Read Lassiter 06 - Fool Me Twice for Free Online

Kyle, Kyle baby,” Blinky
said, in the same soothing voice I imagined he used when selling
swampland to rubes from the Midwest. “You know I couldn’t do that.
I’m on probation. I woulda done time.”
    It was true. Two years ago, Blinky was
convicted in the Dumpster Diver scam. Police found him up to his
elbows in trash behind a rental car agency near the airport. One
good dive, and he could come up with a dozen discarded rental
contracts complete with credit card numbers. Then he’d order
stereos, televisions, and battery-powered dildos from home shopping
networks.
    Hornback raised his voice. “Yeah, well maybe
you’ll still do time if I cut a deal.” He swung to face his lawyer.
“How ‘bout it, Mr. Patterson? You think the prosecutor still wants
to talk?”
    H.T. placed a calming hand on his client’s
arm. “I, too, am confounded and confused. However, now is not the
time to discuss such weighty matters. After a good night’s sleep,
we’ll pursue every avenue, explore every venue ...”
    “ Climb every mountain,” I
added, helpfully.
    “ It’ll be okay, Kyle,”
Blinky said. “I’ll take responsibility.”
    Hornback snorted a mirthless laugh. “Yeah,
will you do my time?”
    “ Kyle, we stand together.
That was the plan.”
    “ Me getting convicted was
not the plan. You said we’d both be acquitted or only you would be
convicted. You never said nothing about this.”
    Blinky shrugged. “I didn’t think it would
turn out this way. Did you, Counselor?”
    I shook my head. “You can never tell with a
jury.”
    “ Well, I can tell you one
thing,” Kyle Hornback said, his face hardening. “I get time, I’ve
got some things to say to the state attorney. I got stories to
tell. I got—”
    “ Kyle, that’s enough!”
Blinky tried to look tough. It didn’t work.
    “ I’ll tell them about the
tunnels in the mountains and what’s in them, and what’s not,”
Hornback said, his voice rising. “You sold stock across state
lines, so it’s federal. They’ll send you to Marion where some hard
cases will pass you around like a volleyball.”
    “ It’s a perfectly
legitimate venture, and you don’t know anything about it,” Blinky
announced with such conviction and a flapping of eyelashes I was
sure he told two lies in one sentence.
    “ I see there’s no honor
among thieves,” Josefina Jovita Baroso said, sneaking up behind us,
the same way she did in the Gaslight. She turned to me. “I suppose
I should congratulate you, Jake. You hoodwinked the jury, so they
convicted the lesser of two evils. That is the hallmark of the
defense lawyer, is it not, to obfuscate the facts until the jury
can only guess?”
    “ Funny, I thought my job
was to force the state to prove its case. Abe didn’t do it, so your
brother goes free. That’s the way the game is played.”
    “ That’s what it is to you,
isn’t it, a game?”
    “ Sure, it’s got rules, like
any other game. You can’t bang into the receiver when the ball’s in
the air. You can’t admit hearsay, even if it’s the
truth.”
    “ The rules are intended to
do justice, not thwart it.”
    “ Yeah, well justice doesn’t
enjoy an intimate relationship with the law, and you damn well know
it.”
    Her eyes narrowed, and she lowered her
voice. “I didn’t realize it before, but you’re just like all the
rest of them.”
    “ Them?”
    “ Silver-tongued shysters
who can rationalize their every act. It must come with the
territory, with the briefcase full of tricks and the amusing
stories about bamboozling judges and juries.”
    “ Give me a break, Josie.
Some of us just plod along, doing our jobs. We all can’t be as
saintly as you.”
    Josefina Jovita Baroso turned on her heel
and stormed out. I started to say something, but Blinky was
stirring next to me. “Let her go. You can’t win an argument with
her.”
    I sat there a moment while Patterson and his
client headed out of the courtroom. As he got to the door, Kyle
Hornback shot us