‘Me? Nah, only the good die young.’
‘In that case, that tie will live longer than you. What are those things on it, turtles?’ I said, leaning in for a closer look at Herb’s tie. I quickly decided I didn’t want to get that close to it, and retreated a step.
‘My wife bought me this tie.’
‘You should get a divorce.’
‘Do you know any good lawyers?’ he said, shading his eyes and looking all around the office like a cowboy surveying a barren prairie.
‘You should be in one of those Florida retirement homes, making people your own age miserable.’
‘Don’t tempt me. I’d love to retire, but I can’t. The DA’s office keeps threatening to give me a gold clock every now and again, and I tell them the same thing – I can’t retire. It’s a death sentence – my wife would kill me if I was in the house all day. The DA that canned my ass would be an accessory to murder.’
‘If your wife murdered you the DA would send her flowers and a thank-you card.’
Herb had a laugh that started somewhere in his belly and rumbled up through hissing pipes before escaping his lips in a high-pitched cacophonous wheeze. Like Mutley from the cartoons.
‘I got you down to see Dreyer, with this crew,’ he said, pointing with his pen to the other side of the room.
I hadn’t noticed when I came in but seated to my left, on the couch, sat Levy, accompanied by the young lawyer I’d met outside the precinct – Kate. On the other chair was another young face, a guy with keen eyes who couldn’t be more than twenty-five – the lawyer I’d seen with Levy visiting Alexandra’s holding cell some days ago.
The presence of Levy and his team meant there was about to be a whole lot of trouble.
They got to their feet as I approached.
‘Eddie, good to see you again,’ said Levy, in a tone that didn’t even get close to sincerity, and didn’t care either. ‘This is my associate, Scott Helmsley.’
He pointed to the fair-haired kid in the tight suit to his left. I’d seen him in the precinct on the night of the arrest but didn’t get much of a chance to appraise him. He didn’t look old enough to shave and yet he busted out a movie-star smile and extended a hand from a silk, double-cuff shirt.
‘It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance,’ said Scott, and he took my hand in the firm grip that some men use. I always thought the hard-handshake guys were compensating for something. The guys who can really crush your knuckles without thinking about it don’t need to prove their strength in the way they say hi.
The woman on his right, Kate, bowed her head and angled the toe of her shoe to the ceiling and moved it around using the heel to pivot. She was dressed in a gray business skirt, white blouse and black jacket. Her hands were clasped in front of her and I could only see the top of her head. She looked up at me.
There was an awkward pause. Not long. Maybe four or five seconds, but long enough for Levy to pretend he’d forgotten about her. He had caught sight of Kate swinging the toe of her shoe, he was simply making sure she and I knew Levy’s pecking order when it came to his staff.
‘Oh, I’m sorry, and this is—’ he said, without turning toward her, just extending a palm in her direction, highlighting the afterthought.
‘Kate Brooks,’ I said, loudly, stepping past Levy and Scott. ‘We met at the precinct. How are you?’
‘I’m fine, thanks, Mr. Flynn.’
‘Call me Eddie,’ I said.
Levy bit his lip. I could smell bullshit office power plays from fifty yards.
‘How’s your client?’ she said.
‘Better. She’s out of the hospital, and out of jail. Yours too, I understand.’
‘Yea—’
‘That’s right,’ said Levy stepping between us, cutting off Kate mid-sentence. He hitched up his pants, maneuvering them side to side as he hauled them over his stomach like he was screwing them into place.
‘So how do you want to play it with Dreyer? I say we let him do the talking, take everything out of the room and mull it over. No decisions in the room. Only thing we’re set on is splitting the trial. We must have separate trials – our clients are blaming each other so we don’t have a choice,’ said Levy.
I nodded, said nothing. Over his shoulder Kate stepped back a pace, lowered her head again as Scott sidled up to Levy and nodded along with every word Levy said, like his boss was spilling the gospel. Two seconds ago I was talking to Kate, now the boys had basically trampled over her, taking control of the space and the conversation.
I wondered how small Levy’s dick had to be for him to get this kind of enjoyment from degrading a female employee.
Pretty damn small, I concluded.
Then Herb hollered over from behind the desk, ‘Mr. Dreyer will see you all in the conference room. Go on through, he’s waiting. Nice to see you, Eddie.’
‘You too, Herb,’ I said.
Levy turned toward the double doors just beyond the couches in the reception area, waved a hand over his shoulder as if he was calling his troops to him. Scott trotted alongside him, and Kate followed last, clutching a legal pad. She reached up and took a pen from the knot in her hair. Holding open the conference room doors, Levy ushered Scott in first, without even looking at him. As Kate passed him, I saw Levy’s eyes fall low to her calves. He watched Kate from behind, his fat lips puckered in a distasteful way that said he liked what he saw.
He let the door go and was about to move inside when I skipped ahead, grabbing the closing door and bumping into him. He rocked back on his feet a few steps, waving his little arms to regain his balance. Managing to grab a chair, he shot me an angry look. The heat in his gaze fed from his embarrassment. I saw Kate covering her mouth, trying not to laugh.
‘Sorry, Theo, I thought you had the door. My bad,’ I said.
He turned away from me in a huff, dragged out a chair and sat down.
The oval conference table seated ten. Four on one side, four on the opposite side. One at either end. A door at the rear of the room opened and in came Wesley Dreyer. He had a slow, confident stride, thin lips and receding hair. Genetic male-pattern baldness must have kicked in for Wesley in his early twenties. What remained up top had been carefully combed even though it looked thin almost to the point of transparency. He wore a different suit to the one he had on this morning at Sofia’s arraignment. This one was pale blue, with a similarly colored shirt and a navy tie.
‘Sit down, please, gentlemen, and lady,’ said Dreyer, careful to acknowledge Kate with a polite nod.
Dreyer pulled out the chair at the head of the table. I walked around the table and took a position opposite Levy and his team. Before he sat down Dreyer unbuttoned his jacket, smoothed down his tie and gracefully put his ass in the chair. He could’ve been a ballet dancer. From his jacket pocket he took a fountain pen, unscrewed the top and began making careful notes in a flowing script on a legal pad. He wrote down who was in the meeting, swept his arm up in front of his face and noted down the time from his Citizen watch. He then put down his pen, adjusted his cuffs just so, and carefully laced his fingers together. Some of his movements, although graceful, had a reptilian feel. Like a snake coiling itself, ready to strike.
‘I’ll be brief, and I won’t repeat myself so you may want to take notes,’ said Dreyer.