The Lincoln Lawyer: A Novel (48 page)

It all came together for me, like the last bit of sand dropping through the middle of an hourglass. Raul Levin really had
found Jesus Menendez’s salvation.

“Martha Renteria was murdered two years ago on April eighth,” I said. “She lived on Blythe in Panorama City.”

“Yes, but we didn’t know that. We didn’t see the connection. You told us that Levin was working separate cases for you. Jesus
Menendez and Louis Roulet were separate investigations. Levin had them filed that way, too.”

“It was a discovery issue. He kept the cases separate so I wouldn’t have to turn over anything on Roulet that he came up with
on Menendez.”

“One of your lawyer angles. Well, it stopped us from putting it together until that snitch in there mentioned the snake dancer.
That connected everything.”

I nodded.

“So whoever killed Raul Levin took the hard copy?”

“We think.”

“Did you check Raul’s phones for a tap? Somehow somebody knew he found the ticket.”

“We did. They were clear. Bugs could have been removed at the time of the murder. Or maybe it was someone else’s phone that
was tapped.”

Meaning mine. Meaning it might explain how Roulet knew so many of my moves and was even conveniently waiting for me in my
home the night I had come home from seeing Jesus Menendez.

“I will have them checked,” I said. “Does all of this mean I am clear on Raul’s murder?”

“Not necessarily,” Sobel said. “We still want to see what comes back from ballistics. We’re hoping for something today.”

I nodded. I didn’t know how to respond. Sobel lingered, looking like she wanted to tell me or ask me something.

“What?” I said.

“I don’t know. Is there anything you want to tell me?”

“I don’t know. There’s nothing to tell.”

“Really? In the courtroom it seemed like you were trying to tell us a lot.”

I was silent a moment, trying to read between the lines.

“What do you want from me, Detective Sobel?”

“You know what I want. I want Raul Levin’s killer.”

“Well, so do I. But I couldn’t give you Roulet on Levin even if I wanted to. I don’t know how he did it. And that’s off the
record.”

“So that still leaves you in the crosshairs.”

She looked down the hall at the elevators, her implication clear. If the ballistics matched, I could still have a problem
on Levin. They would use it as leverage. Give up how Roulet did it or go down for it myself. I changed the subject.

“How long do you think before Jesus Menendez gets out?” I asked.

She shrugged.

“Hard to say. Depends on the case they build against Roulet—if they have a case. But I know one thing. They can’t prosecute
Roulet as long as another man is in prison for the same crime.”

I turned and walked over to the glass wall. I put my free hand on the railing that ran along the glass. I felt a mixture of
elation and dread and that moth still batting around in my chest.

“That’s all I care about,” I said quietly. “Getting him out. That and Raul.”

She came over and stood next to me.

“I don’t know what you are doing,” she said. “But leave the rest for us.”

“I do that and your partner will probably put me in jail for a murder I didn’t commit.”

“You are playing a dangerous game,” she said. “Leave it alone.”

I looked at her and then back down at the plaza.

“Sure,” I said. “I’ll leave it alone now.”

Having heard what she needed to, she made a move to go.

“Good luck,” she said.

I looked at her again.

“Same to you.”

She left then and I stayed. I turned back to the window and looked down into the plaza. I saw Dobbs and Windsor crossing the
concrete squares and heading toward the parking garage. Mary Windsor was leaning against her lawyer for support. I doubted
they were still headed to lunch at Orso.

B
y that night the word had begun to spread. Not the secret details but the public story. The story that I had won the case,
gotten a DA’s motion to dismiss with no comebacks, only to have my client arrested for a murder in the hallway outside the
courtroom where I had just cleared him. I got calls from every other defense pro I knew. I got call after call until my cell
phone finally died. My colleagues were all congratulating me. In their eyes, there was no downside. Roulet was the ultimate
franchise. I got schedule A fees for one trial and then I would get schedule A fees for the next one. It was a double-dip
most defense pros could only dream about. And, of course, when I told them I would not be handling the defense of the new
case, each one of them asked if I could refer him to Roulet.

It was the one call that came in on my home line that I wanted the most. It was from Maggie McPherson.

“I’ve been waiting for your call all night,” I said.

I was pacing in the kitchen, tethered by the phone cord. I had checked my phones when I had gotten home and found no evidence
of bugging devices.

“Sorry, I’ve been in the conference room,” she said.

“I heard you were pulled in on Roulet.”

“Yes, that’s why I’m calling. They’re going to cut him loose.”

“What are you talking about? They’re letting him go?”

“Yes. They’ve had him for nine hours in a room and he hasn’t
broken. Maybe you taught him too well not to talk, because he’s a rock and they got nothing and that means they don’t have
enough.”

“You’re wrong. There is enough. They have the parking ticket and there have to be witnesses who can put him in The Cobra Room.
Even Menendez can ID him there.”

“You know as well as I do that Menendez is a scratch. He’d identify anybody to get out. And if there are other wits from The
Cobra Room, then it’s going to take some time to run them down. The parking ticket puts him in the neighborhood but it doesn’t
put him inside her apartment.”

“What about the knife?”

“They’re working on it but that’s going to take time, too. Look, we want to do this right. It was Smithson’s call and, believe
me, he wanted to keep him, too. It would make that fiasco you created in court today a little more palatable. But it’s just
not there. Not yet. They’re going to kick him loose and work the forensics and look for the witnesses. If Roulet’s good for
this, then we will get him, and your other client will get out. You don’t have to worry. But we have to do it right.”

I swung a fist impotently through the air.

“They jumped the gun. Damn it, they shouldn’t have made the move today.”

“I guess they thought nine hours in interrogation would do the trick.”

“They were stupid.”

“Nobody’s perfect.”

I was annoyed by her attitude but held my tongue on that. I needed her to keep me in the loop.

“When exactly will they let him go?” I asked.

“I don’t know. This all just went down. Kurlen and Booker came over here to present it and Smithson just sent them back to
the PD. When they get back, I assume they’ll kick him loose.”

“Listen to me, Maggie. Roulet knows about Hayley.”

There was a horribly long moment of silence before she answered.

“What are you saying, Haller? You let our daughter into—”

“I didn’t let anything happen. He broke into my house and saw her picture. It doesn’t mean he knows where she lives or even
what her name is. But he knows about her and he wants to get back at me. So you have to go home right now. I want you to be
with Hayley. Get her and get out of the apartment. Just play it safe.”

Something made me hold back on telling her everything, that I felt that Roulet had specifically threatened my family in the
courthouse.
You can’t protect everybody.
I would only use that if she refused to do what I wanted her to do with Hayley.

“I’m leaving now,” she said. “And we’re coming to you.”

I knew she would say that.

“No, don’t come to me.”

“Why not?”

“Because
he
might come to me.”

“This is crazy. What are you going to do?”

“I’m not sure yet. Just go get Hayley and get somewhere safe. Then call me on your cell, but don’t tell me where you are.
It will be better if I don’t even know.”

“Haller, just call the police. They can—”

“And tell them what?”

“I don’t know. Tell them you’ve been threatened.”

“A defense lawyer telling the police he feels threatened… yeah, they’ll jump all over that. Probably send out a SWAT team.”

“Well, you have to do something.”

“I thought I did. I thought he was going to be in jail for the rest of his life. But you people moved too fast and now you
have to let him go.”

“I told you, it wasn’t enough. Even knowing now about the possible threat to Hayley, it’s still not enough.”

“Then go to our daughter and take care of her. Leave the rest to me.”

“I’m going.”

But she didn’t hang up. It was like she was giving me the chance to say something more.

“I love you, Mags,” I said. “Both of you. Be careful.”

I closed the phone before she could respond. Almost immediately I opened it again and called Fernando Valenzuela’s cell phone
number. After five rings he answered.

“Val, it’s me, Mick.”

“Shit. If I’d known it was you I wouldn’t have answered.”

“Look, I need your help.”

“My help? You’re asking for my help after what you asked me the other night? After you accused me?”

“Look, Val, this is an emergency. What I said the other night was out of line and I apologize. I’ll pay for your TV, I’ll
do whatever you want, but I need your help right now.”

I waited. After a pause he responded.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Roulet still has the bracelet on his ankle, right?”

“That’s right. I know what happened in court but I haven’t heard from the guy. One of my courthouse people said the cops picked
him up again so I don’t know what’s going on.”

“They picked him up but he’s about to be kicked loose. He’ll probably be calling you so he can get the bracelet taken off.”

“I’m already home, man. He can find me in the morning.”

“That’s what I want. Make him wait.”

“That ain’t no favor, man.”

“This is. I want you to open your laptop and watch him. When he leaves the PD, I want to know where he’s going. Can you do
that for me?”

“You mean right now?”

“Yeah, right now. You got a problem with that?”

“Sort of.”

I got ready for another argument. But I was surprised.

“I told you about the battery alarm on the bracelet, right?” Valenzuela said.

“Yeah, I remember.”

“Well, I got the twenty percent alarm about an hour ago.”

“So how much longer can you track him until the battery’s dead?”

“Probably about six to eight hours’ active tracking before it goes on low pulse. Then he’ll come up every fifteen minutes
for another five hours.”

I thought about all of this. I just needed to make it through the night and to know that Maggie and Hayley were safe.

“The thing is, when he is on low pulse he beeps,” Valenzuela said. “You’ll hear him coming. Or he’ll get tired of the noise
and juice the battery.”

Or maybe he’ll pull the Houdini act again, I thought.

“Okay,” I said. “You told me that there were other alarms that you could build into the tracking program.”

“That’s right.”

“Can you set it so you get an alarm if he comes near a specific target?”

“Yeah, like if it’s on a child molester you can set an alarm if he gets close to a school. Stuff like that. It’s got to be
a fixed target.”

“Okay.”

I gave him the address of the apartment on Dickens in Sherman Oaks where Maggie and my daughter lived.

“If he comes within ten blocks of that place you call me. Doesn’t matter what time, call me. That’s the favor.”

“What is this place?”

“It’s where my daughter lives.”

There was a long silence before Valenzuela responded.

“With Maggie? You think this guy’s going to go there?”

“I don’t know. I’m hoping that as long as he’s got the tracker on his ankle he won’t be stupid.”

“Okay, Mick. You got it.”

“Thanks, Val. And call my home number. My cell is dead.”

I gave him the number and then was silent for a moment, wondering what else I could say to make up for my betrayal two nights
earlier. Finally, I let it go. I had to focus on the current threat.

I moved from the kitchen and down the hallway to my office. I rolled through the Rolodex on my desk until I found a number
and then grabbed the desk phone.

I dialed and waited. I looked out the window to the left of my desk and noticed for the first time that it was raining. It
looked like it was going to come down hard and I wondered if the weather would affect the satellite tracking of Roulet. I
dropped the thought when my call was answered by Teddy Vogel, the leader of the Road Saints.

“Speak to me.”

“Ted, Mickey Haller.”

“Counselor, how are you?”

“Not so good tonight.”

“Then I am glad you called. What can I do for you?”

I looked out the window at the rain before answering. I knew that if I continued I would be indebted to people I never wanted
to be on the hook with.

But there was no choice.

“You happen to have anybody down my way tonight?” I asked.

There was a hesitation before Vogel answered. I knew he had to be curious about his lawyer calling him for help. I was obviously
asking about the kind of help that came with muscles and guns.

“Got a few guys watching things at the club. What’s up?”

The club was the strip bar on Sepulveda, not too far from Sherman Oaks. I was counting on that.

“There’s a threat to my family, Ted. I need some warm bodies to put up a front, maybe grab a guy if needed.”

“Armed and dangerous?”

I hesitated but not too long.

“Yeah, armed and dangerous.”

“Sounds like our kind of move. Where do you want them?”

He was immediately ready to act. He knew the value of having me under his thumb instead of on retainer. I gave him the address
of the apartment on Dickens. I also gave him a description of Roulet and what he had been wearing in court that day.