Judgment Day by Sheldon Siegel

Author:Sheldon Siegel [Siegel, Sheldon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: USA, legal thriller
Publisher: M P Publishing Limited
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

28/ HE WAS LOOKING FOR SOMEBODY TO HANDLE A ‘DELICATE MATTER’

Tuesday, July 14. 12:37 p.m.

4 days, 11 hours, and 24 minutes until execution.

I extend a hand to Aronis’s ex-wife. “I’m Mike Daley,” I say.

Patty Norman responds with a firm handshake and a feisty attitude. “I know who you are,” she says. “What took you so long? I thought you’d be here two days ago.”

She’s sitting behind the counter of her tiny bookstore in downtown Petaluma, a bucolic burg about thirty miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Its main drag, Kentucky Street, looks much the same as it did fifty years ago, except the feed stores have given way to boutiques, restaurants, and a popular multiplex movie house.

When I opened the door to Iron Woman Books, I expected to find a meek librarian type wearing a cable-knit sweater. Instead, I found a statuesque brunette who stands six-two and looks as if she could do laps around people half her age. Her long brown hair cascades down her back. Her skin is creamy. Her trim figure has the toned muscles of a professional athlete.

Iron Woman Books is squeezed inside a tight storefront where the floor-to-ceiling stacks are jammed with an eclectic assortment of new and used volumes emphasizing women’s issues, physical fitness, and new age topics. Somehow, she’s managed to fend off the chain stores that have sprung up in the vicinity. The walls are covered with photos of Patty as she’s finishing various grueling triathlons all over the world. In a less than modest attempt at self-promotion, her window display has a poster of her recently released self-published memoir, the cover of which shows her arms upraised as she finished the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii last year.

“I’d like to buy a copy of your book,” I tell her.

She sits up taller. “You’d like to talk about the Fineman case.”

“That too. Can I still buy a book?”

She flashes a charismatic smile. “Of course.”

“Will you sign it for me?”

“Absolutely. How would you like it inscribed?”

It wouldn’t be a good idea to ask her to write a note to Nate. “To Mike and Rosie,” I tell her as I hand her the cash. She signs a copy and gives it to me. “What made you decide to write a memoir?”

Her expression turns thoughtful. “I had something to say to women in abusive relationships.”

“What’s that?”

“Don’t take any shit from anybody.”

“Good advice. I understand you went through some hard times with your ex-husband.”

“I did. After what Alex and your client put me through, it’s a miracle that I’m here. Doing triathlons is cathartic. Writing the book was therapeutic.”

“Tell me about your ex-husband,” I say.

“He’s an asshole.” Her long hair moves rhythmically as she talks. “It’s a wonder our marriage lasted as long as it did. He treated me like living shit. I should have left him before things got out of hand.”

She certainly seems willing to sling arrows at her ex. Hell, she wrote an entire book about it. My goal is to keep her talking long enough to see if she’ll reveal anything that we can use.

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