The Associate

by Phillip Margolin

  "How many times?"

  "I can't say for sure."

  "Were you ever hospitalized for this?"

  "Twice. I was sent for psychiatric treatment."

  Amanda Jaffe was about to ask another question when Mike Greene stood and buttoned his suit jacket.

  "Your Honor, I think this might be a good time for a recess."

  "I agree, Mr. Greene. We'll recess for fifteen minutes. Dr. Fairweather, you can step down, but you'll have to be back in court when we reconvene. I'll see counsel in chambers."

  The judge left the courtroom through a door behind the dais. Daniel turned to Amanda and looked at her wide-eyed.

  "She's nuts," he said.

  "Yes, she is," Amanda answered with a comforting smile. "And we are sitting in the catbird seat. You hang tight while I talk to the judge. Hopefully, I'll have good news when I come out."

  "How did you know about that Satan stuff?"

  "I'll tell you later."

  Amanda and Mike Greene left the courtroom and Joe Molinari walked up to the bar of the court. One of the guards told Joe they could talk across the low fence but could not touch or exchange anything.

  "Thanks for coming," Daniel said.

  "Hey, dude, this is the best show in town, and your lawyer kicks ass. You and me are going to be at happy hour this afternoon."

  Daniel knew better than to get his hopes up, so he just smiled.

  "What is going on here?" Judge Opton asked Mike Greene as soon as the judge and the two attorneys were seated in his chambers.

  "Believe me, I had no idea she was going to say that stuff."

  Opton shook his head. "Just when you thought you've seen it all. Well, Mike, what are we going to do?"

  Greene exhaled. "Fairweather and Forbus are my only witnesses. You've heard everything I've got."

  "Are you going to argue that you've proved by clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Ames murdered Arthur Briggs? Because you've got to do that before I'll deny bail."

  "She still saw what she saw, Judge," Greene answered halfheartedly.

  "Your witness sees a lot of things. What's your position, Amanda?"

  "The only evidence connecting Daniel to the murder is the testimony of Dr. Fairweather and I don't believe she's a credible witness."

  "You don't have to be diplomatic. We're not on the record. The woman is a total fruitcake. Fucking electrodes. Jesus, Mike, where did you dig her up?"

  Greene didn't answer.

  "Okay, here's what we'll do when we go back outside," Opton said. "You'll end your cross, Amanda, and you'll rest, Mike. You can argue against bail, but I'm going to grant it, understood?"

  Greene nodded. Opton turned to Amanda.

  "What can your client afford?"

  "Daniel's on his own and he's almost broke, Judge. As you heard, Reed, Briggs just fired him. His mother doesn't have a dime and he doesn't know where his father is. He worked his way through college and law school, so he's up to his nose in debt and he doesn't have much in savings. I'm taking the case pro bono."

  Opton's eyebrows raised. Amanda ignored his surprise and continued.

  "I think you should release him on his own recognizance. Daniel swears he's innocent and there isn't any credible evidence that links him to the murder. Even if you believed Dr. Fairweather, the best you have is Daniel running from the scene, but no evidence that he had a murder weapon or shot Briggs."

  "Mike?"

  Greene looked defeated. "I'll go on the record against recog, but I can't make a great argument against it, right now."

  "Okay. I'll let you protect your office. You can make an impassioned plea. Just don't go on too long." Opton stood up. "Let's get this over with."

  Mike Greene looked grim when he emerged from the judge's chambers and Amanda Jaffe's face betrayed no emotion. As soon as Amanda sat down she turned to Daniel.

  "Judge Opton decided that Fairweather is nuts. He can't take her word for the ID, so Mike has no evidence connecting you to the scene of the crime. You'll be out of jail by noon."

  "It's over? I'm free?"

  "Don't get too excited. You're still charged with murder, but the judge is going to release you on your own word. You're going to be recogged, so you won't have to post bail."

  "Thank you," Daniel said. "You're amazing."

  "I am good," Amanda replied, "but we wouldn't have won without your guardian angel."

  "Did you have any idea this was going to happen?" Mike Greene asked Zeke Forbus. "Because I love to have a little advance notice whenever I'm going to make a total fool out of myself in court. It gives me time to buy a disguise so I can make a quick escape."

  Greene rarely got upset and Forbus was rarely embarrassed, but today had not been a normal day.

  "Believe me, Mike, I was as surprised as you are. Fairweather seemed a little uptight when I talked to her, but I had no idea she was crazy."

  Greene turned his chair toward the window in his office so he would not have to look at the homicide detective. A chessboard on his credenza displayed a position in the Queen's Gambit Declined that the prosecutor was studying. He stared at it for a moment in hopes of distancing himself from his real-life problems, but it was no use. He swung his chair back so he was face-to-face with Forbus.

  "Where do we go from here, Zeke?"

  "I still think he did it, so I'm going to try and find a way to prove Ames was really at the cottage."

  "Any idea how you're going to do that?"

  Forbus shook his head.

  "Well think, damn it. We've got to move. The preliminary hearing is set for next week. Normally, I'd bypass it by getting a secret indictment out of the grand jury, but I've got nothing to show them. I'm going to have to dismiss the charges against Ames if we don't come up with something fast."

  Chapter Twenty-Six.

  Daniel was so stunned at the speed with which his bail hearing ended that he barely heard the legal arguments. As soon as the judge ruled, the guards took him back to jail, where he waited to be processed out. Daniel had spent the past week tamping down his emotions, but he finally let himself believe that he would soon be out of jail. When the numbness wore off he became euphoric and he stayed high until it dawned on him that he was still the defendant in a murder case. He had been freed because there was no corroboration for April Fairweather's testimony, but what would happen when the police talked to Renee Gilchrist? Would she tell them about his phone call on the afternoon of the murder? Was that enough evidence to change the judge's mind about bail? By the time Daniel's property was returned, depression had set in.

  Amanda had arranged to have the jail release Daniel through the garage so he could avoid the press. She told him that someone would be waiting for him. Daniel expected to see Amanda's investigator, but Kate Ross was standing in the shadows of the garage when he walked out of the jail. She flashed a big smile and Daniel's depression evaporated as soon as she hugged him.

  "You don't smell too bad," Kate joked after she let him go.

  Daniel's face split with a huge grin. "Neither do you."

  "Come on. Let's get something to eat," Kate said. Daniel had not thought about food all day, but he was suddenly famished.

  "You up for baloney on white or something a little more exotic?" Kate asked.

  "I'm up for anything that is not baloney on white."

  Kate's car was parked a block away. As they walked to it Daniel savored the heat of the sun, the brush of the breeze on his face, and the knowledge that he could walk to Kate's car or not, as he chose.

  "How are you feeling?" Kate asked when they were on the road.

  "Okay. I sort of shut down when I was in jail. It's going to take me a while to believe I'm really out."

  "Amanda's good," Kate reassured him. "She'll keep you out."

  "I'll say she's good." Then Daniel remembered Amanda's cryptic remark. "When I thanked her for winning the bail hearing Amanda said that I have a guardian angel. Do you know what she meant?"

  Kate's sm
ile disappeared. "Yeah, I do. We talked about it this morning. Amanda destroyed Fairweather because she received a videotape of a speech Fairweather gave a few years ago. She was talking to a group of so-called satanic ritual abuse survivors and she told them that she had been a victim of a satanic cult. Most of what Amanda used in her cross was in Fairweather's speech."

  "Who gave Amanda the tape?"

  "It was sent anonymously. She thought that I sent it."

  "But you didn't?"

  "I've seen the tape. It was in Fairweather's case file at the office," Kate said in obvious distress. "I wanted to tell Amanda about it, but I couldn't for the same reason I couldn't investigate Fairweather for Amanda."

  "Hey, you've done more for me than anyone could," Daniel reassured her. "I'd still be in jail if you didn't ask Amanda to take my case."

  "Then you understand? Fairweather is a client. There's a conflict."

  "I would have thought less of you if you'd violated your trust."

  Kate looked relieved.

  "Does Amanda have any idea who sent the tape?" Daniel asked.

  "No, but everyone at the conference knew about it. So did everyone at Reed, Briggs who was working on the case and anyone they told. Then there's Aaron Flynn and the people in his firm. I don't know if they were aware of the tape before the hearing, but Flynn's investigators are good."

  "Boy, you've certainly narrowed the number of suspects."

  Kate smiled, relieved that Daniel was not mad at her.

  Daniel became quiet.

  "What are you thinking?" Kate asked.

  "That this isn't the first anonymous message someone has sent recently."

  "You're talking about the Kaidanov study."

  Daniel nodded.

  "I thought about that," Kate said. "We don't know that the same person sent both packages. Is there a connection between the Insufort case and Fairweather's?"

  "I can think of two. Briggs was the defense attorney in both cases. He told Fairweather to come to the cottage at eight-fifteen and he wanted me there at eight, which means he wanted us there at the same time."

  "What's the other connection between Fairweather and the Insufort litigation?"

  "Aaron Flynn. He represents the plaintiffs in both cases."

  Daniel suddenly noticed that they were almost at Kate's house.

  "I thought we were going to lunch."

  "We are. Amanda didn't want you out in public, so we're eating at my place. You're staying with me, too. Your place is a mess. The cops trashed it when they searched. I didn't think you'd want to spend your first day of freedom with a mop and dustpan. I've got a nice guest room and Herb Cross brought over a valise with clothes and other things. You'll even be able to use your own toothbrush."

  Kate pulled into her driveway and parked.

  "You're a good friend," Daniel said warmly.

  "That I am, and you'll need a few if we're going to get you out of this mess."

  _ _ _

  Daniel showered and changed into a clean pair of jeans and a baggy sweatshirt. When he opened the bathroom door he smelled brewing coffee. He followed the aroma into the kitchen and found Kate reading the afternoon edition of the newspaper. She looked up and smiled.

  "Can I fix you some eggs and toast?"

  "Yeah, thanks."

  Kate walked to the stove. "How do you like your bacon?"

  "On a plate," Daniel cracked. Kate's laugh brought Daniel an unexpected degree of pleasure.

  Kate took three thick strips and laid them in a pan. Daniel sat at the kitchen table and read the story about his case in the late edition of the paper.

  "I thought The Oregonian was fair," Kate said as she scrambled the eggs. "They wrote that Amanda cast serious doubts on Fairweather's identification and they pointed out that there wasn't any other evidence connecting you to the murder."

  That should have made Daniel happy, but it didn't. He was waiting for the other shoe to drop when the police interviewed Renee.

  Kate placed a plate piled high with eggs, bacon, and toast in front of Daniel, then brought him a cup of coffee.

  "I'd never guess that you had this domestic streak," Daniel joked.

  "Don't get used to it," Kate answered, tossing a set of keys next to Daniel's plate. "You're on your own after tonight."

  "What are these?"

  "A spare set of keys to my house. I'm going to be away for a few days and you'll need them."

  "Where are you going?"

  "To Arizona."

  Daniel looked confused.

  "While you were getting yourself arrested the cops found out the identity of the dead man at the lab. It wasn't Dr. Kaidanov."

  "Who was it?"

  "An Arizona lawyer named Gene Arnold."

  "What was he doing at the lab?"

  "No one knows. His partner doesn't even know what he was doing in Oregon. Arnold went to New York on business, saw a photograph in an art gallery of two people walking across Pioneer Square, and flew here. He checked into the Benson and disappeared. Now we know where he went, but not why. I'm betting the answer is in Arizona."

  Chapter Twenty-Seven.

  Kate rented a car at the airport and drove to Desert Grove under a vast blue sky along a desolate highway surrounded by desert and red-rock mesas. She appreciated the stark beauty of the scenery, but for someone who had spent her life in the Pacific Northwest there was too much sun and too little green. Shortly before one, Kate parked in front of a flat, modern, one-story building on the outskirts of town arnold & kellogg, attorneys-at-law was stenciled in gold on a plate-glass window that fronted the street.

  Benjamin Kellogg, a big-boned Scandinavian in his early thirties with wheat-colored hair, ushered her down the hall to his office.

  "Thank you for meeting with me on a Saturday," Kate said when they were seated.

  "Gene wasn't just my law partner, Ms. Ross. I'd appreciate hearing anything you can tell me that will help me understand what happened."

  "Quite frankly, no one-the police, my firm, no one-has any clue to why your partner died where he did. That's why I'm here."

  "I'll help if I can," Kellogg assured her.

  "My firm is defending Geller Pharmaceuticals in a lawsuit that questions the safety of Insufort, one of its products. Information about a study allegedly conducted by our client surfaced during a deposition. The results of the study supported the plaintiff's claim that the drug is harmful. Soon after the existence of the report was discovered, the lab where the study was conducted was destroyed in an arson fire. Your partner's body was found in the ruins. Was Gene Arnold or your firm connected in any way with this litigation?"

  "No."

  "Can you think of any reason for Mr. Arnold to come to Oregon?"

  Kellogg looked completely baffled. "I'm sorry, Ms. Ross, but I have no idea why Gene was in Oregon. We don't have any cases there."

  "Has Mr. Arnold ever mentioned friends or business acquaintances who live in Oregon?"

  "No, but Gene hired me six years ago, fresh out of law school. I only made partner last year. I don't know much about things that happened here before I moved from Phoenix, except for the murders, of course. They were news statewide."

  "What murders?"

  "Gene's wife and the wife of our biggest client were kidnapped and murdered. It probably wasn't a big deal out of state, but it was major news in Arizona." Kellogg shook his head. "It was really horrible. First, Martin's wife was killed, then Gene's. Neither one of them ever really got over it."

  Kate leaned forward. "This is the first I've heard about these murders. Can you fill me in?"

  "I don't know much more than what I read. Like I said, this was before I moved to Desert Grove, about seven years ago. I didn't know Gene then, or Martin Alvarez."

  "Who is Martin Alvarez?"

  "He's the wealthiest man in Laurel County. A year or so before I got here his wife was murdered during a bungled kidnapping attempt. Paul McCann, a local guy, was arrested. Then Gene's wife was
kidnapped and murdered. For a while Gene was a suspect in his wife's murder, but they dropped the charges. It was a horrible time for Gene. He was still a mess during the first year I worked here."

  "Did they ever catch Mrs. Arnold's killer?"

  "No."

  "Can you give me any more details?"

  "Not really. It was all over by the time I started working for Gene and he never talked about it."

  "Who would know more about the murders?"

  Kellogg hesitated. "There's Martin, but I'm not certain he'll see you."

  "Why is that?"

  "Martin worshiped his wife. He was devastated by her death. From what I hear he was very gregarious before she was killed. Everyone says that he threw the best parties; he was very active in the community and a great contributor to local charities. That all changed after his wife died. He's very reclusive now. He rarely leaves his hacienda, even to conduct business."

  Chapter Twenty-Eight.

  The Alvarez ranch was several miles out of town. There was no marker on the highway and Kate would have missed the turn onto the dirt track that led to the hacienda if Benjamin Kellogg had not given her precise directions. Kate drove on through a swirl of dust, but there was no sign of civilization. On both sides of the road clumps of desert plants clung to the arid and rocky ground and giant cacti stretched their arms toward a blue sky marred only by occasional wisps of clean white cloud. Kate was beginning to wonder if she'd made the right turn when an expanse of brown adobe walls materialized in the distance.

  A guard inspected Kate's identification before directing her to a parking area in front of a massive whitewashed Spanish-style house with a red tile roof. She noticed another armed guard as she walked up a flagstone path to a front door of carved oak, which opened before she could knock.

  "Miss Ross?" asked a slender, light-boned woman of middle age dressed in a plain dress and comfortable shoes.

  "Yes, ma'am."

  The woman smiled. "I'm Anna Cordova, Mr. Alvarez's assistant. He's out at the pool."

  Cordova inquired politely about Kate's plane trip as she led the investigator across a tiled entryway, down four wide hardwood steps, and across a sunken living room. A blanket with an intricate American Indian design decorated one wall and an oil painting of a cattle drive decorated another; a glass case in a corner displayed pre-Columbian art. Kate walked by a stone fireplace and a painting that looked like a Georgia O'Keeffe.