The Proviso

3: Ready-Mixed Concrete Company, 1935

"Bryce, are you okay?"

Bryce sat in his leather chair looking out over the city. High up in One KC Place, corner office, all glass, he could see for miles-so very à propos for a pit bull of a trial lawyer.

He pursed his lips as he held his fingers steepled under his chin, feeling more like a teenager with his first crush than a thirty-eight-year-old mover and shaker.

"I'm fine," he muttered, lying to his assistant without a thought.

Lilith.

Arlene snorted. "Fine, my ass." Normally that would've pulled a grin out of him. Today ... no.

Giselle.

He'd spent the last two nights googling that damned painting, studying it, re-reading its history and provenance and myth, comparing it to the woman who'd made him fantasize about things he hadn't bothered to fantasize about in five years. The work was part of the permanent collection in a gallery in England; he knew he had no hope of buying it, but he'd sent an email of inquiry anyway. Just in case. No one had responded.

Knox Hilliard's lover.

"Here's your Wall Street Journal. Leah's all over it."

Bryce spun around and snatched it out of her hand, then snapped it open.

*****OKHE BRIDE MURDERED, GROOM SUSPECTED*****

He skimmed the first couple of paragraphs until his attention caught:

==========

Fen Hilliard, current CEO of OKH Enterprises, was questioned in the matter of Wincott's death, but released after several hours. No evidence has been found to connect either F Hilliard or Knox Hilliard to her murder, but investigations of both continue in light of K Hilliard's reputation and F Hilliard's apparent motive.

==========

Bryce's lip curled with cynical resentment. Fen should not have been released so easily from questioning since he had so much to gain from Leah's death. When Bryce's wife and four children had burned to death, the police had been waiting for him to be discharged from the hospital to arrest him for their murders because he'd had so much to gain. He'd been charged, spent weeks in jail, and his criminal trial begun before the fire investigator had come back with the evidence that cleared him.

There were still people around town who thought Bryce really had murdered his wife and kids, and bought his way out from under the charge.

"I think Knox did it," Arlene offered.

Bryce grunted. "He had no reason to," he murmured, "but Fen sure as hell did."

"Fen Hilliard would never do something like that," Arlene growled. He looked up, puzzled by her anger. "He signs the paychecks of half my family. He rescued OKH when we thought it was going to go under and he saved us. He's a good man, a generous man."

Ah, yes. Kansas City's knight in shining armor, Fen was a modern, moral version of Boss Tom Pendergast, straight out of 1930s Kansas City. Unlike Pendergast, however, Fen didn't have a monopoly on government concrete contracts, nor could he use the Kansas City police department as his personal messenger service, nor did he have enough political power to put a man in the Senate.

He didn't need it. He was on the right side of the law, his business acumen was unquestionably sharp, his philanthropy was sincere, and he employed a thousand people he paid very well. It was enough to make people forget he'd taken OKH over completely after his brother Oliver died, then married the widow, Trudy, a month after the funeral.