Nothing But the Truth (16 page)

Ryan didn’t bother checking in with the receptionist when she returned to the courthouse, instead heading directly for the workroom outside of Langston’s courtroom. Jeff was having a late lunch, a working one, consisting of a sloppy burger and a giant order of fries. Was she the only one who assigned any value to eating right?

“If that’s the Edwards’s file you’re looking at, you should get ready to take some notes.”

Jeff wiped his chin. “Huh?”

“Brett Logan is bringing in a witness tomorrow morning.”

“On this case?”

Ryan shook her head. “Yes. Try and keep up.”

“What kind of a witness?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“We’ll find out for sure in the morning, but I think this individual may be involved in Mary Dinelli’s murder.”

“You
think
?”

“Watch your tone. We may be working on this case together, but I’m still your boss.”

“Sure,
boss
, no problem. I just wonder why you decided to have this little conversation with Logan on your own. It’s not like you’re known for your ability to charm information out of opposing counsel.”

“I guess your relationship with her isn’t as great as you think since she came to me not you.” Jeff looked sheepish, signaling Ryan’s words had the intended effect. “Get the case detectives in here this afternoon. I want to go over every detail of the case as we know it before Brett brings whoever this is in.”

“Do we know anything at all about the ‘witness’?” Jeff’s tone was deferential this time.

“No.”

“Maybe we should stake out Brett’s office?” His suggestion was offered tentatively, but just the same, Ryan couldn’t believe he said it out loud.

“Seriously, Jeff? What the hell are you thinking?”

“What?” He looked genuinely puzzled. In response to Ryan’s probing stare, he said, “Don’t tell me you’ve never employed a little ingenuity preparing for a trial.”

Ryan didn’t respond. She didn’t have to. Her exploits were legendary around the office. She was known for getting information when no one else could, often by treading the fine line between ethics and the end result. Her dogged pursuit of evidence and witnesses was the quality that got her noticed by her boss Leonard Duncan, and launched her up the career ladder. She didn’t have much direct use for those skills in her administrative capacity as super chief, but she encouraged the prosecutors under her supervision to be creative when it came to moving cases along.

Yet Ryan hadn’t even considered using some of her infamous methods on Brett Logan, and she didn’t want Jeff to either. Ryan flashed to her earlier excitement at the prospect of an evening alone with Brett. That wasn’t possible now, but she had no desire to burn the bridge she had stepped out onto.

She averted her eyes from his expectant gaze. “Here’s how we’re going to prepare. We’re going to review this file with the detectives until we can recite every detail from memory. Tomorrow morning, we’re going to meet with this ‘witness’ and then we’ll deal with the fallout, whatever that may be.”

As she buried herself in the reams of paper spread out on the desk, Ryan contemplated her own personal fallout: facing Brett Logan in the courtroom. On opposite sides.

Privacy was a relative concept at the courthouse. As Brett paced the front steps, she pondered where she could have a conversation alone with Kenneth Phillips. Before she took him in to meet with Ryan and the detectives assigned to the case, she planned to have a thorough discussion of his rights. She’d even prepared a written release of sorts, detailing the fact he wasn’t a suspect, the police weren’t looking for him, the crime he planned to confess to could carry the death penalty, and she couldn’t make any guarantees about the outcome. The release had no real legal value, but it might cover her ass if Kenneth suffered confessor’s remorse at some point in the future and decided to blame her for her role in what was sure to be a lengthy term in prison.

Brett glanced at her watch. None of this mattered if he didn’t show up. Her original plan had been to meet Kenneth and his mother at her office. After her lunchtime revelation to Ryan yesterday, she told Tony to get Kenneth and his mother back in her office so she could prepare them for this meeting. Tony had a lot of probing questions before he made that call.

“Are you sure you’re doing the right thing here?”

“What do you mean?” Brett’s response hadn’t been defensive. She was used to Tony digging deeper into the reasons behind her decisions. He had always been a valuable sounding board, never just an office manager.

“Well, no one suspects this kid was involved do they?”

“As far as I know, that’s correct. All signs point to Ross Edwards as the only suspect. Of course, I can’t get my hands on any discovery, including the police report, so for all I know they have a list of other suspects lined up to prosecute as conspirators once the Edwards prosecution is over.”

“And you don’t think it would be better to ride it out, just in case Kenneth never pops up on anyone’s radar?”

“Me, personally? Maybe so, but it’s not my choice. I’m not the one with guilt eating away at me and a cloud of uncertainty hanging over my head. Besides, he might enjoy some leniency by coming in before they come looking for him.”

“Yeah, but isn’t it your job to make sure he knows all his options?”

Any other lawyer might have bitten Tony’s head off for his challenging remarks, but Brett appreciated his frankness. She hit the send key on her computer and turned to face him. “You are absolutely right. I just forwarded you a draft of a release for Kenneth to sign. Look it over and let me know if you see any areas that need revision. I’ll go over it with him this afternoon.”

Tony hadn’t been able to reach Kenneth or his parents yesterday afternoon, despite numerous calls. Finally, this morning, she received a voice mail from Kenneth’s father, letting her know that they had received Tony’s messages about the meeting at the district attorney’s office, and they would meet her in front of the courthouse at eight. Brett had called back immediately, but despite her attempts to convey her preference for meeting at her office, she was unsuccessful at making contact.

So here she was, standing on the courthouse steps, people watching until Kenneth arrived. She rarely entered the building through the front entrance, choosing instead to walk through the lesser-known tunnel from the parking garage. Brett wondered, not for the first time, about what went through people’s minds when they selected clothes to wear to the courthouse. Once, early in her career, she told a female client to dress for trial like she was going to church. She was flabbergasted when the woman showed up in a skintight, backless dress and five-inch spiked heels. She no longer relied on her client’s judgment about appropriate attire, instead she offered very specific direction.

Brett glanced at her watch again. It was ten minutes till nine. Even if Kenneth showed up right now, she wouldn’t have time to talk to him before their scheduled meeting. She would have to call Ryan, but she didn’t have a clue whether to postpone the meeting or call it off altogether. She reached for her BlackBerry and dialed the number, deciding the right words would come once she heard Ryan’s voice. Before she hit send, she heard a timid voice behind her.

“Ms. Logan?”

Kenneth Phillips looked as lost as he did the day she met him. The only difference was that today he was alone.

“Hi, Kenneth. Where are your folks?”

He gave her a strange look. “My mom couldn’t take off work. Are we going to do this or what?” He sounded anxious.

Brett had been hoping to finally meet the elusive Mr. Phillips, but apparently, neither of Kenneth’s parents cared enough about his fate to make the trip to the courthouse. Even though Kenneth was an adult, she had hoped to have the frank discussion about his rights and options in the presence of his parents, if for no other reason than to have witnesses. She briefly contemplated making a call to encourage them to show up, but she was already going to have to tell Ryan they would be late. She sighed and reached for her BlackBerry once again.

“Ryan, it’s Brett Logan. I had something come up at the office so I’m going to be about half an hour late. No, no problems, just running a bit behind. See you at nine thirty. Yes, yes, we’ll be there.”

*

“Let me guess; they’re not coming”

Ryan put the phone down and faced Detective Kim Paulson. They were in the cramped DA workroom, waiting on Brett and her client to show up. Judge Langston had graciously offered the use of the jury room for their meeting, and Jeff reassigned his morning docket so he would be free for the meeting. Ryan had spent the entire afternoon the day before with Kim and her partner Mike Harwell going over every detail of the Edwards case. She hadn’t worked with either detective before, which wasn’t surprising since the suburb of Richardson had a fairly low murder rate compared to other areas of the county. Ryan had been impressed with Paulson’s commanding knowledge of the case, especially since Jeff informed her she had been assigned to work with Harwell just the week before, but Ryan had a hard time with Paulson’s steady stream of sarcastic remarks.

“They’re coming. They’ll just be a few minutes late.”

“You sure about that? I wouldn’t be surprised if they no show.” Detective Paulson rocked back and forth on her heels and stared at Ryan’s phone as if she could intuit Brett’s true intent.

“They’ll be here.” Ryan hoped she was right, but she had no desire to dwell on other possibilities. “You can cool your heels in the cafeteria downstairs if you want.” She opened a file folder and pretended to concentrate on the notes within, effectively dismissing the anxious detective.

Her ploy didn’t work. “That’s okay. I think I’ll stick around.” Paulson pulled up a chair and leaned in over Ryan’s shoulder. “What’s that you’re looking at?”

Ryan closed the file. She hadn’t been able to focus on the contents anyway. “I’m done. I’m going to head upstairs to take care of a few things before they get here.” She started toward the door and almost collided with Jeff and Paulson’s partner, Mike, as they entered the room. Ryan regarded Jeff. “You look out of breath.”

“They were outside, on the front steps. Now they’re in the law library.” Jeff delivered the proclamations between heavy breaths.

“They who?” Ryan was pretty sure she knew, but she wanted to hear it. While she waited for Jeff to respond, she grew annoyed at Kim Paulson who once again hovered over her shoulder, as if she were hanging on Jeff’s next words.

“Brett Logan and her client. Some young guy,” Mike Harwell answered for Jeff. They went into one of those tiny rooms in the law library downstairs.

Ryan was torn between being pissed at Jeff and relieved that Brett was at least on the premises, presumably with her client. Obviously, Jeff had honored only the letter of her words from the day before. He may not have staked out Brett at her office, but he was obviously watching her every move here at the courthouse this morning, with the assistance of Detective Harwell no doubt. If she found out it was more than that, she was going to tear him limb from limb.

“Tell me you didn’t try to listen in.”

“Gimme a break.”

“Tell me.” Ryan needed the words.

“We didn’t listen in.”

Ryan made her way to the door. “They’ll be here at nine thirty. No one, I mean no one, talks to them until I get back. Understood?” She waited till Jeff and the detectives nodded in assent, and then she left the room. She didn’t have anything to do while she waited, but she didn’t want to be trapped in that tiny room with them all frothing at the mouth. She felt oddly protective of Brett and her young client, no matter what he might have to say to her about his involvement in the case.

Ryan walked to the lobby area on the fifth floor and leaned over the railing. From here she would have a perfect view of anyone ascending the floors via the escalator. She hoped Brett wouldn’t think she was stalking her, but she wanted to catch her before they went into full on interview mode. She didn’t have a clue what she planned to say, but whatever it was, she didn’t want to say it in front of her team.

*

The tiny room in the law library was designed for one person. There were two such rooms; one held a video phone for conferencing with inmates at the jail, the other had only a regular phone. Brett drug an extra chair into the room with the regular phone, and she and Kenneth squeezed into place.

“I thought we were going to talk to the prosecutor.”

“We are. If that’s what you want to do, but before you make your decision, I want to talk to you about your rights and your options.” Brett pulled the paper she had prepared from her briefcase. She was partly relieved Kenneth was alone. It would give her an opportunity to assess whether the idea about turning himself in was his or his parents’. “I’m going to read this to you, then let you read it yourself. Then we can talk about it. Okay?” Kenneth nodded and Brett began to read the release she had drafted. When she finished, she handed the paper to him and watched while he read.

“Let’s talk about this.”

“I get it.” He picked up a pen from the desk, scrawled his name on the paper, and shoved it back toward Brett.