Dog Tags

CHAPTER 14

COMPARED WITH BILLY ZIMMERMAN, MILO’S CASE IS A SLAM DUNK.

That’s because the police finally revealed the identity of the guy that Billy is accused of murdering the other night. The victim was, as Billy said, one Jack Erskine. The problem is that his full name and title was Major Jack Erskine, recently returned from a four-year deployment in Iraq.

The negative implication for Billy in all this is that Erskine was in charge of security operations in and around the Baghdad area, which meant that Billy was under his command. The papers are already speculating that this was a revenge killing, that Billy somehow blamed Erskine for his terrible injury.

In any event, the Carpenterian theory holds that there are no such things as coincidences in murder cases, and there’s no way that this has a chance of disproving it. Billy’s connection to the victim, whatever the circumstances, is going to be a mountain for his lawyer to scale.

I spend the day with Eddie Lynch in the office, going over preparations for tomorrow’s hearing. Eddie’s starting to grow on me; I’m finding that if I absolutely tune out everything he says, he’s not that annoying. And his mind is sharp as a tack. He might even be Kevin’s equal as an attorney.

“By the way, why do people call you Hike?”

He shrugs. “My brother is four years older than me. When he was around ten, he wouldn’t let me play football with him and his friends. So I used to cry to my mother about it, and she forced him to let me play.”

“Let me guess,” I say. “All they would do is let you hike the ball.”

“You got it.”

Having solved that mystery, I turn my attention back to the hearing tomorrow. Once I’m sure we are as prepared as we’re going to be, I head home. Laurie and I take Tara for a walk through Eastside Park, and then drive over to The Bonfire for dinner. It’s a restaurant that’s been in the same location on Market Street forever; my parents told me they used to hang out there when they were in high school.

Laurie and I don’t do small talk; we never have, and hopefully we never will. We have the ability to either talk about things that are of consequence to us, or stay silent without any discomfort at all.

As soon as we sit down, Laurie starts asking me questions about how I’m doing on Milo’s case, which leads into more probing questions about Billy Zimmerman.

I can see that she’s much more interested in it than I am. “You miss it, Laurie.”

“Is it that obvious?”

I nod. Laurie has spent her entire life in law enforcement, either public or private, and I can tell that she misses the action. “It is. I thought you liked teaching?”

“I do. I really do. But teaching is something I enjoy. Being out on the street is something I am.”

“You’re not ready. You know that.” It took a while for her to recover from the shooting; she bled so severely that her brain did not receive oxygen for a while, long enough to sustain some damage. She still has some weakness on her left side, and she tires easily. Her progress has been tremendous, amazing even her doctors, but she’s not all the way back yet.

“My mind is ready.”

“So?”

“So I want to help on the case.”

“It’ll be all over one way or the other tomorrow.”

“I’m not talking about Milo. I’m talking about Billy Zimmerman.”

“He doesn’t want a lawyer,” I say. “He thinks he’s going to deal himself out of it.”

“When he finds out he can’t, he’s going to come to you for help.”

I shake my head. “Not me. I’m a one-Zimmerman attorney. Milo is my man. Billy can find somebody else.”

“You know better than that, Andy. You’ll come up with a reason to take him on as a client. Maybe you’ll want Milo to have his father back, or maybe it’ll be as a favor to Pete. Or maybe you’ll think the guy’s innocent. But you’ll do it, and I’ll help you.”

“What about your teaching?”

“I’ll do that as well. It’s called multitasking. I can do a lot if I set my mind to it.”

“And you’ll still take care of my ravenous sexual appetite?”

“I’m not a miracle woman, Andy. I can’t do everything.”

“Laurie, I want to be upfront about this. I’m not taking on Billy Zimmerman as a client to keep you busy, or to get you back in the action.”

“Fair enough. But there will be other clients.”

“Don’t depress me,” I say. “I’m having a nice dinner, and I want to focus on what I want for dessert.”

“Really? I was looking forward to getting you into bed and showing you how I multitask.”

“Check, please.”