Текст книги "Crime of Privilege"
Автор книги: Walter Walker
Соавторы: Walter Walker
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Текущая страница: 28 (всего у книги 28 страниц)
CAPE COD, February 2009
BUZZY MAY NOT HAVE GOTTEN ALL THE VOTES HE WAS SEEKING, but he got a lot of publicity, and the publicity has produced a fair amount of work. He has taken me on, even calls me his partner, although he continues to own the entire practice. I get paid half of what I bring in, which is almost nothing, and a third of whatever he gets for the work I do on his cases.
Mostly what I do is arraignments and preliminary hearings, which means I am in the courthouse a lot with my old colleagues. Protocol seems to be to ignore me, to pretend not to know me, never to use my name. I don’t see Reid, but Sean tends to glare at me, as if we might get into a fistfight at any time. Once I ran into Dick, but he looked away.
As for Barbara, well, her daddy came through. To an extent. He gave her the funds to open her own office in a little complex down by the harbor, where she has hung out her shingle among those displaying the services of insurance agents, realtors, and accountants. She is specializing in family law matters: divorces and custody proceedings. But like me, she gets little work. The people her parents know tend not to have those problems.
Little work gives us lots of time to lie around in bed on cold winter mornings, pulling the covers to our chins and talking about whether it is time for us to go off-Cape.
“Rome, Paris, London” are places she has thrown out when feeling particularly giddy and impractical.
“New Hampshire, Vermont, Wisconsin,” I say.
“Florida, California,” she counters.
“Buckthumb, Maine,” I suggest.
Her choices are fueled by romantic visions; mine by the desire for security and anonymity. Still, it is exciting to lie naked next to her, to be able to reach out and touch her anytime I wish, to know that she is here next to me because she wants to be. And so I encourage the thought that all things are possible.
“Maybe way up in Northern California,” I offer. “Eureka, someplace like that.”
When she doesn’t respond, I improve the offer. “It’s beautiful at Lake Tahoe,” I say. “Truckee, Tahoe City, they’re good places to live.”
Of course, we are hampered by the fact that we can only practice law where we are licensed, which means Massachusetts, plus, in my case, New Jersey. Barbara does not want to go to New Jersey.
I tell her there are nice towns in Jersey: Short Hills, Saddle River, Princeton, Morristown.
She lists nice towns in Massachusetts: Newton, Wellesley, Weston, Sudbury.
All are places we cannot afford.
We discuss the various district attorney’s offices around the state and acknowledge we will probably be blackballed from all of them.
“Maybe not Worcester,” she suggests. “Or Framingham. There’s a great little town between those two places called Ashland, where I understand they have services for people like Malcolm.”
I am doing my best to get to know Malcolm. I try not to freeze when she mentions his name. I know it will be hard, but I am convinced I can do it. Not because I am paying dues like Peter Martin, but because I am getting stronger, becoming a better person. It may take a long time, but I am committed to trying.
Which is why I am listening to Bill Telford. He comes around now and then, usually right to my house because I don’t go to Pogo’s anymore now that I see Barbara at night. He is disappointed that his announcement, his speech, did not change things.
“The Gregorys have gotten away again,” he tells me. “They are still denying Jamie killed Heidi and the rest of them just go on living their lives the way they always have.”
He wants me to write a book.
I remind him of what Dick O’Connor said, that I don’t really have any hard evidence, any admission, any eyewitness testimony that constitutes proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
He tells me the Gregorys won’t do anything about it except get some family spokesman to deplore the crass innuendos being peddled for money by some failed attorney, some would-be, wannabe socialite. Those aren’t the exact words Bill uses, but it is what he means.
What Bill Telford wants most of all is for everyone to know.
I remind him that not everyone wants everyone to know, that there are people besides the Gregorys who could take legal action: Jason Stockover, Leanne Sullivan, Howard Landry, Lexi Sommers Trotter, just to name a few.
He thinks about it. “In that case,” he says, “change the names.”
TO ANNE, all these years
BY
WALTER WALKER
A DIME TO DANCE BY
THE TWO DUDE DEFENSE
RULES OF THE KNIFE FIGHT
THE IMMEDIATE PROSPECT OF BEING HANGED
THE APPEARANCE OF IMPROPRIETY
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
W
ALTER
W
ALKER
is a San Francisco trial attorney, specializing in catastrophic personal injury matters, and the author of five previous novels, including the award-winning
A Dime to Dance By
. Originally from Massachusetts, he has homes on Cape Cod and in Marin County, California. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Palm Beach, March 1996
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Cape Cod, March 2008
Washington, D.C., October 1996
Cape Cod, April 2008
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Salmon River, Idaho, June 2008
Cape Cod, June 2008
Boston, July 2008
Kauai, July 2008
Sausalito, July 2008
Tamarindo, Costa Rica, July 2008
Cape Cod, July 2008
Cape Cod, August 2008
Monflanquin, France, September 2008
Cape Cod, September 2008
New York City, September 2008
Cape Cod, October 2008
Cape Cod, November 2008
Cape Cod, February 2009
Dedication
Other Books by This Author
About the Author
Table of Contents
Cover
Copyright
Palm Beach, March 1996
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Cape Cod, March 2008
Washington, D.C., October 1996
Cape Cod, April 2008
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Salmon River, Idaho, June 2008
Cape Cod, June 2008
Boston, July 2008
Kauai, July 2008
Sausalito, July 2008
Tamarindo, Costa Rica, July 2008
Cape Cod, July 2008
Cape Cod, August 2008
Monflanquin, France, September 2008
Cape Cod, September 2008
New York City, September 2008
Cape Cod, October 2008
Cape Cod, November 2008
Cape Cod, February 2009
Dedication
Other Books by This Author
About the Author
