Dark Legacy by Jen Talty (reading books for 4 year olds .txt) 📗

She carried herself with an air of confidence. One that he knew she drew from lies, betrayal, and loneliness. She had a good heart, though it had hardened the moment her uncle went to prison for trying to kill her. “God, I hate the smell of paint. Will the odor ever go away?” she asked as she took off her baseball cap and hung it on the coat rack next to the door.

“Good morning to you, too,” he said with a big smile.

“Westerfield asked me to give this to you.” She dumped a sealed envelope onto his desk before she clicked across the office in her high heels. She lifted a bouquet of red and yellow tulips he’d brought in this morning. “Why do you do things like this?”

Her desk sat directly across from his in their large office space. Originally, it had been two offices, but neither of them liked having to go back and forth to talk to each other, so they knocked down the wall. They also had a small reception area. One day, they hoped to make enough money to hire a receptionist to put behind the humble empty desk. On the other side of the reception area lay a small conference room.

The building itself stood four stories, and they occupied the second floor. The first level held an insurance company, and Bryant and Bangle, Attorneys at Law—their biggest clients and landlords—occupied the top two floors.

“You have to admit, they brighten up the place, along with the freshly painted walls,” he said.

“Yeah. Yeah. Your mother should have named you Jessica, not Jackson.” She sat behind her desk and fired up her computer. “Any messages?”

“Not a single one,” he said.

“So, what’s on the agenda for today?” she asked, her fingers pounding on the keyboard, her stare engaged only with the screen. Most people looked at Katie and saw a rebel without a cause. An angry woman with an ax to grind.

Behind her tough exterior and fiery red hair hid a scared little girl who wanted answers to questions only her incarcerated uncle or dead mother could give her.

“We’ve got two appointments with potential new clients. One is a let’s-spy-on-my-wife case, and the other is with an insurance company looking to hire us to do investigative work on some worker’s comp cases.”

“Hate insurance companies,” she said. “Wouldn’t the flowers look better on the conference table today?”

He laughed. “Already put some there.”

“Of course, you did,” she said. “You’re a great work wife.”

“I’m here to make you happy.” He opened the envelope from Westerfield, his buddy over at the Warren County sheriff’s office. “Well, shit.” He stared at the name printed on the report for the owner of the blue sedan that had been parked at the top of his and Shannon’s drive.

Ned Brendel.

“What’s the problem?”

“I don’t know yet.” Just because the car’s registered owner had the same last name as Shannon, didn’t mean they were related. “Hey, Siri, call Westerfield.”

His buddy answered on the second ring. “What’s up, man?”

“Thanks for the printout. Do you know anything about this guy?”

“You obviously didn’t read my sticky note on the third page. He’s your neighbor’s uncle.”

“You don’t say. Anything else?” Jackson asked.

“I ran a check. Found a sealed juvenile report on Ned Brendel. I’m trying to get my hands on it. I’ll send it over when and if I get it.”

“Thanks.” Jackson tapped the red button on the cell. He set the phone on the desk, screen up, twirling it with his index finger.

“What has you so deep in thought?” Katie plopped her ass down on the side of his desk.

He pushed Shannon’s file across the wood.

“I can’t believe you took on an adoption case. You’ve given me shit every single time, and now you’re going to do it because you’ve got the hots for your neighbor.”

“I’m not doing it because I find Shannon attractive.”

“I can’t think of any other reason for you to do it. Because you damn near quit on me the last time.” Katie held up the birth certificate. “Wow. Sixteen. I tell you, Dr. Shannon Brendel doesn’t seem the type to have sex as a teenager.”

“Shut up,” Jackson said. “We were all young and stupid once.”

“You know that’s not how I meant it. It’s just that she seems so put-together. It surprises me she’d be in a situation where she’d have to give up a baby when she was just a kid herself.”

“If that’s the case, then stop getting bent out of shape whenever someone makes a judgment about you because of your uncle.”

Katie knocked on the desk with a knuckle. “That’s hitting below the belt.”

The sound of footsteps coming from the stairs caught Jackson’s attention.

He checked his watch. “Saved by our client, who is early.” Jackson would have loved to go a round or two with Katie. One of these days, he hoped to get her to understand that she wasn’t an extension of her family—or their dysfunction.

A young man stepped across the threshold.

“May I help you?” Jackson asked.

“I think someone from this office called me.”

“Who are you?” Jackson hadn’t met their scheduled first appointment of the day, but he knew without a doubt that this wasn’t him.

“Ben Nisson. I used to date Belinda Montgomery.”

Well, shit. Maybe they were about to get their first break.

“Come on in,” Katie said, waving the young man in.

Jackson closed the door and pointed to the seat next to Katie’s desk. “Have a seat.”

The young man wore tan slacks and a crisply pressed blue button-down shirt that reminded Jackson of the nerds that worked for the Geek Squad.

“I came right over as soon as I got the message,” Ben said.

“Why didn’t you just call us back?” Katie asked. “We’re a long way from Saratoga.”

“Actually, only twenty minutes.” Ben’s foot rattled the floorboards. “But my cousin lives up here, and I was visiting with him.”

“For how long?” Jackson scribbled his observations about Ben on the notepad.

Nervous.

Avoids eye contact.

Terrified. But of what?

“Just for a long weekend. Fishing trip.”

Jackson nodded. “I love fishing.”

Katie cocked her