THE LINCOLN LAWYER (2005)

by Michael Connelly

  "When he gave you the coke, did you see if he had any more?"

  "Yeah, he had some. I was hoping for a call back . . . but I don't think I was what he was expecting."

  Last time I had checked her ad on LA-Darlings.com to see if she was still in the life, the photos she'd put up were at least five years old and looked ten. I imagined that it could lead to some disappointment when her clients opened their hotel room doors.

  "How much did he have?"

  "I don't know. I just knew he had to have more because if it was all he had left, he wouldn't have given it to me."

  It was a good point. The glimmer was getting brighter.

  "Did you screen him?"

  "'Course."

  "What, his driver's license?"

  "No, his passport. He said he didn't have a license."

  "What was his name?"

  "Hector something."

  "Come on, Gloria, Hector what? Try to re-"

  "Hector something Moya. It was three names. But I remember 'Moya' because I said 'Hector give me Moya' when he brought out the coke."

  "Okay, that's good."

  "You think it's something you can use to help me?"

  "Maybe, depending on who this guy is. If he's a trade-up."

  "I want to get out."

  "Okay, listen, Gloria. I'm going to go see the prosecutor and see what she's thinking and see what I can do for you. They've got you in here on twenty-five thousand dollars' bail."

  "What?"

  "It's higher than usual because of the drugs. You don't have twenty-five hundred for the bond, do you?"

  She shook her head. I could see the muscles in her face constricting. I knew what was coming.

  "Could you front it to me, Mickey? I promise I'd -"

  "I can't do that, Gloria. That's a rule and I could get in trouble if I broke it. You're going to have to be in here overnight and they'll take you over to arraignment in the morning."

  "No," she said, more like a moan than a word.

  "I know it's going to be tough but you have to nut it out. And you have to be straight in the morning when you come into court or I'll have no shot at lowering your bond and getting you out. So none of that shit they trade in here. You got that?"

  She raised her arms over her head, almost as if she was protecting herself from falling debris. She squeezed her hands into tight fists of dread. It would be a long night ahead.

  "You've got to get me out tomorrow."

  "I'll do my best."

  I waved to the deputy in the observation booth. I was ready to go.

  "One last thing," I said. "Do you remember what room the guy at the Travelodge was in?"

  She thought a moment before answering.

  "Yeah, it's an easy one. Three thirty-three."

  "Okay, thanks. I'm going to see what I can do."

  She stayed sitting when I stood up. Soon the escort deputy came back and told me I would have to wait while she first took Gloria back to her dorm. I checked my watch. It was almost two. I hadn't eaten and was getting a headache. I also had only two hours to get to Leslie Faire in the DA's office to talk about Gloria and then out to Century City for the case meeting with Roulet and Dobbs.

  "Isn't there somebody else who can take me out of here?" I said irritably. "I need to get to court."

  "Sorry, sir, that's how it works."

  "Well, please hurry."

  "I always do."

  Fifteen minutes later I realized that my complaining to the deputy had only succeeded in her making sure she left me waiting even longer than had I just kept my mouth shut. Like a restaurant customer who gets the cold soup he sent back to the kitchen returned hot with the piquant taste of saliva in it, I should have known better.

  On the quick drive over to the Criminal Courts Building I called Raul Levin. He was back at his home office in Glendale, looking through the police reports on the Roulet investigation and arrest. I asked him to put it aside to make some calls. I wanted to see what he could find out about the man in room 333 at the Travelodge on Santa Monica. I told him I needed the information yesterday. I knew he had sources and ways of running the name Hector Moya. I just didn't want to know who or what they were. I was only interested in what he got.

  As Earl pulled to a stop in front of the CCB, I told him that while I was inside he should take a run over to Philippe's to get us roast beef sandwiches. I'd eat mine on my way out to Century City. I passed a twenty-dollar bill over the seat to him and got out.

  While waiting for an elevator in the always crowded lobby of the CCB, I popped a Tylenol from my briefcase and hoped it would head off the migraine I felt coming on from lack of food. It took me ten minutes to get to the ninth floor and another fifteen waiting for Leslie Faire to grant me an audience. I didn't mind the wait, though, because Raul Levin called back just before I was allowed entrance. If Faire had seen me right away, I wouldn't have gone in with the added ammunition.

  Levin had told me that the man in room 333 at the Travelodge had checked in under the name Gilberto Garcia. The motel did not require identification, since he paid cash in advance for a week and put a fifty-dollar deposit on phone charges. Levin had also run a trace on the name I had given him and came up with Hector Arrande Moya, a Colombian wanted on a fugitive warrant issued after he fled San Diego when a federal grand jury handed down an indictment for drug trafficking. It added up to real good stuff and I planned to put it to use with the prosecutor.

  Faire was in an office shared with three other prosecutors. Each had a desk in a corner. Two were gone, probably in court, but a man I didn't know sat at the desk in the corner opposite Faire. I had to speak to her with him in earshot. I hated doing this because I found that the prosecutor I was dealing with in these situations would often play to the others in the room, trying to sound tough and shrewd, sometimes at the expense of my client.

  I pulled a chair away from one of the empty desks and brought it over to sit down. I skipped the pleasantries because there weren't any and got right to the point because I was hungry and didn't have a lot of time.

  "You filed on Gloria Dayton this morning," I said. "She's mine. I want to see what we can do about it."

  "Well, we can plead her guilty and she can do one to three years at Frontera."

  She said it matter-of-factly with a smile that was more of a smirk.

  "I was thinking of PTI."

  "I was thinking she already got a bite out of that apple and she spit it out. No way."

  "Look, how much coke did she have on her, a couple grams?"

  "It's still illegal, no matter how much she had. Gloria Dayton has had numerous opportunities to rehabilitate herself and avoid prison. But she's run out of chances."

  She turned to her desk, opened a file and glanced at the top sheet.

  "Nine arrests in just the last five years," she said. "This is her third drug charge and she's never spent more than three days in jail. Forget PTI. She's got to learn sometime and this is that time. I'm not open to discussion on this. If she pleads, I'll give her one to three. If she doesn't, I'll go get a verdict and she takes her chances with the judge at sentencing. I will ask for the max on it."

  I nodded. It was going about the way I thought it would with Faire. A one-to-three-year sentence would likely result in a nine-month stay in the slam. I knew Gloria Dayton could do it and maybe should do it. But I still had a card to play.

  "What if she had something to trade?"

  Faire snorted like it was a joke.

  "Like what?"

  "A hotel room number where a major dealer is doing business."

  "Sounds a little vague."

  It was vague but I could tell by the change in her voice she was interested. Every prosecutor likes to trade up.

  "Call your drug guys. Ask them to run the name Hector Arrande Moya on the box. He's a Colombian. I can wait."

  She hesitated. She clearly didn't like being manipulated by a defense attorney, especially when another prosecutor was in earshot. Bu
t the hook was already set.

  She turned again to her desk and made a call. I listened to one side of the conversation, her telling someone to give her a background check on Moya. She waited awhile and then listened to the response. She thanked whoever it was she had called and hung up. She took her time turning back to me.

  "Okay," she said. "What does she want?"

  I had it ready.

  "She wants a PTI slot. All charges dropped upon successful completion. She doesn't testify against the guy and her name is on no documents. She simply gives the hotel and room number where he's at and your people do the rest."

  "They'll need to make a case. She's got to testify. I take it the two grams she had came from this guy. Then she has to tell us about it."

  "No, she doesn't. Whoever you just talked to told you there's already a warrant. You can take him down for that."

  She worked it over for a few moments, moving her jaw back and forth as if tasting the deal and deciding whether to eat more. I knew what the stumble was. The deal was a trade-up but it was a trade-up to a federal case. That meant that they would bust the guy and the feds would take over. No prosecutorial glory for Leslie Faire-unless she had designs on jumping over to the U.S. Attorney's Office one day.

  "The feds will love you for this," I said, trying to wedge into her conscience. "He's a bad guy and he'll probably check out soon and the chance to get him will be lost."

  She looked at me like I was a bug.

  "Don't try that with me, Haller."

  "Sorry."

  She went back to her thinking. I tried again.

  "Once you have his location, you could always try to set up a buy."

  "Would you be quiet, please? I can't think."

  I raised my hands in surrender and shut up.

  "All right," she finally said. "Let me talk to my boss. Give me your number and I'll call you later. But I'll tell you right now, if we go for it, she'll have to go to a lockdown program. Something at County-USC. We're not going to waste a residency slot on her."

  I thought about it and nodded. County-USC was a hospital with a jail wing where injured, sick, and addicted inmates were treated. What she was offering was a program where Gloria Dayton could be treated for her addiction and released upon completion. She would not face any charges or further time in jail or prison.

  "Fine with me," I said.

  I looked at my watch. I had to get going.

  "Our offer is good until first appearance tomorrow," I said. "After that I'll call the DEA and see if they want to deal directly. Then it will be taken out of your hands."

  She looked indignantly at me. She knew that if I got a deal with the feds, they would squash her. Head to head, the feds always trumped the state. I stood up to go and put a business card down on her desk.

  "Don't try to back-door me, Haller," she said. "If it goes sideways on you, I'll take it out on your client."

  I didn't respond. I pushed the chair I had borrowed back to its desk. She then dropped the threat with her next line.

  "Anyway, I'm sure we can handle this on a level that makes everybody happy."

  I looked back at her as I got to the office door.

  "Everybody except for Hector Moya," I said.

  EIGHT

  The law offices of Dobbs and Delgado were on the twenty-ninth floor of one of the twin towers that created the signature skyline of Century City. I was right on time but everyone was already gathered in a conference room with a long polished wood table and a wall of glass that framed a western exposure stretching across Santa Monica to the Pacific and the charter islands beyond. It was a clear day and I could see Catalina and Anacapa out there at the very edge of the world. Because the sun was going down and seemed to be almost at eye level, a film had been rolled down over the window to cut the glare. It was like the room had sunglasses on.

  And so did my client. Louis Roulet sat at the head of the table with a pair of black-framed Ray-Bans on. Out of his gray jail jumpsuit, he now wore a dark brown suit over a pale silk T-shirt. He looked like a confident and cool young real estate executive, not the scared boy I saw in the holding pen in the courthouse.

  To Roulet's left sat Cecil Dobbs and next to him was a well-preserved, well-coiffed and bejeweled woman I assumed to be Roulet's mother. I also assumed that Dobbs hadn't told her that the meeting would not include her.

  To Roulet's right the first seat was empty and waiting for me. In the seat next to it sat my investigator, Raul Levin, with a closed file in front of him on the table.

  Dobbs introduced Mary Alice Windsor to me. She shook my hand with a strong grip. I sat down and Dobbs explained that she would be paying for her son's defense and had agreed to the terms I had outlined earlier. He slid an envelope across the table to me. I looked inside and saw a check for sixty thousand dollars with my name on it. It was the retainer I had asked for, but I had expected only half of it in the initial payment. I had made more in total on cases before but it was still the largest single check I had ever received.

  The check was drawn on the account of Mary Alice Windsor. The bank was solid gold-First National of Beverly Hills. I closed the envelope and slid it back across the table.

  "I'm going to need that to come from Louis," I said, looking at Mrs. Windsor. "I don't care if you give him the money and then he gives it to me. But I want the check I get to come from Louis. I work for him and that's got to be clear from the start."

  I knew this was different from even my practice of that morning-accepting payment from a third party. But it was a control issue. One look across the table at Mary Alice Windsor and C. C. Dobbs and I knew I had to make sure that they knew this was my case to manage, to win or to lose.

  I wouldn't have thought it could happen but Mary Windsor's face hardened. For some reason she reminded me of an old grandfather clock, her face flat and square.

  "Mother," Roulet said, heading something off before it started. "It's all right. I will write him a check. I should be able to cover it until you give me the money."

  She looked from me to her son and then back to me.

  "Very well," she said.

  "Mrs. Windsor," I said. "Your support for your son is very important. And I don't mean just the financial end of things. If we are not successful in getting these charges dropped and we choose the alternative of trial, it will be very important for you to show your support in public ways."

  "Don't be silly," she said. "I will back him come hell or high water. These ridiculous charges must be removed, and that woman . . . she isn't going to get a penny from us."

  "Thank you, Mother," Roulet said.

  "Yes, thank you," I said. "I will be sure to inform you, probably through Mr. Dobbs, where and when you are needed. It's good to know you will be there for your son."

  I said nothing else and waited. It didn't take her long to realize she had been dismissed.

  "But you don't want me here right now, is that it?"

  "That's right. We need to discuss the case and it is best and most appropriate for Louis to do this only with his defense team. The attorney-client privilege does not cover anyone else. You could be compelled to testify against your son."

  "But if I leave, how will Louis get home?"

  "I have a driver. I will get him home."

  She looked at Dobbs, hoping he might have higher standing and be able to overrule me. Dobbs smiled and stood up so he could pull her chair back. She finally let him and stood up to go.

  "Very well," she said. "Louis, I will see you at dinner."

  Dobbs walked her through the door of the conference room and I saw them exchange conversation in the hallway. I couldn't hear what was said. Then she left and Dobbs came back, closing the door.

  I went through some preliminaries with Roulet, telling him he would have to be arraigned in two weeks and submit a plea. He would have the opportunity at that time to put the state on notice that he was not waiving his right to a speedy trial.

  "That's the first choice we ha
ve to make," I said. "Whether you want this thing to drag out or you want to move quickly and put the pressure on the state."

  "What are the options?" Dobbs asked.

  I looked at him and then back at Roulet.

  "I'll be very honest with you," I said. "When I have a client who is not incarcerated, my inclination is to drag it out. It's the client's freedom that is on the line-why not get the most of it before the hammer comes down."

  "You're talking about a guilty client," Roulet said.