Talon Winter Legal Thrillers Box Set by Stephen Penner

Author:Stephen Penner [Penner, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-04T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 21

Of course, finding a good, independent fingerprint expert was easier said than done. After the spectacle of her brother and her—what? Friend? Investigator? Ride home?—well, whatever he was, he and Will beating on each other in the middle of the street in front of her condo, Talon was in no mood for anything or anyone. She spent several hours scrubbing her condo of any remnant of Will. And that meant truly scrubbing. There were rings and residue and grime just about anywhere she cared to look. No actual drugs, but that was probably because he’d used the three glass pipes she’d found hidden throughout the condo to smoke it all.

It ended up being a night of cleaning followed by a day of work. But there was nothing better than a successful day at the job to block out the raging dumpster fire of failure that was her relationship with her brother. And with Curt.

So the next morning, job number one was finding a fingerprint expert. But the problem with fingerprint experts was that almost all of them worked for police agencies. And if they didn’t, there was a reason why.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Robertson will be on vacation in Europe for the next two months.”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Ingalls isn’t taking new clients at the moment.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Ottingham doesn’t consult for criminal defense attorneys.”

“We’re sorry, the number you have reached has been disconnected or is no longer in service.”

Talon put her head in her hands. There was only one name left. And it wasn’t one of the ones she’d gotten from Olsen or Feingarten or the other attorneys she’d bothered for recommendations. It was from a Google search on her phone. After all the others fell through. As she dialed, expecting the worst, she wondered if Craigslist might have an ‘expert witness’ category.

“Sure,” came the response after Talon explained what she was looking for. “I can do that.”

“You can?” Talon almost didn’t believe him. Him being Eric Emerson. According to Google, he was a forensic technician, formerly employed by the Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory. She was suspicious for two reasons. One, why was he ‘formerly’ with the Crime Lab? And two, why was he available?

“I was fired by the Crime Lab,” Emerson admitted, almost casually. “I developed a drinking problem back then and wasn’t able to make it to work on time, or at all some days. They couldn’t keep me on if they couldn’t rely on me to be there, or do quality work. I didn’t really give them a choice. But I’ve been sober going on three years now. They wouldn’t take me back, so I decided to go out on my own.”

As for the second question, he answered, “I’m available because, quite honestly, not a lot of people want to use an expert who was fired by the Crime Lab. It doesn’t really help my credibility. In fact, I’m not sure this whole expert witness thing is going to work out, but I really don’t want to go back to painting houses with my dad.

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