Lion Plays Rough (6 page)

Chapter 10

Teddy and I were sitting on the couch waiting for the news to start. We didn't usually watch it, but tonight I figured I'd better. I reminded him of the potential client I'd mentioned the other night, filled him in on what I'd done up in the hills, and explained what had happened to me at the DA's office this morning.

“Bottom line is my client's not my client. Someone set me up. Jamil's real attorney is Nikki Matson. She threatened me, trying to get me to tell her who hired me. I pretended I knew, but I don't have the foggiest.”

“You told Jeanie what happened?”

“I've been managing to avoid her.”

“Nikki,”
Teddy said. “I remember Nikki. She's one of the people I wouldn't have minded forgetting.”

“When she got done threatening me she tried to give me a job.”

“You're not gonna quit Jeanie.”

I shook my head. “Lavinia could have planned it, I suppose. Hitting me with the car. She could have been following me. She saw an opportunity and she took it. But an opportunity for what?”

“To expose this detective.”

“There were two of them in on it. Lavinia and the guy who called me pretending to be Jamil. If they knew so much about what Campbell was up to, why couldn't they blow the whistle themselves?”

“How much do you remember about the car?”

“I didn't get the license number. A blue Pontiac, fairly new. She seemed to have money. She said she was from Oakland but seemed freaked out to be standing on the street outside our office. You're not from Oakland if Grand Avenue makes you nervous.”

“Unless you're afraid someone's going to recognize you,
”
Teddy said.

I hadn't thought of that. For the umpteenth time I caught a fleeting glimpse of my brother's old intelligence, gone again even as it flashed into the light.

The pictures I'd taken yesterday appeared on the screen in sequence, telling their silent drama.

“Nikki fucking Matson,” I said.

“What was she supposed to do with them?”

“You're right. No real downside for her in giving the photos to the news, letting the DA sweat it out.”

“Maybe she was the one who set you up. You dig up the dirt, she and what's-his-name get the benefit.”

I shook my head. “Nikki has a little conflict of interest. The other guy on the tape, Damon, I'm pretty sure he's her client, too. In fact, she may have been in on the frame-up. As Jamil's lawyer she was in a position to make sure he pleaded guilty like a good soldier. That's one of the reasons I'd hoped we'd have a few more days to figure out what's going on, not to mention how I can get out of this mess.”

But I wasn't getting out. Seeing my name flash across the bottom of the screen, I turned up the volume and heard, “Oakland attorney Nikki Matson, Jamil Robinson's previous lawyer, said she had nothing to do with the pictures, and that Mr. Robinson had fired her. Robinson's new attorney, Oakland criminal defense lawyer Leo Maxwell, issued a written statement today refusing to comment. Quote, ‘These photographs speak for themselves.
'
”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” I said aloud. “I'm not his lawyer. I didn't say that.”

“Sources in the Alameda County district attorney's office pointed out that the person who made the photographs would be subject to prosecution under certain interpretations of California's wiretapping statute and could face up to a year in jail. When asked if Maxwell would be charged, a spokesperson refused to comment, stating that office policy forbids discussing ongoing investigations.”

The story ended, and I killed the volume. “Nikki fucking Matson,” I said. I didn't know what made me angrier, that someone had issued a statement in my name or that the DA's office thought they could intimidate me with threats of prosecution.

We were silent for a moment. Then Teddy said, “Did you issue that statement?” But he knew the answer.

I let out a long sigh. My cell phone rang and I pulled it from my pocket. Jeanie. Crap. I got up from the couch and went into the kitchen.

“Jeanie, I
didn't
make that statement.” Hearing the tinny sound of my own voice, I knew that she wouldn't believe me, and that even if she did take my word, she wouldn't trust me after this. She'd known me too long, and too well, and she would be all too ready to conclude that I hadn't changed a bit.

“You screwed me, kid. So I'm going to have to cut you loose.”

“Jeanie, I—”

“Don't. You knew last night what you were going to do, and the least you could have done was level with me. I'm perfectly aware that sooner or later you're going to want to get out on your own. I guess that time is now.”

“Jeanie, I know it's hard for you to believe, but honest to god, I'm telling the truth. I was just about to call the TV station and demand a retraction.” Now I wished that I hadn't avoided her all day, that I'd gone immediately and explained. It was all too much to lay on her now.

“What you said last night about this thing seeming too good to be true, you were absolutely right. I saw Jamil at the DA's office.
He claims he didn't hire me and we never talked on the phone
.
He doesn't
have
a sister. He clearly wasn't the guy who called me
.
The
voices are different
.
Jamil never fired Nikki. She fired
him
. I'm pretty sure she was the one who gave those photographs to the TV station. She must also have sent them a false press release in my name.”

“How does that work?” Jeanie demanded, angry and incredulous.

“She doesn't want to be his lawyer anymore, because she represents his boss, Damon. That's the guy in the pictures with Campbell. If the pictures came out on their own, it would be obvious she's got a conflict of interest. Either she was in on framing Jamil to take the fall for Damon, or she stood by while Jamil stabbed Damon in the back. By giving the photos to the press with that phony statement, she makes it look like Jamil hired me without her knowledge, like he fired her instead of her firing him.”

I looked up and saw Teddy standing in the kitchen doorway.

“So?” Jeanie asked, still not buying a word of it.

“So now Nikki's off the hook. She's not responsible to Damon for Jamil and whatever he might tell the police, and she's not touched by the frame-up. She manages to cover her ass both ways.”

“Leo, the Scarsdale trial starts in six days. These excuses are beside the point.”

“Excuses?” I needed to make her understand. “The thing is, however ridiculous the situation may be, I'm the one who got myself into it.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“This morning I was ready to turn over the pictures and walk away from this. I can't do that now.”

“What's it about, a point of honor?”

“Something like that.” I'd messed up, and I needed to do what I could to make it right.

Jeanie picked her words carefully. “In that case, the question in my mind is whether you stay on for Scarsdale or whether I cut you loose immediately. I'm not speaking out of anger. This is the reality of running a practice. I need an associate capable of making good business decisions. You want to be Don Quixote, go work for the public defender.”

“It's not of much benefit to Jamil to dodge a murder rap if he comes out smelling like a snitch. But he's basically got no choice now, after those news reports. Meaning, turn snitch for real. That is, if the police could protect him, which I doubt, given that evidently he was framed by a cop. It's probably a stroke of luck that Nikki dumped him, but I don't think he's going to see it that way. The least I owe him is to talk to him. Even though it may cost me this job.”

“You talk to him if you feel you have to. If he tells you to go to hell, which I certainly would, given the mess you've already made of things, you and I will sit down tomorrow or the next day and have a discussion about whether we're going to have to ask for a continuance on Scarsdale. I can't justify entrusting one of my clients to someone with no future in this office.”

I remembered the kick I'd given Scarsdale this afternoon, the man's sniveling confession, and felt a flash of shame.

“In the meantime, you'd better make sure your files are up to date.”

I was on a high wire with Jamil Robinson, but if I could just manage to stay there, it could be my big case. “Fine,” I told her. “I'll write you a letter of resignation. You can keep it on file. If you decide to tear it up, okay. If not, I understand. You're running a business. You've got to make decisions based on that.”

At last the bitterness broke out of her, her voice thickening. “You'll do fine on your own. Better than fine. In this business it doesn't pay to have too sharp a conscience.”

I swallowed the sting. “I owe you a lot, Jeanie.”

She'd already hung up. Teddy was still standing behind me.

“You should call the TV station and demand a retraction,” he said.

I turned away from him, opened the fridge, and stared into it. “Right now I'm going to drink a beer and go to bed. And first thing in the morning I'm going to drive out to Santa Rita.”

Teddy didn't reply, his face neutral, or nearly so. After a moment he held out his hand. Forcing myself to see what was before my eyes, I passed him a beer.

Chapter 11

By nine thirty the next morning I was through jail security and waiting in an attorney meeting room. Santa Rita Jail is a huge place. With benches and trees and a wide lawn like a college quad, the exterior tries to camouflage what lies beyond the gates. Inside, it's the same as any other jail, with the stink of unwashed bodies and low-nutrition food, anger and fear, sickness and desperation.

Where I found myself waiting was like all such rooms: small, with concrete block walls, a flimsy table and two plastic chairs. The deputy had locked me in. I heard him returning along the echoing hall, and then the door opened and admitted Jamil, wearing an orange jumpsuit identical to the one he'd worn yesterday at the DA's office. The deputy closed the door behind him.

I stood and shook his hand. This time he wasn't shackled. “I wanted to apologize,” I said.

He stared with an intent urgency into my face, his eyes bright. He seemed smaller today than he had yesterday. “No point apologizing,” he said in his high voice. “What's done is done.”

“I came to see if there was anything I could do to help. You must have heard by now what was on the news.”

“I heard. Nikki dumped me.” He wore his vulnerability all on the surface; in a place like this such naked weakness could only lead to subjection. A man like Jamil would be on the lookout for a protector, a leader, a father or brother figure. He could easily have committed the murder he was charged with. Inside or out, whatever his daddy of the moment said to do, he would obey in a snap.

“A woman came to my office a few days ago pretending to be your sister and hired me to be your lawyer. Then someone pretending to be you called me on the phone and gave me the information about the meeting with Damon and Campbell.”

“Like I told you yesterday, I don't got no sister.”

“You talked to Nikki recently?”

“I thought I would get with her yesterday, but they just drove me to the courthouse, brought me up to see you, then took me back. And then last night I hear about this shit.”

“You probably heard that a statement went out in my name, claiming to be your attorney. I didn't make that statement. For me to be your attorney I'd need a piece of paper with your signature on it saying you wanted me to represent you. You haven't given me anything like that. We never talked before yesterday. So I can't very well be your lawyer, can I? You need to understand that.”

He wouldn't meet my eyes, and he slumped so low that he seemed to melt into the table. “Doesn't matter what you did or didn't do. The whole world gonna think I was behind those pictures, that I hired you to stick your nose in something that ain't my business, that sure as hell ain't yours. The whole world, man. Me and you, we like one dead man talking to another. There ain't no point.”

“Someone's been messing with both of us. I didn't issue that statement. What are you talking about? Who's going to want us dead?”

He didn't answer the question. Maybe he thought it was obvious. I guess it was. Instead he said, “How come they said that statement was from you, if it wasn't? How come they
said
you was my lawyer?”

I measured out a precise square on the table with my hands. “You might want to ask Nikki about that.”

He sat up. “Nikki!”

I looked at him. “Think about it. She represents Damon, doesn't she? And Damon's your boss? And he's the one your lawyer has to point the finger at now that everyone has seen those pictures?”

“So what if she represents Damon? She represents everyone who works for him. How else you think she came to be my lawyer? You think I got money to pay her?”

“The way things stand, it's him or you. And which one do you think she's gonna choose?”

“You're telling me Nikki set me up. Fine. And I'm telling you I'm a dead man.” Again he seemed to melt.

“I can't prove it. But that press release makes you look like someone who tried to save his own skin by hiring your own lawyer and getting him to spy on your boss. Life would be a whole lot easier for Nikki if I'd been your lawyer all along.
Then Damon doesn't have to wonder where she's at.”

“Nikki dumped me. And she ain't even going to come tell me to my face.”

“You were supposed to plead guilty anyway. Isn't that what she's been telling you? So what do you even need a lawyer for, if all you had to do was roll over?”

“I been in prison before. Like I said, in here, out there, don't matter. I'm through.” He looked up with a sudden idea. “How can Nikki make people believe you been my lawyer, when you've just been telling me you never was?”

“The thing is, I
could
be. These people who hired me in the first place, whoever they were, they paid me a lot of money. I guess they wanted to get your boss and Campbell pretty bad. The way I see it, that money rightfully ought to go toward paying for your defense. You can hire me, but you don't have to. You want to go with another lawyer, that's fine. Whoever he is, I'll pay him.”

I hadn't planned to make such an offer, but that money was dirty. Jamil deserved to choose his own lawyer—even if it was inevitable that he'd take me. The last thing I wanted was to make another link in the chain of pressures that had been applied to him.

“Guess I'll go with you,” he said after a pause. “Not that it matters. I'm finished. And so are you.”

I hoped, for both our sakes, that he was wrong. Taking a retainer form from my briefcase, I filled in the blanks, acknowledging receipt of the ten thousand dollars. We each signed it. Now it was official: now I was working for him. Which meant Jeanie and I were done.

“All right, man, now that we've got that cleared away, let me tell you what happened,” he said.

I rose. The pictures were evidence that the relationship between Campbell and Damon was more complex than it ought to be, but I wasn't ready to hear the story of the planted gun from Jamil's mouth. “I'll need to know what happened, but not yet. When the time comes, I'll ask. For now, just try to remember as much as you can.”

“Shit, man,” he said. “Nikki didn't want to hear it either.”

“Don't worry. When I've finished my investigation, we'll talk.” I rapped on the door. “There's no chance of getting you out on bail, unfortunately, since you were on parole when you were arrested. So you'll just have to sit tight.”

“Yeah, man,” Jamil said.

The rest of that day his despairing tone kept ringing in my ears.

~ ~ ~

Back in my office, I wrote out my letter of resignation, signed it, and left it on Jeanie's desk. I called the district attorney's office and asked for Fowler. He wasn't there. I called again and asked for Cassidy. When she came on the line I explained that Nikki no longer represented Jamil Robinson. I was taking over.

“Okay,” she said skeptically.

“How about me?” I asked.

“Officially, I can't say.”

“And unofficially?”

“The only advice I can give you is to consult an attorney.”

I laughed. I almost wanted them to go ahead and charge me. Almost.

Later that afternoon I heard that the Oakland PD had temporarily assigned Detective Campbell to patrol duty while the department investigated his ties to Damon.

That evening Jamil's body was found hanging from a bed sheet in his cell.