Page 156 of Secrets Along the Shore

That finished, I switch over to what I really want to be doing at the moment. Learning everything I can about Franklin Donner.

Donner is one of four senior partners in the Lakin, Lancaster, Donner and Pyle law firm in Huntsville. Donner’s a trial lawyer who handles big-money, high-end civil trials, repping corporate clients in lawsuits. Which means brokering a real estate deal with Richard Taybolt—especially one in the backwoods of Mitchell County—is outside his typical practice area.

So why was he involved?

I want to see him in person to put the question to him—not that I’ll get an answer, but you can learn a lot from how people react. Problem is, lawyers aren’t usually available for last-minute meetings with people they don’t know.

So, I’ll just have to make sure hedoeswant to see me.

I don’t bother changinginto my surveillance costume for this meeting, but I do call ahead with a fake name, as the fake CEO of a fake company, looking to hire independent counsel to monitor an ongoing lawsuit. I’ll be found out as soon as I meet Donner, but that should at least get me in the door. I’m lucky—he’s in today, which isn’t always the case with lawyers. And he has time for a thirty-minute meeting if I can get there by two.

Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy.

The law office consumes most of the eleventh floor of a downtown bank building in Huntsville. At two o’clock I step out of the elevator into a white-marble-tiled lobby furnished with black leather furniture and original art on the walls. A reserved receptionist locks eyes with me as I approach her ebony-lacquered counter.

“May I help you?”

“Mollie Sanders to see Frank Donner.” Mollie Sanders was my best friend in the sixth grade. Hopefully she doesn’t mind me hijacking her name.

She asks me to have a seat in one of the chairs and offers me a Fiji water, which I take her up on. I’ve only had two sips when she announces Donner’s ready for me and escorts me to a conference room a short way down the first hallway we enter. Broad windows offer a view of downtown and a constant stream of vehicles soldiering ant-like along the thoroughfares.

“Ms. Sanders?”

Frank Donner walks toward me, extending his hand. I shake it, knowing that’s probably the last time he’s going to feel like being cordial to me. When he gestures at a seat, I take it. He sits down across from me, sucking in a breath like he’s about to launch into whatever his first-time meeting speech is, when I cut him off.

“Mr. Donner, I have to apologize. I misled you to get this meeting on short notice.”

His chest freezes mid-inhale, his eyebrows drawing to a point so sharp that he’d slit his hand open if he dragged it across his forehead. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m Sophie Walsh, an investigator with the Mitchell County Sheriff’s Department. I need to speak with you concerning contact you had with Richard Taybolt. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to see you without the subterfuge and there’s an urgency to my investigation.”

“You’re here about the dead woman found on Saturday.” It isn’t a question. He leans back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest, his features stony.

“Exactly.”

“I don’t see how I can help you.”

So, it’s gonna be like that, is it?

“Mr. Taybolt told me that you approached him on a number of occasions regarding the purchase of his property, which includes the area where the body of Kamden Avery was discovered on Saturday.”

He doesn’t flinch. “Okay.”

“I was hoping you would share the name of your buyer with me.”

Donner snorts, eyeing me with disbelief. “I’m assuming this isn’t your first time out of the gate, Ms. Walsh. You know I can’t share confidential information like that with you, even if I wanted to. Which I don’t.”

“How about sharing the reasons behind wanting the property? Mr. Taybolt said you told him your client intended to build a spa resort there?”

Donner stares me down, his fingers digging deeper into his starched, white sleeves where his hands grasp his arms. I’m not surprised he won’t tell me anything. He’s right about that. Still, it was worth asking, because, well, you never know. But getting answers to my questions wasn’t the only reason I came. I’m also here to lay eyes on him, get the measure of the situation, and take his temperature.

Based on what I’m seeing, it’s red hot.

Most lawyers would be ticked off by my little deception—I know this from experience—but they typically won’t react to my request with such animosity, even when they aren’t inclined to help. In fact, when I’ve tried similar stunts before, a surprising few have offered to ask their client for permission to divulge whatever information I was seeking, just to get me off their backs.

That is definitely not happening here.

However, if Donner thinks his antagonistic approach will discourage me, he has seriously miscalculated. If anything, it makes me think I’m onto something.