“As your lawyer, it was my decision to make.”
“I didn’t want one.”
“That’s not the issue,” I put in.“Did you know?”Still he didn’t confirm or deny what we’d learned.“Cooper?”
The force of his gaze was on Peter.He didn’t look at me once.“Can you defend me the way we originally planned?”
“Without mentioning any of this?”
“That’s right.”
“It’s crazy, man.”
“Can you do it?”
“Sure, I can do it—”
“You can’t!”I broke in.
Peter held up a hand to me.To Cooper, he said, “But it doesn’t make any sense.It was one thing when we thought that a total stranger had stashed those diamonds on the boat.But if Benjie is in business with Cyrill, you’ve got a problem that isn’t going away so fast.If you’re acquitted, he’ll keep at it until he’s caught.Ifyou’re convicted, he’s going to have to live with that.Think he can?”
Cooper’s eyes were coal black.“Benjie is innocent.”
“Perhaps in the most general sense,” Peter said, “but if he was the one who put those diamonds on theFree Reign, then stood by and watched you go through hell, somewhere along the line he stops being so innocent.”
I felt totally stymied.“Does he know that you know the truth?”
Cooper spared me a glance then.Its harshness was moderated only slightly by the feelings he had for me.As though knowing he couldn’t—or didn’t dare—sustain any semblance of gentleness for long, he looked back at Peter.“I don’t want him touched.”
Peter tried to reassure him.“Benjie would be all right.I could get him off with a suspended sentence because of his age and the circumstances—”
“I don’t want his name brought into this at all.”
“He’d end up with nothing more than probation.It might do him good.”
“No.”
“Cooper—” I began to protest, but he’d apparently had enough.Storming past us, he whipped his coat from a hook by the door and left with the slam of aged oak.
I looked at Peter.Then I grabbed my own coat from the chair on which I’d dropped it moments before.“I’m going after him.”
“Maybe you should give him time to think.”
“If I do that, he’ll convince himself he’s doing the right thing.”
“He already has.”
“Then my job will be harder, but I have to try.”
“I’ll come,” Peter said.
He was reaching for his coat when I put a hand on his arm.“No.It’d be better if I see him alone.”The look in Peter’s eyes said that he wasn’t so sure about that, but I knew what I was doing.“Cooper and I have something special.”I moved my hand to his face and brushed my thumb across his lips.“It’s not what you and I have, but it’s still deep.I want to appeal to it, but if you’re there, it’ll be harder.Cooper will use you to keep me at arm’s length.”I paused.“I have to try, Peter.”
He didn’t move, didn’t make any attempt to change my mind.Going up on my toes, I put my mouth where my thumb had been.I love you,I thought, and nearly said the words.At the last minute they caught in my throat.I didn’t know whether it was the particular circumstance, or whether I just wasn’t ready to say them, but by the time I returned my heels to the floor, the moment had passed.I quickly fastened my parka, pulled up my hood and turned toward the front door, only to be stopped by an unexpected sight.
Benjie was standing stiffly in the kitchen doorway.
He had clearly overheard my final conversation with Peter and, just as clearly, had seen mekiss him, but how much he’d heard of what we’d said to Cooper, I didn’t know.Nor, at that moment, did I care.Cooper was my main concern.I was very happy to leave Benjie to Peter.
