The Perfect Liar (Last Stand 5)

"Last week?"

"Yes. I got the impression she wants to work at The Last Stand to vent the anger she feels toward her late husband and any other men she thinks are like him. She was telling me she's learned so much, that she knows what to look for, how to read behavior others might not notice." Ava shook her head. "No one can tell the difference between a good person and an evil person, not every time. Especially someone like Jane, who has reason to doubt even the people closest to her. I think she would've missed something like this."

"We all have scars, Ava. They're what keep us motivated." Sheridan adjusted the strap on the blouse she was wearing with a loose, flowing skirt and sandals. "We can't be perfectly objective because we deal with every case from our own perspective. I don't see how we can avoid that."

"We can if we recognize our prejudices." The waitress stopped to pick up the check, and Skye gave her a polite smile before continuing. "I understand that you're rattled by the fact that you were almost taken in. It's disconcerting to realize how easily we can be duped--and that there are people out there who would try to take advantage of our good intentions.

But I highly doubt Jane would be any more susceptible to going after the wrong person than the rest of us. She's come a long way in the time I've known her. And--" she toyed with a plastic cream container, then tossed it back in the bowl that held the rest "--oh, shoot, I guess what I'm trying to say is that...she needs this. It's been almost four years since Oliver died, and she's stil struggling to get past it. And now the salon where she's been cutting hair is closing down..." Skye appealed to them with a frank expression. "She'l be without work."

So this wasn't really about doing what was best for the charity; it was about helping another victim. If Ava had known that, she wouldn't have bothered expressing her reservations. "You couldn't have led with that?"

Skye shrugged sheepishly. "I wanted you to agree without my having to ask it as a favor."

"She can learn, just as we have, that not every victim who walks through the door is someone we can support," Sheridan said.

Ava tried not to be irritated. She wanted to help as many people as possible, but they had to consider the practicality of each decision. "Can we afford another full-time employee?"

The waitress returned with the credit slip. "It'l be tough," Sheridan admitted as she signed the bil . "There's never enough money for everything we'd like to do, but we can use an extra set of hands. We've been buried for months."

"Jane plans on pitching in with the fundraising, too," Skye said. "I've already prepped her for that."

Ava stil felt negative about it, but if she was the only one of the three, she was outvoted, anyway. "Okay, I'm wil ing to give it a try."

Skye squeezed her arm. "Thanks."

After saying goodbye, Ava sat in her car and watched her two partners drive out of the lot. She'd intended to head to the office, as usual.

She worked more Saturdays than she took off. But that suddenly seemed excessive. It was a holiday weekend. Why wasn't she celebrating Independence Day like everyone else?

Because she had no one to celebrate with. Her father had gone camping in Yosemite with Carly, his young wife. No matter how hard she tried to get closer to him, their relationship never improved because Carly stood between them. Her mother was in prison. Skye and Sheridan were hurrying home to their husbands. Jonathan hadn't mentioned his plans, but she was sure they included Zoe and her daughter. And Geoffrey was in the Bay Area seeing his two kids. Even the Myerses and Greenleys weren't back from their fishing excursion as planned. They'd left her a message saying they'd met up with another group and decided to stay an extra week.

The joys of being retired....

She sighed. The day stretched before her with absolutely nothing except work to fil it. But work was usually enough. What was wrong with her today? Why was she feeling so dissatisfied?

She found herself thinking of Luke Trussell again. She couldn't seem to put him out of her mind. She was moaning and talking dirty to me, telling me she'd never touched a man who was bigger and thicker than I am. He'd been trying to exact a bit of revenge when he'd made that statement. So why was it the line that kept coming back to her?

It's obviously been too long since I've been with a man. And Luke Trussell's blatant sexuality had affected her more deeply than she wanted to admit. She was only thirty-one. It was natural that her body would try to assert its needs, especially when she encountered a man as attractive as he was.

Part of her wished she could call Geoffrey and tell him she was ready to be intimate again. Maybe if she started sleeping with him she'd be able to forget Trussell. But she hadn't found that kind of relationship satisfying before and doubted that would change. Besides, she knew it wasn't Geoffrey she'd be seeing when she was in bed with him--and that hardly seemed fair.

"Damn. I've only met him once," she grumbled. And that first meeting hadn't gone particularly well. She'd been bitchy and rude in her attempt to remain unaffected. And he'd retaliated. Are you really that attracted to me?

Because I'm not having the same problem.

Yeah, she was really that attracted to him. Which meant she needed to keep her distance before she did something stupid, like become infatuated with him. But after last night's conversation with Kalyna, she was absolutely convinced he was innocent. And that obligated her to share what she'd discovered. She kept telling herself that those details wouldn't make a difference. As she'd explained to Kalyna, the case would probably never make it to court. But...what if it did? Or what if the information she possessed could put an end to it sooner--give Luke back his life?

McCreedy was a talented attorney, but he was paid by the hour and might not be in any hurry to end this. And just because he was good didn't mean he'd make all the right moves. Whether Kalyna's neighbor Maria was homosexual, bi or straight, she wasn't likely to repeat the fact that she and Kalyna had spoken of a three-way. The implications could ruin her career.

Ava had given her permission to keep her mouth shut, hadn't she? And no one but Ava knew about the conversation with Tatiana Harter or Kalyna's response on the phone last night--the panicked Did my sister call you back?

Ava drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. She could wait until Monday and contact Luke's attorney, pass along a copy of his file. But she occasionally came up against McCreedy on other cases and didn't want him thinking he had an ally at The Last Stand just because she'd helped him with this one case. And the prosecutor refused to call her back. She'd tried to get in touch with Major Ogitani several times, to no avail. Just as she'd assumed, the military didn't want her involved and were doing their best to ignore the intrusion.