“Of course.”
“Mr. Alvarez doesn’t want to come down to dinner. Can you check on him in a bit to see if he wants food sent up to his room?”
“I’ll go up after the first course is served.”
“Thanks.”
The server brought Robin her screwdriver just as Mrs. Raskin walked over to Mr. Melville and whispered in his ear. He looked upset. He said something to his housekeeper, and she picked up a place card with Jose’s name from a setting and rearranged the table.
“Robin Lockwood?”
Robin turned and came face-to-face with the man who had been talking to Nelly Melville by the fireplace. He was about her age and had the look of someone who played tennis at an exclusive country club. The man’s hand-tailored suit fit his athletic body perfectly, and his curly blond hair set off his tan and bright blue eyes. He extended a hand.
“Justin Trent. Nelly told me you’d be coming.”
“You’re Mr. Melville’s lawyer?”
“I am.”
“Are you here on business?”
“And pleasure. Mr. Melville invited me in my professional capacity, but the visit gives me a chance to see Nelly.”
Nelly Melville had followed Trent. “Do you two know each other?” she asked.
“I don’t think we’ve ever met,” Trent said, as he flashed a smile that displayed perfect, pearl-white teeth. “Civil attorneys and criminal defense attorneys travel in different circles. But Miss Lockwood is famous in all of Oregon’s legal circles.”
“Infamous is more like it,” Robin said to cover her embarrassment.
“I hear things didn’t go well when Dad met with Mr. Alvarez,” Nelly said.
Robin sobered. “That’s an understatement.”
“Now that I know that Dad knew Mr. Alvarez was innocent for years and didn’t tell anyone, I can see why he would be angry.”
“He couldn’t tell anyone, Nelly. He was in a terrible bind,” Robin said. “Your father was forbidden to reveal what Stallings told him by the attorney-client privilege. Stallings would have denied confessing if Frank forced the issue. Until Stallings died, there was nothing your father could do.”
“I get that. Still, he could have made the effort.”
“And Jose would have stayed on death row,” Robin said.
Nelly shivered. “I can’t imagine what it must have been like to spend thirty years in a cell when you knew you were innocent.”
“I visit the state pen a lot. It’s what keeps me on the straight and narrow,” Robin said. “Every time I think about robbing a bank, I imagine what it would be like to be caged at OSP for even one day.”
Frank Melville broke off his conversation when he saw Ken Breland walk into the dining room.
“We’re all here, so why don’t we take our seats.”
Frank rolled his chair to the head of the table. Robin had taken Jose’s place on Melville’s left side, and Sheila Monroe was on Melville’s right. Ken Breland was seated next to Sheila, and Corey Rockwell was seated next to Ken. That protected the females in the room from his advances, because Nelly was seated next to Robin, and Justin Trent was across from the actor.
When everyone was seated, Frank Melville raised his glass.
“I want to propose a toast to Robin Lockwood, who used her brilliant legal skills to free Jose Alvarez from death row; a feat I thought was impossible.”
“Hear! Hear!” Justin Trent said as the glasses sailed skyward in a salute to Robin.
Robin blushed. “This was a group effort, Mr. Melville. I had incredible help from Ken and Loretta Washington, my associate.”