Dead Lawyers Tell No Tales (31 page)

BILLY INSISTED ON TAGGING ALONG
for security reasons, but Landon made him wait in the car. When they arrived at the King house, Julia was doing the dishes. At Landon’s request, she took a break to join him and Elias in the living room.

“Where’s Jake?” Landon asked.

“Upstairs in his room,” Julia said tentatively. “Do we need him?” She looked from Landon to Elias. She was smart enough to know that a lawyer making house calls meant trouble.

“No, that’s fine,” Landon said.

When they settled in, Landon got right to the point. There was no good way to do this. “I’ve been doing some additional investigation in this matter,” he said, watching for reactions on the faces of Julia and Elias. “I had Julia’s phone triangulated for the night of Erica’s death.” He paused as Julia’s face reddened. Elias, a seasoned pro, showed no expression. “I know you went to Erica’s apartment that night.”

When his accusation was met with silence, Landon had his answer. Julia looked at her husband and he answered for them both.

“Why were you checking Julia’s location? That wasn’t part of our defense.”

“I’ve had a lot of investigative work done.”

“Without telling me? You should have told me if you were going to do something like that.”

Landon felt his blood pressure rising. He was already frustrated with Elias for lying. Now the man was trying to put Landon on the defensive? “I’m not the one who’s been lying to his lawyer,” Landon said, his voice sharp. His look dared Elias to take him on—Landon would walk in a heartbeat. “If you want me on this case, I’d better start finding out what happened. Why Julia went there. How long she was there. And whether Erica was still alive when Julia left.”

“Of course she was still alive,” Elias said.

“How do I know that? How did her body get in the trunk of
your
car?”

Elias stood, his jaw set. “This is why I didn’t tell you about it before. I don’t need my own lawyer jumping to conclusions. The prosecutors and media are already doing a fine job of that.”

Landon held out his palms. “That’s it? I ask an honest question and I get a lecture?”

“Can we just calm down?” Julia asked, looking at Elias. “Landon’s entitled to an explanation. He’s been with us from the beginning, and I can understand why he’s upset.”

Elias hesitated, torn between his pride and Julia’s appeal to reason. “You’re right,” he said. He nodded at Landon. “I’m sorry.” He sat back down.

“Julia went over there that night,” Elias said, choosing his words carefully. “When she left our house, I had no idea where she was going. As I told you, she learned about me and Erica the night before, on Super Bowl Sunday, after reading a few of my text messages. We talked on Monday, argued a lot, and she drove to Erica’s apartment and confronted her. When she returned, she told me what she’d done, and we got into it again. But I never went out there that night, and Julia never went back. I swear to God, we have no idea who killed Erica Jensen.”

Landon looked at Julia. “Is that true?”

“Yes.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?”

Chastened by the question, Julia said nothing. Her reaction gave Landon the impression that the deception was all Elias’s idea.

“This is why,” Elias said, his voice softer than before. “Because nobody would believe us, not even our own lawyer.”

“It’s hard to believe you when you’ve been lying from the beginning.”

For a few moments, nobody spoke. This time Julia broke the silence. “Where do we go from here?”

“I think we have to put you on the stand,” Landon said. “Tell what happened that night. If we’re lucky, Sherman will try to prove you’re lying, thinking you’re just trying to save Elias. That’s when we break out the cell records.”

“Sherman’s not that dumb,” Elias countered. His voice had a tone of resignation, as if he’d thought this scenario through already and knew the inevitable outcome. “He’ll claim that Erica told Julia she was going to the Feds. That’s how he’ll say I found out—through Julia.”

“I’ve thought about that,” Landon said. “But it doesn’t make sense. Why would Erica tell Julia about the meeting with Mitchell Taylor?”

“Julia’s not taking the stand,” Elias said, ignoring the question.

“I don’t think you’re in any position to be issuing ultimatums.”

“I’m still the client, Landon. And on matters like this, the client calls the shots.”

Landon tilted his head. This was unbelievable. “Why are you so unyielding about this?”

“If Julia takes the stand and we win, what do you think Sherman’s going to do?”

“I don’t know,” Landon admitted.

“Yes, you do. We all do. He’s going to turn around and indict Julia.”

Landon couldn’t argue with the man. Based on the evidence, he wouldn’t fault Sherman for seeking such an indictment.

“I can’t let that happen,” Elias continued. “So she’s not taking the stand.”

Landon wondered what Harry would do in a situation like this. He reminded himself what Harry had said about this case many times—that they only had one client, Elias King.

“Let’s cross that bridge later,” Landon suggested. “We’ve got plenty of prosecution witnesses to focus on first.”

But Elias wouldn’t let it go. “I’ve got one other question,” he said. “Who else knows about this?”

Landon swallowed hard. He hadn’t anticipated this question. “Billy. Kerri. The investigator.”

“Who’s that?”

Harry had taught Landon a thing or two about cross-examination. You sit down and think about the questions in advance. You brainstorm how the witness might answer. You have a follow-up question for every possibility.
“It’s like chess,”
Harry had said.
“You’ve got to think two moves ahead.”

But Landon had been too frustrated to do that. He had wanted to confront and cross-examine Elias immediately. Now Landon was the one with some explaining to do. “Sean Phoenix and some of his men are helping investigate the deaths of my partners,” Landon said. At the mention of Phoenix’s name, he saw Elias stiffen. “In the context of that investigation, they discovered this information.”

“In the context of that investigation?” Elias shot back. “Why would they be looking at Julia’s cell phone records in the context of
that
investigation?”

Even as he spoke, it dawned on him. Landon could tell by the flash in his eyes. “You think I’m somehow tied to the murder of your partners?”

Landon held up a hand to slow things down. “Not you. But maybe something about your case.”

He tried to explain further, but everyone’s nerves were on edge. Landon felt betrayed by a lying client. Elias didn’t like his lawyer going behind his back, especially with a group like Cipher Inc. The men raised their voices, and the frustrations of the last few days came to the surface.

It ended only when Julia called them out, broke into tears, and told
them she couldn’t take any more of this. The men took a collective breath, and Landon quickly apologized.

“You hired me to be your lawyer,” he said. “But if you want me in this case, you need to start listening to my advice. We can’t win this case by just poking holes in the prosecution’s testimony. The jury needs to hear from you. And the jury needs to hear from Julia.”

Elias shook his head. “Maybe I’m wrong,” he said. His voice, like Landon’s, was now low and conciliatory. “Maybe I’m so emotionally invested in this case that I can’t see what you see. But Landon, I’m the one facing jail time. And I don’t want to be sitting in a cell forty years from now, having missed my son’s wedding and my grandchildren’s graduation and who knows what else, wondering if I should have done it my way.

“I appreciate your help. And I’m sorry that I ever dragged you into this mess. But I can’t have a lawyer who’s conducting investigations behind my back, one who doesn’t even agree with our strategy for the case.” He paused and looked at Julia for support. Finding none, he said it anyway.

“As of now, I’ll be handling the rest of the case alone.”

///

Landon walked down the driveway and climbed into the passenger seat of the truck.

“What happened?” Billy asked.

“I got fired.”

Billy cursed—a long, creative string of words fit for the locker room. “You want me to drive this truck through his front door?”

“Sure.”

Instead, Billy put it in reverse and pulled away from the curb.

On the way home, Landon vented. Admittedly, he was only a first-year lawyer, but he had never been fired before.

“What did Julia say about it?” Billy asked.

“She tried to talk him out of it.”

“The man’s an idiot,” Billy said. Words to that same effect, though slightly more colorful, had been Billy’s theme the entire ride.

“What about Jake?” Billy asked.

“That was the worst part,” Landon said. “At the end of our conversation, I saw him standing in the doorway to the kitchen, listening. The kid had big tears in his eyes. When I looked at him, he just looked down and turned away.”

“You think he blames it on
you
?”

“No. I just think he knows that his dad is most likely going away for a very long time.”

“The man deserves it,” Billy said. “What a jerk. He just fired the best lawyer money can buy.”

“Maybe he deserves it, but his family doesn’t.” Landon said it more to the windshield than Billy. He thought about his own history—everything he had put Kerri and Maddie through. “And his family’s going to suffer a lot more than he is.”

WEDNESDAY PROMISED
to be the hottest day in June with the potential for record-breaking temperatures by midafternoon. It was the type of day that made your sunglasses steam over when you walked outside. Even at seven thirty in the morning, on the short walk from his car to the office, Landon felt like he was wading through a sauna.

Landon had called Parker Clausen the night before to tell his partner that the firm had been fired by its highest-profile client. Parker took it in stride. “We already got plenty of publicity out of that one. And it looked like you guys were going down anyway.”

On Wednesday, Parker arrived at the offices early, wearing his trademark jeans and T-shirt, and did his best to cheer Landon up. His theory was that Elias King had planned on firing Landon all along. “That way, he’ll be able to argue ineffective assistance of counsel if he loses,” Parker said. “He probably doesn’t like the handwriting on the wall any more than you do.”

The defense team gathered in the office at eight so they could make
their way to Chesapeake Circuit Court together. Elias checked Landon’s motion to withdraw and told Landon how much he appreciated what the young lawyer had done. Everybody talked in hushed tones, as if they were going to a funeral.

Before they left, there was a small rebellion when it came to wearing the Kevlar vests. It started with Billy. “I ain’t wearing that thing today,” he announced. “Too hot. Plus, I’m tired of wearing the same suit every day.”

Kerri argued with him, but Billy had made up his mind. “Nobody’s trying to kill members of the Green Bay Packers anyway,” he said.

Elias decided to ditch his as well. So did Landon, but he met some fierce resistance from Kerri. She pulled him aside and prevailed on him to wear it for her and Maddie. She was going to wear hers. Even though Kerri’s was specially designed for the female body and relatively thin, it still limited her wardrobe. “You think I want to wear this skirt and jacket on a day like today?”

“Then don’t,” Landon said. “We’ll be fine. Besides, anybody who really wanted to take us out could tell we’re wearing a vest and just aim for the head.”

“I’d feel better if you’d wear it,” Kerri said. “You can take it off in the bathroom once we get inside, just like every other day.”

Landon felt like a wimp, but he put on the vest.

“Thanks,” Kerri said.

“You owe me,” Landon replied.

They took three vehicles to court. The King family rode together. Kerri joined Landon and Billy in the truck. And the Wolfman, as always, followed in his own vehicle, lurking far enough behind to keep an eye on everything.

They parked at the far end of the J&DR parking lot, in almost the exact same spots they had used the day before. Landon slung his suit coat over his shoulder. He was already sweating. He grabbed his briefcase and walked with the team across the parking lot toward the court complex. Billy had dressed more casually—slacks, a golf shirt, and shades. He wore his gun holster out in the open for everyone to see.
His head swiveled this way and that, like a true bodyguard, vigilant and armed for action.

On other mornings, the team had chatted about anything and everything as they made their way toward court and the waiting reporters. But today, with the specter of Landon’s termination from the case looming, they were grim-faced and silent.

As always, Billy and Landon took the front of the wedge and walked side by side, with Julia and Elias right behind them. Kerri and Jake brought up the rear. The reporters saw them coming and turned their cameras in the direction of the defense team. The on-air reporters picked up their mikes and moved to the front of the media horde, prepared to shout a few questions and watch the defense team smile and say, “No comment.”

Landon stared straight ahead, lost in his own thoughts. The press was in for a surprise today. Elias King would be finishing this case on his own.

///

The mastermind had set his explosives in the middle of the night. He later returned to the court complex at 4 a.m. and parked in the corner of the J&DR parking lot. He was dressed in a business suit and, except for the weird hour of his arrival, looked like a well-heeled lawyer heading to court, briefcase and all.

At this time of night, nobody else was around.

He walked casually around the J&DR building, surveyed the dark quad, and ducked behind a row of pine trees. He waited a few minutes, looking back and forth to ensure that nobody else was in sight, and then slid down the length of the building, using the pine trees as cover.

The large blue dumpster was located at the back corner of the building, next to the loading ramp, with a perfect line of sight to the quad. He slid the side door open, dropped his briefcase inside, heard a dull thud as it hit some trash, and then slipped in himself. He moved some
garbage bags to form a perfect little nest and pulled the side slot nearly closed, creating just enough of a slit that he could see the entire quad. He opened his briefcase and assembled his rifle, attaching the scope, the sound suppressor, and a special plastic bag to catch the shell casings. He settled in and waited.

The heat was a problem. By the time he had been in the dumpster for four hours, it was already approaching ninety degrees. The stench of the garbage was suffocating. Sweat dripped from his face, and he wiped it away with a small towel he had brought for that purpose.

By 8:30, the quad started filling up with pedestrian traffic, lawyers hustling back and forth, defendants trying to figure out which courtroom they belonged in.

At 8:40, the mastermind got his first glimpse of the defense entourage, led by Landon Reed and his buddy, Billy Thurston. He couldn’t be certain, but it looked like the only one wearing a protective vest that day was Landon. Maybe his wife was wearing one as well. But Billy Thurston clearly was not, and Elias looked too thin to be wearing his, though he had on a suit coat and it was hard to tell.

Interesting. This would require an immediate change in plans, something he hadn’t anticipated. But he had been trained to deal with situations like this. And he had come too far to abort the mission now.

He knew the precise number of seconds it would take from the time the defense team first came into view until they would be in his direct line of fire fifty yards away. He had Sean Phoenix’s cell number and the text message already entered in his phone. He pushed Send.

It’s on
, the message said.

He scrolled to the next number and put the phone on a ledge where he could easily reach it. He picked up the rifle and tried sighting in his first target. He cursed, unable to get a clean line on either Landon Reed or Elias King. First the kid, then Kerri Reed—both walking behind the others—blocked his line of fire.

“Come on, come on,” he whispered.

There. It was just the right angle. Kerri and the kid out of the way.
Nobody crossing from the other direction. The media still twenty yards ahead of the defense team, preparing to ask their questions. He had two clear shots. It would all happen in rapid sequence now. His hand was steady, the crosshairs centered on Landon. He remained calm and relied on his training.

He squeezed the trigger.