I was watching the empty Jennings residence from across the street, waiting in vain for Cordelia Jennings to show, when my friend Mike called with a dinner invite. Dinner trumps useless stakeout of the client’s mother any day, and I hoped the company would improve my mood.
Mike Montgomery is an investigator at the Stetler County Public Defender’s Office. I’d met him, and his supervising attorney, Richard Frey, while investigating a decades-old murder case Richard had worked as a young second chair attorney. We became good friends and try to meet up whenever I’m in town, this time at Richard’s house. Richard’s family lived southeast of the Jennings home on the outskirts of Hainey. I got a little turned around in the dark, and by the time I arrived, Mike’s car was already parked on the stre
