Healing Sands Read Online Free PDF

used to getting to the truth. Aren’t you?”
    â€œI’m used to getting the best possible deal for my client.”
    When I opened my mouth to protest, she put up a hand. “That could mean an acquittal. It could mean probation. In any case, I don’t think it’s going to mean any jail time for Jake. In fact, I can almost promise you that.”
    â€œIf I can get the true story of what happened out of Jake, will you use it?” I asked.
    â€œIt depends—”
    â€œNo, will you use it? Because if you won’t, I’m finding another lawyer.”
    She blinked. “Girlfriend, you are tough. You want to come work for me?”
    â€œThat doesn’t answer my question.”
    I was already turned toward the exit.
    â€œOkay—I will try to use anything you bring me that will hold up in court. That’s the best I can do. And there’s not another lawyer who can do any better than that.”
    â€œYou’ll hear from me,” I said.
    Her mouth twitched. “Oh, I don’t doubt that for a minute.”
    I careened out of the courthouse and crossed Picacho Avenue without bothering to check for cars. I licked at my dry lips as I headed for the lot where I’d parked the Saab. Evidently I was the only person in existence who didn’t think Jake had turned into a racist killer overnight. Fine. I was used to doing it all myself.
    I didn’t see Levi Baranovic until he reached out an arm to keep me from plowing into him. Even at that I didn’t recognize him at first. He was wearing a crisp shirt and a conservative tie and a pair of sunglasses. He wasn’t wearing the grim expression he’d had on the day before. At least until he registered who I was.
    â€œMrs. Coe,” he said.
    â€œDetective.” I straightened my shoulders. “I’m glad I ran into you. How is the investigation going?”
    He looked at me blankly. “What investigation?”
    â€œThe vehicular assault.”
    â€œThere isn’t much to investigate,” he said. “We have a smoking gun.”
    â€œIt looks like one. It’s not. I know my son didn’t hit that boy, and I want you to keep looking.”
    â€œFor what?”
    â€œFor witnesses.”
    â€œThere were none.”
    â€œFor other possible explanations, then. That’s your job, isn’t it?” He took off the sunglasses and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “Let me tell you about my job, Mrs. Coe. I just came from Memorial Medical Center because Miguel Sanchez can’t go to a free clinic or some Mexican farmacia to be treated for what’s going on with him. I had to talk to his mother, see if she knew any reason why your son or anybody else’s son would want to run over hers.”
    His eyes hardened on me, and my stomach turned over. He was going to say she’d seen it happen.
    â€œShe couldn’t tell me anything,” he said. “All she could say, over and over, was that her boy is in a coma. That both of his legs are broken. That he has serious internal injuries and a fractured skull. If he ever regains consciousness, he will probably be in a vegetative state. That’s what she told me.”
    I could see the face of the woman I’d never met, and I could feel the pain that ripped through her. Only that stopped me from pinching the detective’s head off.
    â€œI grew up in Las Cruces,” Baranovic went on. “It’s a good town, and I don’t want to see it sucked up by youth crime the way places like Atlanta and LA have been. I’ve got two kids myself, and I want them to think ‘race issues’ means who can run the fastest.”
    â€œI’m right there with you.”
    â€œSo I have given every scrap of evidence we have to the DA, and if I find more, I’ll give that to her too.” He slid the sunglasses back onto his face. “Because I’m all Miguel Sanchez has to provide closure for his