by Chad Zunker
“Kate?” he whispered.
“That was a really dumb thing you did,” she said.
He sat up, swung his bare feet to the floor, the fog quickly clearing. The dog perked up, tilted his head at David.
“I’m sorry. I really am. But I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You could’ve gotten me into big trouble.”
“Big trouble with who, Kate? Please talk to me.”
“Not over the phone.”
David felt a glimmer of hope. “Okay. Where?”
“Are you prepared to play by my rules from here on out?”
“Whatever you say.”
“I’m serious, David. No more showing up uninvited. No more surprises. You do it my way, or I’m out. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I do. I promise.”
“Meet me at the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue on the running trail.”
“When?”
“Right now. Do you have a baseball cap?”
“Sure. Several.”
“Wear a cap backward.”
“Seriously?”
“Do you want me to hang up?”
“Okay, okay. Backward cap. Stevie Ray Vaughan statue. Anything else?”
“Just wait there. I’ll find you.”
The statue memorialized the late blues guitarist in his perpetual flat-brimmed hat, poncho, and holding a guitar by his side. It was an Austin landmark on the south side of Lady Bird Lake, the stretch of the Colorado River that weaves its way through the city. David stood right next to Stevie, hands plunged deep in his blue jean pockets, his black Abilene Christian University baseball cap sitting backward on his head as instructed.
David looked both ways up and down the trail but saw no sign of Kate yet. The running trail was empty. It was the dead middle of the night. He turned and watched as the lights from the downtown skyline reflected like glitter off the calm water. He could see the Frost Bank Tower poking up in the middle of all the buildings. The walk to the statue was an easy five blocks for David. Was it also a walk for Kate? Did she live downtown? Was she at her office when she called him? He had so many questions and hoped to have some answers soon. He picked up a couple of rocks, skipped them off the water. He waited ten long minutes, and still no sign of Kate. He was starting to worry she was not going to show when he heard her voice behind him.
“David?”
He turned. Her dark hair was tucked under an Astros baseball cap. She wore jeans, running shoes, and the same gray hoodie she’d had on the first night they’d met on the sidewalk outside the county jail—when he thought she might be on drugs or just a crazy person. Not an attorney.
“Hey,” he said.
She cast a nervous glance over her shoulder. “Let’s be quick, okay?”
“Whatever you say. You make the rules.”
They shared a brief grin. “You’ll understand in a moment.”
“I hope so.”
She walked past him toward the water. “How did you find me today?”
“I suspected you might work with Lee Barksdale at Sewell and Merritt because you didn’t seem that surprised when I mentioned his name on the phone. So I did a search of the firm’s website and recognized you from the other night outside the jail. Then I waited for you in the lobby.”
“I see.”
“Who is Charlotte?” he asked.
She turned, another small smile. “First name that came to me yesterday. My favorite children’s book.”
“Charlotte’s Web?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“Great book,” David agreed.
A shadowy figure appeared way down the trail from them, clearly making Kate uncomfortable.
“Let’s walk,” she suggested.
They circled around Stevie and headed up the trail, away from the figure, walking in and around dark tree shadows, staying close to the water’s edge.
Kate began telling her story. “About ten days ago, I’m sitting inside a conference room with my colleague Lee, and we’re working on a client transactional matter. He steps out of the room for a moment to go deal with something—I don’t remember what exactly—and he leaves his phone sitting out on the conference table, right in front of me amid the piles of paperwork. A text pops up on his screen from someone his phone identifies simply as Nelly. I only glanced at the text because it was a photo of a young guy with this teardrop tattoo under his right eye. Below the text was this message from the sender: This is the guy. Eduardo Martinez. Coordinate with Jake, and take care of this ASAP. I thought nothing more of it until the next day when I’m on the treadmill at the gym, watching the late local news. I see a photo of the same guy with the teardrop tattoo suddenly appear on my TV screen, and the anchor is saying how Martinez was shot dead earlier that night. Considering the text message on Lee’s phone, this news really disturbed me.”
“What did you do?”
“I wasn’t sure what to do. I thought of asking Lee about it, but I don’t really know the guy that well. And how do you even broach a subject like this with someone? I thought of contacting the police, but it felt premature without knowing if there was something more to it. Going to the police could cause a lot of drama for me around the office, and if it turned out to be nothing, it would certainly put me in a bad position with the partners. So I tried to just forget about the whole thing. Pretend it never happened.”
“I guess that didn’t work.”
“No, not at all. I couldn’t sleep for two nights in a row. Not a wink. I just stared at the ceiling all night, wondering if I was working right next to a guy who had something to do with the murder of another man. So I privately reached out to someone over at the DA’s office to see if he could help me.”
“Murphy?”
She nodded. “I met Luke Murphy at a legal seminar a few months ago. I reminded him who I was, then told him about my situation. He offered to do some checking around on the case and get back to me.”
“So there was nothing more to your relationship with Murphy?”
“What do you mean?”
“The bartender at the Dirty Dog implied y’all were acting a bit cozy.”
Her forehead bunched. “How did you even find out I was at the bar with him that night?”
“He scribbled down a meeting in his day planner with the initials KP. I thought he might be having an affair with you.”
“No, it was nothing like that. We were only sitting closely together so we could talk privately. I suggested that bar because I knew none of my colleagues would likely show up there. I didn’t want anyone from the office even asking me about him. I was just being careful. For good reason, I now know.”
“What did Murphy tell you?”
“He said I was right to be suspicious. He’d talked to a few police contacts and what he said were other important sources. Although he didn’t give me any details, Luke believed that something bigger may be in play. He said he was going to keep investigating and get back to me again. Then he left.”
“But you went after him?”
She nodded. “Only because he forgot his credit card at the bar. So I hurried after him and spotted him cutting into that alley . . .” Kate covered her mouth with a shaky hand.
“What happened, Kate? What did you see?”
She swallowed. “Another man I didn’t notice at first had gone into the alley right behind him. I was about to call out to Luke, get him to stop so I could return the credit card, when this other man suddenly pulled out a gun and shot him in the back of the head.” Her eyes began watering up. “I couldn’t believe it. It all happened so fast. This guy didn’t even say anything to Luke. He just aimed the gun and shot him.”
“Did you get a look at the guy?”
She shook her head. “Not really. It was dark. I didn’t see his face, but he had a hat on and a green jacket. When he noticed me, I completely freaked and ran out of the alley, terrified I would also be shot. Later that night, I saw on the news that the police had arrested a homele
ss man suspected in Luke’s death. They were calling it a random act of violence, but I knew they were wrong.”
“If you didn’t get a good look at the guy, how do you know it wasn’t my client who actually pulled the trigger?”
“Because I saw your client leaning up against the building not two seconds before the shooting.”
“You did?”
“I don’t know why I just glanced over at him. He was sitting upright, but it looked like he was sleeping.”
David’s heart started to pound. “Are you sure, Kate?”
“Yes. When they showed his mug shot on TV, I knew it was the same guy. Your client didn’t shoot Luke. Someone else did.”
David felt a flood of relief pour through him. Although he’d willed himself to believe it, hearing the truth was exhilarating. Rebel was truly innocent.
“Why didn’t you go to the police?” David asked.
“Luke involved the police and ended up shot dead in the alley.”
“Right. So you reached out to me?”
She nodded. “I had to do something. At first, I was hoping I could somehow help you find the truth on your own without getting myself more involved. That was naive, I guess, but I didn’t know what else to do.”
Listening to Kate, David realized this was much bigger than he’d even thought. Anyone who touched this thing could be in serious danger. They had to be more careful, or they might both be killed.
“You used a burner phone to contact me?” he asked.
“Yes, I bought it at Target. But I called you on my real phone tonight.”
“Don’t do that again, okay? Get another burner. Just to be safe.”
“Okay. What do we do now?”
“What does the guy look like who’s been following you?”
“Bald, scruffy beard, about your size. Probably late twenties. I’ve seen him several times this past week. Standing behind me at the bank. Watching me from outside restaurants. Walking down the sidewalks. A scary-looking guy.”
“Black combat boots?”
Her brow wrinkled. “Yeah, I think so. How did you know that?”
David sighed. “I suspect the same guy broke into my office the other night and attacked me before getting away.”
“Really? Who is he, David? What’s going on here?”
“I think Murphy was right. We’ve stepped right into the middle of some kind of dangerous conspiracy. I think whoever shot Murphy in that alley suspected you spotted him, so he tried to cover his tracks. He tried to throw everyone off his trail by framing my client. Rebel was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and under the worst of conditions.”
Kate shook her head. “Lee has been acting weird around me all week. He’s clearly involved in this somehow. I think he suspects I may know something. Maybe he got suspicious that I saw the text message in the conference room that day. I can’t be sure. But I found him searching my desk yesterday when I came back from lunch. He said he was just looking for a client file, but he was lying. The file was sitting right out in the open on the corner of my desk. There has been this awkward tension with him all week. We’re both pretending that nothing is wrong.”
“How did you know about his meeting at the hotel bar?”
“We were in the conference room, and Lee got a call. When he pulled his phone out of his pocket to check, I saw it was from the same Nelly contact. Lee answered it right away and exited the room. When he came back, he told me he had to step out of the office for an hour or so. I could tell something was up, so I secretly followed him. When he sat down at the bar with the other guy, I texted you.”
“You were there at the hotel?”
She nodded. “I watched the whole thing from the corner.”
“You didn’t recognize the other guy?”
“No, I don’t know him.”
“Could he be one of your firm’s clients?”
She shrugged. “Maybe. I ran a search on the name Nelly but came up with nothing. I also searched the internet, grouping Nelly and Lee together, but still came up empty-handed. I don’t know the nature of the relationship yet.”
“Nelly sounds like a nickname. Which might mean Lee is somehow friends with him. But there clearly is something more there.”
“I need to go back and more thoroughly check all client matters that Lee has been involved with over the past few years. Maybe there’s something there that I just haven’t found yet.”
“Can you do that without drawing attention to yourself?”
“I don’t know. I feel like my every move is being watched right now.”
“Don’t take any unnecessary risks. Send me the list instead, okay?”
She nodded. “I can’t believe all of this has happened. Luke Murphy would still be alive if I hadn’t pulled him into this situation.”
“None of this is your fault.” David put his hand on her arm. “You have to stop thinking that way. We’ll get through this together. You have to trust me.”
“I have to admit I’m glad you found me today—even though I acted angry. Because I don’t think I could’ve survived another day trying to do this all on my own.”
THIRTY-NINE
Later that morning, David raced over to the Dell Seton Medical Center at UT after receiving an urgent phone call that Rebel had been badly injured in a late-night jail altercation and had been rushed to the emergency room. There were no other details. David felt fear grip him. Had Rebel been targeted? Was that what the altercation was really about? After his conversation with Kate, David believed it was entirely possible that someone had intentionally tried to take his client out to make this whole case go away.
At the front desk, David found out that his client was in a private post-op room recovering from emergency surgery. He negotiated the maze of elevators and hallways and finally found Rebel’s private room. A uniformed police officer was standing outside, guarding the door. David flashed his ID to the officer, explained he was the patient’s lawyer, and was allowed inside. David stepped into the room. Rebel was lying bare-chested on the hospital bed with his eyes closed. A nurse was currently checking charts and analyzing different beeping machines. David could see white bandages all up and down his client’s left midsection. They looked like they were soaked in red. What the hell had happened?
“Is he okay?” David asked the nurse.
“Are you family?”
“His lawyer.”
“He’s stable now. Let me get the doctor for you.”
The nursed stepped out of the room. David moved in closer to the bed. Rebel’s face was really pale, but it was good to see his chest going up and down. The man was alive. David noted that his client’s right wrist was cuffed to the hospital bed, as if Rebel might jump up and make a run for it. Frustrated, David moved back into the hallway for a moment to talk to the officer.
“Are the handcuffs really necessary?” David asked.
“I’m just following orders, sir.”
“He just got out of surgery. What’s he going to do?”
“Sorry. Above my pay grade.”
A fortysomething dark-haired doctor in scrubs came over to where David was standing. “You’re Mr. North’s attorney?”
David nodded. “Yes. What happened, Doc?”
“Well, I can’t tell you what all happened at the jail, but I can tell you the nature of your client’s injuries. He was stabbed four times in the lower abdominals. The punctures were violent and deep, and he lost a lot of blood. Fortunately, we got him here in time to stop the bleeding and minimize the internal damage.”
“What was used to stab him?”
“The entry wounds suggest some kind of small sharp object.”
David wondered about the weapon. A knife? If so, who did it?
“But he’s going to be okay?” David asked.
“He’s not out of the woods yet. We also discovered your client has an irregular heartbeat that could lead to ventricular fibrillation, a serious heart rhythm problem that occurs when
the heart beats with rapid, erratic electrical impulses that could result in sudden cardiac arrest. After he recovers from his current situation, we’ll need to go back in and implant a device to regulate his heart rhythm so that he’s not a ticking time bomb. In more ways than one, Mr. North is very lucky to be alive right now.”
After the doctor left, David returned to Rebel’s bedside. He sat in a chair next to the bed, waited for his client to finally wake up. About an hour later, Rebel finally opened his eyes.
“What . . . the . . . hell?” Rebel groaned.
David jumped up, leaned over the bed. “Hey, Cowboy.”
Rebel blinked, tried to focus. “Where the hell am I, Lawyer?”
“Hospital. You had a rough night. But you’re okay.”
Rebel glanced down at the bandages on his side, squirmed a bit. “Damn. I hate doctors and hospitals. When can I get out of here?”
“Take it easy,” David suggested. “These doctors saved your life. Besides, do you really want to rush back over to the jail?”
Rebel squirmed again. “Good point, Lawyer. Food is probably much better over here, anyway. I feel funny, though.”
“Well, they got heavy doses of pain meds running through you.”
Rebel looked up. “What about the other guy?”
“What other guy?”
“The dirty snake that ambushed me.”
David shook his head. “I don’t know yet. Tell me what happened.”
“Dude thought he could jump me. But it ain’t my first rodeo.”
“What dude?”
“I dunno, Lawyer. Some young buck they put in my cell with me last night. A meathead with a crew cut and some racist tattoos. Hardly said a word all night. Then he made a move on me the first time I closed my eyes.”
David cocked his head. “He just attacked you for no reason?”
“I guess he had his reasons. But he didn’t share them with me.” Rebel moved his lips all around like they might be numb. “CIA probably sent him in to take care of their dirty work. But I’m a survivor. Always have been.”
Rebel didn’t act angry about it. He was probably too doped up on pain meds to care much about anything right now. But David suspected his client was right. Not about the CIA but about someone intentionally placing a thug in Rebel’s jail cell to try to take him out. How high up did this conspiracy go? If they could get to his client in his jail cell, they could get to him anywhere. David had to do something to protect Rebel better.
