Page 68 of Two Kinds of Stranger

‘Not that I can see. I know this is difficult for you, but—’

‘Difficult? It’s illegal.’

‘Of course it is, and you don’t have to do it. I can call Elly and—’

‘I know she’s our client, but she reached out to me. I can’t throw this all onto your shoulders. I have to stand on my own two feet sometimes.’

‘You stand a lot taller than I do, Kate Brooks. You’re smarter and tougher than me, and you’re a better person too. It’s okay to let me take one for the team. I don’t mind. It’s not like I haven’t done this shit before.’

‘And what happens if I have to do something like this some day, and you’re not here? It’s my responsibility. I just wish there was another way.’

‘If you don’t do this, Elly is going to get hurt. They don’t want to kill her, but they could put her in the infirmary and accidents happen. We can’t rely on the crazies in Rosie’s not to go too far. She could die in there tonight.’

‘So either I compromise everything in my professional duty or Elly gets beaten and stabbed? That’s what you’re telling me?’

‘Welcome to the New York criminal bar practice. If you can’t do it, I understand. But somebody has to tell Elly what to do. For what it’s worth, there’s a way to tell her this without you losing your law license or the DA prosecuting you. . .’

‘I know how to do it and not get caught. Whether Castro or the NYPD can prove I broke the law, doesn’t matter.Iwill know what I’ve done.’

‘Then let me—’

‘Eddie, it has to be my decision.’

She heard him sighing on the end of the line.

‘I know you’ll do the right thing, Kate.’

‘Yeah? And what’s the right thing here, exactly?’

She hung up the call and then tore the page out of her legal pad, ripped it up and put it in the trash.

Elly would be calling back in less than sixty seconds. Kate stared at her cell phone on the desk and chewed her lip. Eddie once told her that sometimes a case takes away a little piece of you. The question is whether you let that happen. The best lawyers, the ones who care most about their clients, they pay that price.

She picked up a pen and tapped it on the desk, staring at the phone.

She didn’t want to give up this piece of her. It belonged not just in her mind, but in her soul. Her father had been a cop. Twenty years in the NYPD. If she had asked him what to do, he would say there’s nothing she could do. That what will happen in that cell, in the dark, wasn’t her problem. She was just a lawyer. She could only do so much. Her responsibilities were to represent her client, in court, and that’s it.

The screen on her phone lit up. The pulsing vibration from the incoming call sent the device dancing across her desk.

Kate’s mouth was dry as she picked it up, answered the call.

And made her decision.

All of the detainee’s phone calls are monitored. It didn’t matter if she told her lawyer she was under threat; she hadn’t made a complaint to the COs so they could do nothing. But it also made things difficult for Kate, because she couldn’t tell Elly exactly what she had to do. Not outright.

Kate was subtle in relaying the information from Eddie.

Hypotheticals.

In the unlikely event that this might happen, this is what the CO response will be.

They talked for a few minutes.

Elly hung up.

Kate leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling. She had crossed a line tonight. She told herself this was a one-off. Never to be repeated.

Part of her knew that once she had opened this door, she would have to keep walking through it. That there was no going back.