Page 119 of Two Kinds of Stranger

If this was any other case, I would let Kate do whatever she wanted. I wouldn’t interfere. But this was my family.

She wanted an excuse. She didn’t want to go down this road, but there was no other way to save her conscience. She wanted me to order her.

‘You don’t get it. If you’re a lawyer that gives a damn, then it’s never about you. It’s only about the client. I don’t want to tell you how to run your case,’ I said, ‘but I don’t think there’s another way to win this one. I can’t let anyone risk Christine and Kevin’s life. It’s not their decision either. Christine would rather spend the rest of her life in jail than let us do this, so don’t tell them. This is all on me. I’ll take the blame.’

Kate swallowed. I could see this was tearing her apart.

I said, ‘This is my family, or what’s left of it. You can play it straight and gamble their lives on a long shot you can’t make, or you can do it my way and save them.’

She stared at me for what felt like a long time. I watched as part of her broke. This case was going to take a piece of Kate. And that piece would be forever lost.

Without another word, Kate walked away toward the elevators, leaving Harry and I in the empty courthouse hallways.

‘Do you think she’ll do it?’ asked Harry.

I nodded.

‘Will it work?’

‘It has to. It’s the only shot we have for winning Christine and Kevin’s case.’

‘How are things going with Elly’s case?’ he asked.

‘I’ve got cards to play. We’ll see how they fall. I’ve had so much on my mind that I haven’t been able to figure out the last piece of the puzzle. How did Elly’s stranger get into her apartment and poison those water bottles? I just can’t work it out.’

‘There was no sign of a break-in, right?’

‘Right.’

‘Elly had her keys the whole time. What about James’s keys?’

‘Two sets were listed in the inventory in the apartment. I’m guessing one was James’s, maybe the other was Harriet’s or it was just a spare set.’

‘So there’s no way he could have gotten into the apartment without us knowing about it?’

‘Correct,’ I said, and stood. Stretched my neck and back.

‘We’re idiots,’ said Harry, smiling.

‘Tell me something I don’t know.’

‘No, no, you’re not hearing me. There’s no way the killer could’ve gotten into the apartment without us knowing about it.With all the shit going on, you’ve been thinking about that as a question, instead of thinking about it as the answer,’ he said.

My eyes flared with an idea. Same idea lingering behind Harry’s smile.

‘If he couldn’t get into the apartment, that means he didn’t get into the apartment,’ I said.

‘Now you’ve got it,’ said Harry.

I thanked him, took out my cell phone, dialed a number and ran down the hallway, heading for the elevators.

47

Logan

Ten after five in Manhattan. Rush hour. Logan stood at a crowded bus stop on First Avenue, sipping a coffee and staring diagonally across the street, at the five-story redbrick apartment building on the corner of First and East Fifth Street. Only two sides of the building had windows, the east and the south sides, and from his position at the bus stop he had a view of both. The other sides of the building buttressed the rest of the block. The east face had a pizza shop on the ground floor and an old dressmaker’s store–Logan saw the mannequins and dressmaker’s dolls in the window. On the south side of the building was the entrance to the apartments on the upper floors and a wrought-iron fire escape that went down as far as the second floor.

Logan watched the windows in the building. Only a few lights were on. Two on the third floor on the east side. One on the fourth floor on the south side. The rest of the building was in darkness.