Party Crashers

money, freedom. And how much more clear could he make it that he was a temporary... benefactor ?
    She opened the bathroom door just as the attorney he'd bought for her walked in wearing slacks and a black corduroy blazer, her phone to her ear, speaking in staccato phrases to the person on the other end.
    If-you're-in-a-jam-call-Pam Vanderpool was rattled.
    "Okay...okay... okay . Keep me posted." She snapped her phone closed and sighed. "Not good news, I'm afraid."
    Jolie hugged herself. What now?
    Beck's hand brushed her waist. "Why don't we sit down?"
    She saw Pam's gaze dart to the intimate gesture and a little wrinkle form between her dark eyebrows that contrasted so drastically with her white hair. "Good idea."
    Jolie crossed the room, ignoring the blaring white bed, and purposefully sat in a chair, resisting the temptation to sit next to Beck on the loveseat. She looked down and saw, to her horror, one of her knee-highs rolled up in a little taupe-colored ball on the floor a few inches in front of her foot. How had she missed it when she re-dressed...and where was the other one? She extended her leg and flattened the ball beneath her loafer before Pam could notice.
    "Okay," Pam said, sitting in a chair opposite Jolie. "I've been talking to the assistant D.A. Janet LeMon's death has a lot of influential voters upset. They've been lighting up the phone lines, clamoring for an arrest."
    Jolie's mouth went dry. "They're going to arrest me?"
    Pam sat back in her chair. "Not yet...but maybe soon. For the murder of Gary Hagan and possibly as an accessory to the murder of Janet LeMon."
    The room tilted. Jolie grabbed the arms of the chair until the room righted itself, then expelled a shaky breath. "They can arrest me on circumstantial evidence?"
    Pam nodded. "But remember—an arrest is one thing, a conviction is something else entirely."
    Beck leaned forward, his handsome face wreathed in concern. "But they might make an arrest even if they know they can't get a conviction, just to quiet the public."
    "And the media," Pam added pointedly.
    Beck pulled his hand down his face. Jolie was distracted for the split second it took to register the fact that the great sex aside, she could fall in love with him based on this conversation alone. The one thing that kept this predicament from being even worse was the fact that Beck Underwood was in her corner.
    "The one bit of luck," Pam continued, "is that the D.A. is on vacation and won't be back in her office until Wednesday. No one is willing to make a move without her go-ahead."
    Jolie closed her eyes briefly and decided to throw up a quick prayer while she was in the proper position, then said, "There's nothing we can do?"
    "Keep cooperating with the police, keep trying to remember details you might have forgotten."
    "Do you happen to know what Janet LeMon looks—looked—like?"
    Pam nodded. "I met her a couple of times. Seemed like a nice enough person to me."
    "Beck," Jolie said, "do you have that picture? I'd like to see if Pam can identify one of the women as LeMon's wife."
    He hesitated, then looked toward the desk. "I...put it in the glove box of my SUV. Sorry."
    She nodded and looked back to Pam. "Okay...I'll try to remember details to tell the police. But short of a witness coming forward or someone making a full confession, the police will come to get me Wednesday?"
    "There's a chance the D.A. will disagree with the charges," Pam said. "But if she doesn't, then I'll try to arrange for you to surrender yourself into police custody."
    Bile backed up in Jolie's throat.
    "I'll offer a reward for information," Beck said, standing. He reached for his cell phone. "Maybe that will shake something loose."
    Pam Vanderpool studied him warily, then stood. "I have to go. Ms. Goodman, would you mind walking me out?"
    Jolie pushed herself up and moved somewhat unsteadily toward the door. As they stepped into the hallway, Pam Vanderpool looked past Jolie's shoulder into the room, then leaned closer. "Ms. Goodman, do you know that Beck has been calling in favors all over town to keep your name and picture off the television and out of the papers?"
    Her heart swelled. "No...I didn't know." And if that was the case, then who had he been talking to about a story yesterday morning at her apartment?
    "His father isn't happy about the fact that one of his first acts in reestablishing himself in the broadcasting community is pulling in favors for a woman suspected of murdering her