Page 73 of The Best Lawyer
“Son of a bitch.”
I wasn’t quite drunk yet, but getting there. “He won’t tell me where he was. Flat out refused.”
Eric rubbed the bridge of his nose. “He could be charged, Cass. Obstruction. Giving a false statement to the cops. Perjury. I can’t fix this.”
“Welcome to my hell. But don’t you see? That isn’t even theworst of it.”
He gave me a sidelong glance. I couldn’t sit still anymore. I started pacing up and down the porch. “Quick’s using Joe as a motive. We knew he would. I was prepared for that. Both Joe and Katy have been open about their affair. About the fact that Tom knew about it. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“I don’t understand why he’d lie,” Eric said. “Unless …”
He wouldn’t say the words. I couldn’t bring myself to either.
“It’s not like he covered for her,” Eric continued. “We know she never called him the day of the murder. Her phone was searched.”
“Eric. Katy’s my client. Joe … my brother … the man she was cheating on her husband with. He lied about his alibi the night Tom was murdered. That’s exculpatory. If it were anybody other than Joe, I’d pounce on it. I would have skewered him on cross-examination and made sure the jury doubted him too. Only …”
“It’s Joe.” He finished my thought. Then Eric got to his feet and paced right along with me. “One thing is true. DePaul has been sloppy all the way through.”
“That’s what I’m trying to say. My whole defense is structured around everything Sharon DePaul missed. She didn’t try to track down Maisy Carmichael. She didn’t conduct any meaningful interviews with the people Tom was close to.”
“She took Joe’s word for it when he told her where he was,” Eric said. He smacked his palm against one of the porch posts. “What was he thinking? Sharon could have and should have asked to search his phone. If he had it on him, she might have seen Joe wasn’t where he said he was.”
“I don’t know what to do,” I said. But that wasn’t true. What ripped me apart was knowing exactly what Ihadto do. “I’ve been so stupid. I knew it. I knew I never should have agreed to take this case no matter how many waivers Katy signed.”
“Sheagreed to this,” Eric said. “She went into it with open eyes. You told her that a conflict might arise. She wanted you anyway. She can’t come after you for this.”
I shook my head. “I’m not worried about her coming after me. I’m worried about her being convicted, knowing I have a way to give the jury reasonable doubt.”
“By throwing your own brother under the bus,” he said. “Cass, you can’t.”
“I know that. I want to kill him. I want to kill them both. They begged me. I did thisforJoe. I did it for Emma. It wasn’t about Katy at first.”
“Are you going to tell her?” Eric asked. “Katy? Do you think she knows about Joe’s lie? Cass, there’s no evidence tying Joe to the scene of that crime. He’s never even been in Tom Loomis’s house, has he?”
“Not based on physical evidence, no. But I don’t even know what to believe anymore. I can’t think of a single reason why Joe would lie about his alibi unless he did it to protect himself or Katy somehow. Nothing else makes sense.”
Eric let out a bitter laugh. “Thatdoesn’t even make sense though, Cass. If she’d called him … let’s talk this through. Let’s say Joe killed Tom. Let’s say he just lost his mind and killed the bastard. So what, he goes over to the house and slashes his throat? If he lied about his alibi to protect Katy, why would he leave her there holding the murder weapon?”
“I don’t know. And if Katy really did kill Tom and Joe knew about it, what, beforehand?”
“That doesn’t make sense either,” he said. “If Joe was going to kill someone. If he had a plan in mind, he’s smart enough not to do it this way. And again, there isn’t a shred of evidence that Joe was even there.”
“Unless he’s trying to protect somebody else,” I said. “I don’t know what to think. What to believe. I just know that these are questions Sharon DePaul should have been asking. And I know I’m a complete fool for agreeing to get involved in this. Now I’m stuck. The judge is never going to let me withdraw. I’d have to explain myself. Eric … this is a mess. A hoary mess.”
“Stop,” he said. “For right now, just stop. You’ve got time to figure this out.”
“I have two days,” I said. “Monday morning, we’re supposed to put on a defense.”
“All the more reason to sleep on it for now. That’s an order.” He waved the second bottle of wine at me. We took our time, but we finished the bottle between us. Then he took me to bed. Somehow, I managed to sleep like a rock. But when I woke, I could tell Eric hadn’t. The bed beside me was empty.
I threw on a robe and went downstairs. I found him back out on the porch tossing dog food to the swan family. He had that look on his face, deep in thought. I leaned against the porch railing. I wanted to get on the boat and just head to the middle of the lake and stay there.
“You don’t have to withdraw,” Eric said, never taking his eyes off the water. “You haven’t done anything wrong yet.You’ve got no duty to share this information with Addison Quick or Sharon DePaul.”
“But none of that serves Katy. You know, the person who’s my actual client.”
“Just keep doing what you’re doing,” he said. “You put a safeguard in place, didn’t you? Jeanie?”
