Devil in the Dock (A Robin Starling Courtroom Mystery) Read Online Free PDF Page A

facts from every angle I can think of.”
    “Listen. I know I’m not a pleasant man, but that doesn’t make me an idiot. If I’d killed Bill Hill and gotten blood on myself, I’d have washed my damn clothes, not left them shoved in the back of my closet for the police to find. Even if I didn’t have the sense that God gave a grapefruit, I’d have tossed them in the laundry basket to wash eventually, not tucked them into my closet like they were some kind of keepsake. What’s the point of that? Why would I go out of my way to preserve evidence that could convict me of murder?”
    “I may be making that very argument to the jury.”
    “Great. I pay you thirty thousand dollars, and now I’m doing your work for you.”
    “You’re the one who came in with a check already filled out. Do I get your keys or not?”
    “You think I’ve got them in my pocket? I had them on me when the police arrested me, but of course they took them along with everything else. What kind of lawyer are you?”
    “One who would like your permission to get your keys from the police and to enter your house.”
    “Sure. Of course. What difference is it going to make to me? I’ve got me some new accommodations until at least sometime next week.”
    The deputy sheriff took Shorter away, and I took a deep breath, feeling some of the tension wash out of me as I exhaled. I was going to earn Shorter’s $30,000 before all this was done, maybe earn it several times over. I shook my arms and went to find out what had happened to the man’s personal effects.
     
    In addition to the expected reasoning, the magistrate’s written decision included a reference to phone calls from neighbors, six of them, urging the police to keep Bob Shorter in jail because he was a threat to everyone in his community. When Shorter stalked through the neighborhood, he carried a big stick—literally, it seemed, not figuratively like Teddy Roosevelt. He made verbal threats. He had once been charged with cruelty to animals for beating a neighbor’s dog; the report didn’t say whose.
    When I finished reading, I pushed back from my desk to think about it, one foot propped on a partially open drawer. The only neighbors mentioned by name were Jennifer Entwistle, the woman who lived next door to Shorter, and one Valerie Shaw, so the denial of bail had been based in part on anonymous calls. That didn’t seem right.
    I was wondering if I could do something with that at the preliminary hearing when Brooke Marshall came in and sat in one of my client chairs, using a hand to smooth back her thick, red hair. “So,” she said.
    “So,” I agreed.
    “So you can see your panties from the doorway.”
    I took my foot off the drawer.
    “Where’d you get them?”
    “What, you want to get a pair?”
    “They’re not your usual style. Are you afraid of getting hit by a car, or are things heating up with Paul?”
    “Oh, come on. You couldn’t see them that well.”
    “Better than you’d think.”
    Brooke and I had roomed together a while back. She had stayed in my spare bedroom, so her familiarity with my lingerie wasn’t as strange as you might think.
    “I’ll be more careful.”
    “So how’s your stone-cold killer?”
    I rolled my eyes. “Everyone with a nasty disposition isn’t a stone-cold killer.”
    “So you think he’s innocent?”
    “ Innocent is a strong word. Let’s say he might not have committed this specific crime.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    My shoulder twitched in a half shrug. “He says he didn’t do it.”
    “Ah. We have the word of a possible killer.”
    “He’s my client. For the moment I’m suspending judgment.”
    “Fair enough.”
    “I’m going to go out to his house this afternoon, walk through it, get a feel for things. Want to come?”
    She took a big breath and let it out. “I’d like to. I miss these little adventures of yours.”
    “Appointments all afternoon?”
    “Three of them, back-to-back.”
    “Your consulting