Buried Evidence Read Online Free PDF Page A

criminal record, this is not an ordinary crime and Mr. Middleton is far from the average offender.”
    Judge Orso addressed Lily directly. “Can you substantiate that the defendant poses a threat to the victim, Counselor?”
    Richard had caused her to become so addled that she’d already tripped over her own feet. Any argument she made to convince the judge that Middleton might harm Betsy would be refuted by his phone call that morning insisting that she be kept on life support. All Middleton had to do was instruct the hospital to pull the plug if he wanted his daughter dead. “Can you answer the question, Ms. Forrester?”
    “No, Your Honor,” she said.
    “Bail is set at five hundred thousand dollars,” the judge said, tapping his gavel and disappearing from the bench.
    Once the courtroom had cleared, an attractive, large-boned woman with rich mahogany skin and shoulder-length black hair slipped into the empty chair next to Lily. “How did it go?”
    “Don’t ask,” Lily said, scowling. “Middleton’s probably writing a check right now.”
    “You didn’t think Orso was really going to hold him without bail, did you?”
    Lily rolled her head around to release the tension. “We’ve got to find a way to have the IRS freeze his assets.”
    “Maybe you should have thought of that yesterday,” Lenora Wells said, arching an eyebrow. Formerly a homicide detective with the Los Angeles police department, she was now the chief investigator for the Santa Barbara D.A.’s office. Due to the fact that they were close in age and both divorced, the two women had struck up a friendship.
    “Weren’t you scheduled to interview witnesses on that child-molest case this afternoon?”
    “Done,” Wells told her. “I just stopped by to see how things were going.” She picked up a file folder and began fanning herself.“Everyone says you don’t need air conditioning in this city. What’s wrong with these people? Are they nuts?”
    “It’s only a heat wave,” Lily told her. “The weather report says it’s supposed to cool down by tomorrow. Someone said it might even rain. Maybe that’s why it’s so humid.”
    “Where’s Matt?”
    Lily acted as if she hadn’t heard the woman’s question. Once she’d learned that Richard Fowler had signed on as Middleton’s attorney, she’d stopped by the office of the elected D.A., Allan Brennan, telling him she couldn’t work with an unreliable and incompetent attorney on such a complex case. Brennan had been thrilled to have her on board, but he refused to give her preferential treatment or allow her to think she could take over the agency. Either tolerate Kingsley, he’d told her, or she would have to try the Middleton case alone. Brennan had also pointed out that even though Kingsley was inexperienced, he was far from ignorant, since he held a law degree from Harvard.
    “Hey,” Wells said, “what’s with you? Am I talking to myself? I just asked you a question. You act like you’re in another world or something.”
    Lily rubbed her forehead. “Matt’s going over some reports at the crime lab.”
    “I see,” Wells answered, tilting her head to one side. “You two didn’t butt heads again, did you? Usually one of my investigators does the legwork, not the trial attorney.”
    “Look,” Lily said, grabbing her briefcase from the floor and slapping it down on top of the table, “when I ask a person to do something, I expect him to do it. This kid turns around and hands off everything to someone else.”
    Wells rubbed the side of her face. “Isn’t there a word for what you just mentioned?” she said. “You know, like delegating authority.”
    “You’re impossible,” Lily told her. “And Kingsley’s a spoiled brat.”
    “Oh, yeah,” the other woman said, swinging a leg back and forth under the table. “Matt’s not exactly a kid, you know. He’s almost thirty. Are you certain you don’t have a crush on him?”
    “Don’t be asinine,” Lily said,