Sidney Sheldon - Rage of Angels

PARKER: It didn’t happen that way.

DI SILVA: You said it did.

PARKER: What I mean is, I didn’t think he was a stranger. I thought he was on your staff.

DI SILVA: What made you think that?

PARKER: I’ve told you. I saw him talking to you and then he came over to me with this envelope and he called me by name, and he said you wanted me to deliver it to the witness. It all happened so fast that –

DI SILVA: I don’t think it happened that fast. I think it took time to set it up. It took time to arrange for someone to pay you off to deliver it.

PARKER: That’s not true. I –

DI SILVA: What’s not true? That you didn’t know you were delivering the envelope?

PARKER: I didn’t know what was in it.

DI SILVA: So it’s true that someone paid you.

PARKER: I’m not going to let you twist my words around. No one paid me anything.

DI SILVA: You did it as a favor?

PARKER: No. I thought I was acting on your instructions.

DI SILVA: You said the man called you by name.

PARKER: Yes.

DI SILVA: How did he know your name?

PARKER: I don’t know.

DI SILVA: Oh, come on. You must have some idea. Maybe it was a lucky guess. Maybe he just looked around that courtroom and said, There’s someone who looks like her name could be Jennifer Parker. Do you think that was it?

PARKER: I’ve told you. I don’t know.

DI SILVA: How long have you and Michael Moretti been sweethearts?

PARKER: Mr Di Silva, we’ve gone all over this. You’ve been questioning me now for five hours. I’m tired. I have nothing more to add. May I be excused?

DI SILVA: If you move out of that chair I’ll have you placed under arrest. You’re in big trouble, Miss Parker. There’s only one way you’re going to get out of it. Stop lying and start telling the truth.

PARKER: I’ve told you the truth. I’ve told you everything I know.

DI SILVA: Except the name of the man who handed you the envelope. I want his name and I want to know how much he paid you.

There were thirty more pages of transcript. Robert Di Silva had done everything but beat Jennifer Parker with a rubber hose. She had stuck to her story.

Adam closed the transcript and wearily rubbed his eyes. It was two A.M.

Tomorrow he would dispose of the Jennifer Parker matter.

To Adam Warner’s surprise, the Jennifer Parker case would not be disposed of so easily. Because Adam was a methodical man he ran a check on Jennifer Parker’s background. As far as he could determine, she had no crime connections, nor was there anything to link her with Michael Moretti.

There was something about the case that disturbed Adam. Jennifer Parker’s defense was too flimsy. If she were working for Moretti, he would have protected her with a reasonably plausible story. As it was, her story was so transparently naïve that it had a ring of truth about it.

At noon Adam received a call from the District Attorney. ‘How goes it, Adam?’

‘Fine, Robert.’

‘I understand you’re handling the hatchet-man job on the Jennifer Parker matter.’

Adam Warner winced at the phrase. ‘I’ve agreed to make a recommendation, yes.’

‘I’m going to put her away for a long time.’ Adam was taken aback by the hatred in the District Attorney’s voice.

‘Easy, Robert. She’s not disbarred yet.’

Di Silva chuckled. ‘I’ll leave that to you, my friend.’ His tone changed. ‘I hear on the grapevine that you may be moving to Washington soon. I want you to know that you can count on my full support.’

Which was considerable, Adam Warner knew. The District Attorney had been around a long time. He knew where the bodies were buried and he knew how to squeeze the most out of that information.

‘Thanks, Robert. I appreciate that.’

‘My pleasure, Adam. I’ll wait to hear from you.’

Meaning Jennifer Parker. The quid pro quo Stewart Needham had mentioned, with the girl used as a pawn. Adam Warner thought about Robert Di Silva’s words: I’m going to put her away for a long time . From reading the transcript, Adam judged that there was no real evidence against Jennifer Parker. Unless she confessed, or unless someone came forward with information that proved criminal complicity, Di Silva would not be able to touch the girl. He was counting on Adam to give him his vengeance.

The cold, harsh words of the transcript were clear-cut, and yet Adam wished he could have heard the tone of Jennifer Parker’s voice when she denied her guilt.

There were pressing matters claiming Adam’s attention, important cases involving major clients. It would have been easy to go ahead and carry out the wishes of Stewart Needham, Judge Lawrence Waldman and Robert Di Silva, but some instinct made Adam Warner hesitate. He picked up Jennifer Parker’s file again, scribbled some notes and began to make some long-distance telephone calls.

Adam had been given a responsibility and he intended to carry it through to the best of his ability. He was all too familiar with the long, backbreaking hours of study and hard work it took to become an attorney and to pass the bar. It was a prize that took years to attain, and he was not about to deprive someone of it unless he was cerain there was justification.

The following morning Adam Warner was on a plane to Seattle, Washington. He had meetings with Jennifer Parker’s law professors, with the head of a law firm where she had clerked for two summers, and with some of Jennifer’s former classmates.

Stewart Needham telephoned Adam in Seattle. ‘What are you doing up there, Adam? You’ve got a big case load waiting for you back here. That Parker thing should have been a snap.’

‘A few questions have arisen,’ Adam said carefully. ‘I’ll be back in a day or so, Stewart.’

There was a pause. ‘I see. Let’s not waste any more time on her than we have to.’

By the time Adam Warner left Seattle, he felt he knew Jennifer Parker almost as well as she knew herself. He had built up a portrait of her in his mind, a mental identikit, with pieces filled in by her law professors, her landlady, members of the law firm where she had served as a clerk, and classmates. The picture that Adam had acquired bore no resemblance to the picture Robert Di Silva had given him. Unless Jennifer Parker was the most consummate actress who ever lived, there was no way she could have been involved in a plot to free a man like Michael Moretti.

Now, almost two weeks after he had had that morning conversation with Stewart Needham, Adam Warner found himself facing the girl whose past he had been exploring. Adam had seen newspaper pictures of Jennifer, but they had not prepared him for the impact she made in person. Even in an old robe, without makeup, and her dark brown hair bath-damp, she was breathtaking.

Adam said, ‘I’ve been assigned to investigate your part in the Michael Moretti trial, Miss Parker.’

‘Have you now!’ Jennifer could feel an anger rising in her. It started as a spark and became a flame that exploded inside her. They still were not through with her. They were going to make her pay for the rest of her life. Well, she had had enough.

When Jennifer spoke, her voice was trembling. ‘I have nothing to say to you! You go back and tell them whatever you please. I did something stupid, but as far as I know, there’s no law against stupidity. The District Attorney thinks someone paid me off.’ She waved a scornful hand in the air. ‘If I had any money, do you think I’d be living in a place like this?’ Her voice was beginning to choke up. ‘I – I don’t care what you do. All I want is to be left alone. Now please go away!’

Jennifer turned and fled into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

She stood against the sink, taking deep breaths, wiping the tears from her eyes. She knew she had behaved stupidly. That’s twice , she thought wryly. She should have handled Adam Warner differently. She should have tried to explain, instead of attacking him. Maybe then she would not be disbarred. But she knew that was wishful thinking. Sending someone to question her was a charade. The next step would be to serve her with an order to show cause, and the formal machinery would be set in motion. There would be a trial panel of three attorneys who would make their recommendation to the Disciplinary Board which would make its report to the Board of Governors. The recommendation was a foregone conclusion: disbarment. She would be forbidden to practice law in the state of New York. Jennifer thought bitterly, There’s one bright side to this. I can get into the Guinness Book of Records for the shortest law career in history .