The Fighter's Block (40 page)

“Well let’s go eat,” she said with her purse in her hand.

He stood, allowing his surprise to show.

“Yeah, you’re right about one more thing,” she said. “I’m starving.”

“I’m sorry I said
all
that,” he began.

She waved it off and said, “Unlike other people that try to baby me about it, at least you’re honest. I appreciate that. If you had said something along the lines of “let’s go shopping, you’ll feel better”—like my mother had said—then I would have been upset.”

Something about that truly made him smile, and he was glad that she smiled as well. But he walked with her to the exit, fully aware that every set of eyes watched them leave together.

“If I could just figure out why
someone would lie about
that,” Van said to Jack for the tenth time.

“
Maybe they really did think it was you
.”

“But it wasn’t
. And I just… I can’t imagine
who
would even say anything
even if it
was
.
T
o c
all in an anonymous tip?
That is fucked up
.
Someone did that to purposely throw me under the bus.
”

Jack looked over his client, feeling just about as low as Van did. He’d never handled a case that was so frustrating before. “You don’t know that, Van.
They
could have
easily mistaken
you for another guy
.”

Van shook his head
and set his arms on the table between them
.
“What about
Andy?”
he
asked
, changing the subject.

“You mean where is he?”

Van barely nodded.

“Still in town.
He’s laying low, just going to work and home.
He took care of funeral arrangements for his family. The funeral was yesterday, not too many people there.
Just
the
mom
and step
dad
, a couple aunts and uncles, a few cousins, a grandma…maybe a few friends.
Nothing big.”

“I hope
he’s
rotting in hell.”

“Sure. But it doesn’t change anything up here.”

Van hardly responded.

“The real reason why I’m here has to do with Dani’s financial situation,” Jack said instead.

Van was surprised. “What do you mean?”

“The two of you
have
separate accounts.”

“Yes w
e have separate accounts.
That’s my choice, not hers. Why?
”

Jack studied his client for a few seconds.
“Well, her account used to have a little money in it. Now it doesn’t have quite as much.
There was
twenty-five
grand
deposited into
your
account a week ago
.”

Van had to think for a second. He knew
what she had in her account
,
but
why would
she
have
some of it
deposited
into his?
“I’m not following you,” he said to Jack.

“
A
month before that there was 25
K deposited into the bank account of Brian Thompson.”

Van stared at him again. “What are you saying?”

“
Twenty-five
thousand was taken out of Thompson’s account two days before his death. It j
ust seems odd that there was 25
K in his account, and then
he takes it out an
d there’s 25
K in your account.”

Van slightly shook his head. “Are you implying that—
”

“I’m not implying anything, Van. This is just
me
stating the facts.”

“So
where did that money come from
?”

“I don’t even know, but here’s the thing.
Twenty-five
thousand
dollars
w
as taken out of Dani’s account.
It was taken out two days before Brian Thompson’s account gained
twenty-five
grand.
You following me?
A month later Thompson takes out that
twenty-five
thousand, and bam, two days later he’s dead. That
twenty-five
thousand is now in
your
account, Van.
An account
that isn’t joined with Dani.”

Van was speechless. But what he was thinking about wasn’t the money that ended up in his account. He was thinking about Dani and what she did. He wasn’t sure, but that’s exactly what it looked like.

“She paid him to leave me alone?” he barely
asked
.

Jack
shrugged.
“That’s what it looks like. She took that money out herself, Van. There’s proof. And then when Thompson takes the money out he ends up dead two days later, and the money ends up in your account. This is getting deep. It’s a solid trail, Van
. I don’t know what to tell you
.”

“What’s the solid trail?
The banking trail?
Give me the details.”

With a sigh Jack said, “Well, Dani withdrew
twenty-five
thousand dollars on June 24
th
. Cash. Brian Thompson deposited
twenty-five
thousand dollars—cash—on June 25
th
.
A
month later,
twenty-five
thousand dollars in cash is deposited into your account on July 25
th
. Brian is dead July 27
th
. So what this looks like is Dani paying off Brian, you somehow get the money back, and then you kill him.”

“That’s ridiculous! How stupid would a person be?”

“Unfortunately the courts don’t always factor in stupidity.”

“Who deposited the cash into my account? It certainly wasn’t
me
!”

Jack took a moment before he said, “Dani.”

Van didn’t know what to say. What the hell was happening?

“Van, you know how this looks, but I’m doing everything that I can to figure this out.”

“Well did you ask Dani about it? Duh, Jack. That’ll answer everything.” When Jack didn’t reply it
made Van angry. “If you even think that Dani had anything to do with setting me up, you’d better just leave right now. Get the fuck out of here, Jack!”

“Calm down,” Jack growled in a low voice. “You are in some serious shit, Van. I’m your lawyer, and it’s my job to get you out of it. There are some things that you just might have to face if you ever want out of this place.”

“
So you’re investigating her behind
my
back?
Dani is not the person to look into. Just leave
her
alone.”

“
I have to look at every angle, Van.”

“
Leave Dani alone
. Just…find a way to prove me innocent.”

“In other words
,
don’t find out who really did this?”

“Just
find a way to prove me innocent
.”

The attorney took a long, silent breath of air and nodded his head. He didn’t bother telling Van that one could very well lead to the other…

Chapter Twenty-Three

Dani returned to her apartment feeling beaten and completely defeated. She was exhausted, emotionally and physically, but no amount of sleep ever helped. She
tossed
her purse onto the coffee table and
dropped o
nto the couch. She was numb at first, almost as if all
the tears had been shed
and al
l the emotions had been sucked from her body. Seeing Van
the
morning
before
made her feel worse, and she wasn’t sure how much longer she could stand him being detained like a criminal.

The trial was in four days, and she was scared.

“Why is this happening,”
she whispered to herself, and t
hat caused the numbness to wear off and the stab to her heart awakened her emotions. She started to cry again, and she let the tears roll down her face as
she retired to
the couch. “God, what is going to happen to me?” she asked quietly. “Why is this happening to Van? He doesn’t deserve this. Why? What can I do?” She pleaded quietly for a bit longer, unable to make sense of why Van had to go through something so awful. She was glad that Brian was out of her life, but that guilt was eating away at her. Maybe t
hat’s why she was being punished
.
A person had died and she felt relief because of it. N
ow she was paying the price for feeling that way.

She heard voices rise in another a
partment
and then the sound of breaking glass startled her. With a sigh she sat up and wiped the moisture off of her face as she could faintly hear Paul and Marnie yell at each other two units down. She didn’t know what to do for those two and their love/hate relationship. It almost made her angry because at least they had each other. At least they could see each other every day. At least they could touch each other and hold one another. She di
dn’t have that with Van
right now
and it was horrible.

She heard a door slam in the hallway and Dani waited to hear which of the two had stormed out of the apartment. She surely hoped it wasn’t Marnie because that meant she’d be knocking on Dani’s door and she really didn’t feel like—

Her door pounded
angrily
and Dani’s shoulder
s slumped. She couldn’t do it. She just couldn’t listen to Marnie complain about her husband anymore. Dani got up and left the front room without answering the door
. She felt guilty about it, but once she shut herself in the bathroom, she only focused on taking a shower and tried to push everything else out. All she could think about was Van, and in a way it was good because she was remembering some of the happy moments with him. That first night she ever stayed with him, to be exact. The memory made her smile, and as she let the hot water wash all over he
r body
, she could remember almost every single detail about that time with him.

She knew then that she was going to fall in love with him.

Now she was married to him
and
her happy life seemed to be dangling by a thread. But even as she dried off and wrapped the towel around her body, she knew she would never give up on him. She would defend him until she gasped her last breath of air.

As s
he stepped out of the bathroom she heard a knock on her front door again. With a heavy sigh she redirected herself to the front room instead of the bedroom, and opened the door.

“I’m really not in the mood to—” She stopped mid-sentence when she realized the person standing in front of her was not Marnie, and there she was answering the door in just a towel. “Uh, hey Cole. Um…”

“Uh, I’ll just come back,” he said, and motioned to the hallway behind him. He turned away before she could object, so she just shut the door and headed for the bedroom to get dressed.

Cole returned to his apartment, unsure if his timing had been good or bad. He’d never worked a case that involved such an interesting figure—no pun intended—and he was tired of feeling distracted. Dani was definitely a keeper, and he could see why Van had done the things he’d done to keep her safe.

He’d barely sat down on the couch when there was a knock at his door, and even though he knew he shouldn’t be surprised that it was Dani, he was anyway.
She’d interrupted his memory of her standing in front of him in just a towel, the tops of her
perky
breasts barely visible and still glistening from her shower.

He opened the door for her,
trying not to imagine what was under
her baggy sweats and t-shirt. She had on flip flips and her hair was still wet, but Cole thought she was absolutely gorgeous.
She had the prettiest feet,
and he considered himself an absolute
pussy for thinking such a thing
.

“Sorry I was so rude when I answered the door,” she said right away. “I thought it was Marnie and…”

He waited for her to finish, so when she didn’t, he invited her in. She entered his apartment for the first time and glanced around. It was pretty simple, almost like Van’s had been when she first met him.