A Silken Thread - Brenda Jackson [112]
“With Judge Meadows?” Matt threw out.
Brian watched her spine stiffen and knew what Matt was doing. He was already going in for the kill before he did any disabling of the defenses. It was a tactic Brian had used in court a lot when he was certain that the accused was guilty as sin.
“I see Judge Meadows in court once a week and that’s enough,” she said.
“No, you see him more than that, but that’s not why we’re here,” Matt said. “Not only am I a private investigator, Ms. Hardy, I also consider myself one of Brian’s closest friends. When someone does something to him they might as well do it to me.”
“How touching.” She then glanced over at Brian. “What’s this about? Or are you letting him be your spokesman, Counselor?”
Brian frowned. In a few moments she would probably regret what she’d just said. Matt might be a pain in the ass but a pissed off Brian Lawson could be one hundred degrees worse than him.
“Why did you do it, Donna?” he asked her.
He could tell before she even opened her mouth that she intended to play dumb. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You set me up to guarantee a breakup with my fiancée. Why?”
She threw her hair over her shoulder. “Look, Brian, if you’ve got problems in your relationship—”
“I have proof you were in my apartment.”
“You don’t have proof because I wasn’t there.”
“Yes, we do,” Matt interjected. “First of all, there are your panties that were purchased for you, as a gift I presume, from one of your professors in law school.”
“You can’t prove that.”
“Yes, we can. And your alibi with Judge Meadows won’t hold much water, when we have security footage that shows you at Brian’s condo.” He held up a copy for effect. “As an attorney you know it’s admissible in court.”
“In court?” she asked, turning her attention to Brian. “With something like that in addition to the panties you would get laughed out of the courtroom.”
Brian had heard enough. “We’re not talking about a court of law, Donna. We are talking about your livelihood. Your career and your future. The one you had with my firm is over and I will make sure you never use your law degree again if you don’t tell us what we want to know.”
“You can’t come in here and threaten me.”
“Yes, I can. You deliberately entered my home without my permission and sabotaged my relationship with my fiancée.”
“If she was a true fiancée she wouldn’t have believed the worst about you.”
“Maybe, but then if you had any decency, you would not have done what you did, so why?”
“I have nothing to say.”
“Fine, but don’t think this is going away. You either tell me now who put you up to this and why, or I will take you to court and expose you for being the lying manipulator that you are. Breaking and entering is a crime and, trust me, you won’t get any help from Judge Meadows. He will be using all his time and energy to save his own career when word gets out as to what the two of you have been doing in his chambers and twice a week at the Ritz-Carlton.”
Matt wasted no time. “What we want to know is how you knew Erica was coming to town.”
At first Donna didn’t say anything and Brian wondered if she would continue to pretend innocence. It took a few moments and then she dropped down on a sofa and said, “I was told she was coming.”
Brian swallowed a lump in his throat before asking, “By whom?”
“Don’t know.”
Matt chuckled. “You really want us to believe that?”
She frowned up at him. “It’s true. This man contacted me and threatened to expose something I did if I didn’t meet with him. I did. He told me what he wanted done, but didn’t give any specifics as to why. He said he would call when he was ready. He did and without telling me how to achieve what he wanted done he just told me to do it. He didn’t give me much time to come up with a plan and that was the best I could do. I really didn’t think you would be so damn thorough in checking things out.”
Brian nodded. “And who is this man, Donna?”
“I told you I don’t know. He didn’t give a name and whenever I