Advice of Counsel (The Samuel Collins Series Book 1) (27 page)

She looked at me like she knew there was more to it, but she
didn’t pursue it.  “What time is Landra testifying today?”

I looked at my watch.  “In an hour.”

“How do you feel about it?” she asked.

“Honestly?  I’m scared.  But only because she’s my girlfriend.”

Maddie smiled.  “On a totally different matter . . . Did you
tell Oliver that you were going to take him up in the Hemisfair Tower tomorrow
evening?”

Uh oh.  “Yeah.  I think I did.  But it was last week when we
talked about it.  I can’t believe he remembered.”

She looked perturbed. “Of course he remembered.”

“Oh . . . well . . . can we go?  You too.  You want to go?”

“I wish you wouldn’t tell him something like that unless you
intend to do it.”

I couldn’t believe she was lecturing me.  “I had every
intention of doing it.  I just forgot.  And if it doesn’t happen, it’s not
going to be because of me, it’s going to be because of you.  I’m more than
happy to take him.” 
So there.

 “Next time, I’d appreciate it if you run something like that
by me first before you mention it to Oliver.”

I looked at her for a second thinking of a bunch of rude
comments I could make, but I reconsidered.  I decided to start over.

“Hey Maddie, you want to go up in the Hemisfair Tower
tomorrow?  We could take Oliver.  I think he’d really like it!”

“You’re such a jerk.”

“So are we on?” I asked.

“We’re on.”

*    *    *    *

Landra and I walked in silence the whole way to the Justice
Center.  We’d already covered everything the night before so I didn’t feel like
there was any point in rehashing it.  I wished there was more I could do, but
as it was, I felt pretty useless.

Landra looked perfect.  She’d dressed in a blue suit that had a
narrow skirt and a fitted jacket with two buttons at the waist.  It was
conservative without being prim; and classy without being pretentious.  Her
hair was down and silky-straight and she’d worn simple earrings and a watch,
and no other jewelry.

“I see you found a brush,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.

Landra smiled and hugged me.  “I’ll be fine, Sam,” she said,
trying to reassure me.

“I know you will,” I told her.

The door opened and a man walked out. “The grand jury is ready
for you.”

I hugged her again before she went in.  “I’ll be sitting right
out here,” I told her, and Landra nodded.

I’d brought some work with me, but I didn’t really expect to
get anything done.  I had no idea how long the grand jury would keep Landra. 
It could be an hour or it could be much more.  She’d been in for 45 minutes,
and I was beginning to think that the wait was unbearable when it got worse. 
Landra’s parents showed up.

It’s not like me to take an instant dislike to someone, but for
some reason, Landra’s parents fell into that category.  Ever since I’d met them
after Landra’s arrest, something about them rubbed me wrong.  And just the
sight of them at the Justice Center pissed me off.  It was like they didn’t
belong there, even though technically, they had just as much right to be there
as I did, if not more.  I knew my dislike was irrational, but that didn’t stop
the way I felt.  The best I could do was act civil to them and try to hide my
feelings.  For Landra’s sake.

I stood up and shook hands with her father first then I offered
my hand to her mother, but she felt compelled to hug me instead.

“Is she in there?” her mother asked.  She looked at the door
like it was infected with something she might catch.

I nodded.  “For about 45 minutes now.”

“Is that normal?  That seems like a long time,” she said.

I felt like asking how she would know, but I bit my tongue. 
“Don’t worry, I think its normal,” I said instead.

She tried to smile, but it came off as a grimace, and I felt a
little sorry for her.

“Really, try not to worry,” I said.  “Why don’t you sit down.”

I motioned to the bench and she sat where I’d been sitting when
they arrived.  Her husband sat next to her, and just like that, I’d been displaced. 
I moved over to the bench across the hall and acted like I was working, but
they kept making small talk – one of my pet peeves.   My philosophy is that if
you don’t have anything relevant to say, keep your mouth shut, but it was
apparent that we didn’t subscribe to the same philosophy.

I sat through an hour and a half of their nonsense before the
door opened and Landra came out.  Her face was flushed and I could tell she’d
been crying, but she still looked beautiful.  If she hadn’t already been my girlfriend,
I would have asked her out for a date.

She looked around when she found her parents on my bench,
barely affording them a hello.

“Right here,” I said, and she spun around and ran over to me.

“They don’t have the pictures!” she exclaimed.

“What?”

“They don’t have the pictures that the police took that night!”

“The grand jury doesn’t have them or the prosecutor doesn’t
have them,” I asked confused.

“The grand jury doesn’t have them.  I don’t know if the
prosecutor has them or not, but the grand jury has never seen them.”

“You’re kidding,” I said.  I was thinking back to my
conversations I’d had with the ADA and I knew for a certainty that he’d been in
possession of the photos when we’d spoken about Landra’s case.  He’s
specifically told me that he thought Landra’s bruises were self-inflicted, and
the only way he’d know that she had bruises was if he’d seen the photos.  I
couldn’t imagine that he would have withheld evidence from the grand jury
intentionally, but even if it was an oversight, it was a huge.  As far as I was
concerned, the whole case turned on the photos.

“What’s happening in there?” I asked Landra.  “Are you done?”

She nodded.  “I’m done. And it sounded like they were quitting
for the day,” she said.  “What are we going to do?”

“You’re going to go home and relax, and I’m going to go to the
DA’s office.”

*    *    *    *

I was so wound up that if someone had looked at me wrong, I
probably would have slugged him.  Knowing that it wasn’t a good idea to
approach anyone in the state I was in, I walked around the block twice to clear
my head before I confronted the ADA.

“You’re about to have a serious problem on your hands,” I
threatened.  “Withholding evidence?  Did you really think you’d get away with
that?”

“I turned over everything in my possession,” he said, and he
looked down and examined his nails like I was wasting his time.

“You’re a liar!  And you’re harassing my client because your
previous investigation against her turned up
nothing.
”

“My pursuit of this case has nothing to do with anything but
this case.”

“Like I said, you’re a liar.  And I promise you  . . . you’re
going to lose your job over this one.”

“Samuel?  What are you doing here?”

I turned around and my friend from the DA’s office was standing
in the doorway.  He probably saved me from punching his co-worker in the face.

“Calvin,” I said.  “Actually, I was coming to look for you.”  I
left the red-faced ADA in the hall and walked off with Calvin.  “I need your
help.”

I got to the office early the next morning but Maddie beat me
there.

“So you had to run from the parking garage yesterday?” she said
with a funny look on her face.

“Yeah,” I said skeptically.  I was hesitant to embellish the
lie because I could tell she had something on me. “Why?”

She tossed the Metro section of the newspaper at me, and much
to my horror, my picture was on the front page.  It was a close-up action shot,
taken head-on, of me wheeling the legless guy down the street, him clutching my
briefcase in his grubby hands and smiling like it was Christmas.

“What the hell!”  I read the caption underneath and wanted to
puke.

Good Samaritan:  Local attorney Samuel Collins assists
disabled veteran Clarence O’Malley.  Number three in our photographic series on
People Helping People.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I said.  I threw the paper down
on her desk, but picked it back up again for a second look.  “I ought to sue
their ass!”

“Why?” Maddie exclaimed.  “You look adorable!  Check it out . .
. you can even see your beautiful blue eyes,” she said, pointing to the
picture.  “Every girl in the city is going to be in love with you!”

“That photo’s going to put me out of business!  People don’t
want a nice lawyer.  They want someone who’ll get out there and kick some ass,
not push some old fart around in his wheelchair!” I threw the paper back down
and stomped off to the kitchen.

When Maddie made her way back there, she was trying
unsuccessfully to hide a smile.

“It’s not funny, Maddie,” I said irritably.

“I just have to give you a hug.  I’m so proud to be your friend.” 
She came over and hugged me, but I didn’t reciprocate.  The whole thing was so
stupid that I wasn’t about to encourage her.

“I don’t want to hear anything more about that picture,” I
said.

“Not a word will cross my lips,” she said, but she still had that
stupid smile on her face, then she pretended to lock her lips and throw away
the key.

“I’m going in my office.  Screen my calls.  If it’s about the
photo, I’m not here.”

*    *    *    *

It was late in the day when I heard from Richard Stollens.  His
tone was superior and it immediately pissed me off.

“$250,000.  And I suggest you take it Collins.  That’s more
than the case is worth,” he asserted.

“More than the case is worth?” I laughed.  “If some pervert had
been watching your wife pull down her pants and take a piss for the last year,
do you think you’d settle for that?”

“There’s no proof,” he said, but I could tell he was only
hoping.

“Are you stupid, Dick?  Did you think I didn’t know that the
first thing Datacare would do would be to get rid of the mirror?” I asked in
disbelief.  “I’ve got pictures, you asshole!”  I wished that our meeting had
been in person so I could see the sweat beading-up on his forehead.  “Then
there are the hidden cameras.  How do you think the media would react to the fact
that Datacare’s supervisors are sitting in their office getting their jollies
watching videos of a lactating mother pumping her breasts?  Do you think that’s
the kind of story the media would play down, or do you think they’d milk it for
all it was worth?” I laughed at my own joke.  “Sorry, I couldn’t resist,” I
said.

I was having a great time tormenting Dick, but he wasn’t
laughing.  He was in a terrible position as an attorney and I only hoped that I
never ended up in that kind of fix.  One of his clients was a liar, one was a
pervert, and the other had a billion dollars at its disposal.  I almost felt
sorry for Old Dick.

“Now, I suggest you go back and tell your clients everything we
just talked about.  And if they come up with another lame-ass offer, all
settlement discussions are off.  We’ll try the damn thing!”

“I don’t think any of us want that,” Dick said, trying to
muster some authority back into his voice.

“Hey, you know me.  It’s no sweat off my back if my client gets
put through the ringer on the stand.  The outcome’s still the same – forty
percent.”

“You could never be accused of being sensitive to your client’s
feelings,” he said.

“Yeah, well that may be true, but I’d still hate for any of
this to get leaked to the press.”

Dick took the threat well.  I knew he wouldn’t put it past me
to do it.  There was no way he could know that I actually was sensitive to my
client’s feelings.

“And another thing,” I said.  “Are Larry and the CEO still
employed?”

“As far as I know.”

“What are they waiting for?  Don’t they realize that with every
day those creeps are on their payroll, their potential liability increases? 
Don’t they know about negligent retention?”

“I’ll speak to my clients,” he said, sounding totally deflated.

“Well, don’t take it so hard, Dick.  You’ll still get paid.”

“Go to hell,” he said, and he hung up without so much as a
goodbye.

I walked out of my office with an ear to ear grin.  Penny and
Maddie were in the kitchen and they stopped talking when I came in.

“What are you so happy about?” Maddie asked.

I shook my head.  “I don’t know.  I just love to irritate the
guy.”

“You mean Richard Stollens?” Maddie asked.

“Yeah.  They came back with a quarter million.  I turned them
down.”

Her eyes got big.  “You turned down $250,000?” Maddie said. 
“How much are we willing to take?”

“I don’t know.  But I’ll know when I hear it.  What time is
Oliver getting here?”

Maddie looked at her watch.  “Right about now.  And Samuel . .
. let’s see if we can steer the conversation away from babes or fine girls.”

“What else is there to talk about?”  I said.

I pushed her head to the side and she slapped at my hand. “Get
away!” she said.

I turned around and Penny was watching us, smiling.  “Why don’t
you come with us Penny?” I said.   “We’re taking Oliver up in the Tower.”

“I haven’t been up there in years,” Penny said.

“I haven’t either,” I said.

The Hemisfair Tower, also know as the Tower of the Americas,
was the centerpiece of Hemisfair ’68, the 6-month worlds fair which
commemorated the 250
^th
anniversary of the founding of San Antonio. 
The tower looks like a big cement pylon with a round box sitting on top. The
1.4 million pound upper portion that houses the restaurant and the observation
deck was actually built on the ground and lifted to the top, inch-by-inch – a
feat which took 21 days to accomplish and which I’m sure was an event in
itself.   The fact that the restaurant had been lifted to its position some
600+ feet in the sky always gave me pause.  Like if it could be lifted up,
maybe it could come sliding back down too.  I knew it was an illogical
perspective so I tried not to give it much credence, but nevertheless, the
thought was never too far off when I was up there.

The last time I’d been up in the restaurant, I’d almost thrown
up.  The outer portion revolves so diners can get a view of the whole city
while they eat.  I’d made the mistake of watching the floor move and I finally
had to fix my eyes out the window to get rid of the nausea.  It hadn’t been a
pleasant experience and I wasn’t thrilled about going back up.

“I’d love to go,” Penny said, “if you’re sure I won’t be
imposing.”

“Imposing on what?” I asked.

Maddie and I looked at each other and we both shrugged our
shoulders.  It was done is such perfect unison that it looked like we’d
practiced the maneuver.

“You wouldn’t be imposing on anything,” Maddie assured her.

Maddie’s mom dropped Oliver off and the four of us loaded into
the Suburban and headed to the Tower.  We parked in the Tower parking lot,
which was practically deserted, and had walked almost to the plaza in front of
the Tower when Maddie stopped.

“I left my sweater in the car,” she said.

“It’s not even cold,” I pointed out.  I didn’t feel like going
back to the car.

“But it’s always freezing up in the restaurant.  Give me the
keys and I’ll go back,” she offered.

“No, you go on and I’ll meet you at the fountains down there,”
I said, motioning towards the plaza.

“Are you sure?” Maddie asked.  She sounded really sweet and it
made me feel guilty for being so lazy in the first place.

“Positive.”

We went in opposite directions and I made my way back to the
car.  It was a gorgeous afternoon with a clear blue sky. The view would be
incredible from the restaurant and observation deck.   I was actually getting
psyched about the adventure; I just needed to remember not to watch the floor.

My phone rang as I was unlocking the door and I had to fumble
with my keys to get the phone out of my pocket before the call went to voice
mail.

“Hi.  It’s Landra.”

“Hello, Landra.”  I smiled just hearing her voice.

“Are you guys already at the Tower?”

“We’re just getting here.  Why don’t you join us?”  She’d
already turned me down the night before and I was hoping maybe she had changed
her mind, but she turned me down again.

I got Maddie’s sweater out of the car as I carried on a
conversation with Landra, and I had just closed the door when I noticed
something that made my heart skip a beat. There was a black pick-up parked
right next to my Suburban that hadn’t been there when we’d parked minutes
earlier.

“Hold on a second, Landra,” I said, going over to the other
side of the car.  I could feel my pulse start to race and I got a sick feeling
in my gut.  There were still faint red lines where the paint had dripped down
all over the truck.  My stomach churned as I took off running as fast as I
could across the parking lot.  I’d only gone a short distance when I heard
people screaming from the plaza.

“Landra, I need you to call Niki Lautrec!  Larry’s here.  And
call 911!”

I crammed the phone into my pocket and raced up the stairs
toward the Tower.  When I reached the top of the stairs, I had a view of the
whole plaza.  There were groups of people standing huddled together in
different areas, but all eyes were focused in the same direction and everyone
was screaming, yelling and pointing.

Larry was holding Oliver in one arm and he had a pistol pressed
up against the boy’s temple.  Maddie was screaming and running towards them.

“Get back or I’ll shoot him!” Larry yelled at Maddie.

Maddie froze in her tracks, screaming hysterically, while Penny
held on to her.  I ran over to them, trying desperately to figure out what to
do, but I was as helpless as everyone else.

“Mommy!” Oliver cried.

“It’s okay baby,” Maddie called back.  “Mommy won’t let
anything happen to you.”

“Stay back!” Larry yelled.

He was walking backwards toward the Tower entrance, and after
every few steps he would move the pistol from Oliver’s head and point it in a
sweeping motion towards the crowd in the plaza and everyone would scream.  By
then, everyone except for Maddie and Penny and I was lying flat on the ground.

I decided I’d try to reason with him.  “You don’t want to take
the kid,” I yelled. “Put Oliver down and take me.”  I put my hands in the air
in a gesture of surrender and took a step forward and the son of a bitch shot
me.

I took it in with all my senses.  I saw the spark come out of
the barrel; I heard the boom echo through the plaza; I smelled the burned
gunpowder; and I tasted the blood from where I bit my tongue when the bullet
went ripping in one side of my left bicep and out the other.  It hurt like
hell, but it had happened so fast, I didn’t even realize at first that I’d been
shot.

It wasn’t until I saw the look of horror on Maddie’s face as
she looked at my blood-soaked tattered sleeve that the impact of what had just
happened hit me.  My first and only thought was of Oliver.  If the bastard
would shoot me so cavalierly, there was no telling what he might do to Oliver.

“Oh my God!  You’re shot!” Maddie screamed.  She seemed torn
between looking out for me and keeping an eye on Oliver.

“I’m okay,” I told her.

“Samuel!” Oliver was crying.  He was wriggling in Larry’s arm,
trying to get away.  “Let me go!  Mommy!”

“Don’t fight him, Oliver.  It’s going to be okay,” I called out
to him in a voice that sounded surprisingly calm.

Larry had reached the Tower entrance and he turned his back to
us when he got inside.  He was wearing a backpack and I shuddered to think what
he might have in it.  We watched in horror as he carried Oliver over to the
elevator and pushed the button, then waited for it to come down.

The Hemisfair Tower is the tallest structure in San Antonio,
with the observation deck sitting around 600 feet.  The elevator goes up the
outside of the Tower and has a glass front so visitors can look out at the city
on the ride to the restaurant or the observation deck, the only two floors
where the elevator stops.  We watched the elevator come lower and lower until
it reached the ground floor.  Larry and Oliver got in and the doors closed and
Maddie, Penny and I raced into the Tower lobby, and over to the elevator.

My phone rang and I was shaking so badly that I could barely
push the button to answer it.  “Hello,” I said.  My voice sounded like someone
else’s.

“It’s Niki.”

I was so relieved that I if he’d been there in person I
probably would have kissed him.  “Larry’s got Oliver,” I said.  My voice kept
catching and I had started to tremble.  “He took him up in the Tower.  Where
are you?”  I prayed he wasn’t going to say that he was out of town.

“I’m pulling into the parking lot right now.  I see your car. 
And Larry’s.”

“Thank God,” I said under my breath.  I needed someone to deal
with the situation that knew what he was doing because I sure as hell didn’t.

Three policemen came running through the door at that point.
Their pistols were drawn and Maddie and Penny both threw up their hands.