Chapter 25
I came home to a brilliant orange and purple sunset, but barely looked at it.
Instead, I headed for the fridge and pulled out a bottle of cheap moscato.
I unscrewed the cap and downed as much as I could at once.
Then went to the cupboard and pulled out a proper glass, filling it to the top.
As I walked out onto the porch, I could already feel my head begin to float.
Good. But I was just getting started.
“Wanna talk about it?”
I was startled, not having seen Eric. He was half hidden around the side of the house, unsnarling fishing line.
“I don’t know if I can,” I said, hiccuping. Eric put the fishing pole down, leaned it against the house, and hopped up on the porch. He took the seat beside me.
“Sounds like you better.”
Could I? Joe wasn’t technically my client. But he was my brother. Eric had functioned as a non-lawyer assistant on this case from the beginning. Though I technically wasn’t violating Katy’s confidence by filling him in, Eric had no ethical duty to keep what I told him to himself.
And yet, my head was full to bursting with questions and problems. More than I could keep to myself. I won’t deny that the wine made my ultimate decision to confide in him easier.
“Joe’s been lying,” I said.
Eric raised a brow and picked up the wine bottle between us. He drank some, then refilled my glass.
“You can’t repeat what I’m about to tell you,” I said.
He didn’t respond. Not a nod. Not a reassurance. He just stared out at the lake.
“He doesn’t have an alibi,” I said. The words thundered through me. Eric took another sip of wine straight from the bottle. Then he stood up and walked back inside. A minute later, he reemerged holding a brand-new bottle with a glass for himself.
As succinctly as I could, I told Eric everything I’d learned at Joe’s house. He nodded a few times, but waited until I was done before he said anything. When he did, it summed everything up perfectly.
“Son of a bitch.”
I wasn’t quite drunk yet, but getting there. “He won’t tell me where he was. Flat out refused.”
Eric rubbed the bridge of his nose. “He could be charged, Cass. Obstruction. Giving a false statement to the cops. Perjury. I can’t fix this.”
“Welcome to my hell. But don’t you see? That isn’t even the worst of it.”
He gave me a sidelong glance. I couldn’t sit still anymore. I started pacing up and down the porch. “Quick’s using Joe as a motive. We knew he would. I was prepared for that. Both Joe and Katy have been open about their affair. About the fact that Tom knew about it. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“I don’t understand why he’d lie,” Eric said. “Unless …”
He wouldn’t say the words. I couldn’t bring myself to either.
“It’s not like he covered for her,” Eric continued. “We know she never called him the day of the murder. Her phone was searched.”
“Eric. Katy’s my client. Joe … my brother …
the man she was cheating on her husband with.
He lied about his alibi the night Tom was murdered.
That’s exculpatory. If it were anybody other than Joe, I’d pounce on it.
I would have skewered him on cross-examination and made sure the jury doubted him too. Only …”
“It’s Joe.” He finished my thought. Then Eric got to his feet and paced right along with me. “One thing is true. DePaul has been sloppy all the way through.”
“That’s what I’m trying to say. My whole defense is structured around everything Sharon DePaul missed. She didn’t try to track down Maisy Carmichael. She didn’t conduct any meaningful interviews with the people Tom was close to.”
“She took Joe’s word for it when he told her where he was,” Eric said. He smacked his palm against one of the porch posts. “What was he thinking? Sharon could have and should have asked to search his phone. If he had it on him, she might have seen Joe wasn’t where he said he was.”
“I don’t know what to do,” I said. But that wasn’t true. What ripped me apart was knowing exactly what I had to do. “I’ve been so stupid. I knew it. I knew I never should have agreed to take this case no matter how many waivers Katy signed.”
“She agreed to this,” Eric said. “She went into it with open eyes. You told her that a conflict might arise. She wanted you anyway. She can’t come after you for this.”
I shook my head. “I’m not worried about her coming after me. I’m worried about her being convicted, knowing I have a way to give the jury reasonable doubt.”
“By throwing your own brother under the bus,” he said. “Cass, you can’t.”
“I know that. I want to kill him. I want to kill them both. They begged me. I did this for Joe. I did it for Emma. It wasn’t about Katy at first.”
“Are you going to tell her?” Eric asked. “Katy? Do you think she knows about Joe’s lie? Cass, there’s no evidence tying Joe to the scene of that crime. He’s never even been in Tom Loomis’s house, has he?”
“Not based on physical evidence, no. But I don’t even know what to believe anymore. I can’t think of a single reason why Joe would lie about his alibi unless he did it to protect himself or Katy somehow. Nothing else makes sense.”
Eric let out a bitter laugh. “That doesn’t even make sense though, Cass.
If she’d called him … let’s talk this through.
Let’s say Joe killed Tom. Let’s say he just lost his mind and killed the bastard.
So what, he goes over to the house and slashes his throat?
If he lied about his alibi to protect Katy, why would he leave her there holding the murder weapon? ”
“I don’t know. And if Katy really did kill Tom and Joe knew about it, what, beforehand?”
“That doesn’t make sense either,” he said. “If Joe was going to kill someone. If he had a plan in mind, he’s smart enough not to do it this way. And again, there isn’t a shred of evidence that Joe was even there.”
“Unless he’s trying to protect somebody else,” I said.
“I don’t know what to think. What to believe.
I just know that these are questions Sharon DePaul should have been asking.
And I know I’m a complete fool for agreeing to get involved in this.
Now I’m stuck. The judge is never going to let me withdraw.
I’d have to explain myself. Eric … this is a mess. A hoary mess.”
“Stop,” he said. “For right now, just stop. You’ve got time to figure this out.”
“I have two days,” I said. “Monday morning, we’re supposed to put on a defense.”
“All the more reason to sleep on it for now. That’s an order.” He waved the second bottle of wine at me. We took our time, but we finished the bottle between us. Then he took me to bed. Somehow, I managed to sleep like a rock. But when I woke, I could tell Eric hadn’t. The bed beside me was empty.
I threw on a robe and went downstairs. I found him back out on the porch tossing dog food to the swan family. He had that look on his face, deep in thought. I leaned against the porch railing. I wanted to get on the boat and just head to the middle of the lake and stay there.
“You don’t have to withdraw,” Eric said, never taking his eyes off the water. “You haven’t done anything wrong yet. You’ve got no duty to share this information with Addison Quick or Sharon DePaul.”
“But none of that serves Katy. You know, the person who’s my actual client.”
“Just keep doing what you’re doing,” he said. “You put a safeguard in place, didn’t you? Jeanie?”
I understood the path his mind took. “Jeanie,” I repeated.
“Yeah. She takes over the defense fully. You step back. Quick might raise an eyebrow. Castor too. But Jeanie’s of record too, isn’t she?”
“Yes.”
“And she’s been sitting at the table for the whole trial. The jury just saw her cross-examine Joe, right?”
“Right,” I said. “Only …”
“Only what?”
“It’s my only option. I step back. Jeanie’s absolutely capable of running the anchor leg on this. She’ll hate me for it. She’ll want to know why.”
“Do you have a legal obligation to tell her?” he asked.
“Maybe. I’m in the position of withholding exculpatory evidence that could help my own client. I’m in deep trouble either way.”
“It’s not a perfect solution.”
“I can’t tell her anything,” I said. “I can’t tell her. I can’t tell anyone that Joe lied. He’s not my client. But he’s my brother.”
“Right.”
“I could lose my license over this,” I said. It was more than that. I could lose my family over this.
“How about you not try to solve every problem right now? Just work on the one right in front of you. You’re in the middle of a murder trial.
Katy needs defense counsel. She has it. She has Jeanie.
Nothing’s changed regarding your original strategy.
Jeanie’s been right with you every step of this.
She’s up for it. We know that. Sure, Castor and Quick might be a little shocked.
Who cares? I doubt the jury will bat an eye. ”
“I have to tell Jeanie something,” I said.
Eric rose and came to me. “It’s Jeanie. All you have to tell her is that you need her to do this. She’s smart enough not to ask you too many questions. And she loves Joe like a son. She’d want you to do exactly this.”
He was right. I could see no possible way this could come back on Jeanie. None. Though I hated myself for having to do it. No … that wasn’t it. At that very moment, I hated Joe for putting me in the position.
“Call her now,” Eric said. “She’s got the rest of the weekend to get into the right headspace.”
I went inside to find my phone. I didn’t have to look hard as it started to ring. The caller ID came up as Miranda. Eric saw it too and squinted in confusion. It was almost nine a.m. on Saturday. Miranda rarely called me during off hours.
“Hey,” I answered.
“Hey, yourself. Look, I’m sorry to bother you, but something’s come up I think you need to hear.”
My stomach dropped. What now? I didn’t think I could handle any more bad news. I put her on speaker.
“Eric’s here with me,” I said. “What’s going on?”
“That Tallon Shipley,” she said. “I know I shouldn’t, but I subscribe to her podcast. Cass, she just dropped this week’s episode. I think you need to listen to it.”
“Just tell me,” I said.
Miranda sucked in a breath. “Hang up with me and pull it up on your phone, honey. The part you want to hear starts at the ten minutes and fifty-two second mark. If you need me afterward, just call me back.”
She clicked off. Eric had his own phone in his hand.
He pulled up his podcast app and quickly found the Tallon of Justice pod.
He fiddled for a few seconds, then put his phone on speaker, turned up the volume, and laid his phone on the kitchen counter between us.
Tallon’s clear voice echoed off my tile floors.
“My source agreed to an interview on the condition that I shield this person’s identity. I’m using vocal distortion software, so bear with me.”
Eric picked up his phone and increased the volume even more. A moment later, a mechanical voice began to speak.
“She told me everything.”
“Who did?” Tallon asked. “Can you please repeat what you just told me off the record?”
“Sure,” the voice said. “Katy was upset. I tried to be a friend. But one night she just started talking and wouldn’t stop. She told me she was still in love with her ex-husband, Joe. She said she wished she would have just followed her heart and stayed with him.”
“Joe Leary,” Tallon interjected. “You’re sure she was speaking about Joe Leary?”
“Yeah. That’s what she said. She said that she knew she had made a mistake.
That she was originally gonna stick it out with Tom because he was the rich one.
Well, she didn’t say rich. She said he was the one who was financially secure and could take care of her.
She said she’s been poor before and just couldn’t go back to it.
And she knew her ex … um … Joe … she knew he barely had two dimes to scrape together.
But she definitely said Tom’s money was the reason she was still with him.
But she was really wailing. Pining for this Joe.
She said when she got through all this …
you know, the trial. She said that she and Joe could finally be together. ”
Eric stopped the playback. “She couldn’t possibly be this dumb,” Eric said. “Tallon has to be making this up.”
I clenched my jaw. “This is exactly the narrative Addison Quick wants the jury to believe.”
“Now what?” Eric said.
“First, I do what I said. I need to prepare Jeanie. Then, first thing in the morning, Katy and I need to have a talk. Tallon could be making this whole thing up. For all I know, that distorted voice was Tallon. Katy can’t seriously be this foolish, can she?”
Eric didn’t need to say it. We both thought about it. Katy had made very few decisions over the last two years that weren’t undeniably dumb.