‘It’s okay. I need to keep my head in the trial. It’s the only thing keeping me going.’
We both fell silent for a time, while I flipped the switch. Head back in the game.
‘You really think the figure in black is one of the Avellino sisters? Killing the pharmacist and Cohen to cover their tracks?’ I asked.
‘I think it has to be,’ said Kate.
I paused, let that sink in while I drained the coffee and Kate gave me a refill.
‘What do you know about Mike Modine?’ I asked.
‘Not much. He was a Wills and Probate attorney – specializing in estate wealth management. He helped the dead pass their money to the living with as few deductions for tax as he could manage. He says he doesn’t know what changes Frank wanted to make to his will, and he’s taken off. Probably having a mid-life crisis in Malibu with a twenty-one-year-old volleyball player,’ said Kate.
‘Mike Modine made two-and-a-half-million dollars last year before taxes. Due to some creative accounting on his part, he’s got five mil in a bank account in Zurich which he thinks the IRS don’t know about, and at the time he went missing he had a dozen credit cards in his wallet. He’s been a partner at this firm for eight years. Before that, he was an associate for fifteen, working his way up to the big bucks.’
‘How do you know so much about Modine?’
‘I did my homework. If he was making cash on the side he had to put it somewhere. There’s no indication he was skimming clients, as all of the bank records on his files are audited. I just don’t buy him up and leaving a job he worked his ass off to get.’
Kate lowered her head. Something seemed to flash before her eyes. Maybe the moment she’d upped and left Levy, Bernard and Groff. I got the sense she was rethinking that decision. Whatever it was, it passed quickly.
‘You think Modine got fired and went into hiding?’ asked Kate.
‘No.’
‘What then? You don’t think he ran, you don’t think he got fired and …’
The realization spread over Kate’s face.
‘You think he’s dead, don’t you?’
‘I’m pretty sure of it. I think Modine had an idea why Frank wanted to change his will. That, or maybe the killer didn’t know what Modine had been told by Frank, and had to take him out anyway – just to be sure.’
I laid out my theory for Kate. Told her about the deaths of Heather and Jane Avellino, the suspicions, the bite mark on Jane’s thigh post-mortem.
‘I’ve felt like I’m being watched. That someone has been taking note of my every move. I think that someone is the killer. Whichever one of our clients murdered Frank, it wasn’t their first time. I think they murdered their mother, stepmother, the pharmacist and cashier, Hal Cohen, Frank and Mike Modine. And I think they might have killed Harper too, but I’m really not sure on that one. Maybe there are others we don’t even know about. This is all connected. One of us is representing a very dangerous woman. I think it might be you,’ I said.
‘Wait a minute, my client? You’re the one representing the sister with severe psychiatric problems. And all of these killings … I think that might be taking things too far,’ said Kate. ‘We don’t have evidence to—’
‘Of course we don’t. They aren’t on trial for those murders because there is no evidence. That doesn’t mean I’m wrong. And just because Sofia has had mental health problems in the past doesn’t make her a killer. There’s a degree of skill, planning, and timing in these murders which I think Sofia simply isn’t capable of.’
‘Well, Alexandra is no killer. I watched a man die in front of me yesterday. Do you think that if I, for one moment, thought it could be Alexandra, I would still be in this case?’
‘I think you’re not sure about your client.’
‘Well, I am, pretty sure. You? You can’t be one hundred percent certain your client is innocent?’
She had me there. I believed Sofia. Whether that was because I wanted to believe her, I couldn’t say. My heart, and my head, told me Sofia wasn’t the killer.
‘There’s always a small doubt in the back my mind. That’s all.’
‘Same here, I can’t be certain, but I’m as sure as I can be that Alexandra is innocent. I’ve put my career on the line for her.’
‘We have to remember that one of us is representing an innocent person. I think we just let it play out for now. I think the killer is on trial because they think they have to be on trial.’
‘What?’
‘There’s something close to fifty million dollars on the line. What did Dreyer tell us? Forty-four million after taxes? That kind of money, I don’t think it can be anything other than motive. Forty-four million isn’t just money – it’s power. I think the killer knows she will be acquitted. That you or I will get them off somehow.’
‘That’s ridiculous, you couldn’t slice this decision any thinner. It’s fifty-fifty down the line.’
‘Right now it is. And we have to keep it that way.’
‘What?’
I paused. Thought. ‘I think there’s something we haven’t seen yet. A witness or a piece of evidence that is coming down the pipe which tips the scales. There’s a get-out-of-jail-free card coming our way. When we see that, we’ll know who the killer is.’
Kate shivered and said, ‘You think one of them planned this from the beginning?’
‘I think they planned to dope Frank into submission, and when that didn’t work, or Frank found out about their plans and wanted to change his will, then they had to take alternative action. What’s the best way of making sure you inherit forty-four mil, and your sister doesn’t?’
‘You make sure your sister is convicted of killing the legatee,’ said Kate. ‘The Slayer laws prevent murderers inheriting their victim’s estates. And if you’re acquitted you can’t be tried again, that would be double jeopardy. So one of us is part of this plan?’
‘Maybe not part of it. I don’t think it’s about us. It’s evidence or testimony. Something we haven’t seen yet. If that smoking gun comes up we’ll need to talk again. Look, I’ve never asked this question of another attorney and for most it doesn’t even matter, but I have to ask this. Do you really think Alexandra is innocent? Honestly, no bullshit.’
‘I do. What about you? Do you think Sofia is innocent?’
I nodded, said, ‘I wouldn’t have taken the case otherwise.’
‘Shit,’ said Kate.
‘We can’t speak a word of this to Dreyer. Nor anyone else. We have to trust each other,’ I said. ‘There’s something coming – a witness or a piece of evidence that proves the case against one of the sisters, or exonerates one of them. I just know it. When we see that get-out-of-jail card coming – we know it’s false and the other sister planted it. I think one of them killed Frank, and is dead set not only on convicting her sister, but making sure she herself is acquitted.’
Kate held out a hand.
‘But what do we do with this card if we see it?’
‘We lay down our arms. If I see Sofia playing that card, I’ll sink her case.’