Page 59 of Two Kinds of Stranger (Eddie Flynn #9)

Eddie

I had my back against the wall, in every way possible.

Court adjourned for the day. Legs crossed, head down, I felt cold marble at my shoulder blades as I sat on a bench in the hallway of the courthouse, considering a decision.

I glanced up, saw Denise with her arm around Elly, telling her it would be okay.

She was going to take Elly back to her hotel.

Denise would be telling her not to worry.

That things would work out. That Elly should trust me.

Elly nodded, said she trusted me. But her eyes said something else.

Life can beat you down as surely as a pro boxer.

At this point, Elly was on the canvas, the referee was up to an eight count and the timekeeper had his hand on the bell, ready to ring it when he got to ten.

Not many people get up from this position. Even if I could save Elly, which was a long shot, there was every chance she would never recover. Not really. All I could do was fight for her in that courtroom. All I could do was my best, or my worst, depending on how you looked at it.

Right now, I carried that burden. Her life was in my shaking hands.

The stranger called Logan had really done a number on her.

On us all. While preparing for the trial, Raymond had examined the apartment where Elly had been poisoned, and had found only DNA from the last occupants, an elderly couple from Nantucket who had come up for the week to see some Broadway shows.

There wasn’t even any trace of him on security cameras.

Bloch had managed to get a hold of someone in Secure One, who confirmed that one of their employees had wiped the entries for the day of Elly’s attack.

He had somehow run over a kid in a parking lot, sent a suicide note to his boss and then shot himself in the head.

I felt the hand of the stranger in these deaths too.

But I couldn’t introduce it in court. I had no evidence to link him.

Elly’s case stood on a knife edge.

I glanced to my left, watched as Harry talked to Christine and Kevin, who had come to my floor to check in.

Christine wore that look. The one I’d both dreaded and grown accustomed to in our marriage.

It was fear. This time it wasn’t fear for our relationship, but for her life, for Kevin and for our daughter.

Kevin was trying to smile through it. He was sticking his chest out as far as it would go, rubbing Christine’s lower back, nodding along with Harry as he was trying to reassure them both.

It had been agreed that I wouldn’t get involved in the case. I had to concentrate on Elly. And my love for my ex-wife and daughter clouded my judgement. I was no good as their lawyer.

But I didn’t want to be their lawyer. I just wanted to make sure they got acquitted.

Kate approached me as Elly got into the elevator with Denise. I’d heard Kate’s slow walk. Kicking her heels with every step. Those footsteps sounded heavy with resignation. She swiveled round and leaned against the wall beside me, her shoulder touching mine.

‘You get your ass kicked today?’ she asked.

‘Yep. You?’

‘Yep.’

I didn’t say anything for a time. Let the low mood pervade for a while, then said, ‘I think I can turn it around tomorrow. Can you?’

She nodded, said, ‘At the moment we have some seeds of doubt planted. Harry did well with the cop. They know Cross probably lied to police about who exactly broke his arm. That gives us some credibility issues to work on.’

‘It’s not enough for reasonable doubt,’ I said.

‘I know. It’s just a seed. Hopefully tomorrow we can make it a sapling.’

‘It’s my ex-wife’s life on the line here, Kate. Why not bring your own fully grown tree and plant it in the middle of the goddamn courtroom?’

She sighed, said, ‘Because your idea is highly illegal.’

‘I think it will work.’

‘I think it could get us thrown in jail, or worse.’

Harry joined us. He’d been listening to the conversation as he idled across the hallway.

‘You’re correct,’ said Harry. ‘It’s risky and it’s sure as hell illegal, but you know there’s a difference between morality and the law.

My mother grew up under Jim Crow laws in the South.

She couldn’t vote, couldn’t sit on certain seats on a bus and couldn’t drink in the same bar as a white person.

By law. Sometimes, you find justice by breaking the law. ’

Kate looked at Harry, then stared at me.

‘You two think I don’t know this? It’s not that easy for me. It’s not the way I was raised.’

‘You bent the rules before,’ I said. ‘You told Elly to assault someone in Rosie’s. That’s illegal, and it saved her life.’

‘You don’t need to remind me. Somehow, I knew stepping across that line wouldn’t be the end. It would be the beginning.’

‘You saved her. You did the right thing.’

‘No, I incited an assault. I did the wrong thing. What kind of a lawyer breaks the law to help their client?’

I raised an eyebrow.

‘I wasn’t talking about you. This isn’t about you. It’s me. This is different from telling your client to smack somebody in jail. This is . . . This is a lot more dangerous.’

Kate Brooks was better than me in every conceivable way.

She was a better lawyer, smarter, braver and she had an absolute belief in what is right and what is wrong.

No one tells you that when you become a lawyer you have to make moral compromises.

You have to put aside your beliefs and trust the system.

That’s where Kate found herself at this point in her life.

That system of professional ethics is a set of guard rails for lawyers, to allow them to sleep at night.

I had already gone past this, a long time ago.

I now knew the system didn’t work, and I had to stick to my belief in what was right and wrong and that had nothing to do with the law.

If I had to break the entire justice system to do the right thing, then that’s what was going to happen.

If this was any other case, I would let Kate do whatever she wanted. I wouldn’t interfere. But this was my family.

She wanted an excuse. She didn’t want to go down this road, but there was no other way to save her conscience. She wanted me to order her.

‘You don’t get it. If you’re a lawyer that gives a damn, then it’s never about you.

It’s only about the client. I don’t want to tell you how to run your case,’ I said, ‘but I don’t think there’s another way to win this one.

I can’t let anyone risk Christine and Kevin’s life.

It’s not their decision either. Christine would rather spend the rest of her life in jail than let us do this, so don’t tell them.

This is all on me. I’ll take the blame.’

Kate swallowed. I could see this was tearing her apart.

I said, ‘This is my family, or what’s left of it. You can play it straight and gamble their lives on a long shot you can’t make, or you can do it my way and save them.’

She stared at me for what felt like a long time. I watched as part of her broke. This case was going to take a piece of Kate. And that piece would be forever lost.

Without another word, Kate walked away toward the elevators, leaving Harry and I in the empty courthouse hallways.

‘Do you think she’ll do it?’ asked Harry.

I nodded.

‘Will it work?’

‘It has to. It’s the only shot we have for winning Christine and Kevin’s case.’

‘How are things going with Elly’s case?’ he asked.

‘I’ve got cards to play. We’ll see how they fall. I’ve had so much on my mind that I haven’t been able to figure out the last piece of the puzzle. How did Elly’s stranger get into her apartment and poison those water bottles? I just can’t work it out.’

‘There was no sign of a break-in, right?’

‘Right.’

‘Elly had her keys the whole time. What about James’s keys?’

‘Two sets were listed in the inventory in the apartment. I’m guessing one was James’s, maybe the other was Harriet’s or it was just a spare set.’

‘So there’s no way he could have gotten into the apartment without us knowing about it?’

‘Correct,’ I said, and stood. Stretched my neck and back.

‘We’re idiots,’ said Harry, smiling.

‘Tell me something I don’t know.’

‘No, no, you’re not hearing me. There’s no way the killer could’ve gotten into the apartment without us knowing about it. With all the shit going on, you’ve been thinking about that as a question, instead of thinking about it as the answer,’ he said.

My eyes flared with an idea. Same idea lingering behind Harry’s smile.

‘If he couldn’t get into the apartment, that means he didn’t get into the apartment,’ I said.

‘Now you’ve got it,’ said Harry.

I thanked him, took out my cell phone, dialed a number and ran down the hallway, heading for the elevators.