“Captain Justice?” Rey stared at Aisha from the passenger seat of her BMW as they headed for the downtown police station.
“Sorry.” Aisha glanced at him. “It was the first thing that popped into my head.”
“No worries. I kind of like it.” He cleared his throat. “But about Harri being my foster mom…”
Aisha sighed. “Sometimes a good bluff can get you out of tight situations. I wasn’t about to let those assholes have my notes about you.”
“So you lied to protect me?”
Damn, Harri was right. This guy really was too good to be true. “If it bothers you that much, I understand if you don’t want me representing you.”
“No. I—”
She glanced at him. He actually appeared grateful.
“I’m not upset. I’ve never had anyone put themselves on the line for me since my mother died. You and Harri have both done it, and you barely know me.”
His admission floored her. She’d always had Harri watching her back, then Jeremy when Harri had dragged him into her fold. She couldn’t imagine someone like Rey not having anyone.
Aisha swallowed the sentimentality threatening to overwhelm her. “When we get to police headquarters, let me do all the talking. You’re my new assistant. Comprende?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She shot him a glare. “What did I say about calling me ‘ma’am’?”
“A legal assistant wouldn’t call his boss by her first name, Ms. Franklin,” he said coolly.
Maybe representing Captain Justice would work out after all.
* * *
By the time Aisha arrived at Interrogation #1 with Rey at her heels, she wore her bitch scowl. She ignored the detective and strode over to Harri. “Did they hurt you?”
“No.”
“Miranda?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t worry, counselor,” the detective snapped. “Your client hasn’t said a thing.”
Aisha turned her attention to him. “I want to talk to the ADA assigned to this case.”
“I’m here,” came an all-too-familiar voice from behind her.
Shit. Her day just kept getting worse. She pivoted to face the doorway.
Calvin Johnson met her careful gaze. The gray sprinkled along his temples gave him a distinguished air. Otherwise, her ex-husband looked just as handsome as he had the day they met twenty years ago.
But the old feelings didn’t tug at her like they had any other time she’d run into him over the past two years. Now, she just felt tired.
His attention turned to the woman handcuffed to the table. “How’s it going, Harri?”
“Your accommodations are just fucking wonderful, Cal.” God help anyone Harri gave that nasty smile to.
He nodded before turning back to Aisha. “Let’s talk outside.”
“Rey, stay with Harri,” she said over her shoulder as she followed Cal into the hallway.
When the door clicked shut, she said, “You’ve got nothing, and we both know it. Why the charges?”
He ran a hand over his hair. “I’ve already had that argument with the DA. He says she’s withholding information about the real culprit, Professor Venom, which makes her, at the minimum, an accessory.”
Aisha crossed her arms. “Based on what evidence?”
He cocked his head. “You know, don’t you? You’re fishing.”
“You still need to provide any and all evidence to defense counsel.”
“Dammit, Aisha,” Cal muttered. “You’re an IP attorney, not a defense lawyer, and you’re in over your head. I can give you the names of some people who do defense work.”
“Are you refusing to cooperate with my request, Mr. Johnson?”
His exasperated sigh was her reward. “Two administration assistants at City Hall heard a masked man dressed in black announce himself as Professor Venom when he entered Harri’s office. Not only did she fail to provide that information to an officer at the scene, she fled.”
“All hearsay, and you know it. And she didn’t flee. She was traumatized by two attempts on her life.”
Cal rocked on his heels. “Two attempts? What are you talking about?”
“Look, I can talk her into cooperating if you tell me what the hell is going on.”
Cal learned closer and lowered his voice. “I don’t know what Harri did to piss off the mayor, but both he and the DA are gunning for her. My hands are tied.”
Politics. It always came back to politics. “What are they willing to do?”
Cal shrugged. “Conspiracy with the minimum sentence.”
Aisha felt her jaw drop. “That’s still a felony. She’ll lose her license.”
He shrugged again. “Sorry. Best I can do.”
“She’s got no priors, Cal.”
He simply stared at her through his wire rims. They weren’t giving him any room to maneuver, which was pretty damn odd.
“Fine.” Aisha clenched her jaw and stalked back into the interrogation room. She pointed at the detective. “Out.”
He left with a huff of his rancid garlic breath.
She repeated the deal to Harri.
“Fuck, no!” She rattled the handcuff. “You’ve got to get me out of here. Someone’s setting up both me and Professor Venom.”
Aisha planted her palms on the table. “We need help. Neither of us are defense attorneys. And someone’s trying very hard to get you out of the way. Too hard.”
Harri blinked. “What are you talking about? What else did Cal say?”
“It wasn’t just the assistant district attorney.” Rey entered the conversation. “Aisha’s boss said she was fired if she represented you.”
Harri stared at Aisha. “You’ll never get that partnership if you stay here.”
“I wasn’t getting it anyway.” Aisha chuckled and straightened. “I don’t have a dick, so I quit.” She sobered. “You need to consider giving the police a statement about Professor Venom.”
“I’m not throwing my client to the wolves to save my own skin,” Harri snapped.
Aisha held up both palms. “Didn’t think you would, but as your current counsel, I’ve got to present all your options. I’ll relay your rejection of their deal, and see about bail. If the DA doesn’t drop the bullshit, you’ll need someone who specializes in defense.”
She headed for the door, but with her hand on the knob, she looked back at Harri. “By the way, since I’m unemployed, is that offer to be your partner still open?”
* * *
Harri lay on the hard narrow cot and stared at the concrete ceiling. She supposed she should be grateful they hadn’t put her in the general population, but privacy didn’t improve the accommodations. She wasn’t getting any sleep tonight, she knew that much.
Aisha had made a heroic effort, but, according to Cal, the district attorney Mike Michaels intended to fight bail on the grounds Harri was a flight risk. A flight risk! She snorted and curled on her side trying to get more comfortable.
If only people knew how very little money she actually had. Grandma Harri had tried to leave her namesake the bulk of her estate, but Harri’s feckless father—or more accurately Harri’s grasping step-mother—had fought for control of the estate trust and won. While it was true Grandma had gotten a little eccentric toward the end, she hadn’t been mentally incompetent when she’d revised the will to make Harri her sole heir. Grandma had simply known how quickly her son and his new wife would piss through the money if they got it.
She hadn’t been wrong. Dad and Laura had taken their remaining assets with them when they drove the Porsche off a cliff with a big bag of coke in the glove box.
All that was left was the scholarship endowment up at the University and the nest egg in the safe deposit box. And Harri had sworn that she wouldn’t touch that hidden money unless it was absolutely necessary.
Like maybe right now.
Harri groaned and rolled over again. This cot was cruel and unusual punishment.
Fortunately, Aisha had managed to set up an in-chambers bail hearing with Judge Inunza first thing in the morning, and, considering how well Inunza liked Cal’s boss, Harri would be out in time for breakfast. They had no evidence against her. Nothing. At best they might get her on minor obstruction for not immediately ratting out Arthur, but it’s not like they had tried to formally question her before her arrest. She couldn’t be convicted for withholding evidence nobody had asked her to give.
Judge Burgess, Quentin Samuels’s golf buddy, had been the judge on the arrest warrant. Harri smiled. Inunza had spent his teenaged summers caddying at Whitechapel Country Club, in the not-so-old days when a brown kid named Pablo could aspire to carry the clubs but not actually swing them. He had zero patience with the local old boy golf network. He’d grant Harri low bail just to piss of Burgess and Quentin. And Mike Michaels who, Harri remembered, had gone to prep school with Burgess.
In a city this big, you’d think we wouldn’t all know each other.
Much to her surprise, she yawned deeply. Maybe she would get some sleep. It had been a busy day after all. Being strip searched and deloused had really taken it out of her.
At least I know I don’t have cooties. She burst into giggles at the thought, which quickly escalated into guffaws.
Her cell door buzzed. Why would someone come to get her after lights out? She sat upright, suddenly wide awake, her laughter gone.
A dark figure lunged inside her cell. In the dim light from the hallway, she had time to register paramilitary clothing and a black face mask.
Just like the asshole who’d set City Hall on fire.
In a fluid motion, the figure spun her and shoved her face-first on the cot.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” a hoarse male voice whispered in her ear.
Harri felt a large gloved hand grasp the back of her skull.
“Don’t move. My partner has to believe you’re comatose. I need your help,” the voice whispered. “Keep Patty safe. Please. And the baby.”
Holy crap! Was this guy the unknown sperm donor?
“I will,” Harri breathed back.
“Thank you,” he slid his fingers around her wrist as if checking her pulse. “I’m supposed to be giving you an aneurysm. Don’t move until you hear the cell door lock.”
“Security camera?” Harri whispered.
He grasped her skull again. “We took care of it. Nobody will check on you until the morning shift change. I’ll make sure your lawyer gets here before then.”
She felt his weight lift off her and, as instructed, didn’t move until she’d heard the lock click. She counted to a hundred to be safe before she carefully raised her head.
An aneurysm? The guy must be a super. Patty’s baby daddy was a super. And he was sent here to kill me.
Fear uncoiled from her belly and spread through her. She shook with the weight of it. Not just for herself, but for her assistant, too. She shook inside the jail cell she wouldn’t be in if some serious procedural corners hadn’t been cut. What the fuck have I gotten us into?
Harri curled up into a tight ball on the cot and waited for morning.
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