Advice of Counsel (The Samuel Collins Series Book 1) (7 page)

“I want to talk to her first,” I told the officer.  I could
tell he was miffed, but there was nothing he could do.  “Could we have some
privacy please?”

“It’s okay Sam,” Landra said.  “I’ll talk to him.”

“Landra, I’m speaking to you in my capacity as your attorney
right now.  And I’m telling you that you and I are going to talk in private
before you speak to anyone.  Do you understand?”  She nodded her head without
speaking.  “Come on.  We’ll go in the next room.”

I helped her to her feet and she slipped her arms into the
sleeves of my coat and wrapped it tightly around her body.  I put my arm around
her and led her to a bedroom across the hall and motioned for her to sit down
in the only chair in the room, then I sat down on the bed facing her.

“Are you hurt?” I asked her.

“I’m okay,” she sniffed, but she wouldn’t even look at me.

“Well, you don’t look like you’re okay,” I told her.

“Is he dead?”

“I think so.”  I moved over in front of her and got down on my
knee so that we were eye level.  “What was your relationship with Drake Reeds?”

“We dated.”  Then she looked at me for the first time. “We were
engaged.”  She must have seen my shock because she immediately clarified, “We
used
to be
engaged.  We broke up back in November.”  She was biting her bottom
lip, trying not to cry.

“All right, I want you to tell me exactly what happened up here
and don’t leave anything out.”

“Okay.”  She took a deep breath before she started.  “I came up
here to use the restroom and someone was already in the one by the stairs, so I
came down the hall to find another one.  I guess Drake followed me up here
because when I came out of the bathroom, he was in the room waiting for me.  He
grabbed my arm and tried to kiss me but I pushed him away.  He said that he
knew I wanted him and he started grabbing me and touching me and groping me.  I
was fighting to get away from him and I slapped him across the face and I think
he just snapped.  He reached out and ripped my dress and he threw me on the
ground and was trying to get my dress up, but I was fighting him, kicking and
punching at him.  I managed to get up and to the door but he grabbed me and
carried me back into the room.  When he walked past the dresser I picked up a
vase and hit him over the head and he let go of me and I shoved him.  He
stumbled into a chair and knocked it over and then he fell against the window
and crashed right through it.”  She looked at me again and this time she
couldn’t hold back her tears.  I put my arm around her and she leaned her head
against me and broke down in gut wrenching sobs. “I was just trying to get away
from him.  I didn’t mean to kill him,” she sobbed.

“It was self-defense, Landra.”

I held her and let her cry until she had totally soaked my
shirt.  When she finally quieted down, I pulled her back from me and made her
look me in the eye.

“You’re going to give your statement to the police and then I’m
going to take you to the hospital.”

She shook her head.  “I don’t need to go to the hospital, Sam. 
Really.  I’m okay.”

“Well, let’s talk to the police and we’ll take it from there.
Wait here and I’ll get the officer.”

I left Landra sitting there and went back to the room across
the hall.  There were two more policemen and all four were huddled together
talking when I walked in.

“She’s ready to give you her statement,” I told them.

Two of the officers followed me back into the room where I’d
left Landra.  One sat on the bed and the other remained standing while Landra
began to relate what had transpired between her and Drake Reeds before he
landed face down on the pavement below.  Landra had stopped crying but she was
completely despondent while she sat there answering their questions.  And the
longer the questioning went on, the more distant she became to where finally,
she zoned out completely and was seemingly unaware even of our presence in the
room.  She was staring at the floor with a vacant look on her face, just like
she was doing when I’d first found her across the hall.

“Ma’am?” one of the officers said.  Landra startled and looked
at him and then over at me.

“You okay?” I asked her.  She nodded yes, but I knew she was
far from okay.  The two officers moved into the corner of the room and
conferred, then the one who had been doing the questioning came back over and
pulled me aside.

“We want to get some pictures and then you can take her home. 
We may have more questions for her later.”

The officers left the room and returned after about five
minutes with a camera.  I helped Landra out of my jacket and I could see where
the red marks on her arms were already turning to bruises, but when she pulled
her dress down to expose the upper half of her left breast, the violence Drake
had inflicted was even more apparent. There were purple bruises covering most
of the breast where he had grabbed her. I tried to remain detached, but bruises
or not, that was one incredible breast.  Landra opened the slit of her dress
revealing more bruises on her inner thighs, and again, I caught myself thinking
in lecherous terms.

When the police had finished snapping their pictures Landra put
my jacket back on and sat down in the chair.  The officers left the room and I
went back to where Landra was sitting. “We can go,” I told her.  I offered my
hand and helped her up, and she leaned against me and wrapped her arms around
my waist and cried into my chest again.  “You’re going to be okay, Landra,” I
told her.  “Let me take you to the hospital.”

“No.  I just want to go home, Sam.  Please.  Just take me
home,” she pleaded.

It was against my better judgment, but I agreed.  I took her
home and followed her back to her bedroom.  She went into the bathroom and
changed into a pink robe and when she came back out she lay down on the bed and
curled up into the fetal position.  I sat down beside her and stroked her hair.

“Can I get you anything?” I asked her.

She shook her head no.  “Will you just lie here with me and
hold me for a minute?”

“Sure,” I said, but this was going to take some restraint.  I
reluctantly lay down beside her and Landra scooted over closer and curled up
against me.  I put my arms around her and held her, while I tried to occupy my
mind with thoughts of war and sports.  It wasn’t working.  She smelled too good
and she was just way too feminine. Thank goodness she fell asleep almost
immediately, so I got up and went into the other part of her house and made
myself a drink.

I walked around the house looking at all the photos she had
sitting out on shelves and hanging on her walls and I finally sat down in front
of the TV and channel surfed for the next hour.  I kept going over in my head
what had happened at the party and I felt guilty for not having gone up to
check on Landra when she had been gone for so long.  Would I have gone to check
on her if I hadn’t seen Drake following her upstairs?  Probably not, but who
knows.  As it was, I felt like a rat for having thought she was upstairs
fooling around with Drake while she was actually fighting for her life trying
to defend herself from the creep.  As far as I was concerned, the bastard got
exactly what he deserved.

I don’t know what time I dozed off, but it was light outside
when I woke up.   The sun was shining in through the mini-blinds and it
promised to be another beautiful day.  I wandered back to Landra’s bedroom and
she was still asleep, so I went back out to the kitchen and put on a pot of
coffee.  It was just after 8:00 o’clock and I thought of Mrs. Howard and
wondered how she would react to the conspicuous absence of my Suburban.  Hell,
by now, she had probably already called the Johnses and Landra’s grandmother to
announce the impending wedding.  My stomach growled at the thought of missing
out on my muffins.

“Hi, Sam.”  I jumped out of my skin and Landra laughed.  “I’m
sorry.  Did I scare you?”

“Hell yes!  What are you doing sneaking up on me like that?”

“I didn’t sneak.  All I did was walk in and say
hi
.”

She had such a pretty face.  Even after everything she had been
through last night.

“How are you?” I asked her.

“I’m doing okay,” she said.  She picked up my hand and held it
in hers and she fixed her eyes on mine.  “Thanks for your help last night,
Sam.  It was terrible.  And I couldn’t have gotten through it without you.”

“Yes, you could have.  But you’re welcome anyway.”  I gave her
a hug and kissed her forehead.

The phone rang and while Landra went to answer it, I found two
mugs and poured the coffee.  She brought the phone back into the kitchen and
mouthed, “
It’s Sara
.”

“Yes, he’s here.  You don’t have to worry.  Sam’s fine,” Landra
said.  She smiled at me and I rolled my eyes.  “Oh, you have his muffins? 
Well, why don’t you save them for him and I’ll tell him to stop by your house
when he gets home . . . Okay, Sara . . . All right . . . Okay, then I’ll see
you later this morning.”

Landra hung up the phone and smiled.  “She was worried about
you,” she said, and it was obvious that she found delight in my irritation.

“And you love it, don’t you!” I accused.

“I think it’s cute.”

“I think it sucks.  I can’t have the geriatric police tracking
me down every time I don’t come home at night!”

“Oh, Sam.”

“Don’t
Oh, Sam
me!”

“It’s only because you were out with
me
.”

“Well then, that settles it . . . I’m not going out with
you
again,” I told her.

“You’re so full of shit.”  She moved in without warning and
before I knew what was happening, her arms were wrapped around my neck and her
lips were pressed against mine, then just as quickly as she began her assault,
she retreated.  She picked up her coffee cup, went to the fridge and poured in
some cream, and then she smiled up at me like nothing had happened.  “You want
to go sit outside and drink our coffee?”

I just shook my head and laughed.  “I’m going home.”

“Why?  Because I kissed you?”

“No.  Because I have a lot of things I need to get done today. 
I just wanted to make sure you were okay, which you obviously are.”

Landra’s whole demeanor changed and she got a serious look on
her face.  “Please don’t go yet, Sam.”  She was holding my hand again, but
there was nothing sexual about it.  I felt like it was more out of desperation
than anything.

I put my arm around her.  “Why don’t we go outside and drink
our coffee.”

We went out on Landra’s back porch and drank coffee and talked
for the next two hours.  It took her 30 minutes to bring up the events of the
previous night, and when she finally did, it was apparent she was very
distraught.  She put on a brave front and, although I could tell she was
fighting tears through much of the conversation, not once did she actually
break down and cry.  I almost felt like I should tell her it was okay to cry,
but then I would have been encouraging what I had always considered to be
woman’s greatest weakness.  Resorting to tears rarely helped matters, but in this
case I felt she was justified, not because it would solve anything, but because
I knew she needed the emotional release.  Of course, I knew of a more pleasant
method of release, but I didn’t think that sex was appropriate considering the
timing, so I opted to keep my mouth shut and if she had ended up crying, I
would have been sympathetic towards her.   But she never did and I must admit I
was very impressed.

Landra was worried about what was going to happen, not only
with the police, but with her friends and especially with the media.  As her
attorney, I tried to reassure her that if the police had thought it was
anything other than self-defense, they would not have let her go home the
previous night.  And as her
friend
, for lack of a better word to describe
our relationship, I told her that if the people she was worried about were true
friends, they would rally to her side and if they didn’t, they weren’t worth
worrying about.  As for the media . . . that was different.  They could spin
the story either way, but knowing Landra, she’d come out on top on that one
too.  I was always one to avoid the limelight, but I could just imagine Landra
basking in it.

By 10:00 o’clock, we had exhausted the subject of Drake Reeds’
demise and all I could think of was food.  “Can I go home now?  Because if
you’re going to make me stay here any longer, you’re going to have to feed me.”

“I’m sorry.  I should have offered you something.  I don’t have
any appetite and I just didn’t even think about it.  Are you starving?”

Damn she was cute.  And I don’t usually like to use that word
to describe a woman, but Landra was. I could just envision myself accidentally
proposing to her if I wasn’t careful.

“Hell yes, I’m starving!” I told her.  “You made me miss out on
my hot muffins two hours ago.  Next time you shove someone out the window,
we’re staying at my place.”

Landra laughed.  “Maybe next time, I’ll shove
you
out
the window.”

“Come here,” I said.  I pulled her over onto my lap and hugged
her, and she leaned her head against my chest.  The girl was getting to me big
time.  I could feel my chest constrict at the thought of anything bad happening
to her, and I knew that she wouldn’t come through this thing unscathed.  “Are
you going to paint my walls tomorrow?”

She nodded her head without lifting it off of my chest, and I
realized she was crying.  I ran my fingers through her hair, smoothing it back
off her face, and I squeezed her tighter.   “It’s okay to cry, Landra.  Just
let it out. It’s what you need.”

And that’s exactly what she did.  She sat there in my lap and
cried her eyes out while I held her in my arms, and by the time she finished, I
almost felt like crying too.  I hated seeing her so distraught.  It made me
wish Drake was still alive so I could kill the bastard myself.