“Thank you.”
Mark waited for her to go on, but she didn’t.
“Uh, about the fee. Did you talk to your parents?”
“No. I…They weren’t in. I’ll have to keep trying. Can I tell you tomorrow?”
Mark felt a little nervous. He had already gotten involved in the case on her promise.
“Sure. When do you want to come in?”
“Later afternoon? Around five?”
Mark checked his appointment book.
“That’s fine. I’ll see you then.”
They hung up. Mark rested his hand on the phone. He tried to visualize Sarah’s features and figure. He could see her breasts pushing against her sweater this morning. For a moment he fantasized her naked, in bed. Then he stopped. He thought about Cindy and what was happening to their marriage. It made him feel sad.
“They sent a man. He said he was an attorney. How did he find me? You said I would only have to talk at the trial.”
She was almost hysterical, thought Shindler. He grabbed her shoulders. He couldn’t have her cracking up on him. Not when he’d come this far.
“Slow down and calm down,” he ordered forcefully. She threw her arms around his neck and started to cry.
“I’m so glad you’re here. I was going crazy. He just came. I…”
Shindler held her tightly. He was afraid that he would find her like this when he heard the way she sounded over the phone. He had driven from the police station as soon as he had hung up.
“Who came to see you?” he asked when she was calm enough to speak.
“I have his card,” she said, breaking away and moving to the kitchen table. She handed him the card and sat down.
“He said he was an attorney,” she said in a voice heavy with fear.
“He probably was,” Shindler said. He could never understand why people of Esther’s type held lawyers in awe. “What did you do?”
“Just like you and Mr. Heider said. I told him I didn’t want to talk to him.”
He stood behind her and began to massage her shoulders.
“And…?”
“He went away.”
“Good,” he said softly, feeling her shoulder muscles begin to relax under the thin cotton tee shirt. “That was easy, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” she answered sheepishly.
“And you handled that all by yourself, didn’t you?” he asked soothingly.
“Yes,” she said in an embarrassed whisper. “But I got scared. I didn’t know how he found me and I was alone.”
“You’re not alone, Esther. You have me. And he could have gotten your name in a thousand ways: old newspapers, the indictment, a lot of places.”
“I guess,” she said. “It’s just, I haven’t seen you so much, lately. And I’ve been getting scared, again, like before I saw Dr. Hollander.”
“There’s nothing to be scared of,” Shindler said softly. “Now, stand up and turn around.”
She obeyed, but she would not look him in the eye. He cupped her chin in his hand and tilted her head until their eyes met.
“Are you still afraid?” he asked.
“No, Roy,” she answered woodenly. She wanted him so bad. She wanted to feel him holding her, inside her. She wanted to cling to him and be safe.
“Is the baby asleep?” he asked. His voice was soft and soothing.
“Yes, Roy.”
Her mouth was dry and she was trembling. He reached out and caressed her naked breast through her shirt. Her knees were weak and she felt herself growing moist. He stepped back so he could see her. She pulled the shirt over her head and stepped out of her jeans so that all she wore were the red silk bikini panties he said he liked. She stood almost at attention, her head bowed, because she was afraid to look at him. He reached out and stroked her hair and she began to weep.
2
The intercom buzzed and Albert Caproni answered it. Philip Heider was on the other end and he wanted to see Al immediately. Al stacked his work neatly, marking pages with slips of torn paper and placing writing tablets in proper order. Then he headed down the hall to Heider’s office.
When a major case like Murray-Walters came along, it was the office practice to assign one deputy, with no other duties, to that case. Often, the deputy would have an assistant, who would be given fewer day-to-day duties. Al considered it an honor to have been chosen from all the district court deputies to assist Heider on this important case. He was sure that a promotion to circuit court would follow when the case was over.
Al had never worked as enthusiastically as he had these past few weeks. He was enjoying the luxury of taking his time on a case. He had already been through the mountains of police reports that had accumulated over the last seven years. Now that they had two suspects, it was amazing how relevant some of the small details he had found buried in those reports had become.
Heider motioned Al into a chair across the desk from him and finished dictating a letter. Heider was not an easy person to work under, but Al appreciated his thoroughness and admired his intelligence. Heider was a perfectionist. There was precision even in his dictation. He would be willing to bet that Heider never misspelled a word. If he was working harder than he ever had before, he was also learning more about the proper way to try a case than he could have in any other way.
“Do you know a lawyer named Mark Shaeffer?”
“I think so. I had a trial with him a few months ago and we negotiated on several cases.”
“What are your impressions? He’s coming up here in a few minutes.”
“I don’t know. He seems competent. No Clarence Darrow, but no idiot either. It’s hard to say after just one trial. Why?”
“He’s representing Bobby Coolidge.”
“He is?” Caproni said, surprised. “I figured someone with more experience would have been handling it.”
Heider shrugged.
“It will make things easier for us. Do you know if he’s ever tried a felony?”
Al shook his head.
“I don’t know. I can check.”
Heider made some notes on a scratch pad.
“Al, I want you to sit through this meeting and help me size him up. Then I have a small assignment for you. One of the prisoners out at the county jail-a fellow named Toller, Eddie Toller-contacted a guard yesterday. He claims to have some information on the Murray-Walters case and he says he’ll only talk to a D.A. This is probably nothing, but Coolidge is housed out there and he may have said something to this guy. When we’re through with Shaeffer, take a ride out there and talk with him.
“I’ve had Toller’s record checked. It’s long. Nothing violent. Mostly burglaries of businesses, car theft, some drugs. We have an airtight case against him. He probably is going to tell you a fairy story in hopes of making a deal. Find out what he knows. Promise him nothing. If it looks like he has something to offer, tell him that you are my assistant and that I have to give approval on any plea negotiations. You have all that?”
Al smiled and nodded.
“Okay. Now back to Shaeffer. How much do you think we should tell him?”
“I don’t know. I think we should at least give him an outline of our case. I don’t think we should give him the transcript of Esther’s hypnosis interviews, because there is too much there that he could play with.”
“I agree, Al. I’m thinking of telling him just enough to get him worried, but no reports or transcripts of interviews. Now, we have to give him copies of the statements his client made when he was interrogated in ’61 and I’ll have to give him witness statements the day before they testify, but he’ll be too busy with the trial to do much with those statements when he gets them.”
A buzzer rang and Heider pressed down on his intercom switch.
“Send him back,” Heider said. A few moments later, Mark Shaeffer was seated next to Al.