The Wrong Man

56

I sat in a chair in the conference room, staring up at the ceiling.

“Well, this is just insane,” said Shauna. “We need to go to the judge. We need to tell him that we’re obviously onto something here, and our lives are at risk. We need a continuance of the trial and protection.”

Bradley and Joel Lightner were sitting here with me. Tori had just arrived and had taken a seat, too. Everyone was tense. This was turning into something nobody had expected.

“You’re forgetting something,” I said. “You’re forgetting I left the scene. There are two dead bodies and I’m nowhere to be found. Hell, I could be a suspect.”

In hindsight, it was probably dumb of me to flee. It was an instinct. Someone had just tried to kill me, and getting as far away as possible, as fast as possible, had seemed like a pretty swell idea at the time.

“It’s only been an hour or so,” said Shauna. “Let’s call the cops now and go in.”

I shook my head. “I could get tied up for days with those guys. I don’t have those days. I have a client who needs me to be focusing on his trial.”

“But think about it, Jason. You tell them what happened, and the judge will have to delay things. Wendy Kotowski would probably agree.”

That might be true. But I couldn’t trust Judge Nash. He was too unpredictable, and I was on his shit list now. And my story was a real crowd-pleaser. Some mobsters tried to kill me because I’d uncovered a plot between the Mob and a wealthy downstate CEO to kill Kathy Rubinkowski, but the ambush was thwarted when someone miraculously saved me. Who, I have no idea. Yeah, that was a real winner. Until I had something more to back it up, I’d sound like a paranoid freak. I sure as hell couldn’t count on help from our judge.

Tori said, “Are you sure they were the same guys who were hassling me at Vic’s that night?”

I’d left things a little strangely with Tori on Thanksgiving night, after we’d slept together. I wasn’t sure how it would work out going forward. But any awkwardness was erased by the turn of events tonight.

I nodded. “No doubt. The one guy said, ‘We meet again.’ And when I asked him how his shoulder was doing, he started to answer. That was just before he got shot.”

Tori shook her head. Nobody had a ready explanation.

“They’ve been watching me all along,” I said. “The Mob. The Capparellis. That was back when all this started. When Lorenzo Fowler came to see me. They must have been wise to it. They were afraid he was going to tell me something. So they wanted to keep an eye on me.” I threw my hands up. “That’s the best I can figure.”

“So, if the Capparellis wanted to kill you,” said Joel, “who came to your rescue tonight?”

I had no idea. “Someone who’s a pretty good shot,” I said. “I know, Joel, I know. You’re thinking it was the infamous Gin Rummy. But Gin Rummy works for the Capparellis. Gin Rummy, if anything, should want me dead. He wouldn’t try to save me.”

Nobody knew what to say. It was getting easier and easier to draw up a list of people who wanted me dead. But not so easy to think of who would want to rescue me.

“Okay, listen up,” I said. I sat up and looked around the table. “Starting right now, each of you has permission to drop off this case.”

“I needed your permission?” Lightner asked.

I ignored him. “Go on vacation or something. I know our witnesses and I know their witnesses. I can handle it. I don’t need anyone’s death on my conscience. No foolin’, guys. This is my problem, not yours.”

The room went quiet. They were probably thinking it over. They should. I was serious. They’d done enough prep work for me. I could try this case alone. I didn’t want to have to worry about the health and safety of two lawyers, a private eye, and Tori.

“I’m not going anywhere,” said Shauna.

“Me, neither,” Bradley added.

“Six weeks of work without pay, and now someone’s going to shoot at me, too? Count me in!” That was Lightner’s attempt at humor.

Tori shrugged. “I don’t know how much help I am, but I want to stick around.”

“Okay, so we’re all very courageous,” I said. “Then I say we stay together in groups.”

“Right,” said Lightner. “That way, they can save time by shooting us in bunches.”

Shauna said, “Report this to the police, Jason. Get it out in the open. It will make it harder for the Mob to come after you a second time if you’ve already publicly accused them of trying to come after you once.”

I’d considered that. But I didn’t think these guys felt a whole lot of fear. They had ways of killing people without leaving a lot of fingerprints. And like I said, my story would sound too far-fetched.

And as much as I might appreciate a delay from a tactical point of view, I was beginning to wonder if we weren’t better off going to trial in a few days.

“No cops,” I said. “We go forward. And we start by asking who the hell was it who saved my ass tonight?”