Parnell Hall: The Innocent Woman

“Oh yeah?” Tracy said. “Are you forgetting I found the body?”

Steve shrugged. “Well, if the D.A.’s willing to forget about it, I don’t see why we shouldn’t.”

“Where do we stand on that?” Taylor said.

“In the clear. Amy Dearborn’s innocent. You can’t aid and abet an innocent person.”

Taylor grimaced. “Isn’t that a somewhat iffy position?”

“It would be, if anyone wanted to press the issue. The way things stand, if Dirkson came after us now it would look like spite.”

“You think he’d care what it looked like?”

“To the voters, yes. Trust me, Dirkson will take all the credit he can on this one, and everything else will slide. You read the papers tomorrow, it’ll look like it was Dirkson’s doing that Cunningham cracked. You’d swear he was on to him all along. And anything connected with the Amy Dearborn arrest will quietly fade away.’’

Taylor thought that over. Nodded judiciously, then cocked his head. “Think you’d have sold him? I mean, say Cunningham doesn’t blow his brains out, you think they’d have gone along?”

“Eventually, yes,” Steve said. “I had Judge Wylie sold. Dirkson’s another matter. The guy would have loved to nail us, and hated to let go.”

“How’d you get around the drawer?” Tracy said.

Steve looked up. “Huh?”

“The petty cash drawer. How’d you explain that?”

“Just the way I did in court. Some crime scene guy did it and was covering up.”

“But Dirkson would never buy that.”

“Of course not. He knew I was lying. But there was no way I was going to admit Amy Dearborn had been there before. So that was the only argument I could make.”

“So who did it?” Tracy said.

“Who did what?”

“You know what. Who closed the petty cash drawer?”

“Ah, good question,” Steve said.

The color had returned to Tracy’s cheeks. She snatched off her glasses, folded them up, cocked her head, looked at him. “Thank you. Now do you think you could be troubled to answer it?”

The intercom buzzed. Taylor scooped up the phone, listened, said, “Thanks,” and hung up. “Amy Dearborn called. She’s on her way up.”

“That was her?” Steve said.

“No. The switchboard. She called, found out you were here, and she’s coming up.”

“Why’d she call here? Oh, don’t tell me.” He turned to Tracy. “You have call-forwarding on?”

“Sure.”

Steve shook his head. “That’s funny. Since this case started, all I’ve heard is answering machines and call-forwarding. Every time I turned around. Finally the damn thing clicked.”

“That really was the solution?” Taylor said. “That’s how he heard the message?”

“I have no idea,” Steve said. “I’m sure Dirkson will check it out. Any maybe he did. Maybe it’s just as I said. But maybe not. Maybe he doesn’t even have call-forwarding. Maybe he just called her answering machine to see if she had any messages because that’s the type of nosy, jealous guy he was. But that doesn’t matter. However it happened, the fact is he got the message, went down there and killed him.”

“Yeah, but what about the petty cash drawer?” Tracy said.

“Not to mention the petty cash,” Taylor said. “Who took that?”

“Larry Cunningham,” Tracy said.

“Not that petty cash,” Taylor said. “I mean before. The petty cash Amy was accused of taking.”

“That’s right,” Tracy said. “You have any ideas about that?”

“Sure,” Steve said. “But that’s all they are. Just ideas. I can’t prove a thing.”

“Who wants proof? Just tell me what you know.”

“There again, I don’t really know anything.”

“Don’t piss me off,” Tracy said. “Who closed the petty cash drawer? Who took the petty cash?”

Before Steve could answer, Amy Dearborn burst in. It was the most animated Tracy had ever seen her. Her eyes were sparkling.

“Free,” Amy said. “It’s unbelievable. I don’t know how to thank you.”

“You just did,” Steve said.

“Yes, but it’s inadequate. It really is. And… Well, I don’t know how to pay you, either.”

“I know,” Steve said. “Some cases are bigger than others. You gave me a dollar. That’s all I ever expected to see out of this one.”

“But, that’s…” Amy shook her head. “Well, like I said, I don’t know how to thank you.”

“Yeah, well you don’t have to,” Steve said. “I didn’t do it for you.”

Amy looked at him. Frowned. “What’s the matter with you? We won.”

“I don’t consider having someone blow his brains out exactly winning.”

“Oh. Is that the problem?”

“It’s part of it. I think part of it is you’re so damn happy, and your boyfriend’s dead.”

“He wasn’t my boyfriend.”

“Yeah., well Fletcher was.”

“Huh?”

“I remember how pissed off you were, way back when, when I asked if you and Fletcher were an item. That should have told me right there. But it didn’t. I didn’t know for sure until I heard that tape.”

“What?”

“The answering machine tape. The way he talked to you on that. I heard that and I knew.” Steve shrugged. “Just like Larry Cunningham knew.”

Amy looked at him. “Why are you doing this?”

“Yeah,” Steve said. “Why? Why aren’t I dancing up and down like you, just happy we won? It could be getting lied to so often wears you down.”

“I didn’t lie to you.”

“You never did anything else. You’re lying now.”

Amy drew herself up. “I resent that.”

“Just like you resented it when I suggested you and Frank Fletcher might be an item?” Steve shook his head. “You really need to change your tune.”

“I don’t have to stay here and listen to this.”

“No, you don’t,” Steve said. “But before you go, we should get things straight, in case the police talk to you again.”

“You think they will?”

“I know they will. So will the press. You play your cards right, you get a TV movie out of this.”

“I don’t understand. Why are you so hostile?”

Steve pointed. “Tracy Garvin put herself on the line for you. I put myself on the line for you. Mark Taylor there didn’t do much-just happened to risk his license. So what does that make us? Just a bunch of suckers, don’t you think?”

“Hey,” Amy said. “I didn’t kill Frank.”

“Right. You’re innocent. Unfortunately, that doesn’t give you a ticket to abuse everyone you meet.”

“Hey.”

“I expect clients to lie,” Steve said. “It comes with the territory. I think every client I’ve ever had has lied to me one way or another. But you, you take the cake.” Steve leaned back, cocked his head. “I’ve been trying to think why it pisses me off so much. I think it’s like the whole thing with Larry Cunningham. Perfectly willing to let him buy you dinner, knowing he had no chance with you at all. See, that’s a kind of lie right there. You’re lying to him, and maybe you’re kind of lying to yourself too. Because there’s all kinds of lies.”

Steve held up one finger. “You know what we were talking about just before you came in? The petty cash. Who took the petty cash? I mean the original petty cash, way back when. The petty cash you were found innocent of having stolen. We were wondering who took that.”

Tracy Garvin’s eyes widened. “Are you telling me she took it?”

“No, I’m not,” Steve said. “Not exactly. You want to tell us about it, Amy?”

“Tell you what?”

“Frank Fletcher. Your relationship with Frank Fletcher. It wasn’t what you said it was. So what was it?”

“I don’t know what you mean?”