Page 109 of The Best Lawyer
“And Katy? Why not kill her too?” Sharon asked.
Jenna shrugged. “A.C. swore she never woke up. Or he didn’t stick around long enough to wait for her to. He ran out of there. He told me he doesn’t remember dropping the knife. I swear. When I called 911 … when I talked to you that first day, I thought Katy was guilty. I couldn’t believe A.C. was capable of something like this.”
“But she knew when she took the stand,” I muttered. “She knew every day after that first one. She told him where to find the key.”
“She did more than that,” Eric said. “You were right that Tom told Jenna about it early on when she started working for him. She claims she never had to use it and had almost forgotten about it until A.C. convinced her to go along with this scheme. Jenna took the key from the brick and gave it to him. She claimsshe didn’t ask any other questions after she told him when the Loomises would be out of the house.”
“He wore gloves, a mask, a ski cap,” Jeanie said. “The whole burglar kit.”
“Which is why there were no prints or other physical evidence of him being there,” I said.
“Maybe twenty minutes ago, Jenna told Sharon where she could find the clothes A.C. was wearing. Jenna kept them as an insurance policy. Can you believe that? She buried them in a plastic bag under some rose bushes at her mother’s house. There’s a crew out digging them up as we speak. This is locked, Cass.”
“I can’t listen to it anymore,” Jeanie said. “I’ll head over to Emma’s. See if I can get some dinner down her and Katy.”
My own stomach started to growl. Ever vigilant, Eric grabbed me by the hand. “Come on,” he said. “There’s nothing else we can do here. It’s time to let Sharon and Addison do their jobs.”
We walked out of there. Eric left word that if DePaul needed to talk to either one of us, she’d know where to find us.
As I approached my car, I noticed another car parked behind it, boxing me in. Tallon Shipley sat behind the wheel.
“Cass,” Eric said.
“It’s okay,” I told him. “I’ll meet you at home.” Eric gave Tallon a withering look, then split off to walk to his own car.
Slowly, I walked up to Tallon’s windshield.
“Talk about pulling a rabbit out of a hat,” she said. “I have toadmit, I’m kicking myself that I didn’t figure it out first. An obituary?”
I nodded.
“That was a hell of a risk though,” she said. “Those initials could have been a coincidence.”
I spun my keys around my finger. “They could have.”
“But you knew your client was innocent this whole time,” Tallon said, not bothering to mask her sarcasm.
“I knew how to do my job, that’s all. Which is more than I can say for Detective DePaul on this one.”
She let out a whistle. “Best lawyer in town. I have to admit. Up until a couple of hours ago, I thought she did it. And I thought your brother was involved. I happen to think I’m a pretty good judge of character. Because I think that’s what you thought too.”
I stayed silent. Tallon waited a moment, then put her phone on the dashboard. Not surprisingly, she’d been recording our conversation. She reached over and hit the stop button.
“Ten minutes,” she said. “On the record. No gimmicks. No gotchas. Just you telling your story about how you solved it. It’ll make a hell of a final episode.”
“I have a feeling you’ve got something planned for that already. The world still doesn’t know who you really are. You’re the story, Tallon. I’m not.”
She laughed. “I had to at least ask. I tip my hat to you, Cass. That was some impressive investigative work you did.” The sarcasm left her voice. She extended her hand to shake mine.
“Thank you,” I said, accepting her hand. “Yours was impressive too. Lissa Daughtry? The nurse at the hospital?”
Tallon smiled. “How’d you figure that out?”
“It’s a small town,” I said. “We’re all only about three degrees of separation here at most. You told me you were good at your job. I can see that. I can’t say I like the way you went about it. Dragging my family into it was unnecessary.”
“Really? Seems to me they’re the ones who dragged you. I’m starting to think being an only child has its perks.”
This got a genuine laugh out of me. Tallon reached into her glove box and pulled out a business card. She handed it to me. “In case you ripped up the last one. I wouldn’t mind working with you someday. I’d love to have you as a friend of the show. My legal pundit.”
