Dead Lawyers Tell No Tales

by Randy Singer

  The cop looked surprised, and Antonov released his hold.

  “He always got manhandled like that in college, too,” Landon said.

  “Very funny,” Billy said. “That dude just about killed me.”

  The Wolfman stood up. “So you know this guy?” he asked Landon.

  It took about ten minutes to straighten everything out. Billy Thurston had been watching the news at his home in Green Bay and decided his buddy was in danger and needed help. He was going to surprise Landon and arrive at his condo unannounced. When he saw the police officer parked by the curb, he foolishly decided to prove a point and sneak past him, up to the condo door. Before he could knock, “this guy came out of nowhere and blindsided me.”

  The Wolfman said he saw Billy sneaking around and didn’t have time to ask questions.

  Listening to what happened, Kerri couldn’t resist giving Landon a little nudge in the back. See, I told you he was good.

  Landon invited everyone in, but the police officer and the Wolfman declined. They both had a job to do.

  “Thanks for keeping an eye out,” Landon said.

  “No problem,” the police officer responded, as if he had been the one to stop Billy Thurston.

  Landon couldn’t be sure, but it looked like the Wolfman flashed a brief little smile.

  ///

  Billy, Landon, and Kerri stayed up almost the entire night. Billy spent the first hour eating and the next few catching up on Kerri’s and Landon’s escapades. He wanted to take Kerri and Maddie back to Green Bay until the cops figured out who was killing the lawyers in Landon’s firm. But Kerri wasn’t buying it.

  “We got into this together,” she said, referring to Landon and herself. “We’re going to get through it together.”

  “Then you better go to the grocery store,” Billy said. “Because I ain’t leaving until it’s over.”

  “You don’t have to do that,” Landon said. “We’ve got plenty of security.”

  Billy snorted. “Yeah, one cop who I snuck right by and some secret-agent bozo who got lucky ’cause I didn’t see him. And besides, who’s watching Maddie and Kerri during the day when you three are split up?”

  They had that covered at the moment, between two Virginia Beach police officers and the Wolfman. But Landon didn’t know how much longer the police could keep an eye on his entire family. It wouldn’t hurt to have a three-hundred-pound NFL lineman hanging around. And this was the off-season.

  “We could get an air mattress for my home office,” Landon said. “Or that couch in our family room could probably hold you.”

  Billy smiled. “I’ve got your back,” he said. “Just like the old days.”

  “That’s what I’m worried about,” Landon said.

  61

  LANDON JUST WANTED LIFE to get back to some semblance of normalcy, but the week of May 13 was not cooperating. The firm’s only assistant, sweet Janaya Young, tearfully resigned on Monday. She thanked both Parker and Landon profusely. Through tears, she told them how much the firm had meant to her. But she had twin boys whose daddy was nowhere to be found, and Janaya had to take care of her family.

  Parker and Landon both said they understood. Parker even offered six months’ severance pay. “We can’t do it all in one check,” he said apologetically, “because our cash flow is too tight. But I’ll keep you on payroll so you get a check every other week for the next six months, as if you’d never left.”

  Landon had never been more proud of his partner.

  The investigation into the deaths of the firm’s lawyers continued to hit brick walls. The Feds were taking the lead in the investigation of the Cessna explosion. But Detective Freeman was still the lead on Harry’s death, and she had practically taken up residence in the offices of McNaughten and Clay. The court had appointed a special prosecutor from another jurisdiction to work with Freeman, thus keeping any privileged information out of the hands of the Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office.

  Freeman had turned the second-floor conference room into her own private war room, as she shuffled through files and yelled questions down the hall at Landon. The whole thing had an Alice in Wonderland feel. A Virginia Beach detective setting up shop in Landon’s office, freely accessing the firm’s files, shouting down the hall to Landon the same way Harry had done. What other criminal-defense lawyer operated like this?

  Things had changed dramatically at the condo as well. Billy Thurston made himself at home, sleeping on the couch most of the night. When Landon woke up, he would nudge Billy, who would traipse back to Landon’s home office and sleep for a few more hours on the air mattress. Kerri was feuding with her bosses about their lack of support for her refusal to reveal her sources in the Universal Labs story and had requested two weeks off to sort stuff out. Landon suspected she really just wanted to stay home with Maddie so they wouldn’t have to drop their daughter off at day care.

  On Wednesday, Detective Freeman told Landon that the VBPD could no longer afford to keep his family under twenty-four-hour watch. They would drive by the condo frequently at night and make their presence known. Freeman had gone to the mat for both Landon and Parker, threatening to resign if anything happened to them, but she had lost the battle. Budgets were tight, and lots of people received death threats. Though she never said it, Landon could guess the dynamics in the upper echelons of the police department. “Let’s see, we can keep our streets safe or we can provide around-the-clock protection for a couple of small-time lawyers. Next question.”

  Billy Thurston decided he would pick up the slack and stick to the Reed girls like glue. Except for the three hours a day when he worked out at a local gym, he shadowed them most everywhere they went. The Wolfman, of course, continued to lurk around as well and said he wasn’t going away anytime soon. He wasn’t very talkative, but Kerri and Landon weren’t complaining. If you were in a football game, you wanted Billy Thurston on your side. But if you were trying to catch a serial murderer, the Wolfman was your guy.

  According to the Wolfman, Cipher Inc. was conducting its own below-the-radar investigation into who was after the McNaughten and Clay lawyers. It wasn’t just that McNaughten and Clay was their firm and that Sean Phoenix took it personally when somebody killed his longtime attorneys. He also appreciated Kerri’s reporting and wanted to keep her family safe. Though Kerri never admitted it, Landon suspected that Sean Phoenix was one of the confidential sources she had gone to court to protect.

  By Thursday, Landon just needed a break. He was tired of living life like a zebra on a lion preserve, constantly glancing over his shoulder or studying people’s faces for the slightest hint of guilt or deception. He was tired of worrying about Maddie and Kerri every second of the day, finding makeshift reasons to text Kerri every few minutes just to make sure his family was okay. He was tired of everyone lowering their eyes when they met him and passing on their condolences, keeping their voices low as if by talking normally they might somehow shatter his fragile psyche. He hadn’t been sleeping. He hadn’t been exercising. And he still couldn’t figure out who was killing his partners or why.

  On a whim, he called the three high school quarterbacks he had been mentoring and told them to show up that night at a local football field. They were to bring as many of their offensive linemen as they could. And everyone should be prepared to work out.

  That evening, Landon and Billy climbed in Landon’s truck and picked up Jake King at his house in Chesapeake. The poor kid was so intimidated by the presence of the Green Bay Packers starting center that he hardly spoke a word on the way to the practice field. When the players all gathered, introductions were made, and the linemen who came looked at Billy wide-eyed. The guy was way bigger than he looked on TV!

  They divided up into two groups—quarterbacks and linemen. Before long, most of the linemen were wishing they had never met Billy Thurston. Landon and his quarterbacks fell into a comfortable routine. Passing drills, footwork, pop quizzes about check-down progressions for certa
in types of coverage. But the linemen were another story.

  Billy Thurston had always been an emotional player—one of those guys who was a teddy bear off the field but a vicious animal on it. He started with one-on-one blocking drills and was yelling at the kids almost immediately, forcing them to keep their pads down and get better leverage. When he would get really frustrated, he’d step in and show them how to do it himself, knocking some hapless two-hundred-pound high school lineman flat on his back.

  “You can’t stand straight up like that!” he’d yell. “You’re going to get your quarterback killed!”

  Landon smiled to himself from fifty yards away. It had always been, in Billy Thurston’s world, the greatest transgression of all—letting a defensive lineman get to your quarterback.

  “Doggonit!” Billy was yelling. “You’ve got to take more pride in yourself than that!”

  Before long, the high school kids started catching on, and the intensity of the workout picked up. They began yelling and grunting and egging each other on. “That’s more like it!” Billy hollered. “Now you’re talking!”

  When the linemen were so worn out that they could hardly move, much less block with the technique that Billy insisted on, Landon and Billy brought the players over to the bleachers and sat them down. Billy talked to them first. Discipline. Humility. Take care of your body. And remember, the ability to play football is a gift. Don’t take it for granted.

  At the end of his bleacher speech, Billy parceled out a few compliments. He told the guys that they had worked hard and that he saw real potential. He loved their attitude. But to be honest, their blocking techniques were pitiful. He wondered if they could work out again in a few days, and the heads started nodding. “Yes, sir,” a few of them said.

  “All right,” Billy said. “I’ll see you out here Saturday morning at seven.”

  It was a tough act to follow, but Landon had to say something. He mainly lectured the quarterbacks, telling them that they were only as good as their offensive line. When they got credit for a win, they should deflect it to the guys in the trenches. “We get all the glory, but they do all the work.”

  Most of them already knew about the personal challenges Landon was facing, but he gave them a few additional details. Somebody was apparently targeting all the lawyers in his firm. And when Landon needed help, Billy had shown up uninvited on Landon’s doorstep.

  Landon had intended to tell the guys about Billy getting face-planted by one of the other men already guarding the Reed family. He wanted to get the guys laughing. But when he got to that part, he couldn’t do it. Instead, he swallowed hard and lost the ability to say much of anything at all. They all waited for a few awkward moments as he struggled to regain his composure.

  He decided he’d said enough. “Listen to what this man says,” Landon concluded, motioning toward Billy. “Because there are some things in life more important than football.”

  62

  JAKE WAS UBERTALKATIVE on the way home. Three of the linemen on his team had shown up for the workout. They were younger than the others and gave up about fifty pounds to the older guys, but Jake’s friends had fought hard and Billy was proud of them. With his dad’s trial looming, it must have felt good for Jake to just focus on football for a night.

  When they pulled into Jake’s driveway, Elias came out and thanked Landon and Billy for what they were doing with the kids. He asked Landon if he could have a word with him in private.

  Landon turned to Billy, who shrugged. “I’ll hang with Jake,” he said.

  A few minutes later, Landon was sitting in Elias King’s study. He had asked Elias for a towel to sit on so he wouldn’t get sweat all over the leather chair, but Elias told him it was the least of his worries. Elias was dressed in khakis and a crisp button-down shirt. He wasn’t wearing shoes, but otherwise he could have been at the office on a business-casual day.

  The pictures in the office reminded Landon that the King family had seen better days. Mixed among the obligatory pictures of Elias hobnobbing with legal big shots, including a sitting justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, were pictures of Elias and his family. The three of them vacationing together at the beach. A casual shot of Elias with his arm around Julia. A stiff pose of the three of them in the photographer’s studio, all wearing blue jeans and white shirts. Jake was the spittin’ image of his dad.

  “I’m sorry about Brent and Rachel,” Elias said. “I never got a chance to express my condolences.”

  “Thanks,” Landon said.

  Elias fidgeted with a pen. “I really miss Harry,” he said, not looking up. “I miss him for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that he was in a different league than my current lawyers.”

  Elias followed with a laundry list of problems with his new attorneys. They had recently completed a mock trial exercise to see how the case would play out. Both mock juries had returned a guilty verdict. Elias’s lead lawyer had represented him, and a few other firm lawyers had played the part of the prosecution.

  “I learned two things from that,” Elias explained. “First, I need to change lawyers. Landon, these guys have no idea how to try a case. They’ve built a reputation representing high-profile clients, but they almost always plead them out. My case is going to trial.”

  Elias shifted in his chair, narrowing his eyes. “Second, I learned that I make a terrible witness. As a prosecutor, I always hoped the defendant would take the stand. They generally make an easy target. But as a defendant—” Elias grinned a little to himself—“I knew I was smarter than everybody else. I figured I would make a darned good witness. Plus, I had truth on my side.” Elias shook his head and frowned. “But there are too many questions I can’t answer. Even the young partner who played the prosecutor made me look like a liar, and he wasn’t even very good. In postverdict polling, my credibility was about zero. Cheating on your wife has a way of doing that, you know.”

  “I don’t think Harry was planning on putting you on the stand,” Landon said.

  “Precisely. But if I don’t take the stand, the jury’s going to think I’m hiding behind the Fifth Amendment. They’ll expect better from a former prosecutor.”

  It was déjà vu for Landon, the same problems he and Harry had discussed at length. In a way, it made him thankful that they were some other firm’s challenges now.

  But then Elias looked at him and said the last thing Landon ever expected to hear. “I’d like for you to consider taking my case.”

  Landon did a double take, as if somebody had just taken a swing at him.

  “Hear me out,” Elias said quickly, reading the expression on Landon’s face. “I’ve been thinking about this a lot. We could actually work together as cocounsel. I would do the opening, which would give me a chance to speak directly to the jury without having to take the stand. You could do a lot of the witness examination.”

  It took Landon a moment to realize that the man was serious. He was actually asking a first-year lawyer to help him try his case! The pressure must have been getting to him.

  “Harry thought highly of you, and that’s saying something. Sure, you lack experience, but I’ve got experience in spades. Plus, right now you’ve got a lot of goodwill with the press. I know this sounds pretty Machiavellian, but I could use some of that.”

  Landon hadn’t thought about Elias acting as his own lawyer. As he suggested, this would give him a way to speak to the jury without being cross-examined. But he could use that same strategy with his current lawyers. Why change to a first-year attorney?

  “Lately, I’ve been asking myself what Harry would do,” Elias continued. “And that’s what led me to this. Harry would try something totally out of the box. Harry would use you to help. He believed in you, Landon.”

  It sounded crazy, but maybe the idea had some merit. Harry had made a pretty good living off crazy, or at least unconventional. Plus, the approach was bound to create a national media frenzy—publicity the firm could parlay into other cases.

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p; “There’s one other thing,” Elias said. “And this is nonnegotiable. My current lawyers have hinted that the best way to plant reasonable doubt is to point a finger at Julia.” Elias set his jaw. “I’m not willing to do that, Landon. Not under any circumstances. If you take the case, I need you to understand that.”

  That part didn’t bother Landon. In fact, he admired it. “I never liked that strategy anyway,” he said.

  “Does that mean you’ll think about it?”

  “I’ll think about it,” Landon said. “And I’ll give you my answer by Monday.”

  63

  “THIS IS WHY I BECAME A LAWYER,” Landon said. But Kerri was shaking her head. They had been discussing the matter at the kitchen table for thirty minutes. It was nearly midnight, and neither Landon nor Kerri was giving an inch. Not only was Kerri against taking on the case; she was still proposing that Landon leave the firm altogether. Billy Thurston was within earshot, sitting in the family room, working on his second bowl of cereal and watching SportsCenter.

  “Billy, what do you think?” Kerri asked.

  “My friends are for it. My friends are against it. I’m for my friends.” Billy’s eyes never left the television.

  “This is the firm that gave me a chance. This is what it means to be loyal,” Landon said. “I can’t turn my back on this.”

  “What would it hurt to at least call the station in D.C.?” Kerri asked. “Just to see if the job’s still open?”

  “For me, moving to D.C. is not an option.”

  Kerri was picking at a loose thread on the place mat. “What about our family, Landon? I can’t sleep at night because I’m worried about what I would do without you. Every jet that flies over reminds me that it might have been you on that Cessna. I know you feel like you owe the firm, but that firm is cursed.”