Page 72 of The Best Lawyer
He wasn’t going to explain. He didn’t say he couldn’t tell me. He said he won’t. He had something to hide. Something that made him panic. Something he didn’t want anyone to know. Not even me. Especially me. It could only mean one thing.
The ground didn’t feel real beneath my feet. I staggered backward. My stomach roiled again. This time, I doubled over and threw up in the grass.
“Cass, don’t.”
When he came to me this time, I pushed him away. I couldn’t stand to have him touch me. I couldn’t even stand to hear his voice. I got a hold of myself, stood upright, then turned to face him.
“I don’t know what to do,” I said, but it wasn’t really to him. With a single breath, I was a lawyer again. My entire body began to tingle as the full weight of that settled back in.
I was Katy’s lawyer.
“Cass …”
I put a hand up and took a step back.
“Don’t,” I said. “Don’t say another word.”
He lied about his alibi. He refused to tell me the truth about where he was when Tom Loomis was murdered. He gave the police false information. If they found out. If anyone found out …
The words pounded in my head like a drumbeat. I was Katy’s lawyer.
“Cass.”
“Do you even understand the position you’ve put me in?”
Maisy Carmichael wasn’t the only lead Detective DePaul had neglected to chase down.
I turned my back on Joe. I had no idea what to do and I was running out of time in which to do it. So was Katy. I only knew that I had to get as far away from my own brother as I could.
Chapter 25
I came hometo a brilliant orange and purple sunset, but barely looked at it. Instead, I headed for the fridge and pulled out a bottle of cheap moscato. I unscrewed the cap and downed as much as I could at once. Then went to the cupboard and pulled out a proper glass, filling it to the top. As I walked out onto the porch, I could already feel my head begin to float.
Good. But I was just getting started.
“Wanna talk about it?”
I was startled, not having seen Eric. He was half hidden around the side of the house, unsnarling fishing line.
“I don’t know if I can,” I said, hiccuping. Eric put the fishing pole down, leaned it against the house, and hopped up on the porch. He took the seat beside me.
“Sounds like you better.”
Could I? Joe wasn’t technically my client. But he was my brother. Eric had functioned as a non-lawyer assistant on this case from the beginning. Though I technically wasn’t violatingKaty’s confidence by filling him in, Eric had no ethical duty to keep what I told him to himself.
And yet, my head was full to bursting with questions and problems. More than I could keep to myself. I won’t deny that the wine made my ultimate decision to confide in him easier.
“Joe’s been lying,” I said.
Eric raised a brow and picked up the wine bottle between us. He drank some, then refilled my glass.
“You can’t repeat what I’m about to tell you,” I said.
He didn’t respond. Not a nod. Not a reassurance. He just stared out at the lake.
“He doesn’t have an alibi,” I said. The words thundered through me. Eric took another sip of wine straight from the bottle. Then he stood up and walked back inside. A minute later, he reemerged holding a brand-new bottle with a glass for himself.
As succinctly as I could, I told Eric everything I’d learned at Joe’s house. He nodded a few times, but waited until I was done before he said anything. When he did, it summed everything up perfectly.
