“What else?”
“Andrea Freeman’s called twice.”
I thought about the four calls on my cell.
“You give her my cell?”
“I did.”
“I think I just missed her but she didn’t leave a message. Something must be up.”
Lorna gave me the number Andrea had left with her.
“Maybe you can reach her if you call right back. I’ll let you go.”
“Okay, but where’s everybody at right now, in or out?”
“Jennifer’s here in her office and I just heard from Cisco. He’s heading back from some field work.”
“What field work?”
“He didn’t say.”
“Okay, then I’ll see everybody when I get there.”
I disconnected and called the number for Freeman. I had not heard from her since I’d been attacked by the black-gloved boys. Even Kurlen had come by to visit and check on me. But not even a get-well-soon card from my worthy opponent. Now six calls in one morning but no messages. I was certainly curious.
She answered after one ring and got right down to business.
“When can you come in?” she said. “I’d like to float something by you before we hit the gas and go.”
It was her way of saying she was open to the possibility of ending this case with a plea agreement before the whole machinery of a trial started to crank to life.
“I thought you said there wasn’t going to be an offer.”
“Well, let’s just say cooler heads have prevailed. I’m not stepping back from what I think of your moves on this case, but I don’t see why your client should pay for your actions.”
Something was going on. I could sense it. Some sort of problem with her case had come up. A piece of evidence lost or a witness had changed stories. I thought of Margo Schafer. Maybe there was a problem with the eyewitness. After all, Freeman hadn’t trotted her out during the prelim.
“I don’t want to come into the DA’s office. You can come to my office or we meet on neutral ground.”
“I’m not afraid to enter the enemy’s camp. Where’s your office?”
I gave her the address and we agreed to meet in an hour. I disconnected the call and tried to zero in on what could have gone wrong with the state’s case at this point in the game. I came back to Schafer again. It had to be her.
My phone vibrated in my hand and I looked down at the screen.
ID UNAVAILABLE
Freeman was calling me back, probably to cancel the meeting and reveal that the whole thing was a charade, just another maneuver out of the prosecutorial psych-ops manual. I pushed the button and connected.
“Yes?”
Silence.
“Hello?”
“Is this Michael Haller?”
A male voice, one I didn’t recognize.
“Yes, who is this?”
“Jeff Trammel.”
For some reason it took me a moment to place the name, and then it came through to me big time. The prodigal husband.
“Jeff Trammel, yes, how are you?”
“I’m good, I guess.”
“How did you get this number?”
“I was talking to Lisa this morning. I checked in. She told me I should call you.”
“Well, I’m glad you did. Jeff, are you aware of the situation your wife is in?”
“Yes, she told me.”
“You didn’t see it on the news?”
“There’s no TV or anything here. I can’t read Spanish.”
“Where exactly are you, Jeff?”
“I’d rather not say. You’d probably tell Lisa and I’d rather she didn’t have that information right now.”
“Will you be coming back for the trial?”
“I don’t know. I don’t have any money.”
“We could get you some money for travel. You could come back here and be with your wife and son during this difficult time. You could also testify, Jeff. Testify about the house and the bank and all the pressures.”
“Um… no, I couldn’t. I don’t want to put myself out like that, Mr. Haller. My failings. That wouldn’t feel right.”
“Not even to save your wife?”
“More like my ex-wife. We just haven’t made it all legal.”
“Jeff, what do you want? Do you want money?”
There was a long pause. Now we would get down to it. But then he surprised me.
“I don’t want anything, Mr. Haller.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“I just want to be left out of it. It’s not my life anymore.”
“Where are you, Jeff? Where is your life now?”
“I’m not telling you that.”
I shook my head in frustration. I wanted to keep him on the phone like a cop trying for a trace, only there was no trace.
“Look, Jeff, I hate to bring this up but it’s my job to cover all the bases, you know what I mean? And if we lose this case and there’s a conviction, then Lisa will be sentenced. There will be a time when her loved ones and her friends will be able to address the court and say good things about her. We will be able to bring up what we consider to be mitigating factors. Her fight to keep the house, for example. I would want to be able to count on you to come in and testify.”
“Then you think you’re going to lose?”
“No, I think we have a damn good chance of winning this thing. I really do. It’s an entirely circumstantial case with a witness I think we can blow out of the water. But I have to be prepared for the opposite result. Are you sure you can’t tell me where you are, Jeff? I can keep it confidential. I mean, I’ll need to know where you are if we’re going to send you money.”
“I need to go now.”
“What about the money, Jeff?”
“I’ll call you back.”
“Jeff?”
He was gone.
“I almost had him, Rojas.”
“Sorry, Boss.”
I put the phone down on the armrest for a moment and looked out to see where we were. The 101 through the Cahuenga Pass. I was still another twenty minutes out.
Jeff Trammel hadn’t said no to the money the last time I mentioned it.
My next call was to my client. When she answered I heard TV noise in the background.
“Lisa, it’s Mickey. We need to talk.”
“Okay.”
“Can you turn that TV off?”
“Oh, sure. Sorry.”
I waited and soon her end was silent.
“Okay.”
“First of all, your husband just called me. You gave him my number?”
“Yes, you told me to, remember?”
“Yes, that’s fine. I was just checking. It didn’t go well. It sounds like he wants to stay away.”
“That’s what he told me.”
“Did he tell you where he is? If I knew that I could send Cisco to convince him to help us.”
“He wouldn’t tell me.”
“I think he might still be in Mexico. He said he had no money.”
“He said the same to me. He wants me to send him some of the movie money.”
“You told him about that?”
“There’s going to be a movie, Mickey. He should know.”
Or maybe she meant that he should have his nose rubbed in it.
“Where were you going to send the money?”
“He said I could just deposit it in Western Union and he could access it from any of their offices.”
I knew there were Western Union offices all over Tijuana and points south. I’d sent money to clients before. We could send the money and then narrow things down by seeing which office Jeff Trammel went into to get the cash. But if he was smart he wouldn’t go to the office closest to where he was living and we’d be back to square one.
“Okay,” I said. “We’ll think about Jeff later. I also wanted to tell you that the deal Herb Dahl made with Archway has changed.”
“How so?”
“It’s with me now. I just left Archway. Herb can still produce if they ever make a movie. And he gets to stay out of jail. So he comes out ahead. You come out ahead because your defense team will now be paid for their work and you’ll get the rest, which by the way will be much more than you were ever going to see from Herb.”