Выбрать главу

She was a gorgeous Asian woman just a little over five feet. I felt like I’d been locked up for years instead of a couple of days and couldn’t help but stare. I hoped I wasn’t too obvious as I attempted to suck in all her perfume.

“Doctor Nguyen is going to take that dental impression,” Louie said.

I looked around for someone else and she picked up on my stupid look.

“I’m a forensic odontologist,” she said, snapping open the briefcase she set on my bed.

“What?” I replied.

“A forensic odontologist, a dentist, in plain English.”

“She’s going to analyze the bite mark on Misses Barkwell,” Louie offered.

“We’re going to do a couple of things. First,” she said, then opened a Tupperware sort of container and pulled out what looked like a mouth guard. “I’m going to take upper and lower impressions. Have a seat,” she indicated the bed with a nod of her beautiful head. I caught another hint of perfume. It sure as hell beat the normal smells in my cell.

She took two impressions, and told me more than I wanted to know while she did so.

“I’ll use a G-clamp and a semi-adjustable articulator on these casts. I’ll be able to articulate the maxillary and mandibular positions, relative to one another. I can adjust the condylar angle, incisal and cuspid guidance and the shape of the glenoid fossae and eminintiae. Normally, I’d have to use a face bow, but I think not for this application.”

I just sort of made a noise pretending I understood as I sat there with five pounds of plaster shoved in my open mouth.

She turned to Louie and said, “I’ll run the usual tests on porcine skin, compare it to a life size photo. I’ve got the thing downloaded and ready to be enhanced.” Then she turned toward me and yanked the plaster cast off my upper jaw, it made a loud sucking sound. She slapped the lid on her Tupperware and nodded to the deputy, then turned back to me.

“With any luck, we’ll at least be able to prove it wasn’t you who bit the lady in the ass. It’s been real,” she said, reached in her briefcase and pulled out a sucker with a soft string handle.

“Its okay, Ramsey County Jail approved,” she smiled at the deputy. He shrugged and they exited my cell, the sound of whistles and cat calls echoed down the hall following them as they departed.

I lingered in the remnants of the good doctor’s perfume for as long as I could.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Eleven the following morning I was escorted by a deputy to a wooden chair at the courtroom table where Louie sat reading notes. We were on the third floor of the Ramsey County Courthouse, my bail hearing. The room had some sort of polished, dark wood paneling on all four walls. At the front of the room stood an alter-like affair, heavily carved and rising about fifteen feet into air. I slid into the hard wooden chair next to Louie, but was interrupted before I could really say anything to him.

“All rise,” the court officer called and everyone stood. Louie was on my left. We sat at one of two mahogany tables. He wore a pressed, dark blue suit with red silk pocket cloth. He was shaved, scrubbed and reeked of men’s cologne. The prosecutors, there were two of them at the other table, both square built butch-looking women, appeared frighteningly business-like in their matching grey suits. They seemed to be reveling in the task. I was sure they possessed a not so secret hate of all men and not so much as a hint of a sense of humor.

For this event I had changed from my county issued orange jump suit to a navy blue suit, starched white shirt, conservative tie and shined shoes. My entire ensemble was set off by a pair of nicely buffed steel handcuffs which the prosecuting attorneys insisted I wear. I didn’t know them well enough, but it seemed to suggest they might be kinky.

“Look relax, it’s just a ploy, court room theatrics at your bail hearing. I’ve been up against these two dykes before,” Louie whispered.

“Did you win?”

“Sometimes,” he replied, a little too off handedly for my tastes.

The judge entered, and took her seat on the bench. It wasn’t my first time in court but I couldn’t recall ever seeing her before. She seemed to sit a lot higher than other judges I recalled.

“Oh shit,” Louie hissed under his breath just as she looked down on us.

I was about to ask him what was wrong when the judge spoke.

“Thank you, I’m Judge Helen Slaughter, filling in for Judge Spofford this morning. It seems his honor had a minor traffic accident on the way in and is unable to sit at this proceeding. Therefore without further delay, let us begin in the matter of …” she glanced down at something in front of her.

“Ramsey County, versus one Devlin Haskell, bail hearing. Miss Metry, prosecuting for the city. Nice to see you this morning and are you ready, Miss Metry?”

“We are your honor.”

“And representing Mister Haskell, Mister Laufen, wouldn’t you know. Are you ready, sir?”

“We are your honor,” Louie said, standing and then continued. “Your honor, if it would please the court. We would like…”

“It does not please this court, as you undoubtedly know, Mister Laufen.”

“Your honor, I was merely about…”

“That will be enough, Mister Laufen.”

Louie, sat down and fought to appear in control while one of the prosecuting dykes read out the laundry list of charges against me. She stopped a couple of times to glance over at me as if she couldn’t believe the crimes I was being charged with.

Kidnapping, false imprisonment, rape, assault, sexual assault, and resisting arrest for warm ups. Then the kicker, she paused a half beat, glanced at me again and read the charge.

“Murder.”

She went on to suggest I was a danger to society and a flight risk. Frankly, listening to the charges, even I wouldn’t grant me bail.

Louie argued I had a business and a home and constituted no risk what-so-ever.

In just under eight minutes the thing was done, bail set at five hundred thousand dollars, half a million bucks. And, if and when I did get out, I would be wearing an ankle bracelet and required to check in with authorities, daily.

We were in a holding cell, Louie and I. He had replaced the plastic dry cleaning bag over my suit, straightened my coat on the hanger. I was stepping back into my orange jump suit as we talked.

“That seemed to go okay.” Louie said, undoing his tie and then unbuttoning the top two buttons on his shirt. The open area of his collar immediately filled with a couple of chins.

“Okay? A half million bucks for bail? I gotta wear an ankle bracelet if and when I even do get out, that’s your idea of okay? No offense, Louie, but could things have gone much worse?”

“You kidding, this judge, you’re lucky you’re not in some dark hole doing solitary confinement. She has no problem denying someone bail. I’d say we got lucky with all the news reports of overcrowding and that bullshit due to state budget cuts. Otherwise, well like I said…”

“So how soon can I get out?”

“Just as soon as you can get someone to post for you. Any ideas who might have that kind of dough stuffed in a mattress?”

“No, not really, ten percent of a half million, five grand, hell,” I said.

“Actually, that would be fifty grand, Dev.”

“Oh shit.”

“Any ideas?”

“Yeah, well there is one person, Heidi Bauer, a friend. She’s posted bail for me before, I just don’t know about the number, I mean fifty grand.”

“You better go for the gold here, Dev, otherwise you’re gonna just have to get comfortable with your cell.”

“I’m not sure she’s exactly talking to me, just now.”

“Why, what happened?”

“Nothing, don’t worry. I didn’t assault her or anything, we just sort of agreed to disagree.”

“And she can make your bail?”

“Yeah, I think so, but the question is would she?”

“So call her, the worst she can do is say no. You’ll be no further behind than you are now.”