Lisa Scottoline - Daddy's Girl

But all white-collar work. "Have you ever tried a murder case?"

"Well, no." Brooke pulled over one of the broken-down chairs. "But this shouldn't be too difficult tonight. We'll get co-counsel if they charge you. By the way, I hear you're a fellow Yalie."

Nat was stumped. "Angus said you were one of the best criminal lawyers in town."

"Angus who?" Brooke withdrew a black Mont Blanc from inside his tuxedo, just as the door opened and the two troopers reentered the interview room.

"Okay, folks, let's get this show on the road." Mundy pulled up his chair, and the other trooper took a chair off to the side, but Nat wasn't finished with her conversation.

"Angus Holt," she said to Brooke. "He sent you here, didn't he?"

"I don't know any Angus, except steak." Brooke sat down, brushed off his tuxedo pants, and extracted a fresh legal pad from his leather envelope. "I was called by your father. Greco Construction has us on retainer."

Oh no. Mr. Tuxedo must've gotten here before Angus's lawyer. "How did my father even know I was here?"

"I don't know." Brooke expertly twisted off the gleaming top of his Pen between thumb and index finger.

"Wait, hold on." Nat turned to the troopers, raising her hand like a Nervous 1L. "Trooper Mundy, this isn't my lawyer."

"What are you talking about?" Mundy glared at Brooke, who stiffened defensively.

"Yes, I am.”

“No, I have another lawyer coming. I want to wait for him." Nat turned to Brooke. "I'm sorry. It's nothing personal." But the other guy will know what he's doing.

"We're not playing games here," Trooper Duffy interjected, his eyes hard. "You have a lawyer present and he's more than qualified. We can't wait anymore, and as long as you're represented, we have no legal obligation to wait." He turned to Brooke. "Are you willing and able to serve as counsel?"

"Certainly." Brooke looked matter-of-factly at Nat. "Maybe I'm not whom you expected, but the sooner we get this started, the sooner you can get home."

Nat considered it. She could probably represent herself at this stage. Hell, even Jelly could represent her at this stage.

Way to go, Dad. "Okay, let's proceed," she said, then braced herself.

Nat went through the preliminaries as if they were happening to somebody else. She mechanically signed the statement that said she'd been informed of her Miranda rights and had given consent for the troopers to search her car, which had already been impounded. She watched silently as Trooper Duffy set up the black videocamera and aimed it at her, as she sat opposite Trooper Mundy, who was trying hard to reestablish their love connection. He had already brought her a cup of hot coffee.

"Told you," Mundy said, when she took a sip. "If you want me to get you a sandwich that tastes like sawdust, I can do that, too."

Nat shook her head. Brooke settled next to her and started writing on his pad, as did Duffy, who took a seat to Mundy's left, on his side of the fake-wood table.

Mundy began, "Well, I don't pull any punches, Ms. Greco. You're a direct person, and so am I. How about I tell you what we know at this time, and maybe you'll tell me what you know."

"We're listening," Brooke answered, for both of them. "By the way, may I call you Nat?". "No, Brooke answered again, and Nat thought maybe he'd work out after all. Her gaze shifted to the black lens of the camera, then shifted away. It was making her nervous.

Mundy continued. "Okay, tonight at around 10:35 p.m., one Barbara Saunders was found by her sister, shot, when the sister got home from the movies. Mrs. Saunders was found in the garage, lying on the floor. The sister called 911 immediately, and they appeared quickly on the scene, though Mrs. Saunders had lost a lot of blood."

Nat sensed from his pained expression that he’d been to the garage. She imagined Barb lying there and prayed the kids hadn't seen her.

Mundy continued, "The sister told us that you had been there to see Mrs. Saunders that night. She also told us that you’d been trying to see her since her husbands death. You told Barbara Saunders that you had a message for her."

The week unspooled through Nat's brain, an awful rewind. Next to her, Brooke took rapid notes on his legal pad.

"We looked around and found a large hole in the garage floor." Mundy made a big square with his hands. "In the hole was a will, a videotape, some magazines, and some money. About nine hundred and fifty dollars."

Money?

"We also found some pills on the ground, OxyContin. They were scattered, like somebody had dropped them on the way out." He exchanged a glance with Trooper Duffy, who kept taking notes. "The money was scattered on the ground too, like it had been left behind in a big hurry."

Nat's mind reeled. She fought to keep her mouth shut.

"We searched your car, and we found twenty-three thousand dollars and two bags of OxyContin in your trunk."

"What?" Nat blurted out. "In my car?"

"Did you take those things from the house?"

"Of course not!" Nat responded, getting scared. "This is crazy.

"Is it? Tell me why."

"Look I didn't shoot anyone, much less a state trooper, and when I left the house, Barb was alive and there was nothing in the hole but a will, magazines, and a videotape."

Brooke looked over at her, frowning. "Nat, please don't volunteer additional information."

"So you went to the house, that much is true?" Mundy asked, and his frank brown eyes searched hers, as if he really wanted answers.

Brooke said to Nat, "I'm instructing you not to discuss this."

She kept her mouth shut, but it was killing her. The money and the drugs connected her to a crime she hadn't committed.

Duffy interjected, "If we wanted, we could book you right now for the Oxys. Unless you got a doctor you want us to call."

Nat shuddered. Drug charges. Murder. She would be ruined. She clammed up.

Brooke cleared his throat authoritatively. "It would be imprudent to make an arrest on a drug charge at this juncture, before you had investigated the other crimes."

"Aren't you going to tell me what happened, Ms. Greco?" Mundy asked, but it was Brooke who shook his head.

"No, she isn't. Are we free to go? This is a waste of her time."

Nat flushed red, and Mundy eyed her gravely.

"Let me tell you one thing, before you go. Some people say a murder case is a puzzle, and they talk about pieces we have to put together. Other people call it a game. It's never those things, not to me." Trooper Mundy shook his head. "I'm a simple guy, and to me, it's simple. You know something I don't. To me, it's about a young man, Trooper Matt Shorney, who was killed. We both knew him, Duffy better than me." Mundy gestured behind him, where the other trooper bent his bald head over his notes. "I want to know what happened to him because it's my job. Simple as that. No puzzle, no game.

Just work. If you know what happened, I'm asking you to tell me. The rest. it's all bullshit."

Brooke said, "I repeat, my client won't be making any statements."

But Nat felt touched by Mundy's words. He was right. This was about something more important than her hide. This was about the truth, and about Shorney and Barb. If she could tell the troopers what she knew, maybe they could still find the killer tonight.

"Trooper Mundy," she said, "before he died, Barb's husband told me to tell his wife there was something under the floor. I went there to tell her, and we looked all night, but we couldn't find what he meant."

"That's enough now." Brooke touched her arm, but Nat shook it off.

"Let me talk to him. I know what I'm doing." She faced Mundy, with the black camera lens over his shoulder. "I saw a man shoot Trooper Shorney."

"You really saw him killed?" Mundy recoiled slightly in surprise, and his eyes widened.