Free More Perfect Union (9780061760228) by Judith A. Jance

Fitzgerald laughed again, the sound of it bubbling to the surface like an irrepressible spring.
    Peters and the girls came back from their trek around the floor with Tracie pushing the chair and Heather walking dejectedly alongside, her hand resting on her father’s knee. She was weeping silently. Peters was doing his best to console her.
    â€œDon’t worry about it, Heather,” he was saying. “It wasn’t that big a deal.”
    â€œWhat’s the matter?” I asked.
    Heather looked up at me with two huge tears still glistening on her cheeks. “I didn’t do it on purpose, Unca Beau,” she lisped.
    She was totally crushed, and my heart went out to her. “What happened?” I asked.
    Peters chuckled in spite of himself as he answered. “Heather couldn’t see where we were going. She ran my chair into a garbage can. It wasn’t that serious, but one of the nurses climbed all over us.”
    Amy stood up quickly. “I’ll bet I know which one, too,” she said. Then she knelt down in front of Heather and wiped the tears from her face. “It’s all right, hon,” she said. “Let’s go down tothe car and get the dresses. Would you like that?”
    Heather’s broken heart was mended almost instantly. She nodded quickly and went racing off to call the elevator. Tracie, always the more reserved of the two, walked sedately down the hallway with her hand in Amy’s.
    Peters watched the three of them step into the elevator with a happy grin on his face. “They really like her,” he said wonderingly.
    That was obvious to even the most casual observer. “You lucked out, Peters,” I said. “That’s some girls’ trio you have there.”
    I had watched from the sidelines as Peters’ and Amy’s romance blossomed. Amy Fitzgerald had never been married before, and she didn’t have any children of her own. At first I had some serious misgivings about whether or not it would all work, but now, as the elevator door closed on a sudden gale of laughter, I could see it was going to be fine. Amy Fitzgerald was a born mother, and both girls seemed to accept her without question or reservation.
    â€œThey’re okay,” Peters agreed quietly. He turned back to me. “So did you finish the movie then? From what you said this morning, I thought you’d be busy all day.”
    â€œThe movie’s not finished, but I am,” I said.
    â€œSo that’s the way it is.” Of all the people around me, Peters was the only one who really understood my frustration and boredom with the moviemaking assignment. Neither one of uswas any good at enforced idleness although Peters was learning to deal with it better than I was.
    I nodded. “For today anyway.” I changed the subject. “Amy tells me you’ve been tracking after the boat fire.”
    â€œThe explosion happened last Tuesday, just before midnight. A forty-two-foot fiberglass cruiser named Boomer . The missing man’s name is Logan Tyree.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œHow do you know that?” Peters demanded.
    â€œI stopped by Harbor Station before I came over here.”
    â€œHas anybody besides us made the connection yet?”
    â€œJim Harrison said Kramer and Davis are tracking after it. They had already been to the marina by the time I stopped there this morning.”
    â€œOh,” Peters said. He sounded disappointed. “I thought maybe we’d beat them on this one.”
    â€œWe may have,” I said. “I talked to Tyree’s neighbor, an old codger named Red Corbett. He says Davis and Kramer are calling it an accident—faulty equipment. Corbett says that doesn’t jibe with the Logan Tyree he knew.”
    â€œHow’s that?” Peters’ curiosity was aroused the same as mine had been. I told him briefly everything Red Corbett had told me. He listened in silence. When I finished, he