John Lescroart - Nothing But The Truth

‘Mr Hardy, how are you?’

‘Well, not so good, to tell you the truth. You know they’ve got Frannie in jail?’

‘That’s why I called you. It was on the news and I thought I might be able to help.’

‘You could. Where are you now?’

A pause. ‘Uh, I’d rather not say. Not too far away. I thought it would be smarter to get away before the police decided I was their suspect.’

‘The police haven’t decided that. It’s the DA.’

A dry laugh. ‘Same thing to me. I can’t afford to get in their sights. Did your wife tell you about… about the situation here? With me?’

‘Yeah. We talked.’ Hardy knew he sounded furious, impatient. He was. He didn’t feel compelled to dissemble for poor Ron the prime mover. ‘The thing is, Frannie’s in a pretty damn bleak way right now. She’s already done a night in the can.’

‘I know. I feel terrible about that. That’s why I’m calling, to find out if there’s anything I can do.’

‘You want my recommendation?’

‘Yes.’

Hardy gave it to him straight. ‘You come see me now, give me a note to take to Frannie at the jail and tell her she’s got your permission to talk to the grand jury. She takes this word-of-honor stuff pretty seriously.’

‘Obviously you do, too.’

Hardy didn’t answer that. He wasn’t sure how far his nobility would go if Frannie stayed locked up much longer. But for the moment, let Ron think whatever would help Frannie. ‘The point is, she needs to tell the grand jury. Or you do.’

A long silence. Then, ‘You must know I can’t do that.’

‘Sure you can. You give Frannie permission to talk, then go back to wherever you are now. You said you’re still local. You can just-’

‘I didn’t say that.’

Hardy wasn’t going to get into semantics with him. He’d said he wasn’t far away, and that was good enough for now. ‘OK, you’re not local. But wherever you are, you want to help Frannie, right? Isn’t that why you called here?’

‘But I can’t-’

‘Look, you can. I’m a lawyer. I can broker this thing through the courts-’

‘No, you don’t understand, that’s not happening. Last time I tried to play by the rules and do things through the courts. I had a good lawyer, then, too. You know what happened? The courts gave my kids to their mother. You hear what I’m saying? The rules don’t give the kids to the father. I can’t have that again. I can’t take the risk.’

‘There doesn’t have to be a risk. It doesn’t have to come up at all. All they care about is if you killed your wife. If you didn’t, you go back to your normal life.’

‘No, I don’t think so. That’s what I’d like, but I don’t see normal life in this picture anymore.’

Hardy took a beat, lowered his voice. He was sweating in the cool house, his hands white around the receiver. He let out a breath, spoke softly. ‘Then I really don’t understand why you called. I don’t know what else you can do to help Frannie.’

After another pause, Ron Beaumont finally said, ‘I’ll try to think of something. I’m sorry.’

‘No, wait! Maybe we-’ The line went dead.

‘He wouldn’t even write you a damn note, Frannie. How about that?’

His wife didn’t let it faze her. ‘I know he wants to help.’

‘Oh yes,’ Hardy dripped with sarcasm. ‘He’s all for helping. He just doesn’t want to do anything.’

Arms crossed, her body language swearing at him, she spoke through tight lips. ‘What could he do? What can he do that wouldn’t threaten his kids?’

‘How does it threaten his kids to let you talk? He stays hiding. Besides, tell me why they’re not threatened right now.’

‘You’ve said it yourself. Because he’s not a suspect. Even Abe said it on TV. The police aren’t looking for him.’

That had been, Hardy had to admit, one of very few sweet moments in an otherwise disastrous day. Glitsky would undoubtedly wind up paying hell for saying that there wasn’t any evidence to arrest Ron Beaumont for murder. The DA would complain to the chief. They’d foot drag even more than they already did on his cases. Even so, to Glitsky it was probably worth it.

But that wasn’t why Hardy was here. ‘How about our children? Don’t you see that they’re a little threatened here? How can you not see that?’

‘Don’t you dare patronize me,’ she snapped. ‘Of course I see that. Don’t you think this is…’ Her eyes flashed with fire and tears of rage. ‘This is impossible! Don’t you think I see that, I feel that?’ She whirled in the small space behind the table in the attorneys’ visiting room. Nowhere to run. ‘But what do you want me to do?’

‘That’s an easy one. I want you to give him up.’

‘And his kids?’

‘It’s either his or ours, Frannie. Doesn’t seem like that tough a call to me.’

‘Just give him up?’

He thought that maybe, at last, she’d heard him. With an effort, he reined in his temper. ‘He’s gone anyway, Frannie. He’s on the run. It’s going to look like he killed Bree as soon as that gets out. Then he’s really in the news and the whole story – kids and all – comes out anyway. Then what’s all this been for?’

Her face remained set. ‘It’s not there yet.’

‘What isn’t where?’

‘Nobody’s going to look into Ron’s life. Not unless he gets charged. Ron isn’t anybody’s focus.’

‘Yes he is,’ Hardy said. ‘He’s mine. He’s Scott Randall’s.’

‘Oh, that’s real nice. That’s swell, Dismas.’ Frannie spit the words out at him. ‘Side yourself with my pal Scott Randall.’

‘I’m not siding with Scott Randall. Jesus Christ. I’m trying to get you out of here! I’m trying to put our family together again and all I get from you is poor Ron fucking Beaumont. Because I’ll tell you something, Frannie. He and his kids, they’re gone.’

She looked up at him defiantly. ‘You always think you know everything. You’ve got everything figured out. Well, I’ll tell you something. No they’re not gone. He called you an hour ago. He doesn’t want to run. He wants to go back to his normal life. Don’t you see that?’

Deflated, Hardy rested a haunch on the corner of the table. ‘Don’t you see that that’s not going to happen?’ he asked wearily. ‘It’s not going to happen no matter what.’

‘It will if they find who killed Bree.’

Hardy shook his head. ‘Not true, Frannie. That’s just not true.’ He forced a persuasive tone. ‘Listen, on Tuesday, the grand jury is going to reconvene and by then Scott Randall - even without Glitsky’s help – is going to discover that Ron has cut out. That’s going to be enough to get him indicted. After that he’s high profile. Then it all comes out.’

‘OK, that’s Tuesday,’ she said. ‘If somebody, maybe Abe, can find Bree’s killer before that, some real evidence-’

‘Unlikely.’

‘Why?’

‘Because it’s already been three weeks. The case is dead. You’re talking three days ? It’s not going to happen.’

‘What if Ron helps? What if he tells everybody what he knows about Bree?’

‘Tells who? Like Abe?’

But, infuriatingly, she shook her head. ‘He can’t get involved with the police.’

‘Oh, that’s right. I almost forgot. And while we’re at it, are you saying he didn’t tell the police all he knew when they asked last time?’

‘No, I’m not saying that. And you don’t have to be such a bully. He answered their questions-’

‘But just sort of forgot to volunteer anything interesting he might have known about his own wife’s murder? Give me a break, Frannie. This is ridiculous.’