“Jeez. My lawyer, Jiminy Cricket.”
“Yeah, well, you asked.” Ben folded his arms. “Anyway, the work’s done. You’ll be free soon. So do me a favor and don’t get arrested for murder again, okay?”
Zak smiled. “Deal.” He laughed. “So how did the jury take it? They were probably pissed.”
Ben shook his head. “I don’t think so. If anything, they were relieved. No one enjoys deliberating on a capital charge. And particularly given the circumstances-I expect they felt they had been prevented by a hairbreadth from making a horrible mistake.”
“So you think they were going to convict?”
Ben looked at him levelly. “After that stunt you pulled up on the stand? How could they not?”
“Hmm. Guess you’re right.”
“Speaking of which,” Ben said, pressing against the cell door. “Care to explain that little travesty to me?”
Zak turned his head. “I … don’t think I can.”
“Zak, look at me. Look. At. Me!” Zak grudgingly turned his head. “Have you learned nothing from this whole experience?”
“Like … don’t get thrown in jail in small towns?”
“No, you idiot. Like, it’s always best to tell your lawyer the truth. Think about it. You lied about the Sasquatch suit, and that was the first major strike against us. You lied about the bomb, and that was the second major blow. And you lied about Gardiner’s wife, and that nearly crucified us! So for once, just once in your stupid life, would you tell me the truth?”
“I don’t know … I’m gonna have to think about it.”
“Zak, let me do the thinking, okay? Frankly, it isn’t exactly your specialty.” Ben reached through the bars, grabbed Zak’s shirt, and yanked him against the door. “Tell me what happened. Now.”
Chapter 75
Granny’s office hadn’t changed much, Ben observed, and neither had she. The office was still a mess; if anything, there were even more stacks of files and even more crumpled fast-food wrappers than before. She was on the phone, apparently giving an interview. No, she didn’t consider the new revelations about the Gardiner murder a personal setback. She believed the whole town, including hard-working civic servants like herself, had been manipulated by a self-serving cadre of drug pushers, environmental fanatics, and lawyers, all working in concert to thwart justice. To the contrary, it was a testament to the zealous and unflagging efforts of her office that they were finally able to uncover the truth.
Ben had to smile. As if she had had anything to do with it.
When she was finally finished, she hung up the phone. “Why are you here, Kincaid? Just come to gloat?”
“No, I wanted to talk with you.”
“Yeah? Well, the feeling isn’t mutual.”
“It’s very important.”
Granny glanced at the clock on the wall. “I can give you five minutes. Assuming I don’t get bored first.”
“I don’t think that’ll be a problem.” Ben reached into his briefcase. “Your first ethical violation, in my opinion, was when you produced important documents buried in a sea of extraneous paper-all printed in red ink.”
She waved him away. “I later corrected that … inadvertent error.”
“On the eve of trial, yes. But it unquestionably compromised my defense.”
Granny made a great show of yawning. “Sorry, Kincaid, but you’re not beating the boredom test.”
“Your second ethical violation was the suppression-even destruction-of exculpatory evidence. That’s more than just an ethical violation-that’s a criminal offense. Obstruction of justice. You had a whole file on Alberto Vincenzo, and you knew-or thought, anyway-it was relevant to the Gardiner case. But you didn’t produce it.”
“What file? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know you had it.”
“Oh yeah? Prove it.”
“I can’t.”
Granny settled back in her chair. “Anything else, Kincaid?”
“Your third ethical violation was bribing Marco Geppi to fabricate a false jail-cell conversation to hang Zak. That’s more than just an ethical violation, too. That’s suborning perjury.”
She fluttered her eyes. “And you can’t prove that either, right?”
“We’re looking for Geppi. But he blew town and crawled back into the woodwork as soon as you released him. As I’m sure you anticipated he would.”
“Time’s almost up, Kincaid.”
“And your fourth and most heinous ethical violation was when you blackmailed Zak into tanking on the witness stand. You’ve done some pretty evil things, Granny, but screwing with the testimony of a man on trial for his life-that’s just beyond the pale.”
“Again, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You will. Zak told me all about it.”
“The embittered defendant and his attorney try to strike back against the prosecutor. It’s all too trite. No one will believe it.”
“I think you’re wrong.”
“Who knows this town, Kincaid? You or me?”
“I still think that when-”
“It’s hopeless. You have no proof.”
“I will.” Ben leaned forward. “You see, now that Zak doesn’t have a murder charge hanging over his head, he’s going to talk about how you tried to blackmail him into silence. In detail. He’ll tell everyone-locals, Feds. He’ll go on television if he has to. And eventually we’ll find someone who knows something. Maybe the deputy who admitted you to the jailhouse. Maybe another prisoner who overheard something. Maybe Geppi will reappear. If Zak makes a big enough fuss, something will shake out.”
“He’d better not.” Granny sprang forward like a panther. “You tell that little prick that if he opens his mouth, his sister’s ass is grass. I wasn’t kidding around with him. She won’t see the sun for ten years!”
“Thank you very much.” Ben pulled his hand out of his coat pocket to reveal a tiny Sony tape recorder. “I agree that I would’ve had a hard time making the charges stick just based on Zak’s word. But your confession might do the trick.”
Granny’s eyes went wide. Her face was a vivid red. “Confession? I didn’t confess-”
Ben smiled, then rose to his feet. “We’ll let the U.S. Attorney decide about that, okay?”
Granny ran around her desk. “Give me that tape, Kincaid.”
“No chance.”
Her face twisted up in a knot. “You’ll give me that tape if I have to beat you to a bloody fucking pulp.” She looked like she could do it, too.
It was Ben’s turn to feign a yawn. “A threat of violence. It’s just too trite.”
She clenched up her fist. “I’ll show you trite-”
“Loving?”
From just outside, Ben’s enormous investigator poked his head through the door. “Need somethin’, Skipper?”
“I don’t know.” He smiled at Granny. “Do I?”
Granny’s face was livid. She looked as if she might explode at any moment. But she kept her mouth shut.
Ben gathered his briefcase and headed toward the door. “See you in court, Granny.”
Chapter 76
Ben stood at the crest of the hill and gazed out at the forest all around him. This was the same location to which he had been brought by force only a few days before, but now everything was different. The landscape was so changed that an unknowing observer gazing at Before and After photos would never have guessed they were of the same site. Probably wouldn’t have guessed they were of the same planet.
The shack was entirely gone, burned. All that was left was blackened rubble-and not much of that. A thick gray ash powdered the hillside.
The verdant view that once crested the hill was now black. Black and black and black. Burned beyond recognition. Plants, ground cover, trees. The fire had spread hundreds of feet in all directions before the team from the Forest Service had managed to extinguish it. What once had been a thriving example of nature’s wonder in all its bounty was now nothing but charred desolation.
As Ben had said before, he was no nature lover. But gazing out at this waste, this ruin, this spoilage-it just made him want to cry.