Animal Instinct Rosenfelt, David (free books to read .TXT) 📖

talks; I hope it’s just gas. Finally, Wallace speaks: “Bail will be set at one million dollars. Defendant will wear a GPS monitor and will be limited to a fifty-mile radius.”

He adjourns the session with a pounding of the gavel.

“One million dollars? It might as well be a billion,” I say to Andy. “Can we negotiate it down to something I can afford?”

“Like what?”

“Five grand?”

“Seems unlikely. Let me see what I can do.”

The bailiffs are on the way over to get me, so Andy gets up and says something to them, which I cannot hear. They pause in place as Andy goes over to the court clerk. He’s there for less than five minutes and comes back.

“The bailiffs are going to take you in the back, and you’ll get the GPS monitor.”

“What happened with the bail?”

“I put it up.”

“A million dollars?”

Andy shakes his head. “No, a hundred grand. Ten percent is all that’s required.”

“You shouldn’t have done that.”

“If I didn’t, Laurie would have skinned me alive.”

“You can never take credit for doing something nice for someone?”

He shrugs. “Not if I want to preserve my reputation.”

DANI is waiting for me at my house when Andy drops me off.

We had spoken from the jail on the phone, but it was a quick conversation. I didn’t call to tell her the result from the arraignment because I was heading directly home.

After a long, satisfying hug, she asks, “Did you get bail or did you escape? I’m fine either way, but if we’re going to go on the run, I really need to get my hair cut first. And I’ll need running shoes, and a fake mustache, and—”

I interrupt, “I made bail, but get your hair cut just in case I decide we should make a break for it.”

“How much was your bail? I’m sorry if I’m being nosy, but that’s a question I ask all my boyfriends.”

“A million dollars.”

“That’s going to leave you a little strapped for cash, no?”

“Andy put up the ten percent.”

“This is the same Andy who’s working your case for nothing? The one you told me was a complete pain in the ass?”

“He has his moments. Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“To pick up Simon.”

“You came for me before Simon? I’m truly flattered.”

We don’t talk much on the way to Laurie and Andy’s, but I do ask, “Aren’t you going to ask me if I did it? You know I couldn’t stand Kline, and that I thought he was getting away with murder.”

“Corey, if I was going to ask you if you did it, I wouldn’t be here to ask you if you did it.”

When we arrive, Laurie, Andy, Marcus, Sam Willis, Simon, Tara, and Sebastian are here to greet us. It’s a welcome show of support, even if Sebastian is sound asleep. Nobody seems surprised that I’ve brought Dani along. They know her to be smart, and I also suspect that they think our relationship is further along than I am generally willing to admit.

The first thing I do, after I pet Simon, is ask Andy to come into the kitchen so I can talk to him alone. Once we get there, I say, “You know I’ve always considered you a pain in the ass.”

“Come on, stop … I promised myself I wouldn’t cry.”

“Thank you for proving my point. But seriously, what you did today, what you are doing, is above and beyond. And you can’t lay it off on Laurie. You are doing it, and I appreciate it.”

“I’m happy to do it. Except for the part about actually doing it.”

I know what he means; he’s been unsuccessfully trying to retire from lawyering for a long time. “But we have to talk about money,” I say. “And I don’t mean the bail, because you’re going to get that back.”

“Good. Because if you skip bail, I will hunt you down if it takes me forever.”

That draws a smile from me; Andy as a hunter of anything is a funny image. “You know what I mean; defenses are expensive, and I don’t have that kind of money.”

He frowns, as if annoyed and frustrated that we have to have this conversation. “Okay, here’s the situation. I’m just going to say this once, so please refer back to it every time you consider bringing this up again. Laurie and I have more money than we will ever need. After this trial, if there is a trial, we will still have more money than we will ever need.

“You and Laurie are on the same team; you’re friends. You and I are friends, in a can’t-stand-each-other sort of way. She and I take friendship pretty seriously.”

“But…”

“No buts. Every second you spend worrying about this is a second you’re not spending clearing yourself. Much as I like to beat the hell out of Dylan Campbell, I want you and Laurie and Marcus and me … and Simon … to clear you before this gets into court.”

“Fair enough. More than fair enough. But I thank you, and I owe you, big-time.”

“One more thing. Since I am now your lawyer, and you are in legal jeopardy, our relationship has changed.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you need to listen to my wise counsel, so as to prevent you from making your situation worse.”

“I understand.”

“Good. Are we done here?”

“We’re done here.”

We go into the other room to discuss our strategy. “I’ve been thinking about the situation, which may not come as a surprise,” I say. “But I think there are certain assumptions we can make. One is that whoever was behind the murder of Lisa Yates was also behind the murder of Gerald Kline.”

“What makes you so sure of that?” Laurie asks.

“Don’t misunderstand; I’m not saying that Kline was not involved in the Yates killing. I would not be the least surprised if he was. But there is someone else, above Kline on whatever totem pole we’re dealing with, who is pulling the strings.

“The next assumption is that my confronting Kline at his house the other night ultimately led to his death. Not