“You planning on staying in there, bud?”
“For now,” he said to Buster.
“Can I suggest you people leave, and let Millicent and me into the cell, so we can talk,” her father said.
“What’s your name?” Buster asked him.
“Jacob Robertson.”
“All right, Jacob, we can do that.”
“Any chance that as I’m sheriff, I make the calls?”
“Nope,” everyone said as they filed out.
Hope nodded, and Newman unlocked the cell, and in came her parents. It felt strange to think the words “parents,” when usually it was just parent for her and Ryan.
“So I’m guessing you don’t want a hug?”
Hope shook her head and took a step closer to her mother. He saw the gesture for what it was, a declaration of solidarity.
“And you are?” Her father looked at Newman.
“Hope’s partner, Paul Newman.” He held out his hand and her father shook it.
“Perhaps we should clear the air before we begin?”
Newman stood to one side silently. A reassuring presence, in her corner if she needed him.
“I cheated on your mother, Hope,” Jacob began, “and the result was that I never saw you or Ryan grow up, because I believed that was what I wanted. For a while I was able to live my life as I chose, and then I met my wife, Sylvia, and we had children, and it was then I realized what I had given up.”
She hadn’t known he’d cheated on her mother. Millicent had kept that quiet.
“As you know, I tried to have contact with you, but neither you nor Ryan wished for that.”
Hope nodded.
“You look like my youngest daughter.”
She wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
“Maybe we can do this other stuff later,” Newman said. “Right now, we need to work out what to do about Hope’s situation.”
“Because I really don’t want to go to prison,” Hope added.
Her father nodded. They talked, and she realized he was what her mother had said, an excellent criminal lawyer.
When Cubby came in, it was to get Newman.
“I need him for something, Hope. I’ll bring him back soon, okay?”
“It’s all right.” Newman kissed her softly. “Your parents are here watching over you now, sweetheart, and I’ll be back soon.”
“Okay.” She let his hand go reluctantly and watched him leave, hating that his solid presence was no longer at her side.
“Brodie Finlay just called in. He and his brothers were up on North Ridge doing some tracking. They stopped to eat, and he was looking through that high-powered scope of his, and saw someone matching that limp dick Jay Herald climbing down the cliff out at Tiger Point this morning,” Cubby said when he, Buster, Tex, and Newman were in his office with the door closed so the state trooper couldn’t hear them.
“Yeah. He carrying anything?”
