Stone Cold

Chapter Forty-Seven

“You know,” Kate said as she set up her laptop on a table in her hotel suite, “we really haven’t talked much about the case.”

Alex nodded, standing and looking out the window to the south and west, the city disappearing over the horizon. It was either late winter or early spring depending on your point of view. The sky was tossed with patches of blue and gray, the distant trees still brown, a scene that could go either way.

“We’ve both been pretty busy.”

“I’m on your side,” Kate said as she sat in a chair on one side of the small, square table. “You know that, don’t you?”

Alex took the opposite seat, the laptop between them. “Yeah, I know that.”

“Not all my clients do, or if they do, they don’t quite believe it. You know why that is?”

Alex shrugged, resting her arms on the table. “They’re probably afraid that you’ll catch them in a lie.”

“That’s right. And you know what? That happens all the time, because we’re all liars. But here’s what my clients forget. My job isn’t to judge them. My job is to help them get the best possible result. But I can’t do that unless I know everything there is to know.” Kate paused, studying Alex and smiling. “Listen to me giving you the same speech you must have given hundreds of times to your clients.”

“It did sound familiar.”

“Does it work? Do your clients tell you everything?”

Alex chuckled. “Almost never.”

“So what do you do when you think your client is holding something back?”

“The best I can with what I’ve got.”

Kate leaned forward, reaching her hand toward Alex. “Is that what you want me to do for you?”

Alex pulled back, dropping her hands in her lap, deflecting Kate’s question. “I’m sure that’s what you did when you helped pick the jury and I’m sure that’s what you’re doing when you tell us how the jury is reacting to the evidence.”

“That’s only part of my job. I also evaluate the witnesses whether the prosecution calls them or we do.”

“And I’m sure Claire and Lou think you’re doing a great job of that too.”

“Thanks for that, but I’m more concerned about being able to do my job if you take the stand. Both of us need to be ready for that, and I’m not sure we are.”

“Well, if I decide to testify, I promise you, we’ll be ready.”

Kate let out a breath, smiled again, and straightened, tapping the table with her palm. “Good enough. Let’s have a look at that flash drive.”

Simon Alexander had organized the contents of Gloria’s phone into folders for e-mail, text messages, phone calls, photographs, and video. They started with the e-mail, taking their time, Kate using her iPad to create a spreadsheet for the names of people that appeared in the messages. Half an hour later, nothing had jumped out at them. Kate looked at her watch.

“We better get back to court.”

“E-mail the files to me so I can go through them tonight.”

“Sure.”

Kate sent the e-mail and they left.

“Whose idea was this anyway?” Alex asked when they were in the elevator.

“What are you talking about?”

“Getting you and me alone in your hotel room for a heart-to-heart chat. Was it Claire or Lou? Or was it your idea?”

“What makes you think that?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it’s that whatever is on Gloria Temple’s phone is too important for Lou not to have been through it the first chance he got. And there’s no way he was going to let us have the first look while he made some phone calls. I can’t believe what a lame excuse that was.”

Kate grinned and shook her head. “I told him it wouldn’t work, that you’d see through it.”

“So Lou thinks I’m holding something back and he asked you to find out if I was by gazing into my eyes over a club sandwich.”

The elevator reached the ground floor and the doors opened, Kate following Alex into the lobby, taking her arm.

“Is he wrong?”

“Absolutely,” Alex answered, her face flat and her eyes steely.