Page 88 of The Lincoln Lawyer

“It’s on my laptop, man. What’s up?”

“I want to see where he’s been today.”

“Well, let me boot it up. Hold on.”

I held on, finished my Guinness and had the bartender start filling another before Valenzuela had his laptop fired up.

“Where’re you at, Mick?”

“Four Green Fields.”

“Anything wrong?”

“Yeah, something’s wrong. Do you have it up or what?”

“Yeah, I’m looking at it right here. How far back do you want to check?”

“Start at this morning.”

“Okay. He, uh… he hasn’t done much today. I track it from his home to his office at eight. Looks like he took a little trip nearby—a couple blocks, probably for lunch—and then back to the office. He’s still there.”

I thought about this for a few moments. The bartender delivered my next pint.

“Val, how do you get that thing off your ankle?”

“You mean if you were him? You don’t. You can’t. It bolts on and the little wrench you use is unique. It’s like a key. I got the only one.”

“You’re sure about that?”

“I’m sure. I got it right here on my key chain, man.”

“No copies—like from the manufacturer?”

“Not supposed to be. Besides, it doesn’t matter. If the ring is broken—like even if he did open it—I get an alarm on the system. It also has what’s called a ‘mass detector.’ Once I put that baby around his ankle, I get an alarm on the computer the moment it reads that there is nothing there. That didn’t happen, Mick. So you are talking about a saw being the only way. Cut off the leg, leave the bracelet on the ankle. That’s the only way.”

I drank the top off my new beer. The bartender hadn’t bothered with any artwork this time.

“What about the battery? What if the battery’s dead, you lose the signal?”

“No, Mick. I got that covered, too. He’s got a charger and a receptacle on the bracelet. Every few days he’s got to plug it in for a couple hours to juice it. You know, while he’s at his desk or something ortaking a nap. If the battery goes below twenty percent I get an alarm on my computer and I call him and say plug it in. If he doesn’t do it then, I get another alarm at fifteen percent, and then at ten percenthestarts beeping and he’s got no way to take it off or turn it off. Doesn’t make for a good getaway. And that last ten percent still gives me five hours of tracking. I can find him in five hours, no sweat.”

“Okay, okay.”

I was convinced by the science.

“What’s going on?”

I told him about Levin and told him that the police would likely have to check out Roulet, and the ankle bracelet and tracking system would likely be our client’s alibi. Valenzuela was stunned by the news. He might not have been as close to Levin as I had been, but he had known him just as long.

“What do you think happened, Mick?” he asked me.

I knew that he was asking if I thought Roulet was the killer or somehow behind the killing. Valenzuela was not privy to all that I knew or that Levin had found out.

“I don’t know what to think,” I said. “But you should watch yourself with this guy.”

“And you watch yourself.”

“I will.”