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He’d be free of the case in a few days He’d thought about taking a break, getting away fro different en

ough to get the juices flowing so he’d feel the way he once had about his work He’d even had a talk with his travel agent, who had given hi the rapids in Alaska toin Nepal

He’d been to Alaska And there were mountains in northern Arizona

He looked at the photo of Nora Lincoln What would she think, if she knew her granddaughter had spent most of her life in a trailer park? That she’d married a man with an arrest history and then left him?

“Life sucks,” Gray said softly, “and then you die”

He went into his study, flicked on the light, looked up Jack Ballard’s phone number in his address book and dialed it Ballard answered on the second ring

“It’s late,” Ballard said in a gravelly voice “This better be good”

“Jack, it’s Gray Baron Look, I’m sorry to bother you at this hour but…” Gray cleared his throat “You know that trip you were going tois, my client—well, I have a personal connection to him And, as a sort of favor, I’ve decided to talk with Kitteridgeto fly out there, probably within the next couple of days No, no, I’ you off the case, Jack Far froe for ht Yes, do it just the way I asked Find her, but don’t approach her You just tell me where the lady is and I’ll take it from there Great Thanks, Jack I appreciate it”

Gray hung up the phone and headed back to bed

Definitely, he could use the change in routine He was starting to get curious about where this was really going Jonasbut he still couldn’t quite accept him as a man bothered by a prickly conscience, especially when it involved so more than fifty years old And then there was that look in Nora Lincoln’s eyes Would he see it in her granddaughter’s eyes, too? Gray needed to find out, not for Jonas but for himself

Three days later, with another acquittal in his files and the directions to Queen City in his pocket, Gray flew to Arizona

CHAPTER THREE

IF TEXAS was hot, Arizona was the gateway to hell

Gray flew into Phoenix in early afternoon He could have saved tistaff but he decided that the extra half day it would take hiet the chance to decoors of the trial and to work on the excuse he’d thought of to explain to her husband why he was looking for Dawn Lincoln Kitteridge

He picked up his rental car and du in the trunk Desert heat was dry heat, people always said, as if without humidity a temperature of one hundred and six would be no problem Gray was dressed for comfort in chinos and a white shirt with an open collar and rolled up sleeves but he still felt as if he was standing in front of an open furnace