Ties That Bind

Chapter Twenty-five.

Jon Dupre was still in manacles when Amanda walked into the contact visiting room, but he exhibited none of the aggression and tension she had noticed during her previous visits. Instead he sat slumped forward, resting his arms on the table, with his head in his hands, looking subdued and exhausted.

Amanda sat opposite her client. She was on edge but not as frightened as she had been when they'd met before. Dupre looked up. His eyes were bloodshot and he was unshaven.

"Thank you for seeing me, Jon."

"I need your help," he answered.

Amanda knew that sociopaths were very skilled at faking sincerity--she had been conned before--but no alarms were going off.

"I've always wanted to help you."

"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry."

"Then let's forget the last two visits. Why don't you tell me how you got the cuts on your hands and forearm?"

The question startled Dupre. "Why do you want to know that?"

"I thought you were going to trust me."

Dupre twisted in his seat.

"Jon?"

"You won't believe me."

"Try me."

Dupre looked away from Amanda.

"You know why I'm here, Jon," she said in a steady voice. "I'm the only lawyer who would take your case, the only person who wants to help you. But I can't work in a vacuum."

Dupre met Amanda's eyes. He spoke slowly, weighing each word.

"Wendell Hayes cut me."

"With the shiv?"

"That's right."

"How did he get the shiv?" Amanda asked. "Did he wrestle it away from you?"

"Hayes brought the knife into the jail. It was his. He attacked me, not the other way around. I know it sounds insane, but that's what happened." Dupre brought his cuffed hands to his face and rubbed his forehead. "This whole thing is a nightmare."

"How could Hayes smuggle a knife through the metal detector?"

"I don't know. All I know is the moment the guard was out of sight Hayes was on me." Dupre pointed to the stitches along his forearm and the cuts on his hands. "I got these blocking the knife. I'm not dead because I caught Hayes in the throat with a lucky punch. He dropped the shiv and I grabbed it and stuck him in the eye."

"Why didn't you stop then?"

Dupre looked incredulous. "He was trying to murder me. I was locked in with him. Hayes is huge and I didn't know if he had other weapons. I had to finish him."

"I've got to level with you, Jon. This sounds . . . far-fetched. Why would Wendell Hayes want to kill you?"

Dupre looked down at the table and shook his head.

"Did he even know you before Judge Grant appointed him?" Amanda asked.

"Not really. My parents knew him, but they weren't friends. Before I was banned from the club I saw him at the Westmont a few times."

Amanda shook her head. "This isn't going to fly."

"You think I'm lying?" Dupre asked angrily.

"I didn't say that. In fact, I have a witness who supports your story."

Amanda told him what Paul Baylor had concluded after viewing the photographs from the jail infirmary.

"Unfortunately, Paul's testimony alone won't be enough to acquit you," Amanda concluded. "Can you think of any other way to prove that Hayes attacked you?"

"No."

"Then you see our problem. Your word is not going to be enough to convince a jury that a prominent attorney would try to kill a client he hardly knew. What's Hayes's motive? How are we going to counter the argument that Hayes couldn't have smuggled the shiv through the metal detector? You didn't go through a metal detector, and the weapon is the type of homemade job that jail inmates make."

"I could take a lie detector test."

"The results aren't admissible in court."

Dupre threw his head back and slammed his hands on the table. The guard on the other side of the window started to raise his radio to his mouth as he moved toward the door. Amanda waved him off.

"Forget Hayes for a moment. Tell me about Senator Travis," Amanda said.

"I didn't kill him."

"Why did you argue with him the day before he was killed?"

"He dated one of my girls and she turned up dead."

"Lori Andrews?"

Dupre nodded. "The last time he dated her he beat her up."

"Did Travis admit that he had anything to do with Lori Andrews's murder?"

"No. He said he didn't touch her. But I didn't believe him."

"I'm surprised that you cared about Andrews. Her disappearance helped you, didn't it? It got your case dismissed."

"I'm glad Lori didn't show up, but I didn't want her dead."

"The police found an earring at the Travis crime scene that's supposed to be identical to one you were wearing when you argued with Hayes at the Westmont."

"They did?"

"You didn't know?"

"No. What did it look like?"

"It's gold, a gold cross."

"I have one like it, but I have no idea why it would be at Travis's place. I've never been there."

"Did you talk to Travis again after you saw him at the country club?" Amanda asked.

"No."

Amanda made a note on a legal pad. "What about the evening that Travis was killed? Was anyone with you?"

"A few of the girls were over earlier in the evening. I got high and passed out. When I woke up in the morning they were gone."

"I'll need a list of the women who were at your house so Kate Ross can check them out."

"Joyce Hamada was there. She's a student at Portland State. And Cheryl . . . uh, Cheryl Riggio. Talk to them."

"Okay. We have a bail hearing set for tomorrow. Don't get your hopes up about getting out. There's no automatic bail in a death-penalty case."

"Yeah, I know." Dupre was suddenly very quiet. "Oscar told me."

"I take it you've heard?"

Dupre nodded. "Do you know what happened to him?"

"Only what I read in the paper and heard on the radio, which wasn't much."

"Was he tortured?"

"That's what the paper said."

"Burglars, right?"

Amanda nodded. "It seems unreal. I was talking to him a few days ago about your case."

"Yeah," Dupre agreed, "unreal."