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

Wallace that we are letting Pete off the stand subject to recall later on.

Mercifully, the judge adjourns court early because one of the jurors has a medical issue. The judge tells Andy and Dylan that if it is not resolved today, he will have to move in one of the alternate jurors as a replacement. Andy seems unconcerned with that; he has no idea whether that particular juror, or the alternate, is favorable to our side.

I go back to Andy’s to pick up copies of trial material that I can go over and most likely get nowhere with. I get there before he does because he has to pick up Ricky at his friend Will Rubenstein’s house.

When Andy arrives, he starts to gather copies of the documents for me and also texts me a copy of the recording he made of the phone call from Mahler. I hadn’t heard it, but want to.

As he is doing this, Laurie calls. They speak briefly, then Andy says, “Hold on, let me put this on the speaker so Corey can hear it.” He does so. “Start over.”

Laurie’s voice comes through the speaker. “I went to Harold Marshall’s office; he’s a pediatrician. I told the receptionist that I was a private investigator and had to speak to him about a very important matter. So I sat for a half hour in the waiting room with a bunch of coughing and sneezing five-year-olds. I’ll be bringing those germs home with me.”

“Sounds like fun,” Andy says.

“It was. I was finally brought back to his office, and I told him why I was there. He claimed to have absolutely no idea what I was talking about.”

Andy nods. “He said he would deny it.”

“Well, he did a hell of a job denying it. He seemed bewildered and said I must have the wrong Harold Marshall. I confirmed his cell phone number and he started to act worried. He asked if he should call the police, that someone was out there impersonating him.”

“So you believed him?” I asked.

“I did. If he was lying, he’s the Brando of pediatricians.”

I don’t know what to make of Laurie’s talk with Harold Marshall.

I’ve been thinking about it all afternoon and basically getting nowhere. After dinner I talk about it with Dani; she’s become a frequent sounding board for me. It’s good to have someone to talk to other than Simon, someone who doesn’t fake looking interested in the hope of getting a biscuit.

“There are two ways of looking at it,” I say. “One is that Marshall was lying, that he’s just a good actor. He told Andy that if we tried to contact him, he would deny everything, and that’s what he did. That probably makes the most sense, despite Laurie’s feeling about it.”

“Then we’re back to where we started,” Dani says. “No way to bring in the blackmail scam.”

“Right. The other way to think about it is that Laurie was right. Marshall wasn’t lying; he truly had no idea what she was talking about it. His denial was real.”

“Where does that leave us?”

“That somebody is pulling the strings and has been pulling them all along. And that the whole idea of blackmail is wrong, that it was an attempt to lead us in the wrong direction.”

“A successful attempt.”

“For sure. We’ve been on the other end of those strings since the beginning. They keep leading us to dead ends. We are going where we’re told to go, and when we arrive, there’s nothing there.”

“So if it’s not blackmail, then it’s something else.”

“Which brings us back to square one. We’ve never been able to figure out what that something else is. If we have that, we’ll have everything. But we’re no closer to knowing that than we were at the beginning.”

“What about Richard Mahler?” Dani asks. “If Marshall wasn’t really part of a blackmail scheme, then why did he panic the way he did when Andy threatened him? Why did he commit suicide? And was he really the Rico that Lisa Yates referred to in that email?”

Those are all excellent questions, and I hadn’t thought of them. “To quote Chris Berman of ESPN,” I say, “‘Let’s go to the tape.’”

I take out my phone and play the conversation that Andy had with Mahler. Neither Dani nor I had heard it before.

Mahler: “Mr. Carpenter, I am going to have to insist that you stop bothering me. I will turn this over to my attorney if I have to. I am not interested in anything you or your client has to say.”

Andy: “How about Harold Marshall? Are you interested in anything he has to say? Because he tells a fascinating story. Actually, not to worry … you can read about it in the paper.”

Mahler: “I don’t know any Harold Marshall.”

Andy: “It took you all that time to come up with that? That’s the best you got?”

Mahler: “I’m hanging up now.”

Andy: “You do and you are throwing away your last chance to deal with this. Because the next person you will be talking to about it is a homicide cop. That won’t go well for you, Rico.”

Mahler: “What do you want?”

Andy: “First of all, I want you to know that we know everything. Once Marshall comes forward and they start to turn over more rocks, then everyone will know everything. The only thing we don’t know for sure is who is above you. I assume it’s Musgrove, but I can’t be sure. But here’s the thing, Rico … when something like this goes south, goes public, you don’t want to be the top guy. That’s a bad place to be. You want to be the guy who identified the top guy. That is the only way to play it, believe me.”

Mahler: “I was a nobody in this. I just did what I was told.”

Andy: “I know that. But you need to take care of yourself now.”

Mahler: “You don’t know Musgrove. He will come after me.”

Andy: “Not if he’s in custody.”

Mahler: “I don’t kill people.”

Andy: “Then you need to