Advice of Counsel (The Samuel Collins Series Book 1)

by Trueman, Debra

  She reached over and held my hand. “It can’t be that bad.”

  “Yeah, it can.” I was watching her kids amuse themselves in my yard and I wished that I still shared some of that innocence of youth.

  “You know you can trust me, don’t you?”

  My eyes had been opened so abruptly that I had wondered if I’d ever be able to trust again, but she’d just answered the question for me.

  “I trust you with my life,” I said. I put my arm around her and she leaned her head on my shoulder.

  “Then tell me. Maybe I can help.”

  The truth was, I needed to tell someone. I felt like I was being eaten up inside – that the knowledge was chewing a hole in my guts – and with each minute that I kept it to myself, the feeling got worse. I held my head in my hands and rubbed my temples. I needed to tell someone.

  “She did it,” I finally said.

  “Who did what?” Maddie asked confused.

  I looked at her for the first time. My eyes were starting to sting. “Landra killed Drake Reeds,” I said. “And probably her husband too.”

  She stared at me in disbelief. “What makes you say that?” she finally said.

  “I found the button off of her dress in my tux pocket. She ripped her own dress.”

  “Now, you don’t know that, Samuel. There could be a logical explanation. Maybe it came loose earlier and she put in there so she wouldn’t lose it.”

  I shook my head. “I buttoned her dress for her when I got to her house that night. That button wasn’t loose. It wasn’t going anywhere on its own. Besides, it was the only thing holding up the top of her dress; if it had come off during the night, her top would have fallen down.”

  “Are you sure it’s even the same button?”

  “Positive. I’ve never seen another one like it.”

  “Oh, Samuel.” She took my hand again and held it between both of hers. “If it’s true, what are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know. But this conversation can’t leave these steps. You understand that?”

  “I told you that you could trust me. I give you my word, I won’t tell a soul.”

  The boys were racing to the steps. “Want to chase me, Samuel?” Oliver asked.

  “Not right now, sport. Let’s do it tomorrow.”

  Maddie stood up. “I’ve got spaghetti sauce on the stove that I need to check. Will you come eat with us?” she asked.

  “Thanks, but I think I’m going to stick around here. I don’t have much appetite anyway.”

  “Then come for the company. I don’t want you being here by yourself right now,” she said. “Not in the state you’re in.”

  “I’m fine. Well, maybe not fine, but I’ll be okay.”

  She kissed me on the cheek. “We’ll figure something out. I promise.”

  I went back inside and walked around my house in a stupor. The Siamese was following me again, but this time I didn’t care. I sat down on the couch and tried to think things through, but I wasn’t thinking clearly. What I needed to do was distance myself from the whole thing. Forget that I ever loved her; forget that she’d been my girlfriend. I needed to get my shit together and do something. If I was going to bust her, I needed more evidence.

  “Let’s go for a walk,” I finally told the Siamese, and we walked across the street to Mrs. Howard’s.

  Chapter 30

  I’d gathered quite a collection of muffin baskets, so I used that as a pretext for my visit.

  “Samuel! What a nice surprise. Come in dear.”

  “I was just bringing your baskets back,” I said. I stepped inside her house and it was like a cave. She turned on a lamp in the front room, which shed barely enough light to get us to the kitchen.

  “Have you eaten dinner?” she asked.

  Whatever she was cooking smelled great, but all the pots were wearing lids so their contents were a mystery. “I had a late lunch,” I said. Even the smell wasn’t enticing enough to pique my appetite.

  “Can I get you a drink? A glass of wine or some tea?”

  I was pretty much over my hangover and I figured a drink would do me good. “Sure. I’ll take a glass of wine. May I use your restroom first?”

  “Certainly. You know where it is.”

  I went back out and followed the light to the front room, then made my way down the hall, past the guest bath to Mrs. Howard’s room. I felt like a Peeping Tom. I sneaked back to her bathroom and searched through her drawers until I found her hairbrush, then I pulled out the baggie I’d brought from my house and stuffed a bunch of hair into it. I put the brush back in the drawer and got out of her room as fast as I could, making my way back down the hall to the guest bathroom, where I washed my hands with soap and water twice. Touching her hair grossed me out.

  I finished my wine as quickly as I could without seeming like an alcoholic, and made excuses to leave. Mrs. Howard walked me to the door, but a thought occurred to me as I was about to leave. I turned back around before she could close the door.

  “Did you ever tell Landra that you had included her in your will?” I asked.

  “Yes. I gave her a copy of it. Why?” she asked.

  “I was just wondering.”

  * * * *

  I called Niki Lautrec as soon as I got back home.

  “I need your help,” I said. “No questions asked.”

  “Whatever you need.”

  * * * *

  The two hours that had passed since I’d found out the truth about Landra seemed more like two days. I sat on the couch trying to watch TV but I couldn’t concentrate. Not only that, but I was beginning to feel light-headed, almost like I’d been sedated. I guess that’s what happens when you find out that your girlfriend is a conniving, murdering bitch. And that was the first thing I needed to do: stop thinking of her as my girlfriend.

  It was another 20 minutes before Niki came by. I met him at the door and gave him the baggie and he left without ever coming inside.

  “Thanks,” I told him.

  “I’ll call you in morning,” he said.

  I went to the fortress and I was contemplating calling Maddie, but before I could, someone knocked on my door. I fully expected it to be Maddie with a bowl of spaghetti, but when I opened the door, it wasn’t my neighbor at all. It was Landra.

  Never in my life have I been filled with such hate and rage. I’d distanced myself all right. It was like I was looking at a complete stranger. And the feelings were so strong that I couldn’t even put up a pretense of niceness.

  “What’s the matter?” Landra asked, without so much as a hello.

  “You killed him.” The words came out before I even realized what I’d said, and once they were out, there was no turning back.

  She came in and closed the door behind her. “What are you talking about?”

  We walked into the living room and I went straight over to the mantle and picked up the button. “I believe this is yours,” I said.

  In the split-second before she covered her shock, the look on her face said it all. I knew without a doubt that it was all true. I went to place the button in her hand, but as I reached out, the Siamese came swooping down from the armoire in between us, right over my head. It scared the shit out of me, and I jumped and yelled at the same time. The bastard landed on the desk, knocking over the lamp and sending the telephone flying, then he jumped down to the floor like nothing had happened.

  “You son-of-a-bitch!” I yelled, and I attempted to boot him up the backside. His feet were spinning underneath him, trying to get traction on the hardwood floor, and if I hadn’t been in the middle of confronting my ex-girlfriend about murder, I would have laughed my ass off. As it was, I turned back to Landra and grabbed her hand and crammed the button into her palm.

  She held it up and looked at it. “That’s the button off of my dress. Where’d you get it?” she asked innocently.

  “Where you left it,” I said without emotion.

  She stepped closer to me and reached out
and took my hand. “Why are you being so cold?” She put her arms around me and tried to hug me, but I stiffened. I didn’t want her anywhere near me.

  “Look at me,” she said, and she took my face gently in her hands and made me look at her. “It’s me. I love you, Sam. You can’t believe that I could ever do something like that. You know me. Please tell me you don’t think I could ever do something like that.”

  She was good. And if I wasn’t already 100% convinced that she’d murdered Drake Reeds, she might have reeled me in all over again.

  “You and I both know the truth, Landra.”

  “Sam, you love me. I know you do. Please, let’s sit down and get this straightened out. That button doesn’t mean anything.” She tried to kiss me but I turned my head away.

  “That button means everything,” I said angrily. I couldn’t believe she could keep her cool when she knew that I knew that she’d done it. No wonder she’d gotten away with murdering her husband.

  “What are you saying? That you think I ripped my own dress?”

  “I think you ripped your own dress; I think you beat yourself up; and I think you drugged Drake Reeds and shoved him out that window.”

  “Come on, Sam. You don’t really think I could do that. The grand jury didn’t think so.” She moved close to me and tried to put her arms around my neck again.

  “Get away from me. You make me sick.” I shoved her away and the movement made me stumble back. I hadn’t taken a pain pill in days, but I was wasted and it was getting progressively worse. And then it hit me. There was something in the wine.

  “What’s the matter, Sam? You don’t look so good,” she laughed. “You feeling a little lightheaded?”

  “There’s nothing wrong with me that seeing you locked up for life won’t cure,” I said.

  “Well, that’s not going to happen, so you might as well make another wish. You can’t prove a thing. Even if I had done it, I could confess every last detail to you, and we both know you couldn’t say a thing.”

  And there it was. Will the real Landra Krally please stand up?

  “You’re wrong. I’m going to tell the DA,” I said.

  “You can’t,” she asserted.

  “No? Watch me.”

  “You’re my attorney!” she said, raising her voice.

  “And you’re a murderer.”

  She came at me out of nowhere. One minute I was on my feet and the next, she’d rammed me into the wall. It seemed as if I’d completely lost control of my motor skills. I hit my head on the mantle as I was falling, and then on the bricks of the hearth when I landed. My teeth rattled and I could feel blood running down my face.

  I watched Landra go for the fireplace poker, but I was useless to do anything. My arms and legs refused to cooperate. In all the murder movies I’d ever watched, how many times was the weapon of choice the damn fireplace poker? It was so predictable in the movies and so overdone, yet somehow it seemed very creative and novel when she was about to use it on me.

  “You won’t get away with it,” I said, but I could feel myself losing consciousness.

  “Sure I will,” she laughed. “I already have. Twice,” she added. “And when you’re out of the picture, I’ll finish up with Sara. By the way, she told me you were over there tonight. I understand you shared a glass of wine.”

  I don’t know if she hit me then with the poker or not, but if she did I never felt it. I remember being dragged across the floor, and hearing the Siamese meowing somewhere in the distance. I couldn’t even put up the pretense of a struggle.

  The next thing I knew, I was in my pool. The witch was going to drown me. I’m sure I was unconscious when she threw me in, but the cold water must have woken me up. There was blood floating all around me in little streaks, and I could see Landra standing by the edge of the pool, looking down at me. She had one hand on her hip and she was holding the fireplace poker in the other, and she was looking impatient, like I should hurry up and die so she could get on with things. My clothes and shoes were weighing me down and I had sunk all the way to the bottom before I realized what was happening.

  I had no intention of dying, so my life didn’t exactly flash before my eyes. But Maddie was right there in my thoughts to the very end. And I decided right then and there that if I lived through the experience, I was going to have put the Maddie thing to rest one way or another. I knew what I had to do. I felt around the bottom of the pool for Oliver’s arsenal.

  When I came up, it was by the sheer determination of a man possessed. No way was I going to let her get away with murder again. I fought my way to the surface and somehow managed to dog paddle my way to the side of the pool, then I moved hand-over-hand along the edge to the steps and dragged myself out.

  Landra was coming around from the other side of the pool. She had the poker raised up in the air and the look on her face confirmed that she’d never loved me. I was just part of her plan.

  I reached into my pocket and pulled out a fist full of stones and I hurled one at her as she rounded the end of the pool. It was as pathetic a shot as Oliver had ever thrown and it didn’t even come close to hitting her. I fired off two more but they both missed. She was ten feet away and I didn’t have a lot of strength left, so I decided to go for safety in numbers. I gripped all the remaining stones in my hand and I brought my arm back and I let those babies fly. I could actually hear them whizzing through the air and then there was a sickening thunk and I saw Landra’s head jolt back. It stopped her dead in her tracks and she hit the ground like the rock that had hit her. I remember seeing her lying there not five feet away from me, and thinking that I’d just killed my ex-girlfriend.

  When I woke up, it was to the sound of sirens and the smell of smoke.

  “He’s out here!” Maddie screamed. “I need blankets!” She was kneeling beside me, slapping me in the face.

  “What’s going on?” I asked groggily. I was freezing my ass off, shaking uncontrollably.

  “Your house is on fire!”

  That sobered me up. “I have to get my cat!” I was on all fours trying to get to my feet, but I was woozy as hell.

  “I already got him,” Maddie said, pushing me back down. She was working to get my wet clothes off, which wasn’t easy because I was no help.

  There was smoke pouring out of my fortress and the firemen were inside spraying foam all over the place. It looked like a giant bubble bath. I looked over to where Landra’s body had been, and it was gone. Only the poker was there.

  “Where’s Landra?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. Did she do this?” Maddie asked.

  “Yeah. She was lying right there last time I saw her. I thought she was dead.”

  “She wasn’t here when I got here.”

  Two ambulance technicians came through the back gate. Maddie had managed to get my shirt off, and they wrapped blankets around me and loaded me onto a gurney. I couldn’t help think that the routine was becoming way too familiar.

  When I regained consciousness, I was back in the hospital. My parents were there, again, and this time, so was Maddie. Whatever was in the wine had worn off for the most part. My arms and legs cooperated when I asked them to move, and I could think clearly again. I sat up in bed and looked out the window. It was light outside.

  “Back in here, huh?” I said to nobody in particular.

  They all huddled around the bed and expressed their horror at what had happened. Apparently everyone already knew the story. I fully expected to see my picture on the front page of the Metro section again, beaten up again and looking pathetic. I might as well move to another city if I hoped to continue my law practice.

  “How bad is my house?” I asked.

  “It could have been a lot worse,” Maddie said.

  “Landra?”

  “No one’s seen her,” she said.

  “She’s poisoning Mrs. Howard. There’s something in the wine,” I said.

  “You told the police everything last night,” Maddie said.
/>   “Did I? I don’t remember even talking to them.”

  I tried to reconstruct what had happened, but my memory was shot. Not only that, but Maddie was holding my hand and it was making it hard to concentrate. I was wishing my parents weren’t there.

  * * * *

  It was almost noon when I was released from the hospital. I got a ride with Maddie, but I made her stop at Taco Cabana before we went home. We parked in her driveway and walked across my yard together. From the outside, you couldn’t even tell that there was any damage, and I was feeling hopeful that I’d be able to stay there while I fixed the place up. But as soon as I opened the front door, the smell of smoke was overwhelming. I left my bag of food on the front porch and we went in.

  The rooms that had doors had been sealed off, with towels stuffed up under the doors, and the contents of those rooms was untouched. But there was a thick coating of ash all over everything in the rooms that couldn’t be shut off, and the fortress had been almost completely destroyed. The windows had all been broken out and there were gaping cavities in the wall where the fire had burned all the way through. In a way, it was poetic justice. There was no way I could have lived with those walls after what had happened. They would have been a constant reminder of Landra.

  We walked through the grime and destruction in silence. There was a stream of blood where Landra had dragged me from the fireplace to the edge of the pool. This wasn’t my house; it was a crime scene.

  “At least I have money to fix it up,” I said, trying to be upbeat.

  Maddie smiled. “And it could have been a lot worse,” she said.

  The truth was, I was lucky to be alive. And that was more than Drake Reeds could say.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I said.

  I moved aside to let Maddie go first and I followed her back through the house. We’d gotten to the fireplace room and I turned to look at the hearth one more time. I glanced around the room. It was like a black and white photograph, with everything in the room different shades of gray. Everything with the exception of a faint red glow, barely visible through all the filth. I walked over to my desk and ran my finger through the ash on my answering machine, then I stood there for a second staring at the blinking light. I pushed the memo button.