Chapter 13
Eddie
‘Everything will be fine,’ she said.
Normally, I’m the one who says those words. Or something to that effect.
This was the first time I’d heard that phrase from a client.
But that’s what Vanessa said as she was booked for murder.
Nonchalant. Like this was just an administrative error that would be quickly corrected.
A minor inconvenience. And it wasn’t just the privilege talking.
It was either the kind of supreme confidence that comes with wealth and power, or it was something else.
It could have been the knowledge that she was innocent.
Innocent people always believe they will be freed.
In the beginning, anyway.
Then they meet the American Justice System.
Beliefs can change pretty fast in a courtroom.
I told her I would work on her bail. She would be out in a couple of hours. Even as I spoke, her words were still echoing around in my head. Sending goosebumps over my flesh.
Everything will be fine.
I hoped, for her sake, that she was right.
I told the booking sergeant to make sure she had a cell to herself.
He looked her up and down. Nodded. The criminal justice system treats people differently according to their status.
It shouldn’t be that way, there was nothing in the constitution or the statute books to even hint at it.
Quite the opposite. The line was that everyone was equal under the law.
The only problem was that justice is a business, like everything else in America.
Health. Birth. Imprisonment. Even death. Somewhere, somebody was making money from every part of life in the good old US of A.
Walking out of the precinct, I had a million thoughts running through my head and I needed some fresh air and perspective.
With the sidewalk beneath my feet, and my back to the precinct building, I looked up at the ash-gray sky, took a lungful of gasoline fumes from the traffic rolling by and tried to get my head straight.
As a con artist, I had survived by listening closely to my instincts.
Right now, every part of me was itching to get away from this one. I had a bad feeling. Something wasn’t right here. The circumstances of this case didn’t add up. The only thing I was certain about was that I didn’t trust my client. Did that make her guilty?
It might.
And then again it might not.
She was hard to read. One minute, I believed she was innocent.
The next, my gut was telling me to run far and fast from this case.
Staring straight ahead, my mind elsewhere, I didn’t fully register the large black SUV that pulled up at the curb.
I paid no attention to the two men who got out of the front of the car.
Not until they stood right in front of me.
One had short black hair, and a puffy face.
Huge shoulders that looked like melons stuffed under his shirt collar.
Zits on his neck and cheeks. He looked to me like he was in his mid-twenties, so I guessed his adolescent acne was probably behind him.
Then I saw the veins bulging in his neck, his skin tone a vivid, dark pink.
All signs of heavy anabolic steroid use.
He wore a black woolen overcoat over a black suit. Lace-up boots, not shoes.
The man next to him was shorter but wider and about the same age. He had cropped, bleach-blond hair with a scar running across the top of his head. Same woolen overcoat. Same black pants. Same boots.
Both men held their arms way out from their body, the result of overdeveloped lats. They each stood with their feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent. They were probably used to handling other human beings who didn’t want to be handled.
‘Mr. Flynn, you’re to come with us right now,’ said the blond one.
‘I’m a little busy right now. You’ll need to make an appointment with my office,’ I said, and widened my own stance. Took my hands out of my pockets, but it had been a while since I’d buried a glove in a heavy bag.
They looked like they were trained fighters. They were about fifteen years younger, forty pounds heavier than me, with tons of gas in their tanks and lots of hours on the mat.
But what I lacked in youthful vigor I could make up for with experience, pure cunning and fighting dirty.
‘This can’t wait. We gotta take you now,’ said the blond guy.
‘I think the two of you together could get me into that car, but you’ll both be sore for weeks after. Think carefully.’
The rear door of the SUV opened and a small woman in a gray suit dropped her heels to the curb.
The car wasn’t that tall, but it was too big for this lady.
She was in her early thirties, red hair and a patch of freckles over her pale skin.
A leather shoulder bag and sunglasses. She walked right up to the two men, who turned and acknowledged her presence, then swung their attention back to me.
Even though she was small, there was a quiet authority in her manner.
‘I was hoping we could do this in the back seat, instead of on a street corner,’ she said.
‘I bet you say that to all the guys.’
She stared at me. I’m not normally rude to strangers. But two guys who looked like they were about to throw me into a car and take me God knows where didn’t exactly make me feel polite. Nor did the woman who appeared to be their superior.
‘Sorry, just a joke,’ I said. ‘My mother told me never to get into a car with strangers.’
‘My name is Samantha Voss. I’m a consultant attorney instructed by Buchanan and Duff. I’m your liaison in the Vanessa Vanderpool case.’
I remembered Buchanan offering me a whole team of lawyers to work on Vanessa’s case.
I had objected and agreed to only one. I figured that whoever he sent me would relay every detail back to Buchanan, and I guessed it was easier to keep an eye on one person instead of a team.
All the same, I had no idea what a consultant attorney might be.
Perhaps some formal legal separation from the firm, to ensure there were no technical conflicts of interest.
‘Pleased to meet you, but there’s no need for you to be here. I’ve got it covered.’
‘The reverse is true, Mr. Flynn. You have a meeting that you must attend. I will ensure Mrs. Vanderpool is bailed within the hour.’
‘Very kind of you, but I don’t have a meeting in my schedule and I’m not letting you anywhere near my client.’
‘Our client, if you care to check the terms of your retainer. I have a copy here if you’d like to see it.
In addition, Mrs. Vanderpool will struggle to use joint marital assets as capital for a bail bond and joint cash reserves cannot be utilized either.
The man you’re about to meet will pay Mrs. Vanderpool’s bail bond, in full, as long as you meet him.
So get in the goddamn car, or I’ll go explain to our client why she has to spend a night in a jail cell because her other attorney fucked up her bail. ’
The blond guy smiled. I got the impression that this wasn’t the first time he’d seen Voss get the better of somebody.
‘I don’t play well with others. Why don’t you go represent Mrs. Vanderpool, and I’ll go home. I’ve had about enough of this situation.’
‘The man who is waiting to meet you won’t tolerate that, I’m afraid,’ she said.
The blond guy stepped closer.
I got the message.
There were two of them, and they were both bigger and stronger than me. I could probably take one of them, maybe, but not two. This was only going to go one way. Either we all got into the car, bloodied and bruised, or we got into the car without the theatrics, and I bided my time.
‘Who is this asshole who wants to meet me?’
‘You’ll see,’ said the blond guy.