frighten me. Nothing does, and it is not in your best interest to annoy me.”
Marino looked startled.
“The boys may have to spend the night in jail, but we can get
them in front of a judge tomorrow and get them released on bail. I am confident that I can forestall a remand.”
“What’s a remand,” Mrs. Drake
said.
“Remand to jail to await trial.”
“My God, is that what’s going to happen now?”
“No. It won’t happen at all. But now the police will hold your
son until tomorrow when we can get them before a magistrate.”
“They’re children. They can’t
have to be thrown in with the
general prison population,” Mrs. Drake said.
“We’ll hold them here,” Jesse
said. “It’s a four-cell lockup.
They will be the general prison population.”
“This is crap,” Troy said.
His mother put her hand on his arm. Jesse could tell that neither Troy nor Bo Marino liked the talk about them being children.
“You got that right,” Bo said.
“That little wimp prick is
lying.”
“Please be quiet,” Rita said to both boys.
“The wimp prick being Feeney?” Jesse said.
“Sure. You got him and the fucking baby says whatever you want
him to, so he can get off.”
“And Candace?” Jesse said.
“Bitch would say anything to get me in trouble,” Troy said.
“She’s been hot for me since ninth grade, and I won’t give her a
nod.”
“Is she hot for Bo, too?” Jesse said.
“Be quiet,” Rita said to both boys.
“Let ‘em talk, lady,” Joe Marino
said. “Somebody’s trying to
frame my kid and you’re telling him not to say anything?”
“They’re not doing themselves any
good,” Rita
said.
“She hot for Bo?” Jesse said to Troy.
“I don’t know. Maybe Bo did her for all I know, him and Kevin
was always talking about doing this broad and that one.”
“You cocksucker,” Bo said.
Mrs. Marino paused in her crying long enough to say,
“Bo!”
No one paid any attention.
“So maybe they did her,” Troy said,
“and the bitch thought when
she got them she could throw me in there and get even.”
“Shut up.” Rita’s voice was
sharp in the room.
But the genie was out of the bottle.
“So why did Kevin name you as well,” Jesse said.
“Fucking loser,” Troy said.
“He’s always sucking up to
Bo.”
Rita’s hand slammed flat on the tabletop and her voice was like
a blade.
“Shut fucking up,” she said.
Everyone looked at her. The room was suddenly still except for Mrs. Marino’s crying. Joe Marino made a cool it gesture at his son.
Mrs. Drake squeezed Troy’s hand as hard as she could.
“You keep talking and you’ll talk
yourselves right into a mess I
can’t get you out of. Do you understand me?”
No one said anything. Bo and Troy looked suddenly scared.
“Good,” Rita said. “You will
talk to no one unless I’m present,
or Barry. You will say nothing unless I say to, or Barry.”
“Rita,” Marty Reagan said. “This
doesn’t look like one for all
and all for one.”
“I know,” Rita said.
She looked at her clients.
“What Mr. Reagan means is that I can’t represent clients in
circumstances where the best interest of one might collide with the best interests of the other.”
Both families looked a little blank. But she had frightened them
enough to make them docile.
“So,” she said. “Let them stay
here tonight. Tomorrow Barry or
I, it will probably be Barry, will get them out on bail, and then we’ll organize your legal representation.”
“You can’t pull out on us now,”
Joe Marino said.
“I can’t represent both of the
boys,” Rita said.
“So let him represent Troy,” Marino said.
“Same firm, Mr. Marino. I’ll see to it that you are both well
represented, but this is not the place, and now is not the time.”
She turned and nodded very slightly to Jesse.
“Okay, Molly,” Jesse said. “You
and Suit read the words and take
them down to a cell.”
Mrs. Marino’s crying rose to a wail. Both Bo and Troy looked as
if they had trouble swallowing. Joe Marino started to argue. Mrs.
Drake seemed frozen in place. Molly said the Miranda for both of them and she and Simpson took them from the room. Their parents went with them.
“Checking the accommodations,” Reagan said when they were
gone.
Rita Fiore said, “When are you going to arraign them,
Marty?”
“You should have them there at nine A.M.,”
Reagan
said.
“Salem?”
“Yep.”
“Can you take care of that, Barry?”
Feldman nodded and made a small entry in his notebook.
“Now,” Rita said. “In the event
that I’m still representing
someone in this cluster fuck, it seems to me like there are deals to be made.”
“Let’s permit the dust to
settle,” Reagan said, “before we start bargaining.”
“Just as long as you see what I see,” Rita said.
Reagan smiled, and got to his feet.
“We done here?” he said.
Jesse nodded. So did Rita.
“Barry,” Rita said.
“I’ll be along in a little while. Why don’t
you get the car warmed up.”
Feldman stowed the notebook in his inside pocket and stood and picked up his briefcase.
“Nice meeting you all,” he said.
“I’ll walk you to your car,”
Reagan said, and both men
left.
40
Rita stood and came down the length of the table and sat on the
edge of it near Jesse. Jesse understood that she was letting him get a look at her. She knew she was very good-looking.
“I did a little background research,” Rita said.
“Thorough,” Jesse said.
“I am very thorough,” Rita said.
“I also have the resources of a
huge law firm.”
“Fortunate,” Jesse said.
Rita smiled.
“Try not to babble,” she said.
“Hard,” Jesse said.
Rita smiled and nodded.
“You were a homicide detective in Los Angeles,” Rita said.
“Captain Cronjager out there says you were very good.”
Jesse nodded.
“But your marriage went south and you had a drinking problem.”
Jesse nodded again.
“How’s your marriage?” she said.
“South,” Jesse said.
Rita smiled.
“And the drinking?”
“Better.”
“My paralegal talked with the state police homicide commander,”
Rita said.
“Healy,” Jesse said.
“Usually you get into one of these suburban towns and they have
a homicide, the state police take over the investigation pretty quickly.”
Jesse nodded.
“Healy says it’s not the case
here.”
“We do as much as we can in-house,” Jesse said.
“Healy says you know what you’re
doing.”
“I do,” Jesse said.
“I also know,” Rita said, “like
about everyone else in the
damned world, that you got a serial killer operating here.”
“I do.”
“You must be stretched pretty thin.”
“We are.”
“But you had time to run this down.”
Jesse nodded. He could feel the force of Rita’s sexuality. All
her movements, every gesture of her head, every verbal tone, was carnal. He knew it was real, and he knew she used that.
“These kids do it?” Rita said.
“Absolutely,” Jesse said.
“No reasonable doubt?”
“None,” Jesse said.