The only other thing I could think of was to run a credit check on both of them and to put their names into the online legal records search. I logged into the system and entered Gordon’s name.
It popped up immediately. A civil suit involving Gordon Albright and Leonard Albright. Leonard had alleged that Gordon misused his power of attorney for property to take their mother’s money and use it for himself, draining all her accounts so that nothing remained of the estate upon her death.
My mouth went dry in a way that water wouldn’t help. Maybe my long shot wasn’t such a long shot after all. Depending on how much money Leonard thought he should have inherited from their mother upon her death, that could be a motive to not only stop speaking to his brother, but to kill him as well.
“What did you tell him about why we wanted to meet with him?” Anderson asked from the passenger seat of my car a few days later as we drove to our appointment with Leonard Albright.
“The truth, of course.”
The look Anderson gave me said Are you sure you’re really your father’s daughter? “You told him we were coming because we want to know if he’s the one who really killed his brother.”
“I told him we believe Clement is innocent, and we want to talk to him about whether there’s anyone else who might have wanted to hurt Gordon.”
Anderson smirked at me and shook his head. “I’m not sure I’d call that truth. I’ve looked at the evidence. You’re the only one who thinks there’s a chance Clement Dodd didn’t kill Gordon Albright.”
It wasn’t so much that I thought Clement was innocent as I’d seen cases that looked airtight burst a leak when you stomped on them hard enough. But I wasn’t interested in arguing that point right now. “Why did you come with me, then, if you don’t think there’s a chance Clement’s innocent? My dad would say it’s a waste of company resources.”
“Aren’t you the one who once told me your dad’s not always right?” He shrugged. “It’s what partners do. If you think this is important to your case, I’ll back you on it. Worse case, the brothers’ broken relationship helps us establish reasonable doubt.”
His words created a warm little buzz in the part of my brain where my confidence liked to hide. His I’ve-got-your-back attitude was why I was even considering joining his firm as a partner. He knew I’d be chasing what looked like rabbit trails to defend innocent clients, and he was okay with it.
When we’d first started talking about it, I’d asked him why. He’d said it was because he wanted his firm to find its own niche. He didn’t want to be just another lawyer trying to topple Edward Dawes from his throne.
Anderson had gone quiet in the passenger’s seat, reading over the printout of the lawsuit I’d found. “You did see that Leonard dropped the suit, didn’t you?”
I nodded. “Dropping the suit actually raised more questions for me. He wouldn’t have filed a suit against his brother if he hadn’t been convinced of his wrongdoing. If he’d been merely suspicious, he likely would have spoken to him and worked it out instead. So why suddenly drop the case?”
Anderson folded the paper and slid it into his suit pocket, probably in case we needed to pull it out to show to Leonard. “Fair enough.”
The Albrights didn’t live in Fair Haven like Gordon had. Instead, they were in another little town, closer to Grand Rapids. The distance actually worked in our favor, assuming Leonard was guilty. He wouldn’t have been able to get to Gordon’s home in Fair Haven, kill him, plant the body, clean up, and drive all the way back home without some sort of a trail. Someone must have noticed his absence, though his wife and children probably wouldn’t be willing to testify against him. Or his receipts might show a purchase along the way.
The Albrights lived in a middle class-looking cul-de-sac near the middle of town. Once I’d found the lawsuit, I’d continued to dig into Leonard. He was a licensed counselor and had a successful practice.
Which was a bad thing for us. He’d be trained in picking up on subtle cues in tone and body language. Anderson and I would both need to be careful not to give anything away.
We’d also dressed like we were going to court. The first impression would matter.
The woman who opened the door had sandy-blonde shoulder-length hair and a smattering of freckles across her nose. The fact that I could see them spoke volumes about her. Most women tried to cover up any seeming imperfection with makeup. It made me like her. She was comfortable in her own skin.
We introduced ourselves, and she took us into the kitchen. An interesting choice. The natural place to meet would have been the living room.
She motioned toward the table. “I’d normally invite you into the living room where it’s more comfortable, but our daughter has friends over, and they’re watching a movie.”
A shiver ran over my neck and back. She couldn’t have known what I was thinking, so we were either a bit alike in our thinking or she was also good at reading people. I hoped it wasn’t the latter. It was bad enough that her husband’s profession gave him an advantage.
As she was setting mugs of coffee in front of us, the kitchen door swung open. The man who entered looked nothing like Gordon Alright, and for a second, I thought I’d called the wrong Leonard Albright. Where Gordon had dressed the part for someone working at a chainsaw and logging museum in his jeans and plaids—at least from all the pictures I’d seen—Leonard had the trendy look of someone who spent too much time keeping up on the latest fashions for a man. Or for a woman, for that matter.
He offered me his hand. It was softer than mine. “I’m glad you felt comfortable calling us. It was a shock when the police told us they’d arrested Clement. He and Gordon have been friends for years, and Gordon worked for Clement’s father before that. I’d much rather it turned out someone else was behind this.”
His tone was too smooth for my taste. It gave me the same feeling as drinking a medicine that left a slick coating on my throat.
Mrs. Albright laid a plate of store-bought chocolate chip cookies in the center of the table and nudged it toward us. “We talked about it after you called, though, and we couldn’t come up with anyone who might have wanted to hurt Gordon. He was liked by everyone who knew him.”
Crap. I’d worried that with such a long break between when I called and when we’d been able to meet it would give them too much time to come up with their story if they had something to hide. Though perhaps the fact that she’d admitted to them talking about it indicated innocence. I wasn’t getting a clear enough read on either of them to tell. They both seemed unnaturally calm.
That alone made me think they had something to hide. Talking to lawyers in a criminal case made normal people nervous.
And if they wanted to get away with something, claiming they didn’t know of anyone else who would have wanted to hurt Gordon would be a smart move. The police were convinced Clement did it. Why muddy the waters and risk them taking a closer look?
I could feel Anderson waiting for me. This was my case. I needed to lead.
But I needed to be careful about how I broached the lawsuit since I didn’t want my suspicions to be obvious, and I didn’t want them to kick us out.
I placed a cookie on the napkin in front of me as a way to add a casualness to my next words. “It’s hard sometimes to think of who might want to hurt a loved one because we never would. But we found something.”
I held out my hand toward Anderson. He pulled the paper from his pocket and laid it out on the table in front of them, close enough that they could read it.
I touched the nearest edge with my fingertips. “If he stole money from your mother, it’s possible he also stole money from other people.”
Leonard continued to stare down at the paper as if he were reading it carefully. The long hair at the front of his haircut drooped onto his forehead, and he brushed it back. I’d never been a fan of that style. It always reminded me of a man using a comb-over to hide his balding spot.
Leonard met my gaze, and his expression didn’t even flicker. He was too well-trained. He’d spent too many years hearing shocking things from clients while having to maintain a straight face. Nothing I could say was going to rattle him. The best I could hope for would be to find an inconsistency somewhere and push at it.
“Gordon wouldn’t have stolen money from anyone,” Leonard said.
It was an interesting way of phrasing it. The lawsuit said he believed his brother embezzled from their mother, but he hadn’t said anyone else. He’d said anyone, which technically included their mother. I couldn’t reconcile the two, but I knew he was hiding something the same way I knew from a seemingly innocent tickle in the back of my throat that I was coming down with a cold.
