Advice of Counsel (The Samuel Collins Series Book 1) (14 page)

“Grooooss!  Don’t tell me that!”  I unwrapped her arms and
pushed her away, and she laughed and pulled me back and kissed me again.

“I have a crush on you too,” she said.

“Well,
that
I can handle.”  I picked her up and carried
her back to my fortress and sat down on the couch with her in my lap and I gave
her a good long kiss that I hoped expressed how much I’d missed her.  And I had
missed her.  Undeniably.  I held her face in my hands and looked at her.  “You
are so pretty.”

“You’re not getting sentimental on me, are you Sam?” she said
smiling.  She traced the outline of my face with her finger, then gave me that
really light kiss that always got to me.

“I’m just stating a fact,” I told her.

The Siamese sauntered into the room and jumped up on the couch
and carefully wedged himself between us, then he sat down on my chest.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I asked him. He looked
up at me and licked his paws.  “Get off!”  I picked him up and dropped him over
the side of the couch.  He jumped right back up and sat down on the arm of the
couch and looked at me.

“Don’t be mean to him!” Landra said, reaching over and running
her hand down his back.

“Mean?  Who do you think let the bastard in from the cold!” He
meowed and jumped back down and walked out of the room.  “I wonder what that
was about?” I said.

“I think he was making a gesture of peace and you snubbed him.”

“I did not.  And besides, I’m the one who made the first
gesture by letting him in.”

“True.”  She leaned in and kissed me again and this time it
turned in to something much more.  I laid her back and lay down on top of her
and we ended up making love on the couch.  And this time, that’s what it was.

I’ve never had anything against raw sex.  In fact, probably the
majority of times I’d had sex, that’s what it had been.  But this was
different.  There was so much emotion mixed up with the act that the sex itself
was a way of expressing everything I felt for her.  Being inside her was a way
to be as close as I possibly could to someone who had a grip on my heart that
wouldn’t let go.

We laid there for a half hour in each others arms, just
relaxing, and I would have been content to do so for the rest of the day, but
the phone rang and Landra thought it might be Mrs. Howard so I got up to answer
it.  As it turned out, it wasn’t Mrs. Howard, but it was another neighbor.

“Hi, Samuel.  It’s Maddie.”

“Hey, Maddie.  What’s up?”

“I hate to bother you on a Saturday, but I must be out of
propane and my heater’s not working.”

“Can’t the guy come out and refill your tank?”

“Yeah.  I’ve already called him, but it’s not going to be for a
couple of hours.  I was wondering if we could come hang out at your house for a
little while.  I’m afraid it’s too cold for the kids.”

It was not my idea of how I’d like to spend a cold and dreary
Saturday, but what was I going to say,
No, freeze your ass off at home
? 
“Of course you can.  Do you have some eggs or something we can make for
breakfast?”

“I’ll bring something.”

I hung up and broke the news to Landra that we were about to be
invaded by neighbors, but she took it well.  In fact, she made matters worse by
inviting Mrs. Howard.   Maddie, Oliver and the baby were over so fast that I
wondered if she’d made the call from my front steps.  Landra went across the
street and brought Mrs. Howard over and we made a huge breakfast and all sat at
the table in the fortress and ate, then afterwards we sat in front of the TV
and watched cartoons. 

“Why didn’t you invite Mr. and Mrs. Johns to your party?”
Oliver asked.

“Well, it’s not really a party,” I explained.

“Are you coming to my birthday party?” he asked.

“I wouldn’t miss it.”

He climbed into my lap and sat down just like the Siamese had
and I was just waiting for him to lick his paws.  Instead he started playing
with my top button, first buttoning it then unbuttoning it, until eventually
the thing came off in his hand.

“Uh oh,” he said, holding the button up.

“You pulled off my button!” I exclaimed.

“It just came off,” he said.  He placed it in my hand.  “It’s
no biggie.”

“It is
too
a biggie,” I said.

He laughed and rested his little head against my chest, and I
thought,
if it can’t be Landra, it might as well be Oliver. 
Maddie and
Landra look at each other and smiled.

By noon, the propane guy still hadn’t showed so Oliver and I
played cars for a while then we went next door to his house and got his train
track and set it up on my dining room table.  I’d always loved playing with
trains and he had a cool Brio track with a couple of battery operated engines. 
I had a really good time that morning playing with the kid, and as much as I
had dreaded having a house full of neighbors, it wasn’t that bad.

Mrs. Howard was in seventh heaven.  She finally got to see more
of my house than the foyer, something I knew she’d been curious about since the
first day she tried to poke her head in.  She was stiff from her fall, and I
knew she’d be even worse the next day, but considering that she could have
killed herself in the fall, I thought she’d come out of it amazingly well.  I
kept replaying the scene in my head and I still couldn’t get over how it had
happened.  It took me a long time to get over the shock of seeing her falling
over that drop-off, and just thinking about it made me cringe.

I’d just gone into the kitchen to get a drink when all of a
sudden I heard Oliver yelling at the top of his lungs about something.  I raced
back to the dining room and joined Oliver at the window.

“What is that?” Oliver asked.

“Well I’ll be damned.  It’s snow!”

“It’s snowing!” we both started shouting and everyone came
running.

 “Oh my God!” Maddie exclaimed.

“It’s snowing!” Landra said.

“It’s beautiful!” Mrs. Howard said.

We all stood there looking out the window in amazement.  The
flakes were enormous and they were so thick that you couldn’t even see Mrs.
Howard’s house.  I flashed back to a road trip we’d made when I was a kid when
the whole family loaded up in our station wagon and drove to see my uncle in
Red River, New Mexico.  The drive took forever and when we got there, there was
no snow.  It totally sucked.  But when we woke up the next morning there were
two feet of snow on the ground and I had to take back all the shitty things I
had said to my uncle the day before.  It turned out to be one of the best
family vacations we ever took.

“Can we go play in it?” Oliver asked Maddie.

She looked at me and we both laughed. “I think that’s a great
idea,” she said.

Maddie, Oliver, Landra and I all bundled up and went outside
and played in the snow while Mrs. Howard and the baby watched from the window. 
The Johnses had come outside and were on their porch watching us run around
like a bunch of lunatics.  We stayed outside until we were too cold to move,
then we went inside and warmed up by the fire before going back out again.

Maddie put on a pot of chili with beans and I ended up inviting
the Johnses over to join us when it was ready.  It snowed continuously for
three and a half hours that day and there were a good four to five inches on
the ground.  It had banked to a couple of feet along my fence line and when it
finally stopped falling, Mrs. Howard came outside too to look at the wonderland
left behind.  People who are accustomed to snow have no idea what it’s like for
those of us who are not.

We played in the snow all afternoon, making snowmen and angels
and having snow ball fights, systematically destroying the beauty first in my
yard, then Maddie’s, then Mrs. Howard’s, and finally the Johns’.  All the other
yards around us were pristine white and our four yards had barely any snow
left, but each sported the biggest snowmen The Park had ever seen.  And the
next day when the sun came out, when all the snow had melted in the other
yards, our four snowmen stood in testament to the incredible time we’d had
playing in the snow that day.

It was 8:00 o’clock by the time everyone went home and Landra
and I were alone again.  I picked her up and carried her back to the kitchen
and set her down on the counter and we were both just looking at each other
smiling.  It had been such an incredible day.

“I think this was the best day I’ve ever had in my life,”
Landra said.  Her cheeks were flushed from sitting by the fire and she looked
as beautiful as I’d ever seen her.

“It was pretty incredible,” I agreed.

She put her arms around my neck.  “Aren’t you going to invite
me to spend the night?”

“I hadn’t planned to,” I said.

‘Why not?  Do you have a girlfriend?”

“Yes.  As a matter of fact, I do.”  I pulled her to the edge of
the counter and she wrapped her legs around my waist and I carried her back to
the fortress while I kissed her.  “Will you spend the night?”

“Yes.”

“Tomorrow night too?” I asked between kisses.

“Tomorrow night you spend the night with me,” she said.

“Deal.”

We spent all of Sunday working on my walls.  I say we because
Landra somehow conned me into helping her.  If I hadn’t already been enjoying
my fortress so much she’d never have talked me into it, but I was so anxious to
get it finished that I relented.  Of course Landra was her bossy self and she
made me do everything her way.  I didn’t argue too much because she’d already
proved that her method got results, so I figured, who am I to suggest a better
method?

We finished up around 7:00 o’clock that night and I looked
around in awe, turning in circles as I checked out the finished product.

“Let’s stay here tonight.  We can camp out back here,” I
suggested.

Landra wasn’t enthusiastic at all.  “No way.  I’ve been here
for two days.  You have to come to my house tonight.”

Fair is fair, so again I didn’t argue, but it was hard to pull
myself away from the room.  As much as I disliked painting, in this case, it
had been well worth it to get the job done.  I was certain that the other rooms
in my house were going to be miserably neglected, but then again, maybe the
Siamese would use them.

We woke up together early Monday morning and sat in front of
Landra’s fireplace drinking coffee and talking.  She had an appointment at 8:30, so by 8:00 o’clock, we were dressed and ready to walk out the door.  It was still
cold, but the temperature was predicted to be back up in the 70s by the
afternoon.  We opened the door and there was an officer standing on the front
porch with some papers in his hand.

“Landra Krally?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“I have a warrant for your arrest for the murder of Drake Reeds.”

She grabbed the doorframe to steady herself, then she turned
around and leaned against me for support.  “Oh my God,” she said into my chest.

I put my arms around her and told her that everything was going
to be okay.  Of course, I didn’t actually think that, but I felt like I had to
say something positive.

“May I see that?” I asked.  “I’m her attorney.”

“Certainly,” he said.  He handed me the warrant and I looked it
over and handed it back to him, then I took Landra by the shoulders and made
her look at me.  “You’re going to have to go with him, Landra, but I’m going to
meet you down there.  Don’t say anything . . . don’t answer any of their
questions.  Do you understand me?”

She nodded her head, but didn’t speak.  I hugged her and
reassured her again that everything was going to be okay, but when the officer
pulled out his handcuffs, I wished that there was someone to reassure me.

“Is that necessary?” I asked him.  I knew he was only doing his
job, and he was actually being pretty decent about it.  I’d heard horror
stories of officers issuing arrest warrants that really got off on the power
trip.  The little Hitlers took joy in the process and milked the humiliation
factor for all it was worth.  This guy wasn’t like that.  It was obvious that
he wasn’t enjoying himself any more than Landra and I were.

“I’m sorry.  I have to,” he said, and he fastened the cuffs to
Landra’s wrists and started leading her off towards his car.  And just like
that, they were gone.

I raced over to my house and changed into a dark suit then
drove like a madman down to my office, dumped a stack of files inside, then ran
across to the courthouse to find out about Landra’s preliminary hearing.  She
would be appearing that morning before the magistrate who would set her bail,
assuming they weren’t going to hold her in jail.

I was a mess.  My mind was racing and I was having a hard time
concentrating.  I’d just spent one of the best weekends of my life with a woman
who had just been arrested for murder.  And I had no business representing her
– I knew that.  I was way too emotionally involved.  But she had been adamant
when we had discussed it before that she didn’t want anyone else to represent
her and knowing Landra, she would be ridiculously stubborn, to the point of
being detrimental to her own case. 
Damn, damn, damn.
   I’d just have to
distance myself emotionally, at least until I could convince Landra to let me
bring in a criminal lawyer as co-counsel, if nothing else.

I found out that the Magistrate would review Landra’s case at
11:00 o’clock, so in the meantime, I got busy on the phone.  First, I called a
buddy of mine that worked in the D.A.’s office to see what info he could give me
on Landra’s case.  He wasn’t in, so I left a message for him to call me
immediately when he got in.  It was a guy I’d gone to law school with and
although we hadn’t kept in touch on a regular basis, the guy owed me a favor
for helping his sister out of a fix at Tulane.

Next, I put in a call to a friend at one of the high-powered
law firms in San Antonio to find out who was the best criminal lawyer in town. 
I hoped that Landra wouldn’t need him, but I wanted to speak to him ahead of
time, just in case.  That guy wasn’t in either and it was really pissing me off
that I couldn’t get a hold of anyone that I needed.

Maddie called me as soon as I hung up to remind me about a
telephone hearing scheduled for 9:45, which gave me all of five minutes to haul
ass back to the office to be there when the call came in.  I got there just in
time, but I was winded as hell.  The call was over within 15 minutes and I
leaned back in my chair and stared at the ceiling thinking of Landra.  Maddie
must have seen the light go off on her phone, because she knocked on my office
door within 30 seconds of my hanging up.

“Are you okay?” she asked.  She came in and sat in one of the
chairs in front of my desk.

“Yeah.  I’m just worried about Landra.”

“You don’t look so good.  Can I get you something?”

“No.”  I looked at my watch.  “I think I’ll go on back over to
the courthouse.”

I went to Landra’s appearance and they led her out in
handcuffs.  It didn’t look like she had been crying, but she looked like her
mind had been working overtime.  I knew I had to think of Landra strictly in
terms of being a client or I could never do her justice as her attorney.  But
that turned out to be impossible.  As hard as I tried to be objective, I
couldn’t do it.

“You holding up okay?” I asked her.

She tried to smile but she couldn’t pull it off.  “I’m fine.”

The magistrate came in and the courtroom got quiet.  He was a
stern-faced hefty man in his late 40s, with a reputation for being
unforgiving.  Between him and the Assistant District Attorney, I was feeling
outnumbered and at a disadvantage sitting there in the courtroom.  The
magistrate informed Landra that she was charged with murder and read her
Miranda rights, then he called on the ADA to discuss bail.

“We propose that bail be denied,” the ADA stated, and I jumped
out of my seat.

“This is not a capital murder case!” I said angrily.  “Ms.
Krally is an upstanding individual in this community.  She’s never been in
trouble before and she has ties to the community.  She’s not a flight risk. 
There’s no reason that my client shouldn’t be released on a personal bond.”

“That’s for me to decide Mr. Collins,” the judge said curtly. 
“Bail is set at $100,000.”

I was almost relieved.  At least she’d be getting out.  The
judge dismissed us and Landra was led away to a holding cell while they
processed her out.

I knew it would be hours before she would be released, so I
went back to my office and tried to take care of some other matters, but once
again, Landra was consuming my thoughts.  I was beginning to realize that she
was bad for my health.  I’m not generally a worrier and I’m not one to
over-analyze things, but I’d lost more sleep than I cared to admit over my
relationship with Landra Krally.  If I wasn’t thinking about the possibility of
her murdering her husband and her ex-fiancé, I was thinking about how much I
missed her and couldn’t wait to be with her again.

Once again, she was intruding on my thoughts and it was a waste
of time trying to get any work done.  I went out to the reception area and sat
down on the couch and looked out the window.  I’d never sat there before and it
gave a whole different perspective of the office.  I could smell the flowers
that Maddie had brought in that morning.  It was an arrangement of all these
exotic flowers and twisted stems in a big round vase.  She’d been right about
the flowers.  Everyone who came through the door commented on them.  And she
was right about their having a calming effect.  As I sat there looking at them,
I could feel the tension leaving my body.  I guess I was zoning, because when
Maddie walked back in from wherever she had been, she scared me out of my wits.

“What in the world are you doing sitting there?” she asked.

“Checking out your flowers.”

She smiled and came over and sat beside me and picked up my
hand and patted it with her other hand.

“Landra will be okay, Sam.  We both know that there’s no way
she could have done what they’re saying.  She’s a good person and that will
show through.  I just know it.”

I looked at her and couldn’t help but smile.  She was such a
genuinely nice person.  “Thanks, Maddie.”

“Have you eaten anything today?” she asked, and I shook my head
no. “Come on back here and I’ll make you something.”  She pulled me up and put
her arm around my waist and gave me a little squeeze and I put my arm around
her shoulder as we walked back to the kitchen.  We sat in there and talked for
the next hour while I ate whatever Maddie put in front of me. 

When I got back to the courthouse, Landra’s parents were
there.  Her father came up and introduced himself, then he led me back to where
her mother was and introduced us.  Her mother had been crying and her face was
all red and blotchy.  Landra looked like a combination of the two, without the
blotches.

“Thank you for all your help, Samuel.  Landra has told us all
about you,” her mother said.

“What happens now?” her father asked.

“The case will go before the grand jury, probably within two to
four months.  Then, depending on what the grand jury decides, the case will
either be no-billed, which means they dismiss it, or it will go to trial,” I
said, speaking as objectively as I could.

“I don’t want you to take this the wrong way,” her father said,
“but we need to get Landra the best criminal lawyer around.  I don’t care how
much it costs.”

“I agree.  I’ve already put in a call.” He shook his head and
looked away and I got the feeling that he would squash under pressure.  I
cleared my throat before I spoke.  “I know this is very hard on you,” I said,
“but I assume that you realize that Landra’s going to need you to be strong in
order to help her through this.”

I guess he thought I was being presumptuous because he gave me
a shitty look, but Landra’s mother jumped in before he could say anything.  I’d
definitely hit a nerve.

“We’ll all be there for Landra.  I can assure you that,” she
said.

“Good,” I said.

After what seemed like an eternity, they led Landra out and she
came over and hugged me.  “Thank you,” she said.

“Are you okay?” I asked, looking her over.

“Yeah.  I’m okay.”

“Let’s get out of here.”

Her father stepped up.  “Your mother and I want you to come
stay at our house for a while,” he told her.

As hard as I was trying to like Landra’s parents, it just
wasn’t happening.  Landra looked from me to her father and back to me.

“It’s up to you,” I said.  As much as I wanted to take care of
her, I knew she wouldn’t let me.  “You’re welcome to stay with me too,” I told
her.

“I’ll take a rain check,” she said, attempting a smile.

I put my arm around her shoulder and hugged her to me as we
walked to her parents’ car.  “I put in a call to a friend of mine to find a
good criminal lawyer to defend you,” I told her.

Landra stopped walking and pulled away from me.  “We’ve already
been through this, Sam.  You’re my lawyer.”

“Then at least let me bring in someone as co-counsel.”

“I’m not a criminal, Sam.  And if you go out and hire the best
criminal lawyer in town to represent me, what kind of message do you think
that’s going to send?  It’s going to make people think that I’m guilty and that
I’m running scared,” she said.  “Well I’m not guilty and I’m not going to make
it look like I am.  You’re a good lawyer, Sam.  I know you are.  And I trust
you completely to defend me.”

“No one’s going to think you’re guilty just because you hire a
good lawyer,” I said.  “They’ll just think you have money.”

“You have my answer, so unless you’re refusing to be my lawyer,
I don’t want to have this conversation again.”

“Fine.  Then I’m refusing to be your lawyer.”

“No, you’re not,” she said, calling my bluff.

“Okay, I’m not.  But Landra, you have to be reasonable,” I
started to say, but she didn’t let me finish my sentence.

“Reasonable?  How can you expect me to be reasonable when I’ve
just been accused of murder? 
Murder
, Sam.  There’s nothing reasonable
about this whole thing, so
please
don’t ask me to be reasonable.”  She
burst into tears and started crying uncontrollably.  I pulled her to me and she
cried into my chest while her parents just stood there watching.

“I’m sorry,” I said.  “I just want what’s best for you.”

“You’re best for me.”

I wasn’t going to argue the matter with her, as upset as she
was.  I knew it was a long shot, but I hoped that maybe she’d come around.  For
one thing, I was a potential witness in the case since I’d been the first one
to find Landra after the accident.  We hadn’t even discussed that, but it could
very well disqualify me from representing her at all.  But it was definitely
not a good time to bring that up, so I kept my mouth shut.

“You sure you don’t want to stay with me?” I asked.

“No.  I think its best if I stay with my parents for a few
days.  You know . . . stay away from the press and all.”

“You call me if you need anything,” I said.

“I will.”  She hugged me and kissed me on the cheek.

She got in her father’s car and I stood there until they drove
off, then I went back to my office and collapsed back on the couch.  The
flowers didn’t work that time.   Maddie got off the phone and smiled.

“How was she?”

“I think she’s holding up better than I am,” I said, and Maddie
smiled.

“Do you think it’s a good idea that you represent her?”

“I think it’s a terrible idea, but at this point, I have no
choice,” I said wearily.

“I hate to tell you this, but Oliver is getting dropped off
here in about two minutes,” she said.

It was already almost 5:00 o’clock so I don’t know what she was
worried about.  “That’s not a problem. Actually, he’ll be a good distraction. 
No baby?”

“Well,” she pronounced it
whale
, “I thought it would be
nice to take Oliver out without the baby for a change.  We never get to do
anything just the two of us anymore.  So I thought I’d let him pick a place to
eat and just go hang out for a while.”