Witness for the Defense (30 page)

“But why would he risk wearing something around his neck that could directly connect him to his victims?” Avery asked.

Ruby chuckled. “I’ve asked that and similar questions of some of the worst killers ever known to man.” He shook his head. “All I can say is that without every one of their souvenirs, they’d just as soon be dead themselves.”

I perked up. “Every souvenir?”

“Like a link in a chain. If one’s missing, they might as well be missing all of them.”

“It doesn’t make any sense,” I said, shaking my head.

Ruby looked at me as if I should know better. “There’s one thing you better understand,” he said. “They all have different reasons for their behavior, and I haven’t found a one yet that makes any sense. They’re nuts. And you’ll go crazy, like I did, if you try to make sense of anything they do.”

Chapter 32

I had been waiting nearly twenty minutes for Reineer. I’d requested the small attorney interview room with the concrete-and-glass partition separating the two sides. I wasn’t sure what either of us would do once I confronted him.

My stomach hadn’t stopped churning ever since Avery and I’d left the prison. Along with Sarah, we’d worked all of Saturday night and most of the next morning piecing together years of Jared’s reign of terror across the western United States. Including Ukiah, he’d lived in four cities during the previous eight years. In all, a total of nine boys, ranging from seven to eleven years old, had disappeared under circumstances similar to what had happened to Danny and the Cosgrove boy.

The door opened and Reineer, with his feet shackled, shuffled in. “Who in the hell did you piss off to get stuck in this tiny place?” he asked.

He’d no idea what I’d found out since we last met. I also knew it wouldn’t take me long to tell him.

“Give any more thought to Bragg’s offer?”

Reineer rolled his eyes. “Are you kidding me? Is that what you got me out of a nice warm bunk for?”

“I’d take the deal if I were you.”

“But I thought you agreed with that decision.”

“Only because I believed then you were innocent.”

Reineer’s eyebrows rose only slightly. It was as if he’d been expecting this announcement.

I rose from my seat and leaned into the glass. My hot breath fogged the window. “You’re going down, Reineer.”

Something cold ran through me as his eyes narrowed. The haunting depth of his stare seemed to pull me in.

“Hunter,” he said in a near whisper, “sit down.”

I lowered myself to my seat.

Carefully, he said, “There could be an innocent explanation for why my fingerprints are on that box.”

“How did you know?”

“I was sure you’d get it analyzed. I would have expected nothing less.”

Our eyes were locked. I wanted to turn away, but I couldn’t.

“Then you admit you attacked Danny Barton?”

He looked around to make sure there was no way anyone could be listening. “And loved every minute of it.”

I should have been outraged. I had come in ready to tear his head off. Yet there he was admitting it, and for some reason I was calmer than when I’d first walked in.

“You’re not going to get away with it.”

“Oh, won’t I?” he said with a satisfied grin. “We both know that kid will never mention the box of perfume and the cops won’t ever know.”

“Maybe not, but I do.”

He hesitated for a moment, then shrugged. “I admire your high ideals, but they really don’t matter.”

“They matter to me.”

“Good.” His voice hardened. “But you’re not my priest. You’re my attorney. Start acting like it.”

“And as your attorney I have to know about the others.”

“What others?”

I reached into a manila envelope I’d brought into the room. Inside were some of his personal belongings taken the day he was arrested. “Remember this?” I pulled out his necklace, twirling it around my index finger.

Reineer’s gaze fastened on the necklace. The pull it exerted on him sickened me.

“You pissed all over yourself just because they wouldn’t let you keep it.”

I placed the necklace on the counter and fingered several of the items attached to the strand of old leather. “So who’s was this?” I asked as I rotated an agate marble between my thumb and forefinger. “Which one of your victims did this belong to?”

Like a dog watching his master hold a treat, Reineer didn’t take his eyes off the marble.

“Whose is it?” I yelled.

Slowly a contented expression appeared on his face. “Boonville,” was all he said.

My stomach began to feel nauseous. I wanted to leave, but I wasn’t about to let him off that easy.

“And what about this one?” I pressed, showing him a rabbit’s foot. “Which poor boy had this with him when you killed him?”

With his eyes still fixed on the necklace, he asked, “What is it you want?”

I slowly ran my finger along each item. “I wonder which one of the twelve is the oldest? Who was your first?”

Moisture begin to form in Reineer’s eyes. It was as if I were holding my finger on the switch at his electrocution. That was when I noticed that a strand of braided hair tied in a circle had several threads of gray in it.

“Could it be,” I said, stroking the hair, “that this is all that’s left of your poor mother?”

Reineer’s look changed to one of anger. His face reddened as he leaned into the glass to get as close as he could. “Are you done playing your games?”

The sound of his voice made the skin on the back of my neck prickle. I stuffed the necklace back into the envelope. “Yeah, I’m done.”

Reineer slapped his palm on the counter. “You can’t breathe a word of what you think you know to anyone.”

“Think? I’m sure of it.”

“And I’m sure you also know you have an ethical duty to keep your mouth shut.”

Hearing him spout the law filled me with loathing. “I’m aware of my ethical obligations.”

“Especially the Fifth Canon,” he said.

“The Fifth Canon?” I smirked. “You’re not half as smart as you think. If you were, you’d know attorneys are no longer governed by Canons of Ethics.”

“And if you knew half as much as you think you do, you’d know that the Fifth Canon is the foundation of all federal and state rules governing the manner in which an attorney should represent his client.” A slight smile returned to his face. “Even if that client is guilty.”

I knew he was right, and that’s what had been eating at me. But I wasn’t about to let him know that.

“All the information you have about me, including my necklace, is privileged. You can’t mention it in court. If you ever did, any conviction would be overturned on appeal.”

“I’m not sure what I’ll do,” I said. “You’ll just have to lie awake all night wondering.”

Reineer grinned, and a feral light came into his eyes. “Go ahead and tell them,” he said. “Tell everyone. Because if you do, any conviction would be easily overturned on appeal.”

I paused for a moment, thinking about all the time Reineer must have spent in the jail’s library to learn all that stuff. I wasn’t done though. “There’s one thing you haven’t considered,” I said and held up the envelope. “If I do open my mouth and you are tried for the murders this necklace will connect you to…” I paused. “Hell, with all those trials and appeals, you’ll be without this necklace for years.”

Reineer’s eyes darted back to mine. I could tell he hadn’t considered the possibility.

“How much longer can you live without it?” I waved the envelope in front of him. “You already look like hell. You’ve lost weight, your eyes look like death, and it’s only been a little more than six weeks. If I were to tell everything I know, you won’t live long enough for one of those trials, let alone all of them.”

Reineer was silent. I’d struck a nerve, and I was enjoying the hell out of it.

“You’ll die if you don’t get your little souvenirs back, won’t you?” I said. “How long would that take, exactly? Months, weeks, or maybe just a few days?”

I pulled out the necklace again and handled the rabbit’s foot. “I’ve always wanted one of these,” I said. “You wouldn’t care if I keep it. Good luck charm, right?”

Reineer jerked his head violently. A vein pulsed in the middle of his forehead.

“Oh, I forgot,” I said, as if talking to a child. “You need all of them, don’t you?”

I grabbed the rabbit’s foot firmly like I was going to rip it from the necklace.

“No!” he screamed.

I continued to hold a firm grip on the rabbit’s foot.

Reineer’s eyes narrowed. “You know what I can do.”

I shook my head. “You don’t scare me, asshole.”

“Don’t cross me,” he said savagely.

“Look,” I said, enjoying seeing him in pain, “stop threatening me. It won’t do you a damn bit of good.”

We both sat silently glaring at the other. Then, like a light switch, Reineer’s expression changed.

His eyes crinkled with joy. “Do you remember that young man you asked me to watch for you?”

I was thrown by his change in topics. “His name was Bobby Miles.”

“I know,” Reineer said as a big smile crossed his face, fully exposing his front teeth. A strand of gold metal was wrapped around two of his upper teeth. It was Bobby’s gold earring.

Bile rose in my throat. “You sick piece of shit.” I wanted to claw my way through the glass. “Why…? Why? What the hell did he ever do to you?”

“It was my pleasure,” he said as if he were proud of it. “He was accusing you of a crime you didn’t commit, wasn’t he? I could never let something like that happen to my attorney.”

My stomach was still heaving. “I can’t believe how sick you are.”

Reineer grinned. He knew I was shaken. His cockiness was back. “Now that you fully understand what I’m capable of, even from in here…you better keep your mouth shut.”

I stood to leave. I couldn’t let him know how much he was frightening me. I tried to maintain some semblance of calm, if only outwardly. “Is that a threat?”

“Fact!” he said defiantly. “Don’t ever test me again.”

When I opened the door, our eyes locked again. It was as if a fog had lifted and I’d seen Reineer clearly for the first time. There was no emotion in those dark green eyes of his. No fear, no anger, nothing. Just a chilling coldness. I’d looked into the eyes of every kind of vile, despicable criminal imaginable, but I’d never seen a pair like his. They were the eyes of a man without a soul.

Chapter 33

I shouldered up to the bar at Snooky’s, a cocktail lounge across the street from the courthouse. The inside was dark and smoky, so my eyes needed a moment or two to adjust. It was crowded for a Sunday afternoon. Three noisy bar lumps to my right whooped and hollered as they watched the Forty-niners on one of the half dozen TVs. I decided to try one of the booths in the rear where it was quieter.

As I walked through the darkened haze, I noticed a waitress bent over a table—her short skirt hiked up—taking an order. Except for the stringlike thong of her bikini panties, her rear was bare. I slow T ed my pace to take in the sight and chuckled to myself. Why was it that whenever I got this depressed I’d end up on the prowl? Maybe because whenever I felt that way, I always ended up in a place like this.

The young lady must have sensed me gawking. She quickly straightened. My eyes shifted to hers, and I mouthed the words, “Double Chivas,” and plopped into a booth.

Only moments had passed since my confrontation with Reineer. I knew Sarah and Avery were anxiously awaiting my return, but I needed some time alone. Time to digest all the information I’d learned in the last forty-eight hours. I felt so foolish. A fool to have been so totally duped by a client. A fool for not pushing McBean to make sure Bobby was sent back to San Francisco immediately. A fool for drooling over a waitress who was walking toward me with a double Chivas. But most of all a fool for thinking that either the scotch or the waitress would help alleviate the pain.

“Here you go,” she said, placing a napkin and then my drink in front of me. “Want to run a tab?”

“I probably should. I have a feeling this won’t be the last,” I said and quickly gulped it down.

She put her hands on the table and leaned over me. I could see the three bar lumps eyeing her from behind like I had. Watching them giggle like pubescent boys, I realized the football game wasn’t the only reason this bar was so crowded.

“I’ve never seen you around here before.”

“Business. I’ll be leaving in just a few days.”

“Is that so,” she said.

I looked into her big brown eyes.

She stood there, inviting me to say more. Just then the front door opened and the light from the sunset flooded the room. Every head turned and watched as Sarah, in a soft, off-white sheer dress, stood in the open doorway, her shapely body silhouetted by the light outside.

“Damn,” I mouthed as she peered about the bar.

She must have seen my car out front. “Sarah,” I called out and she headed toward my voice.

The waitress scowled. “Who’s that?”

“My attorney.”

“I’ll bet,” she said, and straightened as Sarah took a seat across from me. She flipped a napkin in front of Sarah. “What’ll it be?”

Sarah was put off not only by the napkin toss, but also the tone of voice. “Coke,” she said sourly. She eyed the empty cocktail glass I was holding. “And hell have the same.”

“Forget it. Carbonation gives me gas,” I said and handed over the glass. “Give me another double.”

When the waitress walked away, it occurred to me that maybe it wasn’t the scotch that was bothering Sarah, but the fact that the waitress had been flaunting her stuff for me.

“Did I interrupt something?”

“Nah,” I lied, watching the waitress as she walked away.

“I thought the booze was what made you so sick the other night.”

I wasn’t going to be scolded like a child. “I got sick because your father broke the news that my client is a serial killer. The booze had nothing to do with it. And,” I added, “why are you being so damn pissy with me?”

“I’m not,” she said, though the stridency in her voice didn’t lessen. “If you keep this up, you won’t be in any shape to proceed tomorrow.”

I chuckled. “Do you think I’d jeopardize that crazy S.O.B.’s chance for being found
not guilty?
”