“How would he have been poisoned though? I mean, if it’s in the water at home, mom would have gotten sick, too. Same thing if they put it into one of their juices that they drink at home. Why wasn’t mom sick too?”
I swiveled in my chair. “I guess I’m going to have to go to his office and find out if there’s something there that might have supported the poison. Maybe he drank a bottle of a scotch there and he didn’t share it with anybody.”
“No. Dad didn’t drink.”
“Listen, I was an alcoholic. For many years, I was.” I narrowed my eyes. “Mainly because of what you did to me, but that’s neither here nor there. Anyhow, I was an alcoholic. I hid it well from most people, including my family. They never knew that I drank at all. I would go to dinner over there on Sunday and not even have a sip of wine. They all assumed that I didn’t drink wine with them because I didn’t drink. The real reason was that I knew that I wouldn’t stop with a glass or wine or two. I would be compelled to drink the entire bottle. I never wanted them to know about my compulsion, so I just didn’t drink at all around them. Your father-in-law was probably the same way.”
“Okay, then,” he said. “Find out if he was a closet drinker. Maybe that would explain where the poison would have come in. How the killer could have delivered the poison.”
“I will.”
He furrowed his brow. “Why are you going to have to do all this investigation? Why isn’t the police force doing the same investigation?”
“Because they already arrested you. I mean, they’ll hopefully do their own investigation, but they’re not going to look very hard if they already have their man in custody. It’s my job, when I’m working on a SODDI defense, to turn over every stone. That’s the only way to convince the jury that the police arrested the wrong person. That the wrong person is on the stand.”
“SODDI defense?”
“Slang for ‘some other dude did it.’ That’s what we’re working with, here – a SODDI defense.”
Michael picked up my paper weight and examined it. “Harper, I really meant what I said. I’m very sorry for what I did to you. I don’t know why you’re agreeing to represent me, but I’m grateful that you are.”
I pursed my lips. I knew why I was going to represent him. If he was guilty, he was going to fry. I was going to make sure of it.
Even if weren’t guilty…I struggled with my desire to sink him anyhow. I remember reading a book by Albert Camus. It was called The Stranger. The narrator in that book was a nihilist. He had no empathy for anybody, no feeling whatsoever. He laughed when a neighbor beat his girlfriend. He had no feelings for his mother who just died. He ended up in prison because he shot a man in self-defense. What I got out of that book was that the guy deserved to be in prison, even if he was really innocent of murder – when you’re that detached from the world and from emotions, when you have no empathy, then it’s only a matter of time until you commit a murder for real. Him ending up in prison was just a pre-emptive strike, in a way.
And so it was for Michael. He was a serial rapist. He currently was a unrepentant cheater. He had an enemies list. He was just a bad guy. Maybe he deserved to go to prison no matter if he was innocent or not.
“Well, okay then.” I looked at my watch. “I have a hearing, so…”
“I’ll give your assistant a personal check. Would that be okay?”
“Sure.”
At that, Michael left and I stared at the ceiling. What was I doing? What was I getting into? Could I go through with representing him? Could I sink him if he was innocent? How was my psyche going to handle this?
Whatever. I had a hearing to go to. Elmer’s hearing. Fun, fun. I didn’t mind Elmer, though, or guys like him. At least you knew what you were getting with a guy like him. But with a guy like Michael…he was slick. Wily. Cunning. Smart. It was entirely possible that he actually did kill his father-in-law. I was going to have to do my own background check of him and his relationship with Judge Sanders. There was some reason why the police were so quick to jump to conclusions. So quick to arrest him.
They must have known that he had motive to kill his father-in-law – I was going to have to find out what it was.
CHAPTER FIVE
I got into court, and there was Elmer, sitting in the jury box with the other inmates. I wondered which Elmer I was going to encounter. The charming one who called me darlin’, or the unhinged beast who almost killed me.
I walked over to him, and I immediately found out which Elmer I was dealing with.
“Hey,” he said, his gruff voice with the slight twang called out to me as I approached him. “You’re going to plead me not guilty today, right? And ask for a trial?”
“I’m going to plead you not guilty, because it’s usually not appropriate to plead somebody guilty at the arraignment. But I’m still going to impress upon you the importance of thinking of pleading this out. The prosecutor’s not messing around here. You could end up on the gurney before this is all said and done.”
“So be it.” He lowered his voice, well-aware that if he raised his voice to me that he would be led out of the courtroom immediately. This judge didn’t take that kind of bullshit. “Listen you bitch, I’m your boss. You’re my fucking employee. I call the shots, and I’m telling you that you’re going to try this bitch.”
I looked over at the bailiff, hoping that he was hearing what Elmer was saying to me. I needed him to step in and help me out if I needed witnesses as to why I needed off the case. Unfortunately, however, the bailiff wasn’t paying attention to Elmer and me.
“I’m going to ask to withdraw,” I said to him.
“If you do, you’re a dead woman.” His blue eyes had the dead look that creeped me out in the jail. “And you know what I’m capable of.”
“You’re not going to intimidate me.” I had been threatened, over the course of my career, by scarier dudes then this one. There was the serial killer a few years back who I pled out. He regretted the decision to take the plea after he got the sentence, and proceeded to send me threatening letters for six months afterwards from his jail cell. He had threatened to send his buddies after me if I didn’t appeal, even though I had explained, time and again, that you can never appeal a plea bargained sentence. There had been the murderer who had cornered me in my office one night after hours. I pepper-sprayed his eyes, and he, too, threatened me for months afterwards.
Now here was this Elmer guy, rougher than most, and undoubtedly violent. But I couldn’t let him and his words change my mind about him. I had been around this job long enough to know that a guy like him would threaten me no matter what I did. If I tried the case and I went down in flames, as a case like this undoubtedly would, and he got the death penalty, he would threaten me. If I pled him out, he would threaten me. If I withdrew from his case, he would threaten me.
Elmer was a shit sandwich no matter what I did, so I might as well cut my losses early.
“I’m going to withdraw,” I said.
“You can’t. You’ve been assigned to me.”
“I can. You attacked me and I have a witness for that. And-“
At that, he stood up, leaped over the short wall between the jury box and the courtroom, and immediately tackled me. I could feel his blows raining down on me, and I felt a sickening feeling that my leg was broken. I had landed wrong, and this enormous man was on top of me, and, because he was so enraged, he undoubtedly had the strength of ten men. I cried out in pain. I couldn’t breathe, and I could feel something breaking. It might have been my leg, it might have been my ankle. All that I knew was that the pain was excruciating.
All at once, I could feel myself fading to black.
CHAPTER SIX
I woke up in the hospital. I didn’t quite realize what had happened. All that I knew was that my sister Albany was next to me, and she was talking to Tammy.
“What happened?”
“Hey girl,” Albany said. “You got attacked in the courtroom, and now you’re here. A
nd I had to take time off of work to make sure you made it home okay. You’re such a malingerer.”
“Malingerer? What you talking about?” Albany and I liked to rib each other as being “malingerers,” ever since both of us ended up in the hospital after a car accident and each of us had a long recovery. I teased Albany about faking the injury so that she could get out of household chores, and she did the same to me.
“I’m teasing. Anyhow, here’s what happened, according to those in the know, meaning the other lawyers who were in that courtroom. You were in there with some fat ass, and he tackled you. The reason why you’re here is because he crushed you so bad that you lost consciousness. You’re the talk of the town now.” She nodded approvingly. “You’re my badass sister, so I knew that even a fat ass couldn’t keep you down.”
“Don’t make me laugh,” I said, feeling laughter coming and feeling a tightness in my chest as I took gasps of air. “Seriously.”
“Well, we need to get you out of here. Your kids are waiting for you to come home. Isn’t that music to your ears – your kids need you. Bet you never thought you would be saying that, huh?” She shook her head. “The things you do to get off a case.”
“Am I off that case?”
“Of course you are,” Tammy said. “Elmer got taken away and put into solitary, and he had a guy assigned to him. I guess the thought is that this guy will respect a man more than a woman, and he might not be as much of a douchebag. We’ll have to see if that’s the case, though. He might end up representing himself, which means that he can appeal any conviction on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel.”
“How does anybody represent such a guy?”
“You tell me. Anyhow, I’ll get the doctor in here so you can get the Hell out of this hospital,” Tammy said.
She left to go and find the doctor and I looked at my ankle, which apparently was twisted. “This thing hurts like a mother,” I said. “Too bad I can’t take painkillers for it.”
“Yeah. I’ll get you hooked up with a decent acupuncturist,” she said. “I have some good ones that do a great job with pain.” That was Albany’s main focus – alternative medicine. She was into acupuncture, Reiki, and saw a chiropractor once a week. I wished that I had the time to pursue all of this too.
The doctor came in and looked at my ankle and said that I was free to go.
Thank god. I had to get out of this place as soon as possible. Life was awaiting me, and I couldn’t afford to take a break. Not with two young girls needing me, a death case that I was working, and just everything else that was coming at me from all directions.
ALBANY DROVE ME HOME. “Sis, I have to say, I’m worried about you.”
“Me? Why?”
She shook her head. “You’ve got so much on your plate, it seems. I just don’t want you to get overwhelmed.”
“I’m not. Listen, this is my life. And this is actually what I like. Being busy all the time. I don’t want to have to think about things too hard. If I did, I might end up back at the bar.”
“That’s what we’re all afraid of.” Albany’s hands gripped the wheel. “I know that you have it all together, but it always seems that you’re on top of a house of cards. I just don’t want it to collapse again.”
I sighed. “So what would you have me do? Get a job at a grocery store? I have a mortgage from Hell, and I need the income from these cases that are coming in all the time. I also have two girls at home and a nanny that I need to pay. Now is not the time for me to be slowing down.”
Albany put her hand on my neck and smiled as she drove on. “I’m only looking out for you. I wish you would have chosen a different profession. Any profession.”
“I appreciate your concern. I do.” I put my hand on her neck affectionately.
“You get too into your cases,” Albany said. “I’ve always worried about that. I’m sorry to say it, but in your position, you can’t afford to get emotionally involved. Most of your clients end up behind bars.” She paused. “Except John Robinson. I’ve worried about that one for a long time. I know that it eats you alive.”
“It does. I have Gina’s kids with me, but that will never undo what I did in that case. Nothing ever will.” I sighed. “And listen – I need to get passionately involved with my cases. At least the cases that I believe in. I can’t go into any of it half-assed, because if I do, I’ll lose every time. Being an attorney isn’t a job for me. It’s a passion. I need to keep it that way, or else I might as well get a job at McDonald’s.”
Albany chuckled. “Well, not McDonald’s. You can do better than that. Hardee’s maybe, or Burger King. But not McDonald’s.”
“What you got against McDonald’s?” I asked with a smile. “Ever since they started serving breakfast all day, they’ve been at the top of my list.”
“I’ll give you that. Well, apply for a job at McDonald’s online today, and see what happens. I’ll bet they’ll take you. That could be your new life’s calling.”
“Nothing wrong with that. It’s honest work.”
We were now at my house, and I gingerly stepped out of the car. “Well, I thank you for the ride.”
“Do you need me to take you back to your car tomorrow?”
“Nah. You need to go to work. I’ll just call Uber.”
Albany nodded. “See you Sunday? For dinner?”
“Of course.” Sunday dinner with the fam was something that I rarely missed. It was something that kept me sane, even through all the turmoil that routinely happens in my life. “Love you.”
“Love you too. See you Sunday.”
At that, she drove off.
CHAPTER SEVEN
I felt weird the next day after I got out of the hospital. My thoughts started to race, like I had never before experienced. I felt distracted and anxious. Like I wanted to jump out of my skin. I was also irritable. I knew that my job was, once again, getting me down. It always did, really. But having Michael as a client, combined with the fact that I was attacked not once, but twice, by that crazy bastard Elmer, was doing a number on me, mentally.
I went down the stairs and saw that Rina and Abby weren’t there at the breakfast table. I counted to ten, not wanting to deal with their bullshit. I mean, Rina pulled this stuff all the time. She was slow to get out of bed, slow to get ready for school and really slow in eating her breakfast. But Abby was always there, right on time.
“Girls,” I called. “Where are you? We gotta get a move on.”
Abby peeked her head out of her bedroom door. “Aunt Harper, we don’t have school today. Remember?”
“What do you mean, you don’t have school today?”
“Don’t you remember? It’s a teacher’s sabbatical day. They’re all going to someplace in the Ozarks to learn stuff about teaching us better. We don’t have school today.”
I groaned. I totally forgot about that. “I see. Well, I guess I better call Sophia to come and watch you guys.” For some odd reason, I felt angry about that. Why didn’t the girls remind me last night? We had our usual dinner and the twins never said one word about not having school today.
“Thanks, Aunt Harper.”
“You’re welcome. And Abby…I guess this is something that I need to talk to you and Rina about tonight. But there’s going to come a time, sometime soon, when hopefully you won’t have to call me Aunt Harper anymore.”
Her eyes got wide. “Why? Why don’t you like to be called that anymore?”
“You’ll see.” I smiled. I was finally granted a hearing to adopt the two girls. I wanted them to call me “mom” as soon as the adoption went through. I was dying to hear them call me “mom,” as a matter of fact.
Abby went back into her room, and I called Sophia. “Sophia, can you please watch the girls?” I asked her. “I’m so sorry, I totally forgot that the girls don’t have school today.”
“I’ll be there,” she said.
“Thanks.” Sophia lived only a couple of blocks away, so I knew that she would be at
the house shortly. “I appreciate that.”
She arrived within 15 minutes. “Thanks Sophia,” I said. “For coming on such short notice.”
“Of course. I love watching the girls.”
“I know you do.”
When I got in the car, I realized that I was having a lot of problems focusing. My brain was too jumbled, my thoughts were coming way to quickly. One thought came into my brain, and then another and another and then another. None of my thoughts seemed to connect with any of my other thoughts, either.
I sighed. I was going to have to hunker down on Michael’s case. He had emailed me his enemies list, and he was right about one thing – it was a long, long list. He apparently had screwed over quite a few people on his way to the top. Just like I had suspected.
Michael was currently a partner at VML, which was the largest advertising agency in Kansas City. He was responsible for millions of dollars of accounts from some of the largest accounts in the city. According to the form he filled out for me, he was making $550,000 per year. The list of people he gave to me who hated him were mainly people who he worked with. They were people whose ideas he stole – there were three different people who were angry with him because he took the ideas that they had and pawned them off as his own. There was one co-worker who was angry with Michael because Michael was running around with his wife. That guy was also one of the ones whose ideas Michael stole, so he had double reason to hate Michael.
None of these people, however, seemed to have cause to want to bump the judge off. I didn’t want to dismiss them, but, at the same time, I needed something stronger to go on. These were creative types at the agency – copywriters and artists and people like that. They wouldn’t have cause to kill a federal judge. If they wanted to get revenge on Michael, I imagined that they would find some other way of doing that.
The first thing that I wanted to do was to ask for an order to have Judge Sanders’ body exhumed. I just couldn’t believe that he was buried without an autopsy. That was ridiculous.
Harper Ross Legal Thrillers vol. 1-3 Page 37
