‘She’s got to have some money. What’s her house look like?’ Hardy asked.
‘Apartment,’ Glitsky answered. ‘Small. Nice, but small.’
‘Maybe Freeman is one of her clients.’ Elliot clearly liked the idea, was warming to it. That’s it! Freeman is one of her clients. Nash was another.‘
Glitsky held down his enthusiasm. ‘And the will is collateral on the come after he gets her off.’
‘What will?’
Glitsky stopped short. He took a beat, then smiled down at the reporter. ‘Did I say “will”? I don’t think I said “will.” ’
Hardy shook his head. ‘No, I’m sure I would’ve heard it. I was right here and I didn’t hear anything like “will.” ’
‘Are we on the record here or what?’ Elliot leaned into his crutches. ‘Come on, guys.’
Hardy glanced at Abe. ‘What do you think?’
‘It’s gonna come out anyway,’ Abe said, ‘but it would be sort of nice to find out how Freeman got connected to May. Pullios is really going for capital?’
Hardy nodded. ‘You heard her.’
Glitsky laid it out for Jeff – the $2 million will, the profit motive, Farris tentatively authenticating the handwriting.
‘Well, there’s the money if he gets her off,’ Elliot said.
Glitsky looked at Hardy. ‘This guy must not know any defense attorneys,’ he said. Then, explaining, ‘Jeff, listen, if there’s one thing all defense attorneys do, they get their money up front.’
‘Think about it,’ Hardy said. ‘You’re found guilty, you don’t pay your attorney ’cause he didn’t do the job. You’re not guilty, you don’t pay him ‘cause you don’t need him anymore. Either way, your attorney is stiffed. Maybe you’re grateful, but not a half million dollars’ grateful.’
‘Maybe he just gets the rights up front for the book deal. Maybe that’s his fee.’
‘Pico was telling me that we – him and me – ought to go for a book deal. We found the hand, after all.’
‘Hey!’ Rare for him, Glitsky got into it. ‘I arrested May. I ought to get the book deal.’
Elliot said, ‘Somebody is paying Freeman. You still don’t think maybe he’s one of her clients?’
Glitsky put a look on Jeff. ‘A half million dollars’ worth of ass?‘
‘Not including bail,’ Hardy put in.
Glitsky said, ‘If she makes bail.’
‘I don’t know,’ Hardy said. ‘I’ve got a feeling here. Freeman’s going for delay. He doesn’t want delay if she’s cooling her heels upstairs. Which means she makes bail.’
22
‘I think you’re innocent. That’s why.’ This was not close to true. David Freeman’s words were tools to produce the effect he desired. That’s all they were.
May Shinn was drinking Chardonnay in a booth at Tadich’s Grill. David Freeman, her rumpled genius, sat across from her. Before the arraignment, he’d gone down to her bank with power of attorney and withdrawn $50,000, just about cleaning out her life savings. He’d known exactly the amount they’d set bail for. He’d gotten the clothes they’d taken from her and got them pressed before they gave them back to her. He’d bought her new makeup.
He’d followed the story in the newspaper. When he read of her arrest on Saturday morning, he knew he had to help her, that she would need an attorney, that a Japanese mistress of a well-known and powerful man was going to have a very difficult time making a defense against the arrayed powers. Now, having talked to her, he also had the advantage of believing she was innocent.
‘But I am unable to pay.’
He lifted his shoulders, sipped lugubriously at his own wine. The curtain was pulled across the booth. They had been through this before. He had started by trying to convince her that he was taking her case pro bono. Once in a while, he had told her, you just had to do something because it was the right thing to do. Which had caused her to smile.
‘If I can’t lie to you, you should not lie to me.’
‘May, why would I lie?’
She put her glass down, twirled it around, kept her eyes on him. Finally he cracked, laughing at himself. ‘Okay,’ he said, ‘okay, but its not a terrifically flattering motive.’
‘It’s not been a very flattering few days,’ she said.
‘No, I guess not.’ Freeman drank some wine, then took a breath and began. ‘Until about ten years ago, attorneys weren’t allowed to advertise, did you know that?’
She nodded.
‘And even now, when it’s technically legal, it’s still not particularly good for business unless you’re doing divorce or DUI or ambulance chasing. I mean it kind of puts you in the low-rent market. Good attorneys don’t advertise because they don’t need to, and if they do need to, they’re not good.’ He had a good smile, a strong face. Sincere, brown eyes, a full head of dark hair. ‘It’s a vicious circle.’
‘And I am advertising?’
‘I’ve got seven associates left. I had to let three go in the last twelve months. Business is terrible. This is a high-profile case. Owen Nash was a well-known man.’
It didn’t surprise her. She was to the point where she thought nothing could surprise her. At least she knew.
But at the mention of Owen’s name, a shadow fell within her. She didn’t want to be sitting here, drinking wine, enjoying food. ‘I didn’t kill him, David.’
He patted her hand across the table. ‘Of course you didn’t.’
He didn’t believe her. He’d told her Saturday, before they’d even talked, before he’d reviewed any of the prosecution’s evidence, that it was irrelevant whether or not she’d killed Nash – he was going to get her off.
‘But I didn’t!’
He shushed her gently, index finger to his lips. ‘I must say, there is very little evidence that you did.’
‘What about the will?’
He brushed that away. ‘The will. Does the will put you on the boat? Did it give you the opportunity to kill Owen? Did it give you the means? You were home, weren’t you?’
She nodded.
‘All right, then. We will prove you were home. The will, like the rest of the so-called evidence, is completely irrelevant. What do they have? The will? The ticket to Japan?’
‘I thought the police would…’
‘Of course. Naturally.’ He emptied the bottle into their glasses and continued with the litany. ‘There is nothing physically tying you to the gun, no proof you pulled the trigger’ – he held up a finger, stopping her. ‘Uh, uh. No more denials. They don’t matter, you see? There is nothing that could prove you did it. I don’t even see a case that will get to trial. At the preliminary hearing, we point out the racial discrimination, mixed in with your profession… It’s really not going anywhere. There is simply no hard evidence.’
May Shinn was back in her apartment. David Freeman had driven her home, then walked up and made sure she was safe inside her door.
She ran a bath and sank into the hot water, letting the memories wash over her. She thought it might have been the closeness to death that brought her and Owen back to life.
The first couple of weeks they were inseparable – she canceled her appointments with all her clients. She didn’t know who Owen was then, didn’t know that he had money. All she knew was he made her feel things, that there was some connection between her mind and her body that she’d lost touch with long before, and now while it was back, for however short a time, she was going to keep it.
There was strange behavior – they tied each other up, blindfolded each other, tried every position and every orifice. They went outside at two in the morning and did it on the sidewalk. They shaved each other bare. He ate her with honey and chocolate and, once, garlic, which burned hotter and longer than Spanish fly. Owen had his appetites.
The man was also in fantastic shape. Big, barrel-chested, hard everywhere. He drank Scotch and wine and brandy and took pills to get to sleep. Gradually she became aware that he was doing business from her house – phone calls in the middle of whatever they were doing, mention of the Wheel, taking care of his daughter’s problems. He had a real life somewhere out there, but it wasn’t coming between them.