The Good Client by Dan Decker

Author:Dan Decker [Decker, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grim Archer Media
Published: 2020-01-15T22:00:00+00:00

29

Jun 10 – 2:07 PM

I let Timothy go without trying to call after him. The anger I had seen was at odds with my initial impressions of the boy. There was a real chance he had done what he had been accused of doing. Somebody who was able to lose his temper like that could kill in a moment of passion.

Ellie stuck her head in the door. “Everything okay in here?”

“Never better,” I said with a forced smile.

“Let me know if you need anything.”

Once Ellie was gone, I pulled out my notepad and stared at it. I needed to call Frank and tell him there wasn’t going to be a deal but I had until 5:00 PM.

It was probably better to do it sooner, especially if he was gonna make another offer. If the capital punishment was all a ruse, he would do that hoping to convince my client to take something before he had to reveal his empty hand. At 5:00 PM when nothing was filed it would be obvious that this had all been a smokescreen.

I looked up again at the place where Timothy had been raging back and forth while he paced, wondering if Gordon had seen the same behavior shortly before Timothy had pulled out a pistol and blown out his brains.

I could see it.

I had Frank on the phone a few minutes later.

“Has your boy decided to take the offer?” Frank asked without so much as a salutation. He sounded a little nervous, so I took my time to respond.

“Timothy and I talked it over at length. He really feels that we’ll prove he’s innocent. All the evidence you guys have so far is circumstantial and you have no motive.”

Unless he lost his temper.

“I was afraid you were going to say that,” Frank said. Was it just my imagination or was there a note of panic in his voice now? Perhaps the guy had gotten in over his head. Maybe it would do me some favors down the road to lob him a bone. I thought about what I could say to put him at ease, but nothing came to mind.

I decided the best thing to do would be to show mercy on him when it became apparent that he had just been blowing smoke.

“Twenty to life,” Frank said. “Eligible for parole in fifteen.”

My instincts before Timothy’s outburst this afternoon would have been to say no, but now I wasn’t so sure Timothy shouldn’t consider this.

“I don’t think that would fly.”

I let my words hang so Frank could process them.

“I obviously can’t make promises for my client,” I continued a moment later, “but he is worried about the possibility of execution.” I said this last part primarily for Frank so he could save a little face, but he and I both knew exactly where things lay right now. “If you want to make an offer of Murder Two, five to ten, I’m happy to present that and see what he says.”

Frank paused and I could tell he was seriously considering it.

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