Finger Prints by Barbara Delinsky Read Free Book Online Page B

Where can I reach you?” He’d been on the verge of asking if Sam was still at Carly’s house, but had caught himself just in time. The innuendo might have ticked Sam off again. Hell, he’d only been kidding before. He knew Sam was in love with his wife. He had eyes and ears and was vividly aware of those soft calls every day at four.
    “I’ll reach you,” Sam replied, then gave a short, “Thanks,” before hanging up the phone. Returning to the living room, he sat down across from Carly.
    “Well…?” she asked, tempering a fine line of tension.
    “We’re working on it.”
    “Do you know anything, other than that he’s a lawyer?”
    Sam shrugged. “Not much. I know he’s handling more and more criminal work. That’s why he looked familiar. Several months back, he defended a member of the governor’s cabinet on charges of embezzlement. His face was all over the evening news.”
    “Did he get an acquittal?”
    Sam scowled. “Yes.”
    “But you think his client was guilty?”
    “From where I sat,” which was only at his desk reading the newspaper, “yes.”
    “Then how did he get off?” It was a question born more of indignation than innocence.
    “Very simply. The prosecution didn’t have solid enough evidence to convince a jury beyond the shadow of a doubt. There wasn’t any witness like you to make its case.”
    The terse reminder of her predicament brought furrows to Carly’s brow. “Is Ryan a danger to me? Do you think he might have some connection to Culbert?” More likely Culbert, a high-placed political blackguard, than a lowly thug like Barber. Perhaps both. She wanted to believe neither. “He wasn’t terribly threatening just now, even if he did give me a scare downstairs.”
    “Downstairs?”
    Only then did it occur to her that Sam knew nothing of the blockbuster end to her fiasco. “I, uh, ran into him in the courtyard,” she began, feeling foolish all over again. “I mean, literally ran into him when I thought I was being chased. I’d looked over my shoulder and wasn’t watching, and wham. He caught me and kept me from falling.” Recalling the events, she gave an involuntary shudder. “My first thought was that he was part of a brilliant scheme, that he’d been waiting right there to catch me. You know, the lamb being, in this case, chased to the slaughter? But he let me go as soon as I’d regained my balance. He was as harmless then as he seemed just now. Wasn’t he?”
    Pondering her vulnerability, Sam felt the full weight of his responsibility. How in the hell could he know about Cornell? If the guy were a faceless shoe salesman or the obscure manufacturer of computer parts, he might feel more confident. But a fairly visible criminal attorney might easily be the target of Gary Culbert’s maneuvering. Culbert had been a state legislator before greed had taken over. Though none would admit it now, Sam was sure that he still had friends in high places. And friends in Illinois high places had friends in other high places who could feasibly make calls and pull strings and find weaknesses in a man as the grounds for blackmail. What were Ryan Cornell’s weaknesses? He was human. Surely he had some, aside from a knack for locking his keys in his car.
    Perhaps it was wishful thinking, but in his gut Sam agreed with Carly. On the surface, Cornell seemed innocent enough.
    “I’m sure he is,” he said, forcing a smile. Carly was already on edge. There seemed no point in feeding her dark imaginings. He would, however, stop at the office before heading home. With Cornell apparently already installed in the apartment just below hers, Sam wanted fast answers on this one. “We’ll check things out. I don’t want you to worry.” He glanced at his watch. “I should be going.”
    Pushing herself up from the sofa, Carly walked him to the door. “Thanks for coming, Sam. I guess I did need someone to talk with.”
    He threw an arm around her shoulder and gave her a parting squeeze.