Lust and Lies 04 - Pretty Maids in a Row

and this time, no matter what he had to do, he was going to make her accept the inevitable.
    She was his, and always would be.
    The boy, on the other hand, was a Hamilton and, as such, his value could be measured in dollars. But to Russ, the child represented something greater—the means to pay back the Hamilton family for what they'd done to him and his mother.
    It took several phone calls to track down the source of the newspaper photo, but he finally reached a helpful person at the Washington Herald. "This is the Main Street Flower Shop in Fredericksburg," he told the woman. "We have an order for Barbara Johnson, whose picture was in the paper this morning, but no address. I was hoping you could give it to me."
    "I'm sorry. You're at least the twentieth call we've received about her, to say nothing for the emails! We're trying to locate her ourselves, but in the meantime, if you deliver it to our office, we'll see that she gets it."
    Though Russ had hoped for more than that, he thanked the woman and hung up. A second later, his sense of humor returned.
    All he had to do was take a special bouquet to the Herald then follow their delivery person to Barbara's door.
    * * *
    Simon Decker stopped his Mercedes sedan beside the guardhouse and waited for the security officer to emerge. Once upon a time, he had been impressed by the elaborate iron gates, the high brick wall and the screening process required to enter the huge estate. It wasn't long, however, before the routine irritated the hell out of him and he started calling the grandiose mansion the mausoleum .
    He had been the Hamilton family's senior legal advisor for nineteen years, ever since his father had retired from that position, yet they still treated him like an outsider.
    "Simon Decker," he told the young man, as if the guard couldn't recognize him on sight. "And yes , they are expecting me." He noted the time on his Rolex and pinched the bridge of his nose as the guard went back inside the compact brick building. Simon didn't need to see him to know he was buzzing his entombed employers to announce the presence of a visitor. As required, the attorney had called his only clients for an appointment before heading there, but they still insisted on going through the whole routine before letting him drive onto the hallowed Hamilton grounds.
    The gates began to open and Simon glanced at his watch again. Only thirty-two seconds had passed, barely half the usual time. Perhaps they knew what he wanted to speak to them about.
    He hoped not. He was counting on his news to surprise the normally unflappable couple, while proving to them that their best interests were still of primary importance to him. Nothing specific had been said by either Howard Hamilton III or his wife, Edith, but in the last year or so, Simon had the distinct impression that they were no longer satisfied to pay him an enormous retainer for doing little more than standing by.
    Between his advancing age and his taste for expensive possessions, two ex-wives and four children, he couldn't afford to start over. In fact, ever since he'd met the woman he was hoping to make number three, he had been wracking his brain to come up with a reason to increase his fees. What he needed was a grandstand play to renew the Hamiltons' faith in him.
    The touching photo in the newspaper seemed like the answer to a prayer.
    He hadn't seen the woman in the picture in nearly ten years. Actually, he had completely forgotten about her until this morning. It was the boy that had captured his attention. He was a carbon copy of Howard Hamilton IV as a child.
    A wild speculation had sent him rummaging through old files in search of a picture of the mother. Comparing that picture to the one in the paper, checking the dates involved and the fact that her first name was Barbara was enough for him to order a background search to confirm what his eyes had guessed.
    The investigator easily confirmed the date and place of birth of a boy named Matthew Howard Mancuso. But he was going to have to dig a lot deeper though to explain why the Mancuso mother and child dropped off the grid a few years ago or why the Johnson mother and child's records seemed sketchy prior to that time.
    Decker had used the investigator often enough to trust his instincts and those instincts were saying Barbara Mancuso and Barbara Johnson were the same woman. If anyone could prove or disprove it that guy could.
    His foot pressed a bit harder on the