Unbreakable Bond Read Online Free PDF Page A

under his breath. "We may be in the red, but taking on psycho clients isn’t the answer, Jamie."
    "For your information the wife was perfectly sane when she left my office," I shouted back.
    "Yes, yes she was. That's your story, and you better damn well stick to it. God, Jamie, this is huge."
    No shit. I took a deep breath. "I can’t believe this. I can’t believe I got someone killed."
    My lawyer paused. Then his voice came slowly and deliberately on the other end. "Don't ever say those words again. Ever. You hear me?"
    I nodded in compliance.
    "She was a client. You did the job she hired you to do. When she left your office, you had no idea where she was going, or what her intentions were. Your professional responsibility terminated the moment she left you. Got it?"
    I nodded again.
    "Got it!?"
    "I’m nodding."
    "What do the police think?"
    "I don’t know. News says no one’s talking yet. The media’s going to be relentless on this one, though."
    "Then you better talk to the wife before she talks to them," he countered. "What the wife did after she left your office, she did of her own free will. But if she so much as breathes the name Bond to anyone, we’re sunk. This goes way beyond firing an employee or two. This is testifying in a murder trial, police combing through our records, press up our asses. This is not the kind of publicity we need."
    "Right." I nodded at my empty apartment again.
    "How did she pay?" Levine continued.
    "Cash"
    "She have a lawyer involved?"
    "No."
    "Records?"
    "I gave her the disk."
    "If she’s smart, she’s destroyed it. You have her sign a confidentiality agreement?"
    I sat down on the sofa, the game of rapid fire twenty questions suddenly zapping my energy. "You know I always do."
    "Good," he responded, and I could hear him sipping at something. Probably a double scotch. God, I wished I had something stronger than Corona in the house. "Remind her it goes both ways," Levine said. Then paused. "Quickly." And he hung up.
    I swallowed down that growing ball of dread and followed Levine’s instructions, immediately dialing the number Mrs. Waterston had given me. No answer. I prayed that didn’t mean she was in the county detention and left a cryptic message with a lot of "call me back"s in it. After I hung up, I called Maya and left her a message giving her the heads up and telling her that should anyone from the press call, we had no comment and should anyone from the LAPD show up, make sure to ask for a warrant. I left messages with both Caleigh and Sam saying much the same. Then I called Danny again. Still no answer. Of all nights, he had to pick this one to spend with twins.
    Asshole.
    When I ran out of people to call, I opened my media player and cued up the video from last night again. I sat back on my leather sofa and watched it, silently sipping my third (or was it fourth?) Corona as I scrutinized my every word. It was a standard decoy play. I hadn't offered sex for money. I hadn't brought the wife along. And I hadn't made any threats whatsoever against the judge’s person even when he squeezed my ass like he was testing cantaloupes. Legally, there was nothing I could be cited for.
    Morally, however, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d just gotten a man killed. Not the greatest man that ever lived, but a human being nonetheless.
    I leaned my head back against my sofa cushions, and conjured up the image of Mrs. Waterston’s perfect Hepburn face as she’d watched the footage just that morning. She’d seemed upset, but not overly so. Disappointed, but not angry. Sad, but not surprised. Nothing to indicate she was so unhinged as to actually kill the man.
    I watched the muted TV, a scene of the coroner's van pulling up to the hotel.
    Apparently I knew men, but I had a lot to learn about women.
     
    *  *  *
     
    I pulled the trigger three times, popping off each round with a satisfying jolt that rippled through my outstretched arms. A Glock 27 isn't the biggest or baddest