Outlaws

by Tim Green

  A thinking man wouldn't make a lot of noise. A thinking man would walk away quietly and come back when it was cool. Cody Grey was here almost every night as far as Joe could tell. He came about nine. He stayed late, but then went home. They worked in Maddy's study. Tomorrow, Joe would be waiting for him. Cody would arrive, and it would be dark. Joe would sneak up behind him, quietly. Joe would leave him in a bloody heap on Maddy's own doorstep. Maddy would worry about him. She'd come to the door and take a look. She'd see him, her boyfriend, smashed to smithereens and oozing blood all over.

  Then she would call the police, and they would file a report. Maddy would cry. She would think it was him but wouldn't have a shred of proof. The cops wouldn't care, not as long as he didn't kill him. Grey was going to the can anyway. Then, after he'd gotten his money and was ready to split town, he'd call Maddy and tell her that it was him. Then he'd tell her that he'd be coming for her some day soon. Not too soon, but soon. That would give her something to think about. He knew how she liked to think about things like that. Shit, she couldn't even handle a crank phone call. Joe smiled wickedly and started to back away quietly, looking around nervously through coked-up, bulging eyes. He made a promise to himself. He would be back.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  When the alarm went off at six-thirty, Cody had no idea where he was. Then he saw Madison lying there next to him, reaching sleepily to turn off the alarm clock. Cody felt sick. He was sure that she was going to regret what had happened between them last night, but when she turned to face him, she gave him the warm, sunny smile a bride gives to her husband on the morning after their wedding night. "Good morning," she said with a little yawn.

  "Hi," Cody said, leaning over to kiss her lightly on the lips.

  "I'm glad that wasn't a dream," Madison said.

  "Me too," Cody said in a husky voice, running his fingers through her soft hair. "But it would have been a hell of a dream if it was."

  "I like those kind of dreams," she said.

  It was so strange for Cody to see her like this, with her guard down. She wasn't a lawyer, she was a beautiful woman waking up on a cool fall morning, happy with herself and the man she's slept with. It was so simple, but their lives were so complex.

  "You have to go," she said sadly. "I don't want Jo-Jo to see you. He's not ready for that, yet."

  "Yet?" Cody said hopefully.

  "Yeah," she said, the comers of her mouth turning up just a bit, "I think one day it will be fine. It may take some time, if you want that...."

  Cody looked deeply into her eyes. "I want that more than anything."

  "Except being acquitted," she said seriously.

  "If I can't get acquitted, I can't be with you," he reminded her. "So I guess I'm wishing for both at the same time. It gives you some extra incentive."

  "Is that why you came?" she said lightly.

  He looked at her lovingly, without speaking for a moment.

  "I don't know why I came," he said, as though he was searching for an answer. "But I know that it was the best thing I've ever done. I know I needed you. 1 needed you more than I ever needed anyone, and you were there. It was like ... It was like it was meant to be."

  "Maybe it was," she said dreamily. "Maybe both of us have suffered long enough. Maybe good people end up together in the end."

  "You think I'm a good person?" he said.

  She looked intently at him and said, "I know you are, Cody. If you weren't, I wouldn't be here with you like this."

  "Well," he said happily, getting out of bed and pulling on his jeans, "I'm off."

  "Cody?" she said, sitting up straight in bed.

  "Huh?" he said, looking down at her.

  "There's something that I want to tell you about."

  "Okay."

  "I don't want to get your hopes up," she began hesitantly, "but I may have found a man linked to the gun used to kill Board--"

  "What?"

  "Don't get too excited," she told him. "Nothing is for sure. It's just a possibility."

  She told him about Yusef Williams and his claim that he saw the man responsible for the killings in his own case.

  "He was with Jenny?" Cody said, his face showing bewilderment.

  "I think so," Madison told him. "If Yusef is telling me the truth, and he's right, then Jenny may somehow be involved with this guy. The same caliber bullet that killed Board was found in the wall of the garage where Yusef's friends were murdered. And a twenty-two is not a gang's weapon of choice. I'm having Alice Vreland, from the coroner's office, do a comparison of the slugs today. It may be nothing. Yusef may be mistaken, or it may just be a coincidence. I've got Marty trying to find out who this guy is. He got the license plates yesterday."

  Cody sat down on the edge of Madison's bed, still bare to his waist, and stared off into space.

  "The thing 1 can't figure," Madison said, "if I'm right about this whole thing, is what Jenny's connection to Board's death could possibly be."

  'The money," Cody said suddenly.

  "What money?"

  Cody looked at her and said, 'That night at the Green Mesquite, Board said something to me about finding my wife's money."

  "What did he mean?"

  "I don't know," Cody said thoughtfully. "I'd forgotten about it. I guess because it didn't make any sense to me at the time. But if Jenny had something to hide ... I just can't believe she would be involved with someone who would have Board killed. I just can't believe it."

  "I hate to say this," Madison said, "but after yesterday, I'd believe anything about Jenny. And if she had something to hide, that may explain her link to the killer. It would certainly explain how he got a hold of your turf shoes."

  Cody winced and shook his head, "Yeah, you're right. I guess it's just hard for me to believe someone I've known for so long could be that bad, someone I was, or am, married to. But after yesterday ... She wants me to go to jail. I just don't know why."

  Madison put her hands on his shoulders and massaged them gently. Cody lifted his hand and rested it on hers.

  "Maybe it's not that she wants you to go to jail but that she'd rather it be you than her. We don't really know anything yet," Madison said. "I just wanted you to know what's going on."

  "If the bullets match," Cody said, "What will you do?"

  'Try to find the gun," Madison said.

  "Will you tell the police?" Cody asked.

  "I don't know," Madison replied. "It would be hard to get the police to get a warrant to search this guy's place based on this convoluted theory and a chance citing by Yusef Williams. It depends on who this guy is. If I could get one of my investigators to snoop around and make sure this guy has the gun, then I'd could get the police to act for sure. Besides, if the bullets match and we don't have the gun, I'm afraid it won't help you any. If we push the issue, Rawlins will just use it to link you to the Yusef Williams case."

  "But that wouldn't make sense," Cody said. "Why the hell would I be involved in something like that?"

  Madison shrugged and said, "I know that, I'm just telling you what Van will do. Remember, he's promised his voters a conviction. But listen, that's enough of this. We've got a trial to think about. Let's not get too immersed in this until we find out who this guy is and if there's a match. You'd better get going now."

  Cody stood up and shook his head, 'This whole thing is unbelievable."

  "It is what it is. ... By the way, let's make sure we keep a professional distance in court. The last thing we need is the press, or Rawlins, speculating about a romance."

  "No problem," Cody said, pulling on his shirt. "When I walk out of that door, you're Madison McMean, ruthless lawyer and jock-hater. But seriously, 1 hope your Alice and Marty can find something, Madison. 1 know you're the best, but this whole trial is killing me. That Hauffler swearing he saw me, and Jenny killing my alibi ..."

  Madison sighed and said, "1 know. But it will work out."

  Madison saw Cody to the door. They kissed each other before Cody went
out to his truck. The phone was ringing. Madison stopped waving and shut the door. She picked it up in the foyer.

  "Sorry to call so early," Marty said.

  Madison felt a wave of guilt about Cody.

  "That's okay, Marty," she said as normally as possible. "I was just about to wake Jo-Jo."

  "I didn't want to call you late," Marty explained, 'but a friend of mine at the sheriff's office called last night. He ran that license plate. It's not registered to a person. It's in the name of a corporation called Gem Star Technology. The address is a downtown office building on Eighth Street. It's where the offices of Ridley & Shaw are. This morning I called a buddy of mine who works over there, and he couldn't tell me a thing about it. He never heard of Gem Star. So, what do you want me to do? What is this all about, anyway?"

  "Marty, can you hang on?" she said. "1 want to tell you, but I've got to let Abby out and make sure Jo-Jo is up and going. Hang on."

  A few minutes later Madison was back on the phone in the study, with the door shut. She told Marty what Alice had said about comparing the bullets.

  "So you think this guy has something to do with both murders?" Marty asked.

  "I want to find out who this guy is," Madison replied. "I can't say for sure he's involved with both until Alice checks the ballistics. If it is the same gun, then it's almost certain this guy is somehow involved in both killings if he wasn't the killer himself."

  "So what should I do?" Marty asked.

  "Find out who this guy is, but that's all," she told him. "If this guy really is the killer, then he's dangerous, Marty, so you steer clear of him. I've got Alice working on getting those bullets and doing a comparison of them today. If they match, and we find the gun, then it might clear both Cody and Yusef. Hell, Marty, if we can find the .11 and this guy, this trial will be over."

  "I just can't see Jenny having a guy killed to frame Cody so she could divorce him," Marty said. "Where's the connection? It just doesn't fit."

  "What about this," she said. "What about her having Board killed for something to do with her. He was investigating them both, wasn't he? I assume they filed together. And those files were destroyed by someone. Why would Jenny's boyfriend bother to destroy those files if it wasn't to protect her?"

  "No," Marty said. "It doesn't fit. Board didn't care about Jenny, and she knew it. Cody was taking the fall himself, one hundred percent. He was the one Board wanted, not Jenny."

  Madison didn't want to say anything about Jenny's money. She had no way to explain how she'd gotten that knowledge. Instead she was silent for a time before saying, "Maybe we were right all along, Marty. Maybe this guy is from Lopez's organization. Maybe they sent him to get close to Jenny so he could get Cody's shoes and set him up to take the attention away from Lopez. Maybe Yusef's friends were just part of another deal that involved Lopez."

  "I don't know," Marty said. "But it sounds like the most plausible scenario yet. Otherwise, there's just no reason for this guy to kill Jeff Board, none that I can imagine."

  "Well," Madison said. "We'll know a lot more after we find out who this guy is."

  "So, that's what I'll do," Marty said. "I'll work on it today and see what I can find. Hey, can you pick Cody up for me? I told him I'd drive him."

  "Sure," Madison said.

  "Are you going to tell him about what's going on?" Marty asked.

  "Yes," Madison said. "I'll tell him today, Marty, and thanks, for everything."

  "Hey, I'm enjoying this," he said. "I may end up being the hero in this whole thing."

  She laughed and said, "I hope so, Marty. But don't do anything risky. If you find where this guy lives, call me, I'll get one of the investigators on it."

  "Don't worry about me, I'll call you tonight," Marty said enthusiastically, and then he hung up. One thing was certain. If there was a little danger, he wasn't going to shy away from it. He could see it now,- finding this guy out and then running to the firm to get someone else to finish the job, a typical tax lawyer, afraid of his own shadow. Madison's plea only made him more determined to see this thing through to the end.

  That morning Van Rawlins called his final witnesses to the stand. They were a couple of psychologists who testified that violent crime among professional athletes has increased, particularly athletes at the tail end of their careers or after their careers were over. The tendency toward violence among these men was undeniable. While this went on, Marty was asking everyone he could find in the office building on Eighth Street just where the offices of Gem Star Technology were. The security guard in the lobby said there was no such business listed there. Marty asked people coming in and going out, but no one had heard of it. He had really given up hope and decided that the whole thing was a ruse,- that Gem Star didn't exist but had only been used for the vehicle registration. Outside, he saw a U. S. Postal truck that had just pulled up. Marty dug into his briefcase and found some stationery from his firm. He quickly folded a piece of paper and put it inside an envelope, then scribbled the Gem Star address on it. The postman was pulling mail out of the back of his tiuck and stashing it in his bag. Marty walked up to him as if he was in a hurry and handed him the letter.

  "Could you just drop this for me?" Marty said. "I'm in a hell of a hurry, and it's real important."

  The mailman looked at him out of the comer of his eye.

  "Get yourself a damn stamp and put it in the box," he snarled.

  "Oh, I see," Marty bumbled, "I forgot the stamp, but don't you think you could just take this up with all your other--"

  The mailman stopped what he was doing and turned to face Marty. He looked up at him and squinted in the late morning sunlight.

  "Look," the mailman said, "what do I look like?"

  "You're from New York, right?" Marty said in a friendly way.

  "Yeah, I am!" the mailman said. "And what's it to you? This ain't no charity outfit. This is the damn post office. If you want it to get there so bad, why don't you take it up yourself? You got two good legs."

  "Well, if you put it that way, I will," Matty huffed.

  "Good!" the mailman said, turning back to his mail.

  "Uh, just tell me where this office is, will you?" Marty said.

  The mailman turned his head, grabbed the letter from Marty, and squinted to read it.

  "Gem Star, that's the third floor, last door on the left," he said, and thrust the letter back at Marty.

  "Thanks," Marty said and disappeared.

  He found a door where the mailman said Gem Star would be. But there was no indication on the door and nothing in the hallway to suggest that it was the correct door. Marty took a deep breath and walked in. He could tell by the look on her face that the thirty-something black woman behind the desk wasn't used to many visitors. Marty simply handed her one of his cards and sat himself down on the small leather sofa against the wall. There was only one other door in the room besides the one he'd come in through, so he knew that Jenny's boyfriend was probably just on the other side.

  "I'm Marty Cahn. 1 have an appointment," he said, looking expectantly at the secretary as though he'd set up this appointment three weeks ago.

  "You have an appointment with Mr. Moss?" she said.

  "Yes, Mr. David Moss," Marty said, holding out the leather dayplanner he'd produced from his briefcase as proof.

  "You mean, Mr. William Moss?" Clara said, mystified.

  "Isn't this Ridley & Shaw?" Marty said, as if he'd made some terrible mistake.

  Clara shook her head. "No, this is the office of Gem Star Technology. I didn't know Mr. Moss had an appointment. Let me buzz him."

  "Oh, no, no," Marty said, holding up his hands for her to put down the phone. "I don't have an appointment with William Moss, I have an appointment with David Moss. He's an attorney with Ridley & Shaw."

  'You can't get into Ridley & Shaw from the third floor. You have to go in through the second or the fourth," she explained to him.

  "I am so sorry to have troubled you," Marty said, standing
hastily to go. "Thank you for your help."

  When he was gone, Striker buzzed Clara.

  "Who was that in there?" he asked.

  "Oh," she said, "just some man who thought he was in Ridley & Shaw. I sent him back down."

  "Oh," Striker said, then clicked off.

  Rawlins rested his case before the noon adjournment. Madison had her first day's witnesses there at one o'clock. She began to meticulously construct Cody's tenuous defense. She began by calling Patti Short, Jeff Board's boss, to clarify the bizarre nature of the Ricardo Lopez investigation, suggesting that Board may have been involved with that dubious figure. Next, Madison had a detective from the El Paso police department lay out exactly who Ricardo Lopez was and establish that he was certainly capable of orchestrating a conspiracy of the type Madison was suggesting had taken place. It was important that Madison fill in all the details of exactly how and why someone would go to such trouble to frame Cody Grey. Her plan was to establish her theory, then focus on Cody's own story.

  Probably tomorrow she would call the bartender who served Cody to suggest that he was too drunk to plan out and commit the kind of crime that had been committed. After that she would build Cody's character up with testimony from members of the communities in which he had volunteered his services. She had a parade of witnesses ready, and by the time she was through, the jury would have a completely different view of Cody Grey than she was certain they had right now. The contrast would be to Cody's advantage. Finally, Madison would call Cody to the stand. It might come as early as Friday. But during the entire proceedings, Madison couldn't help being haunted by the thought that the probable verdict did not look good.