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I was so grateful to have the ability to take a bath. The nights in my cell were cold and dark, and I could still smell the steel bars in my nose. I had laid there in the cot at night, thinking about the dinners I would cook my father, the warm bed I missed so much, and Blaine’s strong, hot arms around me. When the other girls had arrived, I got myself through the night without sleep by thinking about the warm air over my body as Blaine and I walked across the sand, the ocean waves just barely touching my feet. I could still hear the waves from my windows, crashing against the shore, even in that cold dark cell. I figured I would have to start remembering a lot more of that if I didn’t get out of these charges.
I sat there while Blaine pulled the sponge from the edge of the tub and lathered it with body wash. He gently moved it over my skin, cleaning the last few days from my body. He smiled kindly at me as I sat there, feeling comfortable but still not completely at ease. When he was done washing me, he helped me out of the tub and wrapped a towel around me as he pulled out some clean clothes from my bag. I got dressed and combed my hair and then met him in the living room where he had set up a nest of blankets and pillows on the couch. He asked if I needed anything, but I shook my head no, not even wanting to eat since the exhaustion had just struck me. I watched him walk over to the table and open his laptop, files piled up everywhere.
“When are you going back to the office?” I asked.
“I’m not,” he answered. “I’m going to work here, from home. I don’t want to leave you for even a second. It’s too risky.”
“Thank you,” I said with a yawn. “And if I don’t get a chance to say it later, thank you for everything you’ve done, and everything you will do for me. I couldn’t imagine what I would do if I were in this situation alone.”
“I love you,” he said. “I would go to the ends of the earth for you. Don’t worry. We are going to figure this all out and get your life back on track.”
I smiled at him, thinking about those words and wondering if I should tell him the entire story. I wondered if he should know that Harry the Hammer had come to visit me inside the jail. But then I remembered that they were not playing around, and if I brought Blaine into this, there was a good chance he would get hurt, too. I couldn’t, for one second, even start to think about putting his life in danger, not after all he had done for me. If there was a way out of this without revealing my secret, I was sure Blaine was going to find it.
I watched him as he pulled out his pad of paper, his notes, and his files and began to work. There was something so amazing about the way he handled himself. He was so organized, and everything that he had gone through so far was tabbed and highlighted. Now, I understood what made him such a good lawyer. He really put himself into his work. I knew that he was way more invested in this case than probably any of the others, but still, if he did this on a normal basis, he would be unstoppable. His parents must have known that when they left him the firm. I wondered if everyone on his staff was this diligent, and I felt an ease come over me, knowing I had people like Blaine slaving away at my case, trying to find me a way out, any way they could.
Even the way that Blaine talked on the phone was incredibly impressive, and I smiled at the way he twirled his pen while he waited for someone to pick up. His tone of voice was completely different than the one he talked to me with. It was assertive and dominating, while his voice was always so gentle and loving with me. I thought about how he might sound in the courtroom, and I wondered if it would make me giggle. Probably not, especially since in the courtroom, I would be fighting for my freedom and possibly life. There would probably be no moments on that sta
nd that I felt good about what was going on, regardless of whether I felt I was winning or not. I listened to Blaine talk to some man name Anderson on the phone.
“I have a private investigator out looking for her father, but I think that it would be a good idea for her to file a missing person’s report soon,” he said in an authoritative tone. “Yes, I have all that documented. Now, if you could go over the state’s case with me again, that would be great.”
I smiled to myself, not wanting to distract him. Anderson must be someone important in the firm since he seemed to have my case right in front of him. As they talked, Blaine started taking notes, stopping to ask questions that I already knew the answers to. Part of me wanted to jump right in with the team and help in my own defense. Who knew the details of my case better than me? I knew where everything was, who everyone was, and exactly what happened. From the sound of it, though, I might not have any real options when we got to court. The prosecutors had tied this one up pretty tightly and were very secure in their reasoning. They had arrested me because of an eyewitness that said they saw someone that looked like me walking into the victim’s home at the time of the murder. Then, when they searched my house, they found the murder weapon, wrapped in the victim’s clothes, in a trashcan outside of my house. It was set up by Paulie perfectly, and in my mind, a little too perfectly. I was shocked that no one was questioning why I would have that weapon in a trashcan out front, a trashcan that had been emptied at least twice since the murder by the garbage men.
It didn’t help that I couldn’t show any proof that I was at my house that night. My only alibi was my father, and he was still missing. I figured that Harry and Paulie probably had him locked up at this point, unable to leave to give us that information. In reality, I didn’t even think they would spare my father’s life once I was convicted. That was too many loose ends for the mob. They would kill him and throw the body in the river like so many others that had crossed their paths. My mind tried to block that image out, knowing that there was still a chance to correct all of this.
I had no idea what to do or even where to start. There was so much stacked against me, and I wasn’t sure how to prove them wrong. I felt a lot better knowing Blaine and his firm were already ten steps ahead of me. They had picked up the case as soon as I was arrested, and they’d been working the details ever since. If there was a way out of this nightmare, Blaine would find it, and that, in itself, gave me the ability to relax just a bit. I couldn’t spend the rest of my life behind bars.
Chapter 23
Blaine
“All right man,” I said to Anderson. “Thanks. I’ll give you a call back in a little while. We should go over the timeline this afternoon.”
“Sounds good, buddy,” he said.
I hung up the phone and looked down at my notes. It looked absolutely impossible, but I knew that it wasn’t. Besides, Anderson had gotten me some good information on this Paulie character, and I wanted to hear Josie’s story again while Anderson dove deeper into the two mobster thugs. She was lying in a huge nest of blankets and pillows on the couch, but she was anything but asleep. I could tell she was restlessly listening to everything going on, and I knew that her mind must be running a million miles an hour. I walked over and sat down next to her, grabbing onto her hand.
“I need you to do something just one more time for me,” I said. “I need you to recite exactly what happened on Wednesday. I know you’ve told me over and over again, but I want to make sure I have everything perfect.”
She took a deep breath and pulled herself up on the couch, reaching over and grabbing her bottle of water. I could tell she was already running the events through her mind, and I could see the stress start to build. I didn’t want her to be stressed, but I knew right now it was inevitable. She recounted her story, beginning at the conversation with her father at dinner about his gambling addiction.
She went through all of the events, but what really caught my attention was what happened in the jail cell after she was taken by the police. My eyes widened as she talked about Harry the Hammer, and how that woman, the same woman from the night Josie was arrested, ended up in the cell right next to hers with a violent message. She threatened Josie again, but this time, there were witnesses, and I knew no matter how loyal someone was to another inmate, the thought of freedom would make them sing like a bird. I was pretty pissed that none of the guards were there to help Josie.
As soon as she was done with her story, I leaned over and hugged her tightly, wanting her to know just how great she was doing. She smiled at me as I kissed her forehead and picked up my cell phone. Anderson needed to know this information, and the team had to get a jumpstart on it.
“Hey,” I said when Anderson answered. “I just found out Harry, the woman from the night of the arrest, was in the jail cell next to Josie the other night. She threatened her and gave her a bloody lip. The normal intimidation.”
“Shit, man,” Anderson said. “What do you need me to do?”
“See what you can find out about this Paulie and Harry duo,” I said. “There has to be something about them we can dig up. Josie said the woman was like a celebrity in jail, so there’s a good chance she’s been in and out of trouble. Find out if she is still in jail.”
“Will do,” he replied. “Call you back as soon as I have that information.”
“Great, thanks,” I said before hanging up.
I looked over at Josie and saw that her arms were covered in goosebumps, and she was shivering. It was warm in my place, so I knew it had to do more with telling the story than it had to do with the temperature. I walked back over to her and sat down, pulling my arms around her body and bringing her close to me. Slowly, her body began to relax again.
I worried that she was going to have some serious issues with all of this when it was done. She looked so tired, so frail, and so lost, and it was breaking my heart. He skin was pale, but where her usually rosy cheeks and pink lips were, was no color, only skin. She had bags under her eyes, and her hair wasn’t as shiny as it normally was. I could see this whole thing taking the kind of toll on her that illness did with other people.
