Free Motion for Murder by Kelly Rey

I work for a lawyer. A good lawyer."
    He looked unimpressed. "What's his name?"
    I swallowed again. "Douglas Heath. Esquire."
    It was hard to tell who started laughing first, but I think it was the old man behind me. Evidently he'd seen Dougie's television commercials. While the cop's cheeks were turning red, and he was busy searching for a tissue to wipe his eyes, Sherri motioned me closer with her head. "You've got to help me," she begged in a not-quite whisper. "Don't tell Mom about this. Or Dad. Just get one of the lawyers from your office and come bail me out, okay?"
    With what? I had a basketful of cake mixes and frosting I could barely pay for. But I nodded anyway. "I'll be there," I promised. Just as soon as I could go borrow some money from someone. Or sell a kidney or something.
    "Just one thing," she added as the cop wadded up the tissue and stuffed it into his blazer. "Don't get Dougie."
     
    *  *  *
     
    "So you and your sister don't look too much alike." Wally glowered down at me with his arms crossed.
    "Well, you'd never catch me trying to carry off that outfit," I said, deliberately playing dumb. I'd heard remarks like that all my life. Hey, we can't all have legs like a giraffe.
    "Does she wear clothes like that all the time?"
    "Only when she's looking for a husband," I said nastily. That should do it. Nip this fantasy right in the bud.
    He wasn't at all daunted by the H word. "Do you think it would be alright if I gave her a call sometime?"
    In a second my life passed before me. Friday meatloaf with Wally. Thanksgiving with Wally. Christmas with Wally. I was all for Sherri finding a husband and getting married, but I drew the line at this. "I don't think so," I told him. "She's sort of seeing someone."
    His shoulders drooped. "Is it serious?"
    As an arrest. "Looks to be," I said brightly. "If you'll excuse me."
    "I'm still waiting for that fee," he yelled after me as I fled down the stairs. By this time Missy was at her desk, and Donna was at mine. She leaped to her feet the instant she saw me, her plain, pinched face perking right up. "I heard Ken has a dep this morning. I was wondering…"
    Damn. I'd promised to talk to Ken about her brilliance as a paralegal. What with Sherri being arrested and all, I'd completely forgotten about it. "I'll catch him this afternoon," I said. "Things have been a little hectic today."
    "Thanks, Jamie." She smiled and scurried away. I squatted beside my desk to see what awaited me in the stack of files there. A few letters for Howard, a Subpoena duces tecum for Ken, a set of Form C Interrogatories to be printed up and sent out for Dougie. Nothing too difficult. This was shaping up to be a pretty good day.
    Then Dougie got back from court.

 
CHAPTER TWELVE
     
    It began casually enough, as catastrophes sometimes do. Dougie had gotten back just before one o'clock, tossing his briefcase on the kitchen table and mumbling something about the judge buying her robes at Walmart. Ken's deposition was still going on in the conference room, and Wally was hunkered down wherever Wally hunkered.
    I was at the kitchen table slogging my way through a meatball sandwich I'd ordered in because I felt guilty about my late arrival that morning. Paige had ordered a turkey sub, and she was eviscerating the roll across the table. A little mound of lettuce shreds and hot peppers was growing on her paper plate. I was thinking those hot peppers might be kind of tasty with my meatballs when Howard and Dougie came into the room, and I stopped thinking and started trying to make myself invisible. Howard and Dougie together in the same room was never a good idea.
    Howard began brewing himself a cup of Lemon Zinger tea, his mouth pinched tight. Clearly he had something on his mind. Dougie rolled up his sleeves and began assembling the ingredients for a protein shake. I lowered my head and watched him gather the can of protein powder, a handful of frozen strawberries, vanilla frozen yogurt, and an egg. He