Afraid of the Dark - James Grippando [48]
“Make it two,” said Neil. “And a couple cold drafts.”
“Cool,” said Theo. “Yours is on the house, Neil.”
“What about mine?” said Jack.
“You I charge double.”
Neil laughed, but Jack knew he wasn’t kidding. “What did I do to piss you off?”
Theo went to the tap and starting pouring. “Vince Paulo basically saved my life two years ago,” he said. “And now you’re defending the guy who blinded him.”
Jack was all too aware of that dilemma. “First of all, Neil asked me to help with the case. Second of all, he’s more convinced of Jamal’s innocence than I am. So why is his food free?”
Theo set up the beers in front of them. “Neil can’t help himself. He thinks everyone is innocent. You know better.”
“He has a point,” said Neil.
“Stay out of this,” said Jack. He tasted his beer, and an idea came to him. “I tell you what, Theo. You can bill me double for a month, if you can explain one thing to me about this case.”
“I assume you mean the month of March, not February.”
“All right. Thirty-one days.”
“Hold on,” said Neil. “You can’t discuss the case with a bartender.”
“Theo is my investigator,” said Jack. “This is a privileged conversation.”
“It’s more like a bet involving the price of fish sandwiches,” said Neil.
“Then let’s do this by the book. Theo, in accordance with the rules of criminal procedure as approved by the Supreme Court of Florida, I hereby retain you as a certified expert on phony alibis and bullshit accusations. Tell me what you think of this one.”
Theo came closer, resting his arms on the bar top. “Let’s hear it, dude.”
Jack took a minute, his smile giving way to a very serious expression. The $64,000 question that had popped from the box of evidence from the state attorney was still eating at him, and he was no longer just kidding around.
“Answer me this,” said Jack. “Why would a girl like McKenna Mays tell a cop that her boyfriend stabbed her if he didn’t?”
“Easy,” said Theo. “The guy who did it told her he’d come back and slit her throat if she named him. She’s bleeding, scared, confused, and blurts out the first name that comes into her head.”
“Doesn’t exactly line up,” said Neil. “The girl was dying. No reason to fear her attacker coming back to hurt her.”
“Maybe he threatened to come back and kill her entire family. Or maybe she didn’t know she was going to die.”
The last point had Jack and Neil exchanging glances. Lawyers could agonize over evidence for hours, days, even weeks. A former gangbanger from the ’hood who’d spent four years in Florida State Prison could look at the same set of facts and make things just so simple.
“Take it one step further,” said Jack. “It’s not that she isn’t sure if she’s going to live or die. Maybe she’s absolutely convinced that she is going to live.”
“Convinced by someone she knows and trusts,” says Neil.
The lawyers were silent, but Jack didn’t need ESP to know where the other legal mind at the bar was headed.
“I don’t want to go after Paulo directly,” said Jack, shaking his head.
“I can’t blame you a bit for that,” said Neil. “But you know as well as I do that trying to prove up a secret detention facility in Prague is headed nowhere fast. So here’s the thing.”
“Tell me.”
He glanced at Theo, then back at Jack. “It’s like I told you before. They got the wrong man, which means that whoever stole Vince Paulo’s sight and killed McKenna Mays is still out there. The way I see it, you’re actually doing Paulo a favor.”
Jack lowered his eyes, talking into his beer. “Yeah, a favor,” he said with a mirthless chuckle. “I’ll probably get a thank-you note from the whole damn department.”
Chapter Twenty-three
On Friday afternoon, Jack and Neil were back in the Justice Building. Seated between