bad cop routine, with the natural friction that should have been caused by their radically different styles gentled and diffused by the fact that they loved each other.

A motion beside her made her look up to see the short, brown haired man sitting with Kerry’s family taking the seat next to her.

“Hi,” he murmured.

Ceci’s eyebrow lifted. “Hi.” Was this... Yes, Kerry had said this was her brother, Michael. She glanced quickly at the other side of the aisle, but everyone was paying close attention to Kerry, and Michael’s absence hadn’t been noted. “Something you want?”

“Um.” He glanced furtively around and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “You’re here with Kerry Stuart, right?”

“Who’s asking?” Ceci decided to play hardball with him.

His eyes lifted and met hers for a brief minute. “I’m her brother, Michael.”

“Really? I understood she was told she had no family here.”

He winced and looked down. “It’s complicated.”

“No, it’s not. You just need to go find a taxidermist and rent a spine,”

Ceci replied. “If you’ve decided not to talk to her, that’s one thing. But if you’re letting someone else make that choice for you, it’s damn sad.”

They kept their voices down, but her last comment caused Michael’s 304 Melissa Good ears to redden and he swallowed audibly. “I just wanted to find out if she’s okay,” he mumbled.

“Ask her.” Ceci folded her arms implacably.

They listened to the questions of the lawyer and Kerry’s even answers for a minute. Then Michael peeked up at her, his long, dark lashes blinking slightly. “Are you related to Dar, by any chance?”

Ceci’s eyebrows lifted. “What makes you ask?”

He didn’t answer, but the corners of his mouth twitched.

“I’m her mother, yes.”

Michael nodded to himself.

“Is there a problem with that?”

He gave a tiny smile. “No, ma’am.”

The lawyer finished his questions and released Kerry from the table, and they watched as she circled it and headed down the aisle back towards them.

“You going to stay here or run back over there?” Ceci asked.

He stayed. Kerry spotted him as she was almost back to her seat and her eyes widened into a look of wary surprise. “Hi,” she murmured softly as he stood up and faced her, then pulled her into a hug. “How are you?”

Ceci watched a smile cross Kerry’s face as she returned the embrace.

She winked at Kerry and got an even broader grin, complete with a wrinkled nose and the appearance of the very tip of her tongue. Her eyes slipped past the two siblings to a hostile gaze on them from across the aisle and she took the opportunity to lock eyes with the burly, gray haired man seated at the defendant’s table. He jerked, as though startled, then looked away and pointedly turned his back on them.

Kerry and her brother sat down and she laced her fingers with his as they listened to the prosecutor call up Angie. “Thanks for coming over,”

she whispered. “I know you’re in trouble for it.”

“Got a spare room down there in Miami? I’ll bring a sleeping bag,”

Michael whispered back, giving her a forlorn look. “Maybe I can get a job washing the beach sand over there?”

“Absolutely.” Kerry squeezed his hand. “Oh, sorry. Michael, this is Cecilia Roberts. She’s Dar’s mom.”

“We’ve, uh, met.” Michael produced a hesitant smile. “Hi.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Michael,” Cecilia responded cordially. “Nice work up there, Kerry.”

“Thanks.” Kerry sighed and leaned back, tucked as she was between her brother and her new friend, she almost could make herself believe this wasn’t going to be so horrible after all. She noticed several latecom-ers entering and turned to watch them, then heard Michael make a hissing noise. “What?”

“I can’t believe they showed up.”

“Who?” Kerry peered at the new watchers, a woman in her mid-forties with well coifed blonde hair accompanied by two younger people, a man and a woman.

“That’s them,” her brother whispered. “The people Dad’s support-Eye of the Storm 305

ing.”

Oh Lord. “Jesus.” Kerry closed her eyes.

Cecilia leaned over curiously. “What’s wrong?”

Kerry sighed. “My father’s other woman just came in with her kids.”

She gave Ceci a wry look. “Sorry—this is going to be a circus.”

“Mmm.” Dar’s mother rubbed her earlobe. “I can’t wait to see the lion act in that case.”


Chapter

Thirty-three