Tuesday’s Child

Chapter 21

LIKE PATTY, KALA WAS USED TO SPEED-READING. SHE WENT through the investigative report quickly, digesting the gist of it all, then went back and reread what she’d breezed through. If all this was true, and she had no reason to believe it wasn’t, Spenser certainly kept his real persona under wraps. She thought about the picture of the two of them in the ornate frame he’d given her for her retirement party. She wished now that she hadn’t thrown it away. Maybe it was still in the trash basket. She made a mental note to check on it since she wasn’t big on emptying wastepaper baskets.

What to make of this? Spenser had two lives. His personal one and his professional one. Well, most people did. So what? He’d still put Sophie Lee in prison for life without the possibility of parole. That was what So what? meant. The wind taken out of her sails for the moment, Kala got up and walked over to the window. There was no stellar view, just the street and a portion of the small parking lot that carried through to the entrance of the underground parking garage.

Kala turned around and looked at the white hibiscus bloom she’d tossed on her desk. She walked over, picked it up, touched the petals, then dropped it in the wastebasket.

Rarely was Kala unsure about anything, but at that moment she didn’t quite know what to think, or even feel, for that matter. She looked at her watch and walked back to the window. Spenser was late by five minutes. Maybe he was going to be a no-show. Unlikely, but a possibility. She wondered if she’d missed him until Linda poked her head in the door to say that Mr. Spenser was in the waiting room.

With an edge to her voice, Kala said, “Show him in, Linda.”

“He looks different today, Kala. Can’t put my finger on it, but he doesn’t look… I don’t know, maybe cocky is the word I’m looking for. Hey, what happened to your flower?”

The edge was still in Kala’s voice. “Just show him in, okay? Bring us some coffee and sweet rolls if you don’t mind. Make the plate look pretty.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Linda said smartly, not understanding what was going on. Sounded like a party, and everyone was going to make nice.

Kala was still standing by the window and remained there until Linda opened the door to usher Ryan Spenser into the room.

The two attorneys smiled at one another and shook hands. Kala motioned to a cozy seating corner. “I guess we both know why you’re here today, Ryan. This might be the mother I’m not in me, but are you okay?”

“No, actually, I’m not okay. Listen, how do you feel about going somewhere with me for a half hour or so? I’d like to buy you a cup of coffee. I want to talk to you about something, but not here.” Before Kala could respond, Spenser withdrew a white envelope from inside his jacket pocket. He laid it on the coffee table that separated the two chairs.

Like she was going to go anywhere with Ryan Spenser. “Sure, what do you have in mind?”

“Well, the breakfast rush is over just about everywhere, so how do you feel about two doors down at Logan’s? If you don’t mind, let’s take the back exit.”

“Sure, no problem,” Kala said as she reached for her purse. “Is this going to be inside or outside?”

“Whatever we can make work for us. I don’t want to be swamped with reporters.”

“We have a little eating area outside behind the building. Tenants go there to eat their bag lunches or smoke a cigarette. Do you think that would work? The reporters won’t know we’re there, and before you came, I asked for coffee and pastries to be brought to my office.”

“That’s fine. Actually, that’s the best solution of all.”

The EXIT sign was just a short distance from Kala’s office. The office boy held the door for Kala and Spenser. “Tell Linda to bring the coffee and pastries outside to the eating area, okay, Bobby?”

“Sure thing, Ms. Aulani.”

On the way down the five flights of steps, Kala called comments over her shoulder. “I was never very good at cloak-and-dagger stuff, Ryan. Do you mind telling me what this is all about? I sure hope you aren’t going to tell me that check vaporized or something. Or that it’s short of what we agreed on.”

“I’m not going to tell you that, Kala.”

At the bottom of the steps, Spenser looked around at the profusion of colorful flowers and pruned shrubs and the brightly colored picnic tables that were empty at this hour. “It’s pretty here. I had no idea this area was even here.”

“The tenants are responsible for maintaining it. We take turns on a monthly basis. I like to come out here late in the afternoon and just sit with a cold glass of ice tea.”

Bobby, the office boy, was right on their heels with a heavy tray. He placed it in the center of the bright yellow picnic table. Kala blanched when she saw the small bud vase with a white hibiscus. Quicker than lightning, she plucked it from the bud vase and tossed it into the shrubbery. She tilted her head to the side as much as to say your turn. Damn, she wished she hadn’t read that investigative report, wished it more than anything in the world just then.

Ryan Spenser took the initiative and poured the coffee. Kala noticed the slight tremor in his hand. He looked at Kala, and said, “I had an epiphany last night.”

Coffee cup midway to her lips, Kala froze. Of all the things she was expecting to hear, this was not it. She let her eyes express her questions.

“Look, Kala, I’m not… I’m not what you think I am. The media… early on, they made me out to be this… shark or barracuda, some kind of legal killer. At first, I was kind of flattered. Then it was just too much trouble to back it all up. What I am trying to say here is that I did not railroad Sophie Lee. I did not falsify anything. I prosecuted the case the way I would have prosecuted any other case. I gave it a hundred and ten percent. That extra ten percent was jammed down my throat by the powers that be because Audrey Star was such a high-profile figure.

“I never personally believed Sophie Lee murdered her patient. As we both know, the law doesn’t care what I think. The law is made up of facts. Personally, I always believed it was Adam Star who killed his wife, but I did not have a shred of evidence to prove it. The only person that left was Sophie Lee. I cut you all the slack I could, Kala, hoping as a defense attorney you could do things I couldn’t do inside the law, but you didn’t come up with anything either.”

Kala sipped at her coffee, knowing that what Spenser had said was the truth.

“The mayor, the police chief, and the governor-yeah, my uncle-were on my ass, up my ass, in my face twenty-four /seven to convict somebody. Audrey Star had the right for justice to be served. The board of directors for ‘Everything Star’ brought some heavy artillery to the table. In the end, it was all dumped on me.

“I know this is all old hat to you, Kala, but I went with the facts. In the end, a jury of Sophie Lee’s peers found her guilty. No, I did not sleep for weeks after the verdict and for months after the sentencing. If it’s any consolation to you, I was as convinced in my own mind as you were of Sophie Lee’s innocence. I kept sending you, anonymously, points of law when you were drafting your appeals. I thought they would work, and I was devastated when you lost both appeals.”

“You! You’re the one who sent me those… points of law? I never-Oh, dear God! I used all of them. I thought it was some judge that Ben knew. Thank you, Ryan.”

Ryan shrugged.

“One other thing. Not that it’s important, but my secretary said it was presumptuous of me to give you that picture of the two of us at your retirement party. The day they took that picture of the two of us was one of my proudest moments. I was there with the great Kala Aulani. I just want you to know I went to six different stores, looking for just the right frame.” Ryan grinned ruefully.

Kala felt sick to her stomach. She had to find that picture. Even if she had to go to the city dump site and dig through all the trash. “I appreciated it, Ryan,” she fibbed. “Six stores, huh?”

Spenser laughed. “It might have been seven, and I’ll have you know I wrapped it myself. Anyway, back to the moment at hand. I had this epiphany last night, and I couldn’t wait to get here this morning. Listen, Kala, let’s work together on this. My career is over no matter what happens, and that’s okay. When I leave here, I want my record to stand for itself. And right now, I want to assure you that all of my old cases are solid; those lawyers are doing nothing but wasting time, manpower, and money. Say what you will about me as a person, but as a lawyer, you won’t find a better one-except maybe you. I would never, ever, shortchange justice.”

Kala believed him. Damn. Now she really did have to find that picture. “So what was the epiphany?”

“More coffee?”

“Yeah,” Kala said, holding up her cup. Spenser’s hand was now rock steady.

“I don’t think Adam Star, or Adam Clements, or whatever name he went by, killed his wife. I think Audrey Star killed herself. I can’t prove it. Can you? Between the two of us, maybe we can prove it, and I can ride off into the sunset knowing I helped Sophie Lee. Legally.”

It wasn’t often that Kala was at a loss for words, but she was at that moment. She flapped her arms like a fish out of water as she stared at Spenser. Again, her expression was full of questions.

“I know exactly how you feel, and that’s how I felt last night. I went through every goddamn word of the trial transcript. Word by word. I was looking for my own failure, your failure, and it wasn’t there. It simply was not there. That just left testimony. Adam’s, to be precise. He said from the git-go that he did not believe that Sophie Lee killed his wife. He was her staunchest supporter. Sophie, even though you didn’t put her on the stand, backed him up, too. She said there was never a time when he could have killed his wife. You said it yourself, Kala, in open court. I don’t think you believed it then, and you didn’t believe it all these years until the day Adam showed up in your office. Right or wrong?”

“You’re right. So if your theory is right, how do we go about proving Audrey Star killed herself?” Kala demanded. Now that was something she had never even considered. Some attorney she was.

“I don’t know. I was hoping you would have some ideas. Was there anything in the evidence locker?”

“No. And let’s set the record straight on that. I did sign the stuff out, but I left before it was turned over to Patty Molnar. I had a motion to file in court and didn’t want to be late that day. We picked it up yesterday from Nick Mancuso’s garage, where Patty had it stored. She never looked inside the boxes, and it’s our theory that the rookie assigned to the evidence locker that day is the one who made the mistake. It would have stayed a mistake if you hadn’t gotten all uppity and threatened to sue me.”

“I was just busting your chops. It was a threat, nothing more. I wouldn’t have gone through with it. I’m sorry about that, I really am.”

“Well, thanks to Ben, it worked out okay. We went through it thoroughly. The box is in my office, and you can take it with you when you leave.”

“Kala, how is Sophie Lee? I’m not asking out of idle curiosity. I actually care how she is. I am personally willing to do anything I can to help her. All you have to do is tell me what that would be. I don’t know if you’ll understand this, but even though I did nothing wrong, I still feel guilty for robbing her of her best years, her youth.”

“You know what, Ryan? I think Sophie knows that. I’ll pass it on. Just don’t prick my bubble and tell me that check you left on the coffee table is no good.”

“I wouldn’t do that, Kala. It’s solid gold.”

“Well, in that case,” Kala said, texting Jay, “I’m going to have Jay deposit it.”

“The quicker the better,” Spenser said, getting up off his chair and walking over to the bush that held the hibiscus and handing it to her. Then he sat down and reached for a sugary pastry. He laughed when Kala stuck the flower behind her ear.

“So, partner, what’s our next move?” Kala said, before she jammed one of the sticky buns in her mouth.

Patty Molnar stood by the window, her back to Rob Pope and Bonnie Garrison as they reported in on Audrey Star and her husband, Adam. She only heard half of what they were saying because she was so intent on watching Kala and Ryan Spenser down in the little garden where they were sitting. What was going on? They looked to her like they were suddenly new best friends. Her reporter’s instinct kicked in. Something was up. Even from where she was standing, inside the building, she could smell it, feel it in every bone in her body. What? Did it have something to do with the evidence box? Had she missed something? Well, if she missed it, then so did the others.

Patty blinked when she saw Spenser get up and pick a white flower from the bushes and hand it to Kala, who then stuck it in her hair. What the hell did that mean?

Now she was cranky. She turned back to her two investigators, and said, “Okay, this is all really good. Thanks for getting on this so fast. Just leave me your reports and check with the others to see if they can use any extra help. I’ll call you later this evening.”

Patty wandered back to the window, the thick file in hand. She needed to go somewhere quiet and read through it before she handed it over to Kala. What were they talking about down there?

Out in the hall, Patty ran into Jay, who had a jubilant look on his face. He waved a white envelope under her nose. “I am on my way to the bank with ten million dollars. I have never seen ten million bucks in my life. Do you want to see it?”

“Sure, why not? Show it to me,” Patty said. Jay showed her. She was not impressed.

“Big deal. It’s just a bunch of zeros. What’s going on with Kala and Spenser? I could see them out the window. They suddenly look like best buds.”

“I have no idea. Some kind of plan, I guess. How’s the investigating going? You getting any dirt, any smoking guns or secrets?”

“It’s all right here,” Patty said, waving the papers in her hand. She wondered if it was wishful thinking on her part.