Confessions Bundle. Jo Leigh

      “You look cute,” she told the child. Today Mary Jane had on a short denim skirt, an orange long-sleeved sweater, orange socks and tennis shoes. The kid had her own sense of style. Even in this, she stood out from the crowd.

      “Thanks,” she said, coming in to hold Juliet’s jacket while she stepped out of the navy skirt. It had to go on the hanger first.

      The child stood, unusually silent, watching while Juliet stepped into one of her most expensive suits—black skirt and tailored red jacket with black silk piping.

      “What was wrong with the first one?”

      “Nothing.”

      Pulling her favorite black pumps from their slot, Juliet did a mental run-through of the questions she had for Eaton James that morning in light of the new evidence the prosecution would be introducing. And of the first witnesses she’d be calling when the prosecution finally rested.

      Mary Jane was looking in her jewelry box, pulling out the eighteen-karat gold-and-diamond heart necklace, bracelet and earrings she usually wore with this suit.

      “Are you going to see my father this morning?” She handed them to her mother.

      “Yes.” Schuster was winding up and so far, he hadn’t given them anything she couldn’t rebut. They weren’t arguing about the facts, but about whether or not Eaton James’s intentions were fraudulent. There was no personal gain to give truth to that claim. The man might have been desperate and stupid, but he hadn’t done anything with the intent to steal from his investors.

      “Is that why you’re wearing the red power suit?”

      “No!”

      With her head slightly lowered, Mary Jane peered up at Juliet, her full lips puckered disapprovingly.

      “Okay, okay, yes, maybe that’s why. I’m really trying not to think about it.” She held out her bracelet and her wrist. “He’s just a guy.”

      “Don’t tell him about me, okay?” The girl’s forehead creased as her little fingers fumbled with the clasp.

      “Of course not, imp. I’d never do something like that without telling you.”

      “Promise?” Wide green eyes stared up at her.

      “Yes.” Unequivocally.

      Pulling the little girl into her arms, Juliet knew there was at least one thing in her life she’d gotten completely right.

      And that she’d give her life for it.

      For her.

      JULIET WAS LETTING THE prosecution lay everything out on the table, waiting for Schuster to show all his cards so that, when her turn came to explain those cards, she could do so without confusing the jury. The tactic didn’t always work, but in a case as convoluted with paper trails as this one, it was an almost sure win.

      That was why she’d let every single witness pass unquestioned by the defense. Those she needed, if any, she’d call back.

      It was also why Judge Lockhard didn’t have much patience with her. Judges didn’t like it when defense attorneys refused to cross-examine.

      And then Schuster called his last witness that Tuesday morning in early April. As she’d been doing for a couple of weeks, she waited while Schuster questioned Blake Ramsden, revealing to the twelve-member jury that until his death, Walter Ramsden had held a seat on the board of Semaphor—along with Eaton James. Semaphor served as a clearinghouse of sorts, collecting and providing data to potential contributors all over the world. Schuster maintained that James used this connection to find his prey.

      “Objection!” Juliet stood, her gaze solidly on the judge. “Your Honor, the prosecution is leading the witness.”

      Judge Henry Lockhard sighed, frowned and said, “Objection sustained. Jury, please disregard the last remark and it will be stricken from the record. Counsel, you may continue.”

      Juliet sat. She reminded Eaton not to show any emotion other than respect, or perhaps any distress he might be feeling at the tarnishing of his good name. She waited for his nod and returned her attention to the notepad on the table in front of her.

      She had no reason to size up this witness. She already knew his size.

      Eaton James, when she’d disclosed her very brief association with the witness, had seemed more pleased than distressed.

      “Mr. Ramsden, what do you know about Eaton Estates?” Schuster continued.

      “It was a land development project in the Cayman Islands. Eaton James approached my father with an investment plan that projected at least a double return on any monies spent. In addition, three percent of all profits were to go to the Terracotta Foundation, specifically to feed orphans in Honduras. The Foundation made much of its money through such investments.”

      His voice hadn’t changed.

      “And did your father invest?”

      “Yes.”

      “How much?”

      “Half a million dollars.”

      “What happened?”

      He was wearing a gray suit, white shirt and maroon-white-and-gray striped tie. His shoes were Italian leather—or something that appeared just as expensive. She’d noticed them when he’d approached the witness stand. Other than that, Juliet didn’t look at Blake Ramsden. There was no point in studying the father of her child for evidence of genetic similarities.

      “I was in the Cayman Islands at the time. My mother called, telling me she was concerned because my father had been getting the runaround from James, and she asked me to check out Eaton Estates.”

      “And did the development exist?”

      Schuster’s shoes brushed the floor softly as he walked back and forth from the jurors’ box to the witness stand a few feet away.

      “Yes. It was a plot of land that was sinking into the sea.”

      The footsteps stopped.

      “So, completely useless.”

      “Yes.”

      “Then what happened?”

      Schuster began to pace again. Juliet knew by heart the expressions the man was wearing for the jurors’ benefit. But hers would be the ones they took with them into deliberation.

      “I called my mother and she relayed the information to my father, who confronted James. She called the next day to tell me James had admitted the land was worthless, but claimed that he’d only just discovered that himself. He’d been swindled with the rest of his investors.”

      “Mr. Ramsden, would you say your father was a savvy businessman?”

      “Absolutely.”

      “As a matter of fact, he’d never made a bad investment in his life, had he?”

      “This was a first.”

      “Why do you think he was so successful in that area? Luck?”

      Blake gave a humorless chuckle and Juliet glanced up instinctively. And then quickly away. He wasn’t smiling, his lips were twisted into an “I know better” quirk that Juliet recognized all too well. She’d seen it directed at her just that morning, from a pair of eight-year-old lips in her closet at home.

      “Walter Ramsden would never have given up control of his life, or his money, to something as capricious as luck. He was successful because he had an uncanny talent for evaluating people—as though he had a second ear that heard what a person wasn’t saying as clearly as what he was.”

      “And what did your father have to say about the Eaton Estates deal?”

      “When I spoke to my mother after my father’s meeting with Eaton, she said