For the Defense

by M. J. Rodgers

  His nerves stretched raw as the seconds crawled by and his blood pounded for action.

  The abduction had been carefully planned. The only people even aware of the performance tonight were supposed to be the organizers of the event and their families. But the auditorium had been open during the rehearsal Jack had attended—and probably all the others. All Lyle would have had to do was walk in and take a seat in the shadows in order to learn about the date of the performance and when Mel would be backstage.

  Only thing he hadn’t counted on was Shirley being with her.

  After what seemed like an eternity, Jared came back on the line.

  “His Cadillac DeVille’s been located at Park Street and Twenty-Third downtown.”

  As Jack listened to his brother’s directions, he accessed the Porsche’s Communication Management feature and fed in the coordinates. The electronic road map showed the quickest way to get there.

  “Got it, Jared. Thanks.”

  “Jack, I need time to try to get a search warrant for his car. You understand?”

  “Perfectly,” Jack replied as he flipped his cell closed and shot out of the parking lot.

  What Jack understood was that his brother’s chances of getting a search warrant were slim. And even if he got one, it would only be for Lyle’s car. If Mel wasn’t in the vehicle, his brother would be forced to walk away.

  Jack wasn’t bound by any such constraints. Very little of his journey registered in his conscious thoughts as he sped through the night. His reflexes were on automatic.

  Mel’s bright eyes, her smile, her face so brimming with life filled his mind. When the image of Diana’s stark white face replaced it, Jack pushed the gas pedal to the floor.

  Following the electronic road map lit on the dash, he zoomed down the streets of the business district.

  When he turned the far corner of Park Street, he saw the neon lights blinking outside a bar, behind it a full parking lot. Cutting the Porsche’s lights and engine, he turned into the lot, slipping into the shadows. The second the car had rolled to a complete stop, he was out of the driver’s seat.

  Silently and swiftly, Jack wove through the parked cars. He found Lyle’s DeVille at the far end, its hood still warm. Pulling a flashlight out of his tool kit, he checked the interior then grabbed another tool and forced open the trunk. Empty.

  Jack checked inside the bar, including both rest rooms. Lyle wasn’t there.

  That’s when Jack realized Lyle had parked at the bar as a ruse. He knew the man couldn’t be far. Back on the street, Jack began to search the surrounding stores. Everything was locked and shut up for the night. At the end of the block, he turned right and proceeded on foot to the next street, all the while conscious of the precious passing time.

  Finally, three doors down on the right, he found what he was looking for. The sign on the darkened diner read, For Sale by the Weaton Real Estate Company.

  Jack peered into the window and saw a faint strip of light coming from behind an interior door. His heart started to pound. Lyle was in there, and he had Mel with him.

  The lock on the front door was connected to an alarm. Jack checked the windows and also found them alarmed. He moved to the side of the building and located a solid metal exit door. Getting through it would take nothing less than a battering ram.

  Setting off an alarm might be a good way to get Lyle out of there. But before he tried anything, Jack knew he needed to make sure all the exits were covered. He was reaching for his cell phone to call to his brother when a blue Cadillac came into view.

  Jack ducked into the shadows. The Seville came to a screeching halt. Barbara Weaton jumped out of the driver’s seat and charged at the front door of the diner, banging loudly on its door.

  “Lyle, it’s me,” she yelled. “Open this door immediately.”

  Jack could hear the noise of an interior door, the footsteps that shuffled to the front. Lyle must have deactivated the alarm because when he opened the door for his mother, no blast ensued.

  “What are you doing with that gun?” Barbara screeched.

  “It’s protection,” Lyle said. “What in the hell are you doing here? Go home. I told you. I’m handling things.”

  “With a gun?”

  “Why don’t you yell a little louder. I don’t think they heard you in the next county.”

  “Lyle, I don’t care how bad things are. I won’t let you kidnap a child.”

  “You’re too late. It’s done. Now get in here before you attract attention.”

  Jack heard Barbara’s gasp, the shuffling of feet, the close of the door.

  Leaving his hiding place, Jack circled to the front of the diner, peered through the window to see the door closing at the back. He turned the knob and pushed the door open, exhaling a breath of relief when the alarm didn’t sound.

  Noiselessly, he made his way through the darkness to the sliver of light beneath the storeroom door. He could hear the voices clearly through the closed door.

  “Lyle, why have you done this?”

  “To clean up Bruce’s last mess so you don’t lose out on that appellate court nomination. Same way I’ve cleaned up all his other messes in order to protect you.”

  “This is insane!”

  “No, insanity is your continuing to cherish his memory like he was some choirboy. He was a no-good drunk who killed a kid and left us all to pay for it. If the news gets out, my business is doomed and so is your career. I had to do this, Mother. You know I did. Mason wouldn’t talk the damn woman into taking a plea.”

  “Lyle, I tried to tell you on the phone but you wouldn’t listen. Even if Mason agrees to plead Connie Pearce guilty now, Staker’s going to turn it down.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Connie Pearce’s motive was the only weak point in Staker’s case—the only reason I was able to even talk him into offering second degree in the first place. Now that he has the evidence proving Bruce killed Connie’s child, he’s going to let nothing stand in his way of taking it to court.”

  “Get on the damn phone and talk to him. Here. Use my cell. Tell him he has to plead her out. Tell him you’ll withdraw your backing of his candidacy if he doesn’t.”

  “I already withdrew my backing,” Barbara said in a voice weary with defeat. “He insisted I do it. He didn’t want to be tainted by any connection to your brother through me. I also withdrew my candidacy for the appellate court. It’s over, Lyle. The announcements will be on tomorrow morning’s news.”

  A moment passed in silence followed by a slew of Lyle’s curses.

  Jack had a feeling that the object he’d heard hitting the wall had been Lyle’s cell phone.

  “I’ll kill him,” Lyle screamed. “I’ll kill them all.” Then there was a click—the unmistakable sound of the hammer snapping into firing position on an automatic.

  An angry, desperate man holding a gun, with the life of a child in his hands.

  Knowing he hadn’t a second to lose, Jack kicked open the door and charged inside.

  DIANA RAN DOWN the corridor toward the E.R. She recognized the man in the dark blue suit who stood by the receptionist’s counter, although she had never seen him before.

  “Jared Knight, I’m Diana Mason,” she said holding out her hand.

  He shook her hand and stared at her with eyes the exact color as Jack’s.

  “Your daughter is fine,” he said. “What I told you over the phone has been confirmed. She was chloroformed, but otherwise unhurt. When she came to a few minutes ago, she had no memory of being abducted. Happened too fast. They’ll keep her overnight for observation. You’ll be able to take her home tomorrow.”

  Diana allowed herself a blessed respite of deep gratitude before asking, “What about Jack?”

  “The E.R. doctor is with him now.”

  Diana’s heart squeezed tightly in her chest. “How bad is it? Please tell me.”

  “When Jack tackled Lyle, the guy’s gun went off, but the bullet only graz
ed Jack’s arm. He’ll be okay.”

  The relief surging through Diana left her weak. She gripped the counter and felt Jared’s hand rest briefly on her shoulder.

  “Don’t be alarmed if you see blood on your daughter’s clothes. It’s Jack’s. He got it on her when he picked her up. Lyle had dumped her on the floor.”

  Diana had watched nature programs where mothers who were half the size of predators would fight so fiercely in defense of their young that the predators would run off. She understood what those mothers had been feeling now.

  “I could kill the bastard with my bare hands,” she said in a voice even she didn’t recognize.

  “Jack dislocated Lyle’s shoulder in their fight over the gun. Help any?”

  Diana smiled. “And he kept telling me he was the wimp in the family.”

  “When Jack believes in what he’s fighting for, he’s as tough as any of us,” Jared said very quietly.

  Diana took a closer look at the man before her. Other than a deep scar in Jared’s cheek, the brothers were identical feature-wise. But looking into Jared’s eyes, Diana knew she’d never mistake the men. She had the strangest sensation that at some point in Jared’s life, he’d fought an internal demon—and lost.

  “How’s your aunt?” he asked.

  “Wonderfully resilient. Doctor says she’ll be sore and sporting a whopping bruise for a while, but otherwise will fully recover. May I see Mel now?”

  He nodded. “Follow me. I’ll get you in.”

  JACK FOUND THEM in Mel’s room as soon as the doctor had finished bandaging his arm. Diana was sitting on the edge of the bed, Shirley standing beside it. Mel was propped up on the pillows. When she saw him, she smiled.

  “I can’t believe that twice in one night I missed out on all the action,” she said in a voice brimming with disappointment. “I don’t remember a thing!”

  Her hair was matted and there was a small cut on her forehead, but her color was warm. Compared to the pale face and lifeless body he’d held in the twenty minutes it took for the paramedics to arrive, she looked wonderful.

  “Thank you for rescuing me, Jack.”

  He came to a halt in front of her bed, touched by the simple sincerity in her words. “You’re thanking the wrong person. We wouldn’t have known who took you if Holmes hadn’t seen through the disguise Lyle wore.”

  “And Holmes took a painful blow trying to stop Lyle,” Diana added, sending her aunt a look of gratitude and love.

  Being the object of three sets of staring eyes seemed to make Shirley self-conscious. She cleared her throat and puffed some nonexistent smoke from the pipe in her mouth as she looked down at her feet.

  Mel stared at her great-aunt with an expression on her face that Jack had never seen before. “Thank you,” she said. Simple words, but their meaning was not.

  Shirley eased onto the edge of the bed. “You would have done the same for me, my dear Watson.”

  “I’m not that brave,” Mel admitted.

  “Bravery is simply the brain listening to the heart,” Diana said. “Don’t ever sell either of yours short, Cute Stuff.”

  “She’s right, Watson,” Shirley said. “Women generally are about these things. We men think we’re out there doing the brave deeds that will insure a better tomorrow. But it’s the women who are holding the future in their hands, because they are holding the hands of the children.”

  As Mel smiled at Shirley, she gently captured her great-aunt’s hand in hers.

  Jack glanced over at Diana’s face to see the tears glistening in her eyes. He slipped his fingers through hers.

  “You’ll excuse us a moment?” he said in the general direction of the bed as he pulled Diana out into the hall.

  As soon as the door was closed behind them, she turned to him, her smile a dizzying gleam. “Thank you for bringing Mel safely back. You’re my hero, Jack.”

  And at that moment, he never felt more like one. Folding her into his arms, he kissed her with all the need inside him. When he finally released her, he found them surrounded by an appreciative audience of patients and hospital personnel.

  Jack took Diana’s hand and bowed to their audience. Diana chuckled at that as much as the onlookers. When the others had dispersed a moment later she brushed a kiss over the bandage on his arm. “Does it hurt?”

  “Just a flesh wound. Hot damn, I always wanted to say that line.”

  Her laughter was the best painkiller of all. He told her then of finding Lyle and listening to the conversation he had with his mother.

  “Did they say anything after you got the gun away from him?” she asked.

  Jack nodded. “Lyle figured out Bruce had killed Amy after hearing about the hit-and-run on the news and seeing the blood on the car fender. When he told his father, they confronted Bruce together and got him to admit he’d deliberately crashed into the tree to try to hide his crime.”

  “And Lyle and his father threatened to turn Bruce in if he didn’t join AA and stay sober,” Diana said, understanding. “What about Judge Weaton?”

  “Lyle claims they never told her because he and his dad knew that as a judge, she’d have to turn Bruce in. When Lyle found out that Bruce was going to marry Connie to give her a child to replace the one she’d lost—”

  “That’s why he wanted to marry her,” Diana interrupted. “Dear God. Like one child could simply replace another.”

  Jack nodded. “Sick bastard’s idea of Step Eight. Bruce deliberately let the air out of her tire that first day so he could drive by and play good Samaritan. His subsequent meeting with her was also planned.”

  “When did Lyle and his father find out what Bruce was doing with Connie?”

  “Not until that day of the barbecue. Both Lyle and his father were shocked to learn who Bruce had been dating and what he intended. They were trying to talk some sense into him when Connie bolted from the garage. Lyle thought she’d overheard their conversation. He’s believed all along that she hit Bruce with her car because of what he did to Amy.”

  “When did he tell his mother that Bruce had killed Amy?”

  “Not until after you deposed him. That’s when he started to worry about what you might uncover. He told her about Bruce so she’d lean on Staker to plead Connie out. Barbara told me she met with you because after hearing what Bruce had done to Amy, she really did want to forgive Connie for killing him and put it all behind her.”

  “So she was telling the truth,” Diana said. “I feel terrible for her. It’s bad enough that Bruce turned out to be a criminal. Now Lyle has shown himself to be one, too.”

  “Before Jared walked in, Lyle told me right out he’d deny everything he said.”

  Diana exhaled in disappointment. “Shame. Lyle could have given the jury all they needed to know about Bruce’s motivations for pursuing Connie.”

  “Then this should come in handy,” Jack said as he pulled a tape out of his pocket and placed it within her palm. “Unbeknownst to him, I recorded Lyle’s confession.”

  Diana’s fingers closed over the tape almost reverently. “Well, that cinches it, Jack Knight. You are definitely my employee of the month.”

  Jack laughed, so lost in her lovely smile that he didn’t care if he ever found his way back.

  “ON THE COUNT of murder in the first degree,” Jury Foreman Ralph Montgomery announced in a strong voice that carried to the corners of the courtroom, “we find the defendant, Connie Pearce, not guilty.”

  Diana hugged Connie as the spectators in the courtroom came alive with excited murmuring and applause. Judge Gimbrere pounded his gavel to restore order, but all Diana heard were the words being whispered into her ear.

  “Thank you, Ms. Mason. You’ve saved my life.”

  Diana pulled back to see the tears of gratitude slipping onto Connie’s cheeks. She gave her client another hug. “You’re so welcome, Connie.”

  Catching a movement out of the corner of her eye, Diana turned her head to see Jack sitting with Mel, Shirley, her
mom and Ray—all of them smiling at her and clapping loudly, heedless of the pounding gavel and the call for order.

  At that moment she wondered why anyone in her right mind would choose to be anything but a defense attorney.

  DIANA WAS ON HER WAY to join Mel and Shirley in the witness room where Jack was protecting them from reporters when Ronald Kozen appeared, bringing her to an abrupt halt in the hallway.

  “You’ve made a powerful enemy today, Mason,” he said in his gruff tone. “Staker’s never going to forgive you for making him look like a complete idiot on such a high-profile case. You realize all this bad publicity is going to cost him his judgeship?”

  Diana faced the senior partner straight, knowing this was one of those occasions when speaking her mind was an absolutely necessity. “I sincerely hope so.”

  Ronald studied her quietly, that perpetual half smile reflecting back at her like a smirk. “Gail kept telling me I’d underestimated you. Should have listened to her. Damn good job, Mason. You beat Staker a few more times like this and your name will be coming up for junior partner one of these days.”

  Diana was so shocked that several seconds passed before she noticed that his hand was extended toward her. “Thank you,” she said as she shook it. “But what about Gail’s junior partnership?”

  He smiled, a real smile. “She has it, Mason. Told her this morning. We were only waiting to be sure that foolish affair with Staker was behind her.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You’re not the only one who has the sense to hire White Knight Investigations when something needs to be checked out.”

  With that Ronald released her hand and disappeared down the hall. Diana was so surprised and relieved, she burst out laughing.

  “GREAT GOING, MOM,” Mel said when Diana entered the interview room.

  “A verdict full of justice,” Shirley declared.

  Jack watched as she hugged her daughter and aunt in turn.