Kill All the Lawyers Read Online Free PDF Page B

a prize," Jackie continued, "and my best bud deserves the best. So why not just chill and let Tori choose a place to live?"
    "Hey, I get a vote here, Jack-o," Steve said.
    She dismissed the notion with a wave of her fingernails, painted the pinkish color called "Italian Love Affair." "I've seen your house, Steve. You obviously have no sense of design or style."
    "You mean I have no pretensions like those trust-fund boys you run around with."
    "Stop it, you two," Victoria ordered. "Steve, don't be mean to Jackie."
    "Me? She's the one who wishes you'd married Bigby."
    "True," Jackie admitted. "But I told her to keep you on the side." She gestured toward the interior of the apartment. "Now, why don't we look at the master suite?"
    "I hate this place," Steve said.
    Sounding like a child, Victoria thought. A petulant child.
    "I'm wasting my time here," Jackie said. "Toodles." She waved and headed back through the balcony door.
    Victoria gave Steve one of her piercing looks.
    "What? What'd I do, besides tell the truth?" he asked.
    "You walked in throwing hand grenades. Why didn't you just call and say there's no way you'd live here?"
    "I wasn't sure until the concierge spoke French to me."
    "I'm serious, Steve. It's unfair to Jackie. She's doing us a favor."
    "Not unless she kicks back half her commission." Steve took a deep breath. "Look, Vic. We need to talk."
    "I know. You want a house with a yard and crabgrass."
    "It's not that." He cast a long look toward the sailboats, as if he wanted to be on one. "I need to tell you about Kreeger."
    "You do?" She didn't even try to hide her surprise.
    "This morning, I wasn't entirely truthful with you. Now I want to tell you everything."
    "You do?" Sounding as skeptical as she felt.
    "I've been too closed off. I'm going to share more of myself."
    She studied him a moment. "Are you gaming me?"
    "Jeez, when did you get so cynical?"
    "When you taught me that everybody lies under oath."
    "Look, I'm not saying I'm gonna become Mr. Sensitive. I'm as scared as the next guy to show weakness, but what I did this morning wasn't fair. I answered your questions about Kreeger like I was before the Grand Jury. So I'm gonna tell you what happened with him and maybe use that to open up on other stuff, too."
    She threw both arms around his neck and drew him close. "You're a wonderful man, Steve Solomon, you know that?"
    "Before you make that final, you might want to hear me out."
     
     

SOLOMON'S LAWS
     
     
    2. Thou shalt not screw thy own client . . . unless thou hast a damn good reason.
     
     

Five
     
     
    SURVIVAL OF THE HOMICIDAL
     
     
    A pelican sat on a coral boulder, scratching its feathery belly with its beak. Steve and Victoria walked along Bayfront Drive, a wall of condos on one side, the flat, green water of Biscayne Bay on the other. Her sunglasses were perched on top her head and her long stride tugged her Sunny Choi pencil skirt tight at the hips. Steve didn't know Sunny Choi from chicken chow mein, but he'd started picking up slivers of fashion information by listening to Victoria's end of phone conversations with Jackie.
    They headed in and out of shadows cast by the high-rises, the sun slanting toward the Everglades. In the light, Victoria's hair glowed with butterscotch highlights. In the shadows, her green eyes gave off their own light. She seemed happy, already forgiving Steve for being late, for being obstreperous, for being . . . Steve.
    "I did something in Kreeger's case I'd never done before and haven't since," he said. "And I'm not proud of it."
    "Tell me. Tell me everything, Steve."
    Her nurturing tone. That was it. Women were born nuturers. Cling to their warm bosoms, and everything will be all right. This would be easy. Victoria was, by nature, supportive and caring. And forgiving.
    "The case against Kreeger was purely circumstantial," he said. "I thought I could win."
    "You always think you can win."
    "Yeah, but this was different. I thought Kreeger was innocent."
    He