Page 74 of The Lincoln Lawyer

The phone started to ring from inside the house. I moved to the front door and fumbled with my keys to unlock it and get inside in time. My phone numbers and who has them could form a pyramid chart. The number in the yellow pages everybody has or could have. Next up the pyramid is my cell phone, which has been disseminated to key colleagues, investigators, bondsmen, clients and other cogs in the machine. My home phone—the land line—was the top of the pyramid. Very few had the number. No clients and no other lawyers except for one.

I got in and grabbed the phone off the kitchen wall before it went to message. The caller was that one other lawyer with the number. Maggie McPherson.

“Did you get my messages?”

“I got the one on my cell. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. I left one on this number a lot earlier.”

“Oh, I’ve been gone all day. I just got in.”

“Where have you been?”

“Well, I’ve been up to San Francisco and back and I just got in from having dinner with Raul Levin. Is all of that all right with you?”

“I’m just curious. What was in San Francisco?”

“A client.”

“So what you really mean is you were up to San Quentin and back.”

“You were always too smart for me, Maggie. I can never fool you. Is there a reason for this call?”

“I just wanted to see if you got my apology and I also wanted to find out if you were going to do something with Hayley tomorrow.”

“Yes and yes. But Maggie, no apology is necessary and you should know that. I am sorry for the way I acted before I left. And if my daughter wants to be with me tomorrow, then I want to bewith her. Tell her we can go down to the pier or to a movie if she wants. Whatever she wants.”

“Well, she actually wants to go to the mall.”

She said it as if she were stepping on glass.

“The mall? The mall is fine. I’ll take her. What’s wrong with the mall? Is there something in particular she wants?”

I suddenly noticed a foreign odor in the house. The smell of smoke. While standing in the middle of the kitchen I checked the oven and the stove. They were off. I was tethered to the kitchen because the phone wasn’t cordless. I stretched it to the door and flicked on the light to the dining room. It was empty and its light was cast into the next room, the living room through which I had passed when I had entered. It looked empty as well.

“They have a place there where you make your own teddy bear and you pick the style and its voice box and you put a little heart in with the stuffing. It’s all very cute.”

I now wanted to get off the line and explore further into my house.

“Fine. I’ll take her. What time is good?”

“I was thinking about noon. Maybe we could have lunch first.”

“We?”

“Would that bother you?”

“No, Maggie, not at all. How about I come by at noon?”

“Great.”

“See you then.”

I hung the phone up before she could say good-bye. I owned a gun but it was a collector piece that hadn’t been fired in my lifetime and was stored in a box in my bedroom closet at the rear of the house. So I quietly opened a kitchen drawer and took out a short but sharp steak knife. I then walked through the living room toward the hallway that led to the rear of the house. There were three doorways in the hall. They led to my bedroom, a bathroom and another bedroom I had turned into a home office, the only real office I had.

The desk light was on in the office. It was not visible from the angle I had in the hallway but I could tell it was on. I had not beenhome in two days but I did not remember leaving it on. I approached the open door to the room slowly, aware that this is what I may have been meant to do. Focus on the light in one room while the intruder is waiting in the darkness of the bedroom or bathroom.

“Come on back, Mick. It’s just me.”