22

Mark Taylor looked like he’d been run over by a truck. He took a sip of coffee from the paper cup and ran his hand over his face, which only served to spread out some of the grime.

“Well,” he said, “I ain’t got much.”

“Oh?” Steve said.

“Well, I do, it’s just you’ve heard it all. They’ve got an open and shut case against Kelly Wilder, the grand jury’s ready to indict, what more is there to say?”

“Your detectives check in yet?”

“If they had, would I look like this?” Taylor exhaled noisily. “I been up all night. Not ’cause there’s so much comin’ in-there isn’t. But ’cause I can’t sleep. This thing has me tied up in knots, and I don’t care what happens, I don’t ever want to go through it again.”

“That bad?”

“Worse. And the thing is, it’s too late now.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean the clock is ticking, and it’s just run out. I know it and you know it. I’m sittin’ here last night waitin’ to see if Marcie and Dan call in, and all the time I’m thinkin’, shit, if they do, what the hell am I gonna tell ’em? And,” Taylor said, “I’m gonna tell ’em hang up, get lost, you never heard from me, you never made this phone call.” He exhaled again and shook his head. “It’s too damn late. I can’t go to the cops with this now, I have to withhold it. Why? Because it’s too damn late, I’m already withholding it. I go to them now, they wanna know why I didn’t go to them before. I got no answer and I’m in the soup.”

“You made every effort to contact your detectives and-”

“Yeah, yeah, tell me about it,” Taylor said irritably. “Try tellin’ that to the cops. Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, we’re past the point of no return. I’m just trying not to think about it. Which isn’t easy.”

Taylor took another sip of coffee, leaned back in his chair and said, “What did you get out of Clay?”

Steve sighed. “Nothing much. He’s a punk and a loser. For my money, the guy may have done it.”

Taylor stared at him. “Are you serious?”

“Absolutely. He’s just the type.”

“Jesus Christ. What about the immortal memo?”

“So far, we only have my client’s word for that.”

“You tellin’ me you don’t believe her?”

“I’m telling you I’m really depressed, Mark.” Steve shook his head. “You wanna get really depressed sometime, just have a nice talk with Herbert Clay.”

“I don’t need that to get depressed. I’m doin’ just fine on my own.”

“You really got nothing new?”

“Nothing worth talking about. Which really isn’t surprising. We already got the kick in the balls with it being her brother’s gun. Aside from an eyewitness who saw her pull the trigger, there’s not much more they can do to us.”

“Shit.”

“One thing though. The big news is, your client typed nude.”

Steve stared at him. “What?”

“That’s right. Naked as a jaybird. Boffo. In the buff.”

“Mark. We know that.”

“Yeah, well the cops didn’t. They do now. So does the press. It may not be big news to you, but it sure is to them. The killing of a millionaire’s grandson was gonna get big press anyway. Think what it’s gonna get now. You won’t have to open the Post tomorrow morning to read about the case, it will be right there on the front page.”

Steve sighed. “Oh, shit.”

“There is one silver lining.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“You won’t have to face the D.A.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Word is, Dirkson’s gonna pass. If he does, you can thank her typin’ nude for it. Otherwise, it’s just the type of case for the District Attorney to handle himself. The victim’s rich. It’s an open and shut case-sorry, but the facts are the facts. And you’re the defense attorney. Dirkson would love to beat you in court. Hell, he probably feels he has to beat you in court after the way you handled him last time. Here’s a case he figures he can’t lose, and ordinarily he’d snap it up like that.” Taylor shrugged. “Except for her typin’ nude. Suddenly it’s not a case anymore, it’s a media circus. However they play it, people are gonna be laughing at it and making fun of it. Dirkson’s a politician, he can’t afford to look ridiculous. So the word is, as much as he’d like to nail your hide to the wall, he’ll pass it on to an A.D.A.”

“That’s good?” Steve said.

Taylor shrugged. “Dirkson’s smart. You may have beat him before, but the guy is smart. The A.D.A. may be sharp, but he won’t be used to the spotlight. It’ll rattle him some. Plus, he won’t be used to you. Your kind of tricks. So the way I see it, we caught a break.”

Steve thought that over. “You could be right, Mark. If you are, it’s the first one we got in this damn case.”

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