Book 38 in the Spenser series, 2009

I HAD JUST FINISHED a job for an interesting woman named Nan Sartin, and was happily making out my bill to her, when a woman came in who promised to be equally interesting.

It was a bright October morning when she walked into my office carrying a briefcase. She was a big woman, not fat, but strong-looking and very graceful. Her hair was silver, and her face was young enough to make me assume that the silver was premature. She was wearing a dark blue suit with a long jacket and a short skirt.

I said, “Hello.”

She said, “My name is Elizabeth Shaw. Please call me Elizabeth. I’m an attorney, and I represent a group of women who need your help.”

She took a business card from her briefcase and placed it on my desk. It said she was a partner in the law firm Shaw and Cartwright, and that they had offices on Milk Street.

I said, “Okay.”

“You are Spenser,” she said.

“I am he,” I said.

“I specialize in wills and trusts,” she said. “I know little about criminal law.”

I nodded.

“But I went to law school with Rita Fiore,” she said.

So the silver hair was premature.

“Ahh,” I said.

She smiled.

“Ahh, indeed,” she said. “So I told Rita my story, and she suggested I tell it to you.”

“Please do,” I said.

Elizabeth Shaw looked at the large picture of Susan that sat on my file drawer near the coffeemaker.

“Is that your wife?” she said.

“Sort of,” I said.