Talon Winter Legal Thrillers Box Set

by Stephen Penner

  Oh, please. Talon went ahead and let her eyes roll at that too.

  “The defendant,” Cecilia continued, “therefore, presents a real and substantial risk to the safety of our entire community.”

  Judge Portello had nodded along to every point Cecilia had made. Then he turned to Talon, his encouraging smile quickly twisting into a scornful frown. “Any response, counsel?”

  “My client was sitting in a car,” Talon got right to the point. And she left off the ‘Your Honor’, which was palpable to everyone in the courtroom used to adding those two words to the end of every sentence addressed to a judge. “That hardly makes him a threat to anyone. And putting two million dollars in the court’s trust account wouldn’t make him any less of a threat—it would just mean he was rich, which he isn’t—unless the Court is prepared to enter a finding that rich people are presumptively less dangerous than poor people.”

  “This has nothing to do with being rich or poor, counsel,” Portello shot back. “This is about community safety.”

  “Then arrest whoever actually shot the alleged victim.” Talon didn’t back down, “because it wasn’t my client.” She held up the charging papers. “Even the State’s own probable cause declaration admits Mr. Zlotnik never went inside the store. They don’t even know who shot the officer. It just says, ‘He was shot and killed.’ Oh, and by the way, so was my client’s best friend, but no one seems to care about that.”

  “Investigation is ongoing, Your Honor,” Cecilia interjected. “But it appears that the defendant’s accomplice was most likely armed and engaged in a shootout with the fallen officer.”

  “Ongoing?” Talon scoffed. “Most likely? What are we doing here, then? Why don’t we—oh, I don’t know—wait until we actually know what happened before we start putting poor people in cages for sitting in cars near what other people did?”

  “That’s enough, counsel,” Portello interjected.

  “Ms. Winter,” Talon instructed.

  “I—I beg your pardon?” the judge stammered.

  “My name is Ms. Winter,” Talon explained. “Not counsel. And his name is Mr. Zlotnik, not defendant. You can treat me and my client with the same respect as ‘Madame Prosecutor.’”

  “Fine, Ms. Winter,” Portello fumed. “Mr. Zlotnik is charged with the first degree murder of a police officer.”

  “Mr. Zlotnik is presumed innocent,” Talon replied.

  “The jails are full of people who are presumed innocent!” Portello slammed his fist on the bench.

  “Exactly,” Talon replied calmly. “Because of judges like you.”

  Portello had very pale skin, so when his face flushed like it did just then, his skin broke out in angry red blotches.

  “One more word out of you, counsel,” he pointed down at Talon, “and I will hold you in contempt of court, and you can join the defendant in the jail pending his trial. Am I understood?”

  Talon understood. And as much as she wanted to give the judge one more word—or two, actually—she thought better of it and offered just a nod.

  “Good,” Portello growled. “Bail will be set at two million dollars. The defendant is remanded into the custody of the jail pending his trial. Next case.”

  Talon finally looked again at her client. His eyes were wide and his jaw open.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered a quick apology before the guards could grab him and drag him away. “I should have kept my cool.”

  “Are you kidding?” Luke laughed. “That was awesome. You’re hired.”

  CHAPTER 4

  The cops inside the courtroom disappeared with Luke through the door to the holding cells. That just left the cops waiting on the other side of the bulletproof glass. The judge had definitely moved on to the next case, but the police officers who had come to watch the cop-killer’s arraignment were still crowding the gallery, arms crossed and stone faced, blocking Talon’s way to the hallway.

  The thick blue clot.

  She double-checked to make sure she had all of her files, then nodded to the court clerk who buzzed open the secure door to the gauntlet. The best way out was usually through.

  There were about half a dozen cops still in the gallery. The first five moved out of her way, albeit just barely, with narrowed eyes and audible huffs. The sixth cop was right in front of the door. He was well over six feet tall, with a big frame, made even larger by the bulletproof vest under his uniform—and years of extra donuts. As Talon made for the door, he didn’t move.

  Neither did she.

  He was bigger, but she had the element of surprise. He didn’t actually expect her to smash into him. He was blocking the door, so she’d have to ask his permission to leave. But Talon wasn’t really the asking permission type. Especially not to a cop.

  She lowered her shoulder into his chest and knocked him back a couple of steps, freeing up her path to the door.

  “Watch yourself, young lady!” The cop blurted out, catching his balance but not his temper. He grabbed Talon’s sleeve. “It’s a felony to assault a police officer.”

  “Only if he’s performing his official duties at the time of the assault,” Talon quoted the statute back to him. She pulled her arm out of his fat grasp. “Is trying to intimidate little lady lawyers part of your official duties, Officer Tough Guy?”

  That didn’t help check the cop’s temper. But it drew the gallery’s attention and the eyes of the crowd checked the cop’s actions. He glanced around at all the people who had turned away from the proceedings in front of them to watch the confrontation unfolding behind them. He took a moment, then pushed a smile onto his face and reached out to open the door for Talon.

  “Be careful, counselor,” he said through gritted teeth. “You wouldn’t want to do anything that could get you arrested.”

  Talon sneered up at him. “Or shot,” she returned. “And don’t open the door for me. I’m a woman, not a baby.”

  Talon could hear the chuckles and a couple of ‘you go, girl’ as she exited the gallery. She could also feel the cop staring a hole in her back. She ignored them both and got on with the job.

  * * *

  She ended up having to wait about forty minutes before she could actually get on with that job of hers. That’s how long it took for Luke to be transported back to his cell and made available for an attorney visit. There were so many things wrong with the bail system, but one of the more time-wasting ones was how much an attorney had to go through just to be able to meet with her client. If Luke’s family were rich, he could have posted the bail and come to her office directly after court. But Luke’s family wasn’t rich. Rich people don’t say, ‘We don’t even know if we can afford you’ to their lawyers.

  “Hey,” Luke waved weakly as he was escorted into the jailhouse meeting room by the guard of the day. “That didn’t go so well, huh?”

  Talon shrugged. “It went exactly like it always does: whatever way the judge and the prosecutor want. Get used to it.”

  “Does that mean I’m gonna get convicted?” Luke’s eyes widened and he dropped his gangly frame into the cheap plastic chair opposite the cheap plastic table from Talon’s own cheap plastic chair. It was the first time she’d gotten a chance to take a good look at him. He was definitely young. She guessed he hadn’t even stopped growing, judging by his overly large feet and hands. Even his nose and ears seemed a bit too big for his face still, with acne scars at the edges of his jaw.

  “That depends,” Talon answered. “Did you do it?”

  Luke shook his head slowly. “I didn’t kill anybody. You gotta believe me.”

  “Oh, I believe you,” Talon assured him. “But that might not matter. No one is saying you actually killed anyone. In Washington, you can be guilty of murder even if you don’t kill anyone.”

  “Really?” Luke cocked his head at her. “That’s crazy.”

  Talon nodded. “It sure is. But instead of me telling you the law, why don’t you tell me the facts?”

  Luke frowned at her. “Wh
at?” He looked confused.

  Talon sighed. “Tell me what happened,” she translated. “We’ll talk about the law later.”

  “Oh.” Luke nodded. “Right.”

  “All of it,” Talon clarified. “Everything. Don’t leave anything out.”

  Luke thought for a moment. “Where do I start?”

  “At the beginning,” Talon huffed. “Come on, Luke. This isn’t hard. Just tell me the story.”

  “Okay, okay.” Luke took a deep breath. “It all started when Miguel texted me that afternoon. He was like, ‘What are you doing?’ And I was like, ‘Nothing.’ And he was like, ‘I need a ride.’ And I was like, ‘Okay.’”

  Talon nodded along. Teenagers and texting. “What time was that?”

  Luke shrugged. “I dunno. Like noon or something. I just woke up.”

  Talon frowned. “You woke up at noon?”

  “I was up late,” Luke offered.

  “Doing what?”

  “Nothing,” was the answer. Talon believed it.

  “Okay, noon or something,” she repeated. “Fine. We can get the texts and find out the exact time if it’s important. What happened next?”

  “So, like, a while later I drove over to his place and picked him up,” Luke answered.

  “He doesn’t have a car?” Talon asked.

  Luke shook his head. “Nah. Sometimes he drives his mom’s car, but she was at work.”

  “You guys don’t work.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Uh, not really,” Luke admitted. “Mostly, we just kinda hang out.”

  “Smoke pot,” Talon added.

  “Uh…” Luke didn’t know how to reply.

  “Don’t worry. It’s legal,” Talon said. “Well, not for you, I guess. You have to be twenty-one for it to be legal. How old are you again?”

  “Eighteen,” Luke answered. “So’s Miguel.”

  “Great,” Talon said. “So, two eighteen-year-old dudes with no jobs, sleeping in ‘til noon, going for a drive. What could go wrong?” She looked around the cinderblock walls. “Oh, right. Everything.”

  Luke took a moment. “Are you always like this?”

  “A bitch?” Talon knew what he meant. “Yeah, pretty much. You liked it in court a few minutes ago. Now, keep talking. You pick up Miguel and then what? Did you know where he wanted you to drive him?”

  “Uh, no,” Luke stammered. “Not at first, I mean. Not when I drove over to his place. But then he was like, ‘I gotta go to the check-cashing place, man.’ And I was like, ‘Cool.’”

  “Because you didn’t have any other plans anyway, right?” Talon said.

  “Yeah.” Luke shrugged. “I mean, he needed a ride and he’s my friend. So, yeah, whatever.”

  “Did you go straight there?”

  Luke nodded.

  “And where was it again?” There were a lot of check-cashing places in Tacoma.

  “It was the Check-U.S.A. over by the mall,” Luke answered. “Like in that little shopping thing between Thirty-Eighth and Tacoma Mall Boulevard. Right next to the Subway.”

  Talon nodded. She knew that shopping complex. There used to be a bookstore across the street, before all the bookstores started closing. “Yeah, I know the place.”

  “Right?’ Luke said. “Everybody does. So, we drive over there and as we’re pulling up, Miguel says to park a couple spots down, like not right in front of the check-mart. Then he says, ‘I gotta make a withdrawal’ and laughs. I thought he meant because it was really a loan and they’re not really a bank, but I guess it was ‘cause—”

  “Because he was gonna rob the place,” Talon surmised.

  “Yeah,” Luke agreed. “But I didn’t know that’s what he meant. I thought it was just a lame joke.”

  “It’s a lame joke either way,” Talon observed.

  “Yeah, I guess so,” Luke said. “But it’s kind of a good place to rob, you know? Lots of cash, but no security guards like at a bank.”

  “Lots of checks, you mean,” Talon tried to correct him. “Not that useful unless they’re made out to you.”

  “No, lots of cash,” Luke repeated. “Haven’t you ever been to one?’

  “Uh, no, actually,” Talon felt a little embarrassed to admit.

  “Oh, yeah, my mom used to take us all the time,” Luke said. “No one ever wanted to babysit us, so we had to go with her everywhere. You write a check, but then they open their drawer and just hand you a bunch of hundred dollar bills. The drawers are all full of them. So, yeah, great place to rob.”

  “Are you sure you didn’t know?” Talon asked. “It kinda sounds like maybe you knew.”

  Luke shook his head emphatically. “No, no, I didn’t know.”

  “Okay,” Talon accepted his protest. “Because that’s really important. Absolutely critical. Washington doesn’t have an ‘accessory after the fact’ statute. If you knew beforehand, you’re an accomplice and you go down for the exact same crime. But if you didn’t know until afterward, and help anyway, they can only charge you with rendering criminal assistance which is way less serious.”

  “No, no way, man.,” Luke repeated. “I didn’t know beforehand. I wasn’t in for no robbery.”

  “Good,” Talon signaled.

  “I mean,” Luke went on, “I thought maybe he snuck his mom’s checkbook out of her purse or something, but I wasn’t gonna get involved in all that. I just figured he was gonna get some cash and then we’d go buy some weed with it or something.”

  “Is that why you agreed to drive him?” Talon asked. “Because you thought you’d get some pot out of it?”

  Luke shrugged. “I dunno. I mean, I woulda driven him anyway. But I wasn’t gonna say no to some weed either, you know?”

  “Sure,” Talon replied. “Of course. Great.”

  She took a moment. So far Luke had admitted to sort of knowing about check fraud and unlawful possession of marijuana, but not the robbery. She could ignore the other crimes for the moment. It was the robbery that mattered. “So, what happened next?”

  “I found a spot over in front of Subway and I parked,” Luke answered. “That’s it. He ran inside and I waited.”

  “Did he come out again?”

  Luke shook his head and frowned. “No, man. I never saw him again.”

  Talon took a moment to consider what he’d told her up to that point. It seemed believable enough. To her anyway.

  “How long did you wait?”

  Luke’s mouth twisted into a knot. “I dunno. Five or ten minutes. I’m not sure. Long enough to start wondering what was taking so long. Then the cops started showing up.”

  “The cops,” Talon repeated.

  “Yeah, like two or three cop cars whipped into the parking lot, lights flashing, but no sirens. They stopped right by where I was parked and jumped out of their cars. I remember one guy got a shotgun out of his trunk, and the other two went up to the doors of the check-mart like the cops do on T.V. Guns out, pointing down, their back against the wall on either side of the door. Then they rushed inside.”

  “What did you think was going on?”

  “I thought it was a fucking robbery,” Luke answered with a nervous laugh.

  “Did you think it was Miguel doing the robbery?”

  “No way,” Luke insisted. “I didn’t even remember that stupid joke. I was just worried about him. Like, was he gonna be okay? Was there some crazy guy in there with a gun, making everybody lay face down on the floor, you know?”

  “Sure,” Talon said. “So, did you do anything? Did you think about going inside, or leaving, or what?”

  “I couldn’t leave,” Luke said. “I was blocked in by the cop cars. And I sure as hell wasn’t going inside. I checked my phone to see if he’d texted me. Like, ‘I’m being held hostage’ or something. But nothing. So, I just sat there, scared and wondering what was going on inside. And then…” he trailed off.

  “Then what?” Talon encouraged.

  “Then the gunshots,” Luke answered. His eyes were wide
and distant at the memory. “A lot of fucking gunshots. And screaming. Lots of screaming. It was, just, it was crazy, man.”

  “I’m sure it was,” Talon acknowledged. “What did you think was happening?”

  “I thought it was a gunfight. Cops and robbers, man. I was hoping Miguel was okay. I didn’t know he was one of the fucking robbers.”

  “The only robber,” Talon corrected. “That’s going to be really, really important moving forward.”

  “Right,” Luke agreed. “The only robber. I wasn’t no robber, man. I was just sitting in the car, hoping I was gonna get high.”

  “Did you ever get out of the car?”

  “Not until the rest of the cops showed up,” Luke said.

  “How many more showed up?” Talon asked.

  “After the gunshots? I dunno, like a hundred?” Luke laughed. “It was a lot, man. Cops everywhere, you know? And fire trucks and an ambulance. It was just crazy.”

  “And you just sat in the car?”

  “I didn’t know what else to do,” Luke said. “It happened pretty fast. Miguel goes in, cops show up, gunshots, then total craziness. Next thing I know, some cop is pulling me out of the car, asking me if I knew the guy who tried to rob the check-mart.”

  “What did you say?” Talon asked. This was the important stuff. Whatever Luke told her was attorney-client privileged. Whatever Luke told the cops was evidence.

  “I was like, ‘I know Miguel.’ Is he the guy who tried to rob the place?’”

  “And what did they say?”

  “They didn’t say anything,” Luke answered. “They just looked at each other, then they grabbed my arm and put me in the back of one of their cop cars. I didn’t know what was going on. But I figured maybe Miguel was the robber after all. That he wasn’t joking around about making that withdrawal.”

  “Did you tell the cops about that joke?” That could be used as evidence of prior knowledge.

  But Luke could only shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe. Probably. I mean, not right then, ‘cause they left me alone. But when they came back, they started asking me a lot of questions, you know. That might have been one of them.”