“What kind of movies?”
“Adult movies. Porno. I film ‘em at my house, then I dupe ‘em and sell ‘em to these few guys. Sometimes, they’re special order. You know, some guy has a fantasy, I do it for him on a video.”
“What does this have to do with your alibi?”
“Okay. On Saturday, between one and three, I was doing this rape thing for this guy.”
“A rape thing?”
“Yeah. He was real specific. He wanted a video. It had to be a redhead. She gets lured into the bedroom. Then, she gets beat up and tied to the bed. Then she gets raped and beat up some more. So, I go to the bus station. The girl’s perfect. Young, big tits. The hair was a problem. She was brunette. But we dyed her hair.
“I told her I was a movie scout, which, I guess, was technically true. I laid the thing out. She gets two hundred bucks for doing the movie. She was so fucking stupid. She bought the whole thing. She even believed it would all be acting and that she’d get paid.”
Larry laughed and shook his head. “The bitch sure looked surprised the first time she got hit.”
Levine looked upset for a second, but he composed himself.
“If you beat up this girl and raped her, what makes you think she’ll testify for you?”
“That’s the good part. We don’t need her. See, I filmed this shit in my bedroom. I worked the camera part of the time and a guy named Rodney beat her up and raped her. Then, Rodney worked the camera.”
“Well, this Rodney isn’t going to admit he did that.”
“Oh, I ain’t countin’ on Rodney. He’s outta here, anyway. The guy’s a drifter. I don’t know where he’s gone.
“No, the thing that’s gonna save my ass is the TV. See, the TV was on all the time. It was next to the bed. You can see it in the video. And I’m in the picture too. This guy wanted two guys rapin’ her, so I took my turn. And I did her second, which was between two and three in the morning. You can tell that by the show that’s on the TV.”
“Aren’t you worried about being identified if the police see the video?” Levine asked.
“Nah. First, this bitch is long gone. We dumped her in a vacant lot and told her what we’d do to her if she ever went to the cops. She was so scared, she’s probably hit Alaska by now.
“Second, you can’t tell from the movie if it’s real or fake. I’d just say she was acting and no one could prove otherwise.”
“How can I get ahold of the video?” Levine asked.
“It’s still at my house. I was gonna dupe it and bring it to my people, but I was arrested for wasting O’Malley before I could do it.”
“Is there only one copy?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I better act fast. Tell me where it is and I’ll have my investigator pick it up. I want to put it in my safe.”
“Fuckin’ A!” Larry shouted. “I got to say this. I was really scared I’d get another asshole for a lawyer, but you are really good.”
Levine smiled modestly. “Why don’t you wait to congratulate me until the charges are dropped. Now, where do I find the tape?”
“It’s in my bedroom in the closet. There’s a lot of tapes, so you’re gonna have to look for it.”
“How will the investigator know which one to take?”
“It’s labelled Angle’s Delight. I think it’s up by the front on the top shelf.”
Levine stood.
“You’ll let me know if you get it, right?” Larry said.
“I don’t want an innocent man sitting in jail for one second longer than is necessary. If we can pin down when the shows on the TV were aired and you’re in the picture, you’re home free.”
Larry sprang to his feet when the guard told him his attorney was waiting to see him. It was four in the afternoon and he was thrilled that Levine was back so quickly. When the guard opened the door, Larry rushed into the room. He stopped dead, just as the door locked behind him.
“Who are you?” he asked the skinny young man in the ill-fitting brown suit. The man smiled nervously. He had short brown hair and thick tortoiseshell glasses. Larry noticed coffee stains on the frayed cuffs of his cheap white shirt.
“I’m Marty Long, your court-appointed counsel. I would have been over sooner, but you wouldn’t believe my day,” the young man said with an anxious chuckle. “First, I get stuck in Judge Lourde’s courtroom. Then, just when I thought I could get in to see you, there was this emergency at the office. Anyway, I’m here now. So, let’s get started.”
“Wait a fucking second. Where’s Levine?”
“Who?” Long said, looking up from the papers he was pulling out of a worn attaché case.
“My lawyer. Noah Levine. The guy was here this morning. He knew all about my case. He said he was court appointed.”
Long looked confused. “We don’t have a Noah Levine in the Public Defender’s Office. I guess there could have been a screw-up.” He laughed. “It happens all the time. I’d better check to make sure there aren’t two lawyers working on this case. Actually, it would be a relief if you did have another lawyer. I’m swamped right now, and I was wondering how I was going to have time to do all the work on this, uh, it’s a murder case, right?”
Larry stared open-mouthed at the fidgeting lawyer. What a toad, he thought. Thank God, he had Levine on the case.
Tom Farrell helped ease his daughter into the front seat of the rental car. He had cranked the seat back so it was reclining. He hoped this would make it easier for Angie to sleep on the ride to the airport. They would take a five o’clock flight home to Nebraska.
As soon as she was settled in her seat, Farrell reached across and fastened Angle’s seat belt. He avoided looking at her face. Whenever he saw the scars, the broken nose, and the bruises, it made him start to cry. He loved her so much, it broke his heart to think that something he might have done had caused her to run away. His pastor assured him it was the drugs that had destroyed Angie’s childhood, but he wondered if he had driven her to them with the pressures he put on her to be perfect. The months she was gone had been hell for Tom and his wife. He vowed that they would never lose her again.
As soon as Angie’s seat belt was fastened, Farrell sat back and started the car. He was driving out of the hospital parking lot when Angie said, “Daddy,” in a voice so low he could barely hear her.
“What is it, sweetheart?”
“I’m suh… sorry.”
Angie started to cry and Tom choked back his own tears.
“Don’t apologise, princess. What happened is in the past. We’re all starting over, as of today. Okay? I know some of this has been my fault and I’m going to change too.”
The dam had broken when Angie saw Larry Hoffman’s picture on the front page of the paper her father carried into her hospital room, along with the story of his arrest for murder. She had cried so hard during most of her account of the rape and beating that Farrell had a hard time understanding his daughter.
Farrell’s original plan had been to kill Larry Hoffman in the contact room at the jail, then take whatever the justice system threw his way. It had been even easier than he’d hoped to gain Hoffman’s confidence. By posing as his court-appointed defender, he could make certain that the slimebag was guilty of the things Angie had tearfully told him he had done to her before he ended Hoffman’s sorry life. Farrell’s plan had changed when Larry told him the significance of the videotape for his alibi.
“I love you and Mom, so much,” Angie said.
“We love you too. Now, try to nap. We’ll be home by tonight. Mom will be waiting at the airport.”
“Get me home soon, Daddy. I don’t want to be here anymore.”
“I will sweetheart. I just have one stop to make.” Angle closed her eyes and Farrell headed toward the airport. On the way, he passed the landfill on the edge of town where he had stopped before going to the hospital. As they sped by, he glanced quickly at the mountain of garbage under which he had buried the false ID he had used to gain entrance to the jail and the videotape he had viewed once to make certain he was doing the right thing.