She was looking at Hayley and Louis followed her gaze.

“Like I told you,” Hayley said, “Spence was kind of sad.”

Candace wasn’t smiling. But Hayley had an amused smile tipping the corners of her lips. With her green eyes and sleek dark hair, she looked like a cat sitting there, a smug, pampered pet sitting by her mistress’s feet.

Louis rose. He had had enough.

“I’ll find my own way out,” he said.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Louis took a sip of his coffee and scanned the pedestrians. He was sitting in a café a block away from the courthouse, waiting for Ellie Silvestri.

He had not wanted to see her in Bernhardt’s office. He was hoping that, here, away from her memories of Spencer Duvall, she would talk about him openly. She hadn’t asked what he wanted to talk about, but he had the feeling she knew and even wanted to talk.

Ellie was coming toward him, a blur of blue and white weaving through the lawyers and shoppers. He stood, pulling out a chair. Ellie sat down, setting her purse on her lap.

“It was nice of you to come, Miss Silvestri,” Louis said.

“You had me intrigued, Mr. Kincaid,” she said. “With all the stuff in the paper about the Kitty Jagger case, I don’t know what to think anymore.”

Louis waved to the waiter. Ellie ordered an iced tea.

“Why did you want to see me?”

“My role in Spencer’s murder has changed since we last talked, Miss Silvestri. I’m not working on Spencer’s homicide anymore. I’m working for Scott Brenner.”

Ellie drew in a deep, slow breath. “Scott Brenner. . he’s the one trying to get a new trial for Jack Cade.” She paused, the creases in her face deepening. “I’ve heard things. They think Spencer did something wrong, don’t they?”

He knew this was coming, but it was still hard to meet her eyes. “Yes,” he said. “That’s why I’m here. I was hoping you could help me figure out why.”

The waiter brought Ellie’s iced tea and she took a sip. She still looked distressed. When Louis drew out his notebook, she looked down at it, then back up at him.

“What do you want to know?” she asked softly.

“Tell me what was going on during Cade’s trial. How was Spencer doing during that time?”

Ellie sat back, her hands clasped over her purse. “Spencer was working really hard. We couldn’t afford investigators, so he was doing the legwork himself. There was a point early on, that he seemed optimistic, but that didn’t last. It seemed that the longer the trial went on, the more depressed Spencer got. I think he felt he couldn’t help Jack Cade and he took it really hard.”

“Candace told me Spencer was taking antidepressants. Did you know that?”

“Not at first. I thought he was just sick. . you know, from working too hard. He was almost living at the office and he began to look ill. I remember one night, I begged him to get a checkup.”

Ellie seemed to draw away, and her eyes became teary. “A few days later, he came out of his office in the middle of the day and told me he was going to see a doctor. I was so relieved.”

“Did he tell you this doctor’s name?”

“I’m not sure. . Dr. Mufisso, I think it was. Yes, that was it. I remember he came out of his office and he looked really pale. He said, ‘Cancel everything, Ellie, I’m going to see Dr. Mufisso.’ ”

Louis wrote the name down, knowing he would have to follow up on it later, although he doubted the doctor would break confidentiality.

“I guess he was a psychiatrist,” Ellie said. “I found the antidepressants in his bathroom.”

“Did Spencer get better after that?”

Ellie nodded. “A little. The trial ended with the plea bargain and Spence was more himself. Lyle joined us shortly after that and we got really busy, especially with the Kermit case. That lasted for months.”

Louis was about to ask her more about Spencer’s state of mind, but Ellie was off in memories again. “George Kermit,” she said. “He was the president of Florida State who was charged with misappropriation of alumni funds. He ended up losing his position, but Spencer kept him out of jail. It was a big deal.”

Louis looked up from his notebook. “Florida State, that’s in Tallahassee, right?”

She nodded.

Louis pulled out the copy of Gulfshore Life magazine and opened it to the society photo of the Duvalls. He pointed to the face next to Duvall.

“Why, that’s Senator Brenner,” she said. “My, he looks young there.”

Louis already suspected the answer to his next question, but he needed to be sure. “Did the Senator refer Kermit to Spencer?”

Ellie hesitated. “Yes, I remember the Senator did call. And after we won, he sent me flowers and Spencer a box of cigars. I had forgotten about that.”

Louis had a feeling the rewards went way past cigars. The Cade and Kermit cases probably weren’t enough to make a career, but together they would have been a helluva launch.

“Did the Senator send other business Spencer’s way?” Louis asked.

Ellie nodded slowly, like she was beginning to understand. “And sometimes favors.”

“So Spencer and Senator Brenner were friends?”

She shook her head vigorously. “Oh, heaven’s no. I mean, they saw each other at all the things Candace dragged him to. But truth be told, Spencer disliked the Senator. He disliked the whole family.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. They just weren’t his type.”

Louis set down his coffee mug. “Tell me about the Brenners. Tell me their history.”

Ellie hesitated. Louis knew she was wondering where he was going with this, but he had to hope she would just trust him. Or maybe trust Spencer.

“Well, let’s see. The Brenners have been in Fort Myers for generations. Charles was a big attorney here in town for many years, then went on to become a state senator. That was just after his wife, Vivian, died.”

“What did she die of?” Louis asked.

“I’m not sure, but the girls in my garden club back then always said it was pure exhaustion.” She leaned close and lowered her voice. “We used to say it was her husband’s fault, making her have all those babies just so he could have a bunch of sons. He was always going around town talking about how his sons were going to run his firm someday.”

Louis was about to interrupt when she went on.

“After Brian was born, we said maybe the poor woman would finally get some rest,” she said. “You know, because the senator finally had his heir and a spare.” She paused, shaking her head. “But Vivian had another miscarriage and died. Brian was only a baby.”

Louis remembered the Brenner family plot and the infant tombstones. “Scott told me the babies were called blue babies or something,” he said.

Ellie ran her paper napkin along her glass, rubbing away the condensation. “Blue babies. . I haven’t heard that term in years. Of course, they weren’t really blue. That’s just what they called stillborns in the old days.”

She was off on a tangent again, and Louis was just about to pull her back when she said something that made him listen.

“It was because of the Rh-negative thing,” Ellie said.

“Rh-negative?” Louis said.

Ellie nodded. “My sister was Rh-negative, so that’s why I know about it. Well, poor Vivian, she just kept on having miscarriages and stillborn babies. Back then, doctors couldn’t do much about it.”

Louis didn’t know what he was hearing, but he knew there was something important in Ellie’s meanderings.

“My sister Cecile lost two and she wanted to stop,” Ellie said sadly. “But then she got lucky and the next one was negative. That’s my nephew Alan. He’s a dentist in Houston.”

Louis was trying to make a connection in his mind. “Only the negative babies survive?” he asked.

She looked at him, like she was coming back to the present. “It depends on the mother. If the mother is Rh-negative, like my sister Cecile. .”

“Or Vivian Brenner?” Louis interrupted.