Together Again(56)

                She stood just outside the door while he scanned the living area. There was no sign anyone had been there. “I’m going around to the deck and take a look up there,” he said. “Stay outside. Do you have your cell phone?”

                She nodded.

                “If you see or hear anything unusual, call 9-1-1.”

                A few seconds later, Tony yelled, “Make that call, Margo. We need police and an ambulance. Mr. Todd’s been hurt.”

                As she made the emergency call, Margo ran to the narrow walkway between their homes. In the wreckage of several more broken pots and damaged foliage was a crumpled heap — Mr. Todd with Tony kneeling beside him.

                “Oh, God, is he … ?”

                “He’s got a good pulse in his neck but there’s a bad gash in his head and he’s not responding.” He stroked her arm. “He’ll be okay, sugar. Go back out front so you can let the EMTs in.”

                Minutes later, two patrolmen arrived along with an ambulance. While the EMTs took Mr. Todd away on a stretcher, Tony was on the phone with Sam Richardson. After he finished the call, he joined the police officers in talking to the neighbors.

                Restless and wanting to do anything other than just wait, Margo called Mr. Todd’s daughter to tell her what happened. After she hung up, she waited for the three cops to return.

                But it was Sam and Tony who appeared at her front door. The two patrol officers had left with little to go on other than the information that neighbors had heard an outboard motor near the boat slip under her deck. No one had seen anything.

                “Sam, why’re you here?” Margo asked when the two men came in the front door.

                “Because I don’t believe in coincidences. Sit down. We need to talk.”

                Oh, hell, Margo thought. There was that sentence again.

                “Tony’s wasn’t the only call I got today regarding you, Ms. Keyes. Your office was ransacked. When my boss heard from your boss, he called me,” Sam said.

                “Why’d they call you? And what’s that have to do with this? I can’t explain what happened in my office but why isn’t this just somebody looking for an easy target to rob?”

                “Who happened to pick on your house out of all the houses here? You don’t have the most expensive looking house on the block and it’s not the first one you come to if you come in by water.”

                “Okay, so what do you think it is?”

                “I think — we think — someone is looking for something. Something he — she — believes you have. So, counselor, the question is what would that be?”

                “What could I have? Depositions? Records of plea bargains? Even I wouldn’t break into anyone’s office for that shit. Besides, what have I been involved in recently that’s even vaguely interesting?”

                Sam stared hard at her face, causing her to rub the whisker burns on her chin. Then he looked at Tony, who shrugged his shoulders with an “I tried my best” expression that bordered on a smirk.

                “Oh, for God’s sake you two, I meant in my professional life.”

                “Maybe you’ve been involved in something but don’t know it.” He turned to Tony again. “I was going over your files from the Jameson case yesterday. You remember the name of Frank Jameson’s new girlfriend?”