I thought taking the classes together would be a nice way for us to spend time together and get a chance to bond with our puppies even more.
“Oh, Kari. I don’t know how to thank you. This is really the perfect gift!”
“I’m so happy you like it.”
I knew Ashley loved dogs being that her grandfather was an amateur canine breeder, but I was still a little nervous. This gift was kind of a big one and a small part of me worried that it might be too much, but Ashley seemed to love it, so I was happy.
We spend a little more time talking with the gals. Sylvia and Delilah were much closer with Ginny now. They’d been spending a whole lot of time together and I was happy that Ginny seemed to be getting better. Red Rivers also looked to be in better condition. It looked like Sylvia’s plan to use Snickerdoodle and Macaroon’s litter to keep them afloat really took off. I couldn’t be happier for them.
It was time for us to go and we said goodbye to the ladies. Henry escorted us back to the front. Ashley hadn’t let Biscotti go the entire time. She was cradling the puppy like a baby. That little girl was going to be spoiled.
“It’s always lovely seeing you Miss Jacobs. Please come again soon. You too, Miss Butler.”
He opened the door for us and we left. I always loved talking with Henry. He was just so proper. I was about half sure he liked me, but that was more than enough.
As we were making our way to the car, I saw someone walking up the way.
“I think that’s Greg Olsen,” I said.
I was pretty sure it was Greg Olsen. I hadn’t seen him since the last time I was at Red Rivers, but I hadn’t forgotten his face over the past few months. I waved to him and he walked over to me and Ashley.
“Hi, Kari. It’s been a while.”
“Greg, it’s so good to see you. I’m sure you’ve met Ashley at some point?”
The two of them nodded. The smallness of the town still surprises me sometimes. I didn’t even know everyone in my high school. Maybe if I saw their face, I’d have known we were in the same school, but being able to definitively know everyone in town is something new to me.
“How have you been since I last saw you?” Greg asked.
“Things have been pretty good. I moved in with Ashley and work’s been going great. I really like Appleton. A few adjustments, but it’s been a relatively smooth experience. How about you? How are things at White Oaks?”
“Um, the museum has been doing okay. There’s still a bit of work to be done, but we’re definitely on the right track. Mom’s been doing a lot better. I’m actually here to pick her up,” he pointed over to the house.
“Yeah, we were just in there. She helped us out with a little surprise.”
I looked over at Biscotti, still in Ashley’s arms. Greg looked at her, too.
“She told me about that. Can I pet her?”
Ash nodded, and Greg softly petted Biscotti’s head. It was quick little interaction and then Greg looked back up at me.
“Uh, before you go, I was hoping I could actually get your number. I was going to ask you for it before you left, but then you left in a hurry to get your car towed before I had a chance,” he took a deep breath right there and I could see a blush creeping up. I smiled because Greg was pretty cute, and it was adorable seeing him get a little flustered, “and I was hoping to possibly ask you out to dinner or something and, yeah, that’s what I wanted to say.”
He stopped a bit suddenly, so there was some silence, but I filled it pretty quickly.
“Of course I can give you my number. Let me put it in your phone.” Greg handed me his cell and I typed my number in for him. He didn’t try to ask me out to dinner right then, but I was surprisingly looking forward to that text. I hadn’t really thought of Greg like that when I was here, but now that the possibility was there, maybe? I’d have to wait and see.
“Thanks, I’ll make sure to call.”
We said goodbye and Ashley and I headed over to my car.
After we were inside, dogs secured in the back and driving away, I noticed that Ashley seemed deep in thought.
“What is it?” she sighed.
“Well, I was just thinking why no one is ever trying to get my number? I think I have some pretty exciting digits I could plug into a couple of phones.”
The way she phrased it was funny, so I couldn’t help but chuckle a little. I didn’t understand why no one was asking for her number either. Ashley’s a certified cutie and so sweet and nice. Maybe they all just found her a little intimidating. She was from a fairly prominent family and grew up with wealth, but she was down-to-earth and friendly, something easy to see almost right after getting to know her.
“I’m sure they’ll be along soon. Phones ready to have your number added.”
She giggled, and we continued on our way. We had one more stop to make, Cooter’s dump. I was going down there to do an iPod swap with him. I made a playlist of international dance music I was hoping he would like. We’d had one other swap before this and I was super impressed by the depth and breadth of his collection. I was hoping to impress him with this new playlist, so I really tried to up the ante. I knew he’d have to give me props for this one. If not, I wasn’t sure how I was going to impress him.
We pulled into the dump and instead of finding what I expected, Cooter’s regular dump and junk, there were police and county vehicles everywhere. The place was glutted. I couldn’t think of anything to explain what was happening. Ash and I got out of the car to get a closer look. No one seemed to be paying any attention to us, so we were able to get pretty close to the action.
“Oh my gosh,” I heard Ashley whisper once we got closer.
The deputies were drawing a chalk-line around a body lying among the garbage. Next, I saw a policewoman removing something heavy in an opaque bag. I couldn’t tell what was in the evidence bag, but I also wasn’t very caught up on it. My mind was racing trying to put together a timeline from almost nothing. While I was trying to put the pieces together, I felt Ashley tap on my arm – a hard enough tap to get me out of my head.
“Kari, look!”
She was pointing to the other end of the dump where I saw Cooter Prescott being led to a police car. His hands were cuffed behind his back and, immediately, I knew something was very, very wrong.
Chapter Three
Sunday
I didn’t want to waste a second, so I rushed over and blurted out, “I’m Mr. Prescott’s lawyer! What’s going on here?”
I slowed down because I realized it wasn’t a great idea to rush a bunch of cops especially right after they just found a body. I kept walking but slowed down. I was pretty sure Coot hadn’t asked for any representation at this point, but the fact that he was being arrested was enough for me to jump and take the job.
He was a bit of an outsider in Appleton. I didn’t think anyone would jump at the chance to defend him. They’d probably only do it if they were forced to by the county. Most people in town looked at him like he was somewhere between a derelict and a menace. Sure, he was a little weird, but Cooter was a really nice guy and deserved a lot better than he usually got.
After my outburst, everyone stopped moving for a second and the officers looked at me like I was playing a trick on them. They turned to Cooter next.
“Is she really your lawyer?” one of them asked.
Basically, everyone in town thought of me as some bigshot lawyer since I was Judge Jacobs niece and then there was that whole insane case with the murdering judge. I’d accidentally made a name for myself.
Cooter gave me a wide-eyed look and then nodded to confirm something that really wasn’t true until a second ago.
“You can come meet him down at the station. Once he’s booked and processed, the two of you can talk.”
I knew this was how things went down, but the brusqueness didn’t sit well with me. I had dealt with the Appleton police department before and they’re typically nice enough, but this behavior reminded me of when Ashley had
been arrested. They didn’t play around when it came to murder, it seemed. As it should be, admittedly.
I had to say something before they took him away, so Cooter at least knew his rights.
“Cooter, just know you don’t have to say anything and I recommend you don’t until I can come meet with you at the jail, okay?”
He just nodded, but he was relatively calm given the situation. In fact, Cooter seemed unfazed by the arrest which was beyond weird given the severity of the charges.
I thought he wasn’t going to say anything, but he said, “I’ll take your advice, but it’ll have to be either pro bono or I could pay you in junk.”
The police placed him into the car after that and I wasn’t sure what to take from Cooter’s response. He was so calm that he was, I think, making jokes. I didn’t know what that meant, but I was leaning towards him being innocent.
Once Cooter was taken away, Ash and I got back into the car.
“Do you think Cooter –”
I knew where Ashley’s question was going, and I stopped her right there.
“I don’t know. He’s a weird dude for sure, but speculation like that never leads anywhere good. If he is innocent, then he’s going through the same thing you did, and you remember how that felt.”
Ashley did a small shiver.
“I do remember,” she whispered back. The rest of the car ride was in relative silence. It seemed even the dogs had gotten the hint and stayed quiet and calm.
We got to the house and once I got Shortbread settled, I quickly left to get back to helping Cooter. Ash promised to watch the pups and make sure they got what they needed.
I parked close to the front of the police station and ran inside.
Going to the front desk, I told the officer there, “I’m official counsel for Cooter Prescott. I was hoping I could get a copy of his file.”
I had to see if he had any prior arrests. Whenever a case went to court, priors always came up. Depending on what I found, that would greatly impact my approach to Cooter’s defense. The officer asked for my ID and I handed it over before she gave me Coot’s file. I stepped to the side to peruse and found nothing too frightening.
He had had a few small arrests – like a drunk and disorderly – but it looked like he ended up sleeping it off in the drunk tank once or twice. However, those were from the nineties. His record was clean recently, except for a vandalism charge from not too long ago. It appeared that the charges were dropped, but the file was incomplete, so I had no way to verify how the precinct had closed the case.
A different officer walked over to me. It looked like he had a question coming for me.
“Kari Jacobs, I heard you took over presiding over old Prescott’s case.” I nodded to confirm. “Well, then let me give you some of the facts. We haven’t had a chance to write up a report yet, so none of this will be in there.”
I scrambled to get my notebook out so I could write all of this down.
“So, what happened?” I asked the officer.
“The victim was bludgeoned to death around the head with Cooter’s bowling ball. Since we found them in his dump and the murder weapon belonged to him, Prescott seemed to be the likeliest suspect. We all know how much the ol’ guy hates people poking around his place. My guess is, this was the last straw.”
I knew Cooter didn’t like people in his space, everyone knew that, but I didn’t think it bothered him to the point of him violently bludgeoning someone to death. I wrote everything down, so I wouldn’t forget the officer’s initial words.
Then I asked, “Could you tell me where Cooter is being held?”
The officer led me to the jail cells. I was left alone to talk to my client and when I got to Coot, he was sleeping peacefully in his cell. He was the exact opposite of Ashley when she was incarcerated. She was a complete mess when she got arrested, and that wasn’t even that long ago.
“Cooter? Cooter. Cooter!”
My calling his name woke him up. He sat up, stretching and yawning.
“Kari, you’re here.”
He was so unconcerned, it was bothering me.
“Of course I’m here! This is a murder charge, Coot! Even if you’re exonerated, something like this can really damage a reputation.”
And someone like him, who people already consider sketchy, would have an even harder time bouncing back.
I wasn’t sure my concern was reaching him completely, as his shrug evidenced.
“Well, they got me Taco Bell for lunch and this firm bench is doing wonders for my sciatica, so it could be worse. A lot worse.”
In my opinion, I didn’t think it could get much worse than being accused of murder. But it looked like Coot was just fine, and he had Taco Bell so maybe my job was done, I thought sarcastically.
I wasn’t going to argue with him about his weird response to a stressful event. Different people behaved differently and maybe this was just Cooter’s way of getting through this. So, I chose to just proceed with the basics.
“When did you last see your bowling ball?” I asked him.
I had a job to do. I told everyone I was Cooter’s representation, so I needed to represent him to the best of my abilities. After what happened with Ashley, it was my responsibility to see that Coot got a fair trial.
“I saw it the last time I went bowling. It’s really the only time I look at it.”
That made sense, but since this thing was the murder weapon, I was going to need to account for its whereabouts.
“Do you have any idea how it could have ended up being used in a murder?”
He shook his head.
“Honestly, I didn’t even realize it was missing.”
That wasn’t going to really work as a defense. Ignorance rarely looked good on the stand.
“What about the victim? Did you know Zebulon Krump? Did he have a reason to be at the dump?”
“Yeah, Lonny and I had been pals for years. The two of us were real close. He wasn’t like any of those upright, uptight Appletonians. You know the ones who parade themselves around town acting all high and mighty like they’re better than us ‘regular folks.’ No, Lonny was a real guy with real issues. He was the real deal.”
Something caught my attention about Cooter’s statement.
“What kind of issues did Lonny have?”
Cooter suddenly got real tense and all tight lipped.
“It’s just a turn of phrase, like everyone has their thing.”
I knew it wasn’t that simple. It never was.
“But what was Lonny’s thing?”
I kept trying to push it, but the more I did, the more stubborn Coot got until he refused to talk anymore. While I didn’t believe Cooter murdered his friend, I felt like he knew a lot more than he was letting on. Keeping information that could potentially be helpful never went well when one was arrested.
But I knew I wasn’t going to get anything else out of Cooter tonight, so left him to relax in his cell. Before I left, I turned back around and saw him lying back down. I was still uneasy about this whole thing and something told me this wasn’t going to be easy from either end of this investigation.
I drove back home and, once I got inside, I found Ash watching Judge Jacobs reruns. You can always catch Judge Jacobs on tv, twice a day, six days a week. But on Sundays a local Charlotte station reruns all the shows they played that week for like three hours. No wonder the residuals check came in recently.
I took a seat by Ash on the couch, a lot more spent than I thought I’d be. Today was meant to be a fun, relaxing day, but it ended up having a lot more murder than expected.
I turned towards Ashley and asked her, “What do you think of Cooter?”
I had a general idea what people felt for him – most would say he was a little off, and odd duck – but I wanted something more exact.
“I don’t know. Maybe he isn’t a bad guy, but I think he’s creepy. The eyepatch doesn’t help – not that that’s the end all. You can’t judge just on appearan
ce. But he lives at a dump, like a literal dump, and barely talks to anyone. I’m surprised he even talks to you. I always thought he didn’t really like anyone in Appleton. And I’m not saying he’s creepy in like a Roy Moore kind of way – like he doesn’t prey on anyone or do things that I would consider morally bankrupt – but he’s just like a weirdo, you know? He’s a weird guy.”
I kind of knew what Ash was getting at. It was like how everyone else described him – just a little off. It was vague, but yet communicated their feelings pretty clearly. I wasn’t sure if the people of Appleton really saw Cooter as one of them. I just hoped that didn’t end up working against him.
Chapter Four
Monday
Ashley and I ended up staying up pretty late watching Judge Jacobs reruns. They really could be addicting. Aunt Tavey made for good television. The downside, though, was that I had work the next morning.
And that morning I had been called in Mr. Winston’s office. He was an affable man and seemed to generally be impressed with my work, but it didn’t make being called to talk with one of the partners any less daunting. I wasn’t sure why I was there which didn’t help with the nerves.
I took a seat in his office and, per usual, he offered me an espresso from the machine he kept in his office.
“I’m good, thank you. I already had my morning coffee.”
Mr. Winston made himself a cup and then sat across from me.
“So, I called you in today because I heard that Cooter Prescott was arrested last night and that you are his legal counsel?”
After asking his question, Mr. Winston took a sip of espresso and looked at me from over the demi-tasse.
“Uh, yessir. I was stopping by and happened to be there when he was getting arrested. We’re kind of friends, so I offered.”
I’d forgotten that, when I agree to help someone with their legal troubles, it could be construed that I was effectively offering the firm’s services. As a lawyer, that should have been evident, but I was a little caught up in the moment last night.
Kari Jacobs Box Set Page 19
