Майкл Коннелли - Law of Innocence

“Fall in, ladies,” I said.

Kendall gave up the front seat to Hayley and took the back. That was nice of her and I smiled at her in the rearview.

“Eyes on the road, Dad,” Hayley said.

“Right,” I said.

We pulled away from the curb. I worked my way down to the 10 freeway and headed west. At that point it was time to put up the windows so we could hear one another talk.

“How do you feel?” Kendall asked.

“Pretty good for a guy still charged with murder,” I said.

“But you’re going to win, right, Dad?” Hayley asked urgently.

“Don’t worry, Hay, I’m going to win,” I said. “And that’s when I’ll go from feeling pretty good to feeling pretty great. Okay?” “Okay,” she said.

We rode in silence for a few moments.

“Can I ask a dumb question?” Kendall said.

“There are no dumb questions when it comes to the law,” I said. “Only dumb answers.”

“What happens next?” she said. “Now that you’re out on bail, will the trial get delayed?”

“I won’t let them delay it,” I said. “I have them on speedy trial.”

“What exactly does that mean?” Kendall asked.

I looked over at my daughter.

“You’re One-L,” I said. “Why don’t you answer that?”

“I only know the answer because of you, not law school,” Hayley said.

She turned to look back over the seat at Kendall.

“If you’re accused of a crime, you’re entitled to a speedy trial,” she said. “In California that means they have ten court days from your arrest to hold a preliminary hearing or seek an indictment from a grand jury. Either way, you then get formally arraigned on the charges and the state must take you to trial within sixty calendar days or drop the charges and dismiss the case.”

I nodded. She had it right.

“What are calendar days?” Kendall asked.

“That just means workdays,” Hayley said. “It’s sixty days excluding weekends and holidays. My father was indicted and arraigned right before Thanksgiving—November twelfth, to be exact—and the sixty days push us into February. They count two days at Thanksgiving and a whole week from Christmas to New Year’s as holidays. Then you add in Martin Luther King Day and Presidents’ Day, when the courts are closed. It all adds up to February eighteenth.”

“D-Day,” I said.

I reached over and squeezed Hayley’s knee like the proud father I was.

The traffic was flowing and I took the freeway all the way to the curving tunnel that dumped out onto the Pacific Coast Highway. I pulled into a lot that served one of the beach clubs down there and got out. An attendant came walking toward us. I reached into my pocket but realized all the belongings from my pockets the night I was arrested were in an envelope I had handed off to Lorna so I could shake hands and hug people.

“I don’t have any money,” I said. “Either of you have a five we can give this guy for ten minutes on the beach?”

“I got it,” Kendall said.

She paid the man and we all walked across the pedestrian and bike paths and across the sand toward the water. Kendall took off her heels and carried them in one hand. There was something very sexy about her doing that.

“Dad, you’re not going to jump in, right?” Hayley asked.

“Nah,” I said. “I just want to hear the waves. Everything sounds like echoes and iron where I’ve been. I need to wash it out of my ears with something good.”

We stopped on a berm that was just above the wet sand where the surf washed in. The sun was slinking down toward the blue-black water. I held both my companions’ hands and said nothing. I breathed deeply and thought about where I had been. I resolved at that moment that I had to win the case because there was no way I was going to go back into lockup. I would take all extreme alternatives to that.

I let go of Hayley’s hand and then pulled her close.

“All this about me,” I said. “How are you doing, Hay?”

“I’m good,” she said. “What you told me about first year being a bitch is true.”

“Yeah, but you’re smarter than I ever was. You’ll do fine.”

“We’ll see.”

“How’s your mom? I saw her in court, and Jennifer said she was going to vouch for me if needed.”

“She’s good. And, yeah, she was ready to speak up for you.”

“I’ll call her and thank her.”

“That would be nice.”

I turned and looked at Kendall. It almost felt like she had never left me for Hawaii.

“And you?” I said. “You doing all right?”

“I am now,” she said. “I didn’t like seeing you in the courtroom.”

I nodded. I got that. I looked out at the ocean. The pounding of the waves seemed to echo in my chest. The colors were vibrant, not the gray of my last six weeks. It was beautiful and I didn’t want to leave.

“Okay,” I finally said. “Time’s up. Back to work.”

The traffic was not as kind heading in the opposite direction. It took almost an hour to get Hayley to her apartment in K-town after she turned down my invitation to dinner in favor of her weekly study group. This week’s subject: The Rule Against Perpetuities.

After dropping her off, I stayed on the curb and called Lorna. She told me that dinner was set up at Dan Tana’s at 8 p.m. and that Harry Bosch would be in attendance.

“I think he has something to discuss,” Lorna said.

“Good,” I said. “I’ll want to hear it.”

I disconnected and looked at Kendall.

“So,” I said. “The dinner with my team is at eight and it sounds like they really want to work and discuss the case. I don’t think—”

“That’s okay,” she said. “I know you want to get to it. You can just drop me off.”

“Where?”

“Well, I took you up on your offer. I’ve been at your place. Is that okay?”

“Of course. I forgot, but that’s great. I want to go there anyway to change. This is the suit I was arrested in. It doesn’t fit anymore and it smells like jail to me.”

“Good, then. You’ll be taking off your clothes.”

I looked at her and she smiled provocatively.

“Um, I thought we were broken up,” I said.

“We are,” she said. “That’s why this is going to be so much fun.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Okay, then.”

I pulled the Lincoln away from the curb.

13

Somebody once said that a person’s favorite restaurant is where they know you. That might be true. They knew me at Dan Tana’s and I knew them: Christian at the door, Arturo at the table, Mike behind the bar. But that didn’t obscure the fact that the kitschy Italian joint with checkered tablecloths served up the best New York strip in the city. I liked the place because they knew me, but I liked the steak even better.

When I pulled up to the valet, I saw Bosch standing outside the restaurant’s front door by himself. He was at the smoking bench but I knew he didn’t smoke. After turning over the car keys, I walked over. I noticed he had an inch-thick file tucked under his arm. The discovery file, I assumed.

“You’re the first one here?” I asked.

“No, they’re all in there,” he said. “Table in the back corner.”

“But you’re here waiting for me. Is this where you ask me if I did it?”

“Give me a little more credit, Mick. If I thought you did it, I wouldn’t have put up the money.”

I nodded.

“And nothing in that file changed your mind?”

“Not really. Just made me think you’ve got yourself in a pretty tight box.”

“Tell me about it. Should we go in?”

“Sure, but one thing before we’re with the others. Like I said, somebody really put you in a box here, and I was thinking that you may want to run this out for as long as you can. You know, drop the speedy trial thing … take your time with it.”