AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“This makes no sense,” said Theo, thinking about it. “I need your phone. I should call Jack.”
She gave it to him, and Theo shot off a quick text: “It’s Theo. Pick up when I call.”
Jack was alone in his office when the call came.
Two minutes earlier, Imani had been with him, lawyer and client trying to make sense of the morning tragedy and sort out the implications for Imani’s trial without her ex-husband. But for the “heads-up” text message, Jack never would have asked Imani to step out, and he would have let the call from an unknown number go to voicemail.
“Theo? Where are you?”
“Still in London.”
“Why?”
“Didn’t Andie tell you?”
The question caught Jack off-guard. “No.”
“I was on the phone with her when I got shot at.”
The first thing that popped into Jack’s mind was that Andie had said nothing about this to him, which only put a finer point on their ongoing troubles. Jack led with his second thought: “Somebody shot at you?”
“Yeah. Now the FBI tells me it was the same sniper who took out Shaky.”
It was a lot for Jack to process. “Wait—what?”
“Jack, listen to what I’m saying. Your best friend got shot at. I was on the phone with your wife when it happened. She didn’t say anything to you?”
“No, she didn’t.”
“Dude, that’s fucked up.”
It was, and it triggered those words all over again.This isn’t working anymore.But this wasn’t the time to get into the Andie situation, even if Theo did have the counseling skills of a world-class bartender, better than most psychiatrists.
“That’s a whole ’nother conversation,” said Jack.
There was a knock on the door, and it opened. Jack’s assistant took a half-step into the room.
“Judge Cookson’s assistant just called,” she said. “He wants you back in his chambers at two p.m. Lawyers only.”
Jack checked the time. It was short.
“Theo, I gotta go,” he said into the phone.
“Seriously?”
“The judge called. I barely have time to organize my thoughts and get to the courthouse. Can I call you back on this number?”
“Yeah, sure. What do you think the judge is gonna do?”
A fleet of possibilities sailed through Jack’s mind. “Better question is, ‘What should I ask him to do?’”
Chapter 52
The mood was somber in Judge Cookson’s chambers.
The building’s main entrance was still a crime scene, so the lawyers had entered through the chute on “Lucky Thirteenth Street,” which connected the courthouse to the jail. Jack and Jennifer Ellis were on one side of the table. The prosecutor sat across from them. But it was Judge Cookson who seemed most subdued. The courthouse had been his home away from home for decades, and it was as if the murder had happened on his own front doorstep.
“First, let me express my condolences to you, Ms. Ellis, on the terrible tragedy that unfolded this morning.”
