Page 85 of The Best Lawyer
“And he’s in his forties and she’s subordinate to him.”
“The bosses find out. Tallon maybe raises a stink. Tom’s got the choice to leave on his own or get fired.”
“They expunged his personnel file and everybody signed NDAs, including Tallon.”
“Why come back here now?” Miranda asked. “Why insert herself into the story? Somebody else is bound to put two and two together from his old station. I’m surprised they haven’t already.”
“Because she’s using a different name,” I said. “We’veseen her face to face. But who else has? She doesn’t put her picture up on the podcast website or on the show art itself, does she?”
Miranda pulled out her phone. She opened it to her podcast app. The cover art forTallon of Justicejust showed the eagle with the scales of justice and a microphone in its talons.
“And she doesn’t know Maisy Carmichael was following her around back in the day, much less taking photos of her. Everybody back in Detroit knows her as Theresa Sheffield, right?” A quick browser search cross-referencing WDTN had yielded Tallon’s full legal name.
“Can you talk to them?” Jeanie asked. “Can one of you have a sit-down with her station manager out there? He’s already on your extended witness list. Quick can’t claim surprise.”
“He withheld information from me once,” I said. “Gave me this useless redacted personnel file. It doesn’t matter who signed what NDA. Tom was murdered!”
“Once again,” Eric fumed. “This was all Sharon DePaul’s job.”
“We can use it,” Jeanie said. “Is Maisy willing to testify?”
“You don’t want her to,” I said. “Jeanie, she was mentally unstable during this time period. If nobody will confirm Tom’s relationship with Tallon outside of these photos, it’s a dead end. And we’re just speculating that Tallon was the reason Tom was forced to resign. Quick will never let any of this in without a fight.”
“You need Tallon herself,” Miranda said. “You put her on the stand and she can’t lie about her relationship with Tom. And if she tries, you impeach her with those photos, Jeanie. You don’t even have to work hard with the judge to get her on. Quick’s already trying to call her on rebuttal. He’ll think you’re doing him a favor.”
I got up from the couch and walked over to the window. I felt sick to my stomach. Everything the rest of them were saying was true. This revelation about Tallon was a bombshell. It introduced someone else who may have had a motive to kill Tom. At the very least, it underscored the flaws in Detective DePaul’s investigation. Eric was right. She should have tracked all of this down.
And yet, there was that one glaring lie eating at me. Why had my brother lied about where he was the night Tom was murdered? For Joe’s sake, it was a good thing Sharon had bungled this investigation so badly. If she’d been thorough and tried to confirm hisalibi …
“I just don’t know,” Jeanie said. “I’d like to talk to Tom’s boss in Detroit though. I’ll try to place a call tonight yet.”
“I could …” I started.
“Cass, no,” she said. “If I’m going to call this guy to the stand, I need to handle this. You’ve done more than enough. I know it’s useless for me to try to pry loose what’s going on with you. I’m grateful for the information you both got from Maisy. But let me do my job. I’ve got Miranda’s help.”
The front door opened as Emma keyed herself in. She was still wearing work clothes: a purple suit and heels.
“Perfect timing,” Jeanie said. “Did you find her?”
Emma shook her head. “She’s gone. Tallon’s disappeared. The front desk at her hotel said she checked out before noon today. Settled her bill. She’s not answering her cell phone. I’ve left like ten messages.”
“So did I,” I said. Between the two of us, we’d likely have overflowed Tallon’s voice mailbox.
“She’s got to have figured out we’re on to her,” Eric said.
“On to what?” Emma asked. Eric filled her in with the photos and Maisy’s story. Emma brightened until Jeanie went through all the logistics and evidentiary issues she faced bringing any of this up in court.
“I’ll keep trying,” Emma said. “She’s still invested in this case. She’s got something to lose now. Her podcast is going viral. Her subscriber numbers shot up three hundred percent in just the last twenty-four hours.”
“What’s her endgame?” Eric said.
“Couldn’t she get into trouble?” Miranda asked. “Is this obstruction or something?”
“Unless she’s the one who slit Tom’s throat, Tallon hasn’t done anything illegal. Slimy and unethical? Sure. But I don’t see a crime in just the fact that she’s holding herself out as some impartial podcaster.”
“You asked me how it’s going,” Jeanie said, her tone sober. “Quick’s got more than we do right now. I’m worried. The best angle is to show how incomplete DePaul’s investigation was. But what the jury really needs is somebody else to blame. Somebody else we can plausibly pin Tom’s murder on. Tallon is a good lead. A great one. But we have no proof she was in that house that morning. Unless we’ve got a witness who outright lied, I don’t like Katy’s odds.”
Her statement hit me in the chest like a gunshot. Unless someone outright lied …
