Plea of Insanity by Jilliane Hoffman

Author:Jilliane Hoffman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2007-12-02T23:00:00+00:00

47

‘He’s competent,’ Julia said to Lat over the phone. She slugged down a long sip of cold coffee, and looked around her desk drawer for a couple of quarters to go get herself another one from the machine downstairs. She only found three.

‘That’s not what I heard on the news at noon,’ Lat replied. ‘Says who?’

‘Tune in again. Says Christian Barakat. He just handed us his report this afternoon. He thinks this zombie act is just that – an act. Says it could be a medication issue, or more likely it’s because David Marquette is, get this,’ she said, hesitating just a bit, ‘a psychopath. He needs to do some more tests to make that official, but the doctor scored high on this “Psychopathy Check list” Barakat referred to.’ She raked the bottom of her pocketbook with her fingers and finally found another quarter, covered in lint and purse dirt.

‘A psychopath, huh? That makes sense. Who the hell else breaks out the kitchen cutlery on their family in the middle of the night?’

She closed her eyes. A monster.

‘Well that should make for an interesting Wednesday morning,’ Lat offered when she hadn’t said anything.

‘You’ll be there, right?’

‘Definitely. I wonder if Levenson will put his client on the stand.’

‘Idoubt it. He’d be crazy to.’ Crazy. The word sounded strange on her tongue. It had such a different meaning now. She rolled the quarters around in her sweaty fist.

‘Will you be handling the hearing?’ he asked.

The idea was so funny that she actually laughed out loud. She had a better chance of winning Powerball before Rick would let her handle an expert witness at a competency hearing. ‘I’ll be sitting at the table,’ she said in a conciliatory voice.

‘Too bad.’

She was n’t sure if he meant that as a compliment to her or a slam against Rick, so she said nothing.

‘Farley sure picked some week,’ Lat said. ‘Four days before Christmas.’

‘He did that on purpose,’ Julia said. ‘He does everything on purpose, and ruining holidays and vacations would be one of the things Iimagine he does best.’

Now it was Lat’s turn to laugh. ‘Did he ruin yours? Family out of town?’

She felt the sudden pain stab her heart. She should’ve prepped herself for that question, but she hadn’t, and she felt as if someone had rushed her from behind, knocking her to the ground and stealing the breath from her lungs. She hated this time of year. Hated it. Starting at Thanksgiving and lasting past New Years, every day was a chore to get through, every night filled with bad memories that just seemed to get worse year after year. She hated seeing everyone happy and together – in every commercial, in every print ad, on every box of cereal and can of Coke. She hated the intrusive questions that people seemed to ask each other without thought. Are you going back home for the holidays? Who are you spending Christmas with? Is Mom making the turkey this year? Does she let you

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