Advice of Counsel (The Samuel Collins Series Book 1)

by Trueman, Debra

  “I’m just stating a fact,” I told her.

  The Siamese sauntered into the room and jumped up on the couch and carefully wedged himself between us, then he sat down on my chest.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I asked him. He looked up at me and licked his paws. “Get off!” I picked him up and dropped him over the side of the couch. He jumped right back up and sat down on the arm of the couch and looked at me.

  “Don’t be mean to him!” Landra said, reaching over and running her hand down his back.

  “Mean? Who do you think let the bastard in from the cold!” He meowed and jumped back down and walked out of the room. “I wonder what that was about?” I said.

  “I think he was making a gesture of peace and you snubbed him.”

  “I did not. And besides, I’m the one who made the first gesture by letting him in.”

  “True.” She leaned in and kissed me again and this time it turned in to something much more. I laid her back and lay down on top of her and we ended up making love on the couch. And this time, that’s what it was.

  I’ve never had anything against raw sex. In fact, probably the majority of times I’d had sex, that’s what it had been. But this was different. There was so much emotion mixed up with the act that the sex itself was a way of expressing everything I felt for her. Being inside her was a way to be as close as I possibly could to someone who had a grip on my heart that wouldn’t let go.

  We laid there for a half hour in each others arms, just relaxing, and I would have been content to do so for the rest of the day, but the phone rang and Landra thought it might be Mrs. Howard so I got up to answer it. As it turned out, it wasn’t Mrs. Howard, but it was another neighbor.

  “Hi, Samuel. It’s Maddie.”

  “Hey, Maddie. What’s up?”

  “I hate to bother you on a Saturday, but I must be out of propane and my heater’s not working.”

  “Can’t the guy come out and refill your tank?”

  “Yeah. I’ve already called him, but it’s not going to be for a couple of hours. I was wondering if we could come hang out at your house for a little while. I’m afraid it’s too cold for the kids.”

  It was not my idea of how I’d like to spend a cold and dreary Saturday, but what was I going to say, No, freeze your ass off at home? “Of course you can. Do you have some eggs or something we can make for breakfast?”

  “I’ll bring something.”

  I hung up and broke the news to Landra that we were about to be invaded by neighbors, but she took it well. In fact, she made matters worse by inviting Mrs. Howard. Maddie, Oliver and the baby were over so fast that I wondered if she’d made the call from my front steps. Landra went across the street and brought Mrs. Howard over and we made a huge breakfast and all sat at the table in the fortress and ate, then afterwards we sat in front of the TV and watched cartoons.

  “Why didn’t you invite Mr. and Mrs. Johns to your party?” Oliver asked.

  “Well, it’s not really a party,” I explained.

  “Are you coming to my birthday party?” he asked.

  “I wouldn’t miss it.”

  He climbed into my lap and sat down just like the Siamese had and I was just waiting for him to lick his paws. Instead he started playing with my top button, first buttoning it then unbuttoning it, until eventually the thing came off in his hand.

  “Uh oh,” he said, holding the button up.

  “You pulled off my button!” I exclaimed.

  “It just came off,” he said. He placed it in my hand. “It’s no biggie.”

  “It is too a biggie,” I said.

  He laughed and rested his little head against my chest, and I thought, if it can’t be Landra, it might as well be Oliver. Maddie and Landra look at each other and smiled.

  By noon, the propane guy still hadn’t showed so Oliver and I played cars for a while then we went next door to his house and got his train track and set it up on my dining room table. I’d always loved playing with trains and he had a cool Brio track with a couple of battery operated engines. I had a really good time that morning playing with the kid, and as much as I had dreaded having a house full of neighbors, it wasn’t that bad.

  Mrs. Howard was in seventh heaven. She finally got to see more of my house than the foyer, something I knew she’d been curious about since the first day she tried to poke her head in. She was stiff from her fall, and I knew she’d be even worse the next day, but considering that she could have killed herself in the fall, I thought she’d come out of it amazingly well. I kept replaying the scene in my head and I still couldn’t get over how it had happened. It took me a long time to get over the shock of seeing her falling over that drop-off, and just thinking about it made me cringe.

  I’d just gone into the kitchen to get a drink when all of a sudden I heard Oliver yelling at the top of his lungs about something. I raced back to the dining room and joined Oliver at the window.

  “What is that?” Oliver asked.

  “Well I’ll be damned. It’s snow!”

  “It’s snowing!” we both started shouting and everyone came running.

  “Oh my God!” Maddie exclaimed.

  “It’s snowing!” Landra said.

  “It’s beautiful!” Mrs. Howard said.

  We all stood there looking out the window in amazement. The flakes were enormous and they were so thick that you couldn’t even see Mrs. Howard’s house. I flashed back to a road trip we’d made when I was a kid when the whole family loaded up in our station wagon and drove to see my uncle in Red River, New Mexico. The drive took forever and when we got there, there was no snow. It totally sucked. But when we woke up the next morning there were two feet of snow on the ground and I had to take back all the shitty things I had said to my uncle the day before. It turned out to be one of the best family vacations we ever took.

  “Can we go play in it?” Oliver asked Maddie.

  She looked at me and we both laughed. “I think that’s a great idea,” she said.

  Maddie, Oliver, Landra and I all bundled up and went outside and played in the snow while Mrs. Howard and the baby watched from the window. The Johnses had come outside and were on their porch watching us run around like a bunch of lunatics. We stayed outside until we were too cold to move, then we went inside and warmed up by the fire before going back out again.

  Maddie put on a pot of chili with beans and I ended up inviting the Johnses over to join us when it was ready. It snowed continuously for three and a half hours that day and there were a good four to five inches on the ground. It had banked to a couple of feet along my fence line and when it finally stopped falling, Mrs. Howard came outside too to look at the wonderland left behind. People who are accustomed to snow have no idea what it’s like for those of us who are not.

  We played in the snow all afternoon, making snowmen and angels and having snow ball fights, systematically destroying the beauty first in my yard, then Maddie’s, then Mrs. Howard’s, and finally the Johns’. All the other yards around us were pristine white and our four yards had barely any snow left, but each sported the biggest snowmen The Park had ever seen. And the next day when the sun came out, when all the snow had melted in the other yards, our four snowmen stood in testament to the incredible time we’d had playing in the snow that day.

  It was 8:00 o’clock by the time everyone went home and Landra and I were alone again. I picked her up and carried her back to the kitchen and set her down on the counter and we were both just looking at each other smiling. It had been such an incredible day.

  “I think this was the best day I’ve ever had in my life,” Landra said. Her cheeks were flushed from sitting by the fire and she looked as beautiful as I’d ever seen her.

  “It was pretty incredible,” I agreed.

  She put her arms around my neck. “Aren’t you going to invite me to spend the night?”

  “I hadn’t planned to,” I said.

  ‘Why not? Do you have a girlfriend?”
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  “Yes. As a matter of fact, I do.” I pulled her to the edge of the counter and she wrapped her legs around my waist and I carried her back to the fortress while I kissed her. “Will you spend the night?”

  “Yes.”

  “Tomorrow night too?” I asked between kisses.

  “Tomorrow night you spend the night with me,” she said.

  “Deal.”

  We spent all of Sunday working on my walls. I say we because Landra somehow conned me into helping her. If I hadn’t already been enjoying my fortress so much she’d never have talked me into it, but I was so anxious to get it finished that I relented. Of course Landra was her bossy self and she made me do everything her way. I didn’t argue too much because she’d already proved that her method got results, so I figured, who am I to suggest a better method?

  We finished up around 7:00 o’clock that night and I looked around in awe, turning in circles as I checked out the finished product.

  “Let’s stay here tonight. We can camp out back here,” I suggested.

  Landra wasn’t enthusiastic at all. “No way. I’ve been here for two days. You have to come to my house tonight.”

  Fair is fair, so again I didn’t argue, but it was hard to pull myself away from the room. As much as I disliked painting, in this case, it had been well worth it to get the job done. I was certain that the other rooms in my house were going to be miserably neglected, but then again, maybe the Siamese would use them.

  Chapter 9

  We woke up together early Monday morning and sat in front of Landra’s fireplace drinking coffee and talking. She had an appointment at 8:30, so by 8:00 o’clock, we were dressed and ready to walk out the door. It was still cold, but the temperature was predicted to be back up in the 70s by the afternoon. We opened the door and there was an officer standing on the front porch with some papers in his hand.

  “Landra Krally?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “I have a warrant for your arrest for the murder of Drake Reeds.”

  She grabbed the doorframe to steady herself, then she turned around and leaned against me for support. “Oh my God,” she said into my chest.

  I put my arms around her and told her that everything was going to be okay. Of course, I didn’t actually think that, but I felt like I had to say something positive.

  “May I see that?” I asked. “I’m her attorney.”

  “Certainly,” he said. He handed me the warrant and I looked it over and handed it back to him, then I took Landra by the shoulders and made her look at me. “You’re going to have to go with him, Landra, but I’m going to meet you down there. Don’t say anything . . . don’t answer any of their questions. Do you understand me?”

  She nodded her head, but didn’t speak. I hugged her and reassured her again that everything was going to be okay, but when the officer pulled out his handcuffs, I wished that there was someone to reassure me.

  “Is that necessary?” I asked him. I knew he was only doing his job, and he was actually being pretty decent about it. I’d heard horror stories of officers issuing arrest warrants that really got off on the power trip. The little Hitlers took joy in the process and milked the humiliation factor for all it was worth. This guy wasn’t like that. It was obvious that he wasn’t enjoying himself any more than Landra and I were.

  “I’m sorry. I have to,” he said, and he fastened the cuffs to Landra’s wrists and started leading her off towards his car. And just like that, they were gone.

  I raced over to my house and changed into a dark suit then drove like a madman down to my office, dumped a stack of files inside, then ran across to the courthouse to find out about Landra’s preliminary hearing. She would be appearing that morning before the magistrate who would set her bail, assuming they weren’t going to hold her in jail.

  I was a mess. My mind was racing and I was having a hard time concentrating. I’d just spent one of the best weekends of my life with a woman who had just been arrested for murder. And I had no business representing her – I knew that. I was way too emotionally involved. But she had been adamant when we had discussed it before that she didn’t want anyone else to represent her and knowing Landra, she would be ridiculously stubborn, to the point of being detrimental to her own case. Damn, damn, damn. I’d just have to distance myself emotionally, at least until I could convince Landra to let me bring in a criminal lawyer as co-counsel, if nothing else.

  I found out that the Magistrate would review Landra’s case at 11:00 o’clock, so in the meantime, I got busy on the phone. First, I called a buddy of mine that worked in the D.A.’s office to see what info he could give me on Landra’s case. He wasn’t in, so I left a message for him to call me immediately when he got in. It was a guy I’d gone to law school with and although we hadn’t kept in touch on a regular basis, the guy owed me a favor for helping his sister out of a fix at Tulane.

  Next, I put in a call to a friend at one of the high-powered law firms in San Antonio to find out who was the best criminal lawyer in town. I hoped that Landra wouldn’t need him, but I wanted to speak to him ahead of time, just in case. That guy wasn’t in either and it was really pissing me off that I couldn’t get a hold of anyone that I needed.

  Maddie called me as soon as I hung up to remind me about a telephone hearing scheduled for 9:45, which gave me all of five minutes to haul ass back to the office to be there when the call came in. I got there just in time, but I was winded as hell. The call was over within 15 minutes and I leaned back in my chair and stared at the ceiling thinking of Landra. Maddie must have seen the light go off on her phone, because she knocked on my office door within 30 seconds of my hanging up.

  “Are you okay?” she asked. She came in and sat in one of the chairs in front of my desk.

  “Yeah. I’m just worried about Landra.”

  “You don’t look so good. Can I get you something?”

  “No.” I looked at my watch. “I think I’ll go on back over to the courthouse.”

  I went to Landra’s appearance and they led her out in handcuffs. It didn’t look like she had been crying, but she looked like her mind had been working overtime. I knew I had to think of Landra strictly in terms of being a client or I could never do her justice as her attorney. But that turned out to be impossible. As hard as I tried to be objective, I couldn’t do it.

  “You holding up okay?” I asked her.

  She tried to smile but she couldn’t pull it off. “I’m fine.”

  The magistrate came in and the courtroom got quiet. He was a stern-faced hefty man in his late 40s, with a reputation for being unforgiving. Between him and the Assistant District Attorney, I was feeling outnumbered and at a disadvantage sitting there in the courtroom. The magistrate informed Landra that she was charged with murder and read her Miranda rights, then he called on the ADA to discuss bail.

  “We propose that bail be denied,” the ADA stated, and I jumped out of my seat.

  “This is not a capital murder case!” I said angrily. “Ms. Krally is an upstanding individual in this community. She’s never been in trouble before and she has ties to the community. She’s not a flight risk. There’s no reason that my client shouldn’t be released on a personal bond.”

  “That’s for me to decide Mr. Collins,” the judge said curtly. “Bail is set at $100,000.”

  I was almost relieved. At least she’d be getting out. The judge dismissed us and Landra was led away to a holding cell while they processed her out.

  I knew it would be hours before she would be released, so I went back to my office and tried to take care of some other matters, but once again, Landra was consuming my thoughts. I was beginning to realize that she was bad for my health. I’m not generally a worrier and I’m not one to over-analyze things, but I’d lost more sleep than I cared to admit over my relationship with Landra Krally. If I wasn’t thinking about the possibility of her murdering her husband and her ex-fiancé, I was thinking about how much I missed her and couldn’t wait to be with h
er again.

  Once again, she was intruding on my thoughts and it was a waste of time trying to get any work done. I went out to the reception area and sat down on the couch and looked out the window. I’d never sat there before and it gave a whole different perspective of the office. I could smell the flowers that Maddie had brought in that morning. It was an arrangement of all these exotic flowers and twisted stems in a big round vase. She’d been right about the flowers. Everyone who came through the door commented on them. And she was right about their having a calming effect. As I sat there looking at them, I could feel the tension leaving my body. I guess I was zoning, because when Maddie walked back in from wherever she had been, she scared me out of my wits.

  “What in the world are you doing sitting there?” she asked.

  “Checking out your flowers.”

  She smiled and came over and sat beside me and picked up my hand and patted it with her other hand.

  “Landra will be okay, Sam. We both know that there’s no way she could have done what they’re saying. She’s a good person and that will show through. I just know it.”

  I looked at her and couldn’t help but smile. She was such a genuinely nice person. “Thanks, Maddie.”

  “Have you eaten anything today?” she asked, and I shook my head no. “Come on back here and I’ll make you something.” She pulled me up and put her arm around my waist and gave me a little squeeze and I put my arm around her shoulder as we walked back to the kitchen. We sat in there and talked for the next hour while I ate whatever Maddie put in front of me.

  When I got back to the courthouse, Landra’s parents were there. Her father came up and introduced himself, then he led me back to where her mother was and introduced us. Her mother had been crying and her face was all red and blotchy. Landra looked like a combination of the two, without the blotches.

  “Thank you for all your help, Samuel. Landra has told us all about you,” her mother said.