Page 81 of One of Us Is Guilty

‘Bye, Eddie,’ said Darius and Andy, and the rest of them waved or wished me well, apart from the tweaker, who was now sleeping softly underneath the bench in the corner.

I approached the door. The cop unlocked it and let me out.

‘Thanks for your hospitality,’ I said.

‘You’re welcome. Sounds like you had fun in there, Flynn.’

I stepped out, heard the door slam closed behind me.

‘I had good company, but the bed was terrible and the room service sucks. Don’t expect a five-star rating on Tripadvisor.’

I followed him down the hallway, through detention clearing to the desk sergeant. There, on what looked like a much more comfortable bench, sat Harry. He stood when he saw me coming, but there was no greeting.

‘Released with no charges. Sign here, Eddie,’ said the desk sergeant, who handed me a plastic bag with my tie, shoelaces, money roll, phone, watch and my father’s Saint Christopher medal on a silver neck chain. I thanked him, signed for my property and tossed him the pen.

‘I don’t want to hear it, Harry,’ I said.

He held up his hands and said, ‘We can do it in the car.’

I walked with him outside and across the street to his old, green convertible sports car. I hated it. I liked some British cars, but not even the Brits liked this thing. Even though it was cold, the sun was out and way too bright for my liking. Harry had the top down.

‘Can we put the top up?’ I asked.

‘Mechanics in four different garages can’t figure out how to fix the roof of this car. At least it’s not raining. Besides, you look like shit and don’t smell much better. The air will do us both good.’

‘I don’t need a lecture right now,’ I said, lowering myself into the passenger seat, and wincing at the shooting pain in my back. I was going to pay for sleeping on a bench all night for at least a week or two.

‘Too bad – you’re getting a lecture,’ said Harry as he got in, and tried and failed to start the engine. He pumped the gas, pulled the choke, then tried again and this time it eventually coughed to life. He reversed out of the parking space. After a couple of tries and a good deal of swearing, he managed to wrestle it into first gear and hit the gas.

‘You’d get better results lecturing the clutch in this thing. Neither of us are listening.’

‘You’re lucky you’re not on your way to central booking for aggravated assault, property damage and God knows what else. I think Julian Vanderpool and his head of security didn’t want to file a complaint because then they would have to admit on record that a lawyer in a cheap suit blew through a whole security team with nothing more than a tire iron and charm. You’re a lucky son of a bitch. You could have been going to jail. You could have lost your law license.’

‘I’m beginning to think losing my law license might be in the best interests of my long-term health.’

‘Joke all you want, but there are people who care about you.’

‘How’s Amy?’ I asked.

‘She’s okay. She still hasn’t seen a phone. Christine saw the articles, and Kevin and her are trying to get a court injunction to have the pictures taken down.’

‘That’s not going to work, but let them try. It’ll keep them busy. If she’s busy, she won’t blame me for this.’

Harry took his eyes off the road long enough to give me a withering look.

‘Is she that pissed?’ I asked.

‘She’s livid. She knows this is fallout from one of your cases. Sheasked me if this had something to do with one of your clients and I pleaded the fifth, but Christine isn’t stupid. She was talking to Kevin about going to court and getting an order restricting your access to Amy.’

‘She what?’

‘She won’t do it. I persuaded her to think about it. Focus on Amy for a couple of days. When Christine calms down, she’ll see things differently. I hope. But look, beating up a handful of Julian Vanderpool’s security men just to threaten him isn’t going to help Christine see sense. You’ve got to calm down. When are you going to realize you’re a lawyer? You’ve got to leave that other life behind.’

‘Doesn’t matter if I’m a lawyer or a bricklayer. This is me.’

‘This is why Kate . . . This is why she left,’ he said.

I could tell by the hesitation that he didn’t want to say it. But the bitterness in those words swam around the car for a while. My law partner had bailed because she was a good person, a straight shooter, who used the law to help our clients. But the law doesn’t work. And I can’t live with that. I’d been down that road and people got hurt.