Lady Midnight Read Online Free Page B

traveling with him.”  
    “He’s a bum,” Patrick growled. “A bum and a gold-digger.”  
    “I take it that you and the young man have met, Senator.”  
    “She brought him to dinner, obviously to enrage me, which she succeeded in doing. He continually insulted everything I stood for, and in quite some detail. I told him to get out of my house. I worked my way up in the world, and have no respect for anyone of Herron’s ilk.”  
    Baucom spoke again. “Herron has a record of petty crime—a couple of arrests for possession, and a drunk driving conviction. He’s a college dropout, and has never held down a regular job. Senator Patrick felt that the man’s interest in his daughter was motivated by the fact that she was associated with wealth.”  
    “Really, nothing could be more obvious,” Patrick rumbled. “Connie left her fiancee, just before the wedding. She practically left him at the altar.”  
    “Connie was engaged to another young man?”  
    “That’s right. His name is Millard Brooks IV—his father’s a very prominent attorney himself—a fine young man, destined for law school. But Connie’s senior year in college—the year other girls settle down and start thinking about their plans after college: family, career, graduate school, what have you—she fell in with some young people, friends of this Anthony Herron. I believe that’s when she started using drugs. Her grade point average plummeted, she was increasingly absent, and there were times when I couldn’t contact her for days. She finished college—barely. Soon after, she broke off her engagement with young Millard.”  
    “Did you try to intervene during any of this, Senator Patrick?”  
    “Yes. I even went so far as to invite Millard to a dinner at our home and attempt reconciliation between him and Connie. I know now that it was foolish of me, but I thought perhaps they had quarreled and just needed a chance to clear the air.” Patrick paused and looked down at the floorboard, like he’d just lost something down there.  
    “And, how did that little reunion go?” I asked.  
    Patrick shook his head, and frowned. “Horribly. Connie showed up . . . well . . . intoxicated. She was with this Herron character, and they both looked terrible, like they’d spent the night in a car, or worse. They were both drunk, probably even high on something. I don’t know. She said things, terrible things, to Millard and myself. We argued, and it was a dreadful row. We both lost our tempers, and ended up shouting at each other. I’m afraid I called her some names, said some things that I regret, and that I didn’t mean.”  
    I could see it all unfold in my mind’s eye. It even made me a little queasy. It must have been an extremely uncomfortable scene for all involved—maybe for poor Millard, most of all. It sounded like he had the least to lose, in the long run. I guessed that he was probably safely ensconced in law school somewhere, with another pretty girlfriend to give rings to.  
    “What happened after you argued?” I asked.  
    “They just left. I haven’t seen or heard from Connie since. I have a horror that she’ll get pregnant from this Herron, perhaps even marry him in a fit of anger against me, since she knows how thoroughly I disapprove of him. I need you to find her before any of that happens. I need you to tell her that she still has a family, still has a father who loves her, Roland.”  
    “I can do my best, Senator Patrick, but if everything you’ve told me is the truth, you realize that even once I find her, she might simply tell me to go to hell. It happens more often than you might think. If she does that, there’s very little I can do.”  
    Baucom spoke again. “If that proves to be the case, Mr. Longville, the Senator will simply require you to inform us of her whereabouts, and we’ll take it from there.” Baucom sounded like he was reading a prepared statement, like the disembodied voice you