“He did. Marge was one of his clients, and she recommended me. My parents’ lawyer had to threaten the Swensons to make Gus marry me and give Teddy a name, so I thought maybe I should be a lawyer.”
SenatorAugustusSwenson was not a very august personage.Guswas more fitting for a scumball.
Donna continued over Evie’s meanderings. “But I couldn’t pass the law school test, and Teddy took up so much of my time, I thought a law office might be easier. Franklin let me work with clients and keep up his case notes.”
Jax wisely let the woman ramble, but Evie could see he was waiting for information proving that his father wasn’t a scoundrel who murdered his partner, stole his identity, and fled.
More murmuring in the background. Donna seemed to be protesting.
Oswin’s voice returned. “The Swensons are something of a sore point here. They settled a nice sum on Donna, and they’ve taken her son in as one of them. You want to use your lawyer skills on her?”
Evie grimaced, remembering the big, untidy lout that was Donna’s son. Only a mother...
Jax crossed his arms and looked grim. “I’m afamilylawyer.”
Well, he specialized in fraud cases, but Evie could see why he might not mention that.
“I believe families should stick together if at all possible. Donna, I don’t care about the Swensons. I just want to know my father didn’t murder his partner. Can anyone help with that?”
Donna gasped. “Oh, no, Mr. Ives would never do that, I’m sure! The few times he came into the office, he was always kind. Franklin spoke highly of him. They were great friends. Franklin, well, he wasn’t exactly a manly man, you know what I mean? But Mr. Ives didn’t hold that against him. He valued his intelligence, as well he should. Franklin was a brilliant lawyer and nice to everyone.”
As opposed to the Swensons, who were swine who had to be sued to provide support for their grandchild, Evie thought.
“So, what happened to Franklin Jackson if he didn’t sell the practice and move to Georgia as everyone thought?” Jax had his lawyer face on now.
“I thought that’s what he did,” Donna protested. “Mr. Pendleton said he bought the firm from him. I thought Franklin was all torn up about the death of his partner.”
“Tell him about what happened before the mine collapsed,” Marge urged.
“Wait a minute.” Jax intervened. “Will this involve anything the sheriff should hear? Keep in mind Iama lawyer, and I have an obligation to report criminal activity.
“But I don’t know anything criminal or I would have said something sooner.” Donna sounded a little more confident now. “Mr. Ives and Mr. Jackson had a business making microchips. Gus lived in LA, working in his grandparents’ real estate firm—that’s where I met him, in the office where my mom worked. He was learning the family business, but Gus had his eye on politics. After I had Teddy, and we moved back to Bolder, Gus visited. He must have talked to Mr. Ives and Franklin about buying real estate for their new company. One thing led to another, and Gus persuaded his parents and grandparents to invest in their microchip business. It’s all legal, I’m sure. Mr. Ives and Mr. Jackson were both lawyers and wouldn’t have done anything wrong.”
“So after they set up the silica mine and microchip business, they and a group of investors formed Sovereign to make voting machines.” Jax hurried the tale along. “We know this part.”
“OK.” Donna sounded nervous again. “Well, everything was going well as far as I could tell. I was in college and working part-time for Franklin when they were starting up. This had to have been thirty-five years ago or so, remember. I was just a kid with a toddler, but I remember the town was thrilled at having a new business. Gus left LA and moved to Bolder to help with the company and be a daddy to Teddy. He ran for a county office and secured lots of new contracts for the machines. I think the company offered a local discount to get the business off the ground.” She hesitated again.
“It’s okay, Ms. Ortiz,” Jax said in his lawyer voice. “Thank you for verifying what we could only guess at. But at some point, something went wrong, didn’t it?”
Evie could hear more whispered arguments in the background. She’d wager Aunt Marge was twisting Donna’s arm. Marge had seemed like a savvy old broad. Donna was more creampuff.
Donna’s voice returned. “Mr. Ives had a girlfriend,” she said with resignation. “She was a troublemaker professor from the university, always protesting something. I think she was part Hispanic or native or something. Pretty and exotic looking but always in people’s faces. She worked with some political analyst, and when Gus won the district primary for state representative, she blew a gasket, said all the polls showed him losing. She was convinced her candidate had been robbed.”
That was Jax’s mom, Evie bet. He inherited his need for justice from her. She couldn’t stand it any longer. She got up and hugged Jax. He wrapped his arm around her but stayed focused on the phone.
“Aaron Ives was both lawyer and engineer.” Jax encouraged Donna to continue. “And he listened to his girlfriend.”
“Yes,” Donna whispered. “He came in one day, waving circuit boards and furious. There was a lot of arguing behind closed doors. Franklin looked pretty unhappy. I never really knew what it was all about, but there were a lot of phone calls and shouting. They had me print out their contract with Sovereign Machines and fax it to a few people. A week later, the mine collapsed, and it was all over, and we were all out of jobs.” She sobbed a little.
“How much can you remember of the day the mine collapsed?” Jax asked soothingly. “I just need to know my father didn’t kill his partner.”
He wanted a lot more than that, Evie knew, but he was a damned good interrogator. Giving up on her note taking, she leaned back against the pool table with him, her hip brushing his thigh. He lowered his arm to press her closer, and she snuggled into him.
“I don’t know. It’s all sort of a muddle after all these years.” Donna took a breath, sniffed, and after some more encouragement in the background, continued. “This was long ago, when cellphones weren’t around much. We didn’t have any cell towers, so it was mostly landlines and answering machines. I remember Franklin got a call on his direct line about a time change for an urgent meeting. He had me calling all over, trying to reach Mr. Ives. I didn’t think much of it at the time. Mr. Ives was a busy man and could have been in Sacramento for all I knew. I came back from lunch, and Franklin wasn’t in his office. I thought maybe he’d found Mr. Ives and had gone to the meeting.”
Donna turned away from the phone and argued with Marge some more. Her aunt apparently took the phone from her because she spoke next. “Aaron had a company truck with the name of the mining company on it. I’d see him drive it into town past my house every once in a while. But when he wasn’t out running around the state in someone’s limo or plane, he often came back to the ranch in his girlfriend’s Jeep. Most of the time, he left the truck parked at Franklin’s office for him to use, since Franklin didn’t own a car. Looking back now, knowing Aaron didn’t die, my guess is that Franklin was the one who drove the company truck out to the mine, not Aaron. The Jeep wasn’t there. The truck and its driver didn’t leave. Aaron couldn’t have had anything to do with the mine collapse or Franklin’s disappearance.”
Evie wrapped her arm around Jax as he absorbed that information. It had been in the sheriff’s report in vague terms, but hearing it said aloud with the names switched... There were still holes in the story, but the cairn they found said what evidence could not. Aaron had mourned the death of his partner and disappeared.