“And the girl who invited him, did he see her at the party?”
“He says she never showed, or at least he doesn’t remember,” I tell him.
“Convenient.” Harry is thinking that there was no party, that Ives got drunk somewhere else, maybe a bar, and doesn’t want to fess up because he knows there were witnesses who can testify as to his lack of sobriety. Harry goes silent for a moment as he thinks. Then the ultimate question: “How are we getting paid for this? Does our client have anything that passes for money?”
“No.” I watch his arched eyebrows collapse before I add: “But his parents do. They own a large aviation servicing company at the airport. Quite well off, from what I understand. And they love their son. I met them at the hospital. Lovely people. You’ll like them.”
“I already do.” Harry smiles, a broad affable grin. “Thank Sarah for the referral,” he says.
TWO
Here is the mystery. Alex Ives’s blood alcohol report showed up at our office this morning. And surprise, Ives was not over the legal limit. In fact, he wasn’t even close. In California, the threshold is set at a 0.08 percent blood alcohol level. Ives barely tilted the meter at 0.01. You would probably show a higher blood alcohol level hosing out your mouth with some mouthwash. There is no question concerning the accuracy of the test. They drew blood. It is beginning to look as if Ives’s story of having only one drink is true. He may not have even finished it.
In the world of simple citations for a DUI, driving under the influence, that would probably be the end of the case. The prosecutor would dump it or charge Ives with a lesser-included offense, speeding or weaving in the lane if they saw him driving. But the charge of vehicular manslaughter has them looking deeper. The cops are now back, burning Bunsens in their lab looking for drugs. The chemical tests for these take a lot longer. So we wait.
Harry and I have delivered the good news and the bad news to Ives in one of the small conference rooms at the county lockup.
“You sure you weren’t on any medications?” I ask him.
“Nothing,” says Ives.
We are trying to prep for a bail hearing tomorrow morning, looking for anything that might stand in the way of springing him from the county’s concrete abode.
Ives looks at us from across the table. Sandy haired, big bright blue eyes, well over six feet, a tall wiry rail of a kid, and scared. Jimmy Stewart in his youth unburdening his soul to two hapless angels.
“If there is anything in the blood they will find it,” says Harry.
“I don’t do drugs,” says Ives.
“Good boy,” says Harry.
“What do we have on the other driver?” I look at my partner. Harry hasn’t had time to read all the reports. They have been coming in in bits and pieces over a couple of days now. “Any alcohol in her body? Could be she was drinking.”
“If she was, it went up in the flames,” says Harry. He is master of documents this afternoon, a growing file spread out on the metal table in front of him. “According to the accident report, the victim’s name was Serna, first name Olinda. Forty-seven years old. Out-of-state license, driving a rental car. . ”
“What did you say her name was?” says Ives.
Harry glances at him, then looks down at the page again. “Serna, Olinda Serna. I guess that’s how you’d pronounce it.”
“Can’t be,” says Ives.
“What are you talking about?” I ask.
“Can’t be her,” says Ives.
“Can’t be who?”
“Serna,” he says.
I glance at Harry who has the same stagestruck expression as I do.
“Are you telling us you knew her?” says Harry.
“No, no. It must be somebody else. Maybe the same name,” says Ives.
Harry gives me a look as if to say, “How many Olindas do you know?”
“Assuming it’s her, I didn’t really know her. Never met her. I just know the name. It’s a story we’ve been working on at the Gravesite. My job,” says Ives.
Harry is now sitting bolt upright in the chair. “Explain!”
“We’ve been working on this story close to a year now. Major investigation,” he says. “And I recognize the name. Assuming it’s the same person.”
“Where was this person from?” asks Harry. “This person in your story. Where did she live? What city?”
“It would be somewhere around Washington, D.C., if it’s her.”
Harry is looking at the report, flips one page, looks up and says: “Is Silver Spring, Maryland, close enough?”
“The cops never told you who the victim was?” I ask Ives.
“No, I didn’t know until just now. No idea,” he says.
“Do you know what this other woman, the one in your story, did for a living?” Harry looks at him.
“She was a lawyer,” says Alex.
“Mandella, Harbet, Cain, and Jenson?” says Harry.
Ives’s face is all big round eyes at this moment, his Adam’s apple bobbing.
“Well, I guess if you have to kill a lawyer, you may as well kill a big corporate one,” says Harry.
According to the police report, the cops found business cards in the victim’s purse, what was left of it. They ID’ed her from those and the VIN number on the burned-out car that was traced back to the rental agency.
Mandella is one of the largest law firms in the country. It has offices in a dozen cities in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The minute the ashes cool from the Arab Spring, you can bet they will be back there as well. They practice law the same way the US military fights its battles, with overwhelming force, cutting-edge weapons, and surprise flanking power plays. If their clients can’t win on the law, they will go to Congress and change it.
The multinational businesses that are not on their client list are said not to be worth having. One of their long-dead managing partners, it is rumored, got the feuding Arab clans to put down their guns long enough to set up OPEC, the world oil cartel, at which point the Arabs stopped robbing camel caravans and started plundering the industrialized West. If you believe Mandella’s PR, lawyers from the firm secured the foreign flag rights for Noah’s ark. They would glaze the words “Super Lawyers” on the glass doors to their offices, but who needs it when the brass plaques next to it show a list of partners including four retired members of the US Senate and one over-the-hill Supreme Court Justice. The finger of God is said to be painted on the ceiling of their conference rooms, franchise rights for which they acquired when Jehovah evicted their client, Adam, from the Garden of Eden.
“Listen, you have to believe me,” says Ives. “I had no idea. I don’t remember anything about the accident or anything about that night. Nothing. I don’t remember the other car. I don’t remember hitting it. I don’t remember getting in my car to drive. The last thing I remember is going to the party, having a drink, and then nothing.” He looks at us for a moment, to Harry and then back to me. “I mean. . I know it looks bad. The fact I even knew who she was. But I never met her.”
“It appears that you ran into her at one point,” says Harry. Bad joke. “You have to admit, it’s one hell of a coincidence. Let’s hope the cops don’t know.”
Harry and I are thinking the same thing. The police may change their theory of the case if they find out there was any connection between Ives and the victim before the accident.
“Tell us what this story is about,” says Harry. “The one involving Serna.”
“Oh, I can’t do that,” says Ives.
“What?” says Harry.
“Not without an OK from my editor.”
“An OK from your editor?” says Harry. “Do you understand what you’re facing here? If the cops get wind of any involvement between you and the victim, they are going to start turning over rocks looking for evidence of intentional homicide. Depending on what they find, you won’t be looking at manslaughter any longer but murder. Was there any bad blood between you and her?”
“Not on my part. It was just a story. Nothing personal,” says Ives.