Keep Them Close(24)

“…It looks like a fastball in all respects,” says Luke, “but you don’t snap your wrists. So if you do it right, it should come in about eighty-five, ninety percent of the speed of your fastball.”

“All done,” the photographer calls out. “I’ll use a good shot, Allison.”



* * *





We get inside the car, Finley the driver, while I sit in back with Luke.

“I don’t get it,” says Luke. “Who would set me up? Can we find out?”

“I don’t think so,” says Finley. “Cops don’t have to reveal confidential sources, do they?”

“Let me talk, please.” I put out my hand. “In terms of what we can find out—generally speaking, we aren’t allowed to learn the name of a confidential informant. There is an exception to that rule if the C.I. was a participant in the crime itself, because then they’re a material witness, and the prosecution is required to give us the informant’s identity. But that’s not the case here. You were alone in the car. All the informant did was provide a tip from a distance. Whether you’re guilty or not has nothing to do with him. So they’re never going to disclose the identity. I can try to find out, but no judge is going to give us that information. The law protects C.I.s scrupulously.”

Luke shakes his head. “That’s ridiculous. Anyway, Trinity would never do this to me.”

“And why would she?” asks Finley. “Why would she want to hurt Luke? My money’s still on her brother. I could see him putting the drugs in there without her—”

“Does Max wear lipstick?” I snap.

“I…I don’t know, some guys do—”

“Just stop, okay?” I sit back against the cushion.

“This wasn’t Trinity.” Luke crosses his arms. “No way.”

Finley turns back to us. “But we’ll never know, right? We’ll never know who gave the confidential information.”

“We’ll never know,” I agree. “But, Luke, if you persist in believing Trinity would never do something like that, you’ll be convicted. Because she’s the only person who makes sense. No one else knew you’d be in that car.”





19


Allison

“Ah, the first appearance of the congressman’s mistress,” says Vivian, sitting at one end of our war room, the conference room down the hall from my office that we have commandeered for the Childress trial. We are still reviewing the mountain of evidence from the prosecution, playing catch-up. Viv taps her laptop. “They have dates and locations of every tryst.”

“He mentioned to me he had a ‘relationship’ with a woman in D.C.,” I say. “He didn’t think it would make a difference to the case. Do you think she hurts us?”

“Not sure yet,” says Viv. “The G will try to find some relevance to her just to dirty up Childress before the jury.”

“Maybe we can use her for an alibi,” jokes Aaron. “?‘I didn’t take a bribe that day because I was at the Waldorf Astoria cheating on my wife.’?”

Vivian likes that. “You’re starting to loosen up, Aaron. But still with the suit and tie. You don’t even take your coat off. You do know we’re business casual if we don’t have court or a client meeting, right?”

“Leave him alone,” I say. “Dress how you want, Aaron. You class up the joint.”

“I have a question,” says Viv. “Why do powerful men always cheat on their wives? And why do they think they won’t get caught?”

“You’re asking me?” Aaron puts his hand on his chest. “I’m not powerful or married.”

“But you’re a man.”

My phone buzzes. A call from Bruce Ghadiali, Luke’s prosecutor. “I’ll be a minute,” I say. I leave the room before I answer.

“You have the forensic results yet?” I ask.

“Not yet. But I do have a witness list and discovery and an inventory of the car. No surprises. I emailed it to you, but I can mail hard copies if you want.”

“But when am I getting the DNA and print results?”

“Soon, I think. It’s always a wait. Especially for a drug case. Even one where the defense attorney was once a famous prosecutor.”

“Aw, shucks, you say the nicest things, Bruce.”

“By the way, someone told me your client is your brother.”

“Whether he likes it or not,” I sing, reaching my office. “You’ll let me know when the forensic testing comes back?”

“Of course.”

I sit in front of my laptop and pull up Bruce’s email. The state’s witness list is simple enough: the state trooper who pulled Luke over and the other trooper who helped conduct the search. The list of evidence is just as short and obvious: the bag in which the Oxy pills were found and the pills themselves.

The inventory of Trinity’s car looks standard, too:





Glove Compartment


Napkins



Straw



Bottle hand sanitizer



Owner’s manual



Bag peanuts