Knife Fight (3 page)
Alex come see me two days later wearin’ a blood red dress showin’ a shape I didn’t know she had. First time I seen any color in her or on her wasn’t black or gray. Girl had a glow. We was back in the room at the jail where prisoners and lawyers talk. Asked me how they treatin’ me.
“Better than you did,” I say.
She shrug her shoulders. “I don’t blame you for being angry but it was a tough case. I did the best I could.”
“Bullshit. You did what you said you had to do. Jus good enough to get my ass convicted.”
She cross her arms, leanin’ against the wall. “If I recall, Travis, you were the one who didn’t tell me that you’d bragged to Luis Pillco how you’d cut someone who hadn’t paid you.”
“And you the one who say she got too many cases to go talk to Luis even though the D.A. tole you he their whole case.”
She nodded, walked over to the table in the middle of the room. “I should have talked to Luis but it wouldn’t have mattered. The judge would have let him testify anyway.”
“That’s what you tole me but one thing I learned on the street, it don’t matter what you say so much as how you say it. You actin’ so surprised and mad ‘bout what Luis say make me look worse than Luis done. Make it look like I didn’t tell you.”
“I was surprised because you didn’t tell me,” she say. She sit down at the table, runnin’ her fingers over the initials prisoners done carved on it.
“Ain’t what Luis say.”
She stop runnin’ her fingers. “You’re locked up. Luis is on the street. You couldn’t know that.”
“But you ain’t denyin’ it. One of my boys gone see Luis. He say you talked to him, knew what he was gonna say.”
“Then you can’t be angry with me for not talking to him,” she say, smilin’ like she beggin’ me to smack her.
“Then all that shit about was Luis taller than Diego and was he right-handed, that was all an act. Shit! You knew he wasn’t ‘cause you talked to him. That boy was my only out. The jury mighta decided he the one cut Diego but you made sure that the D.A. brung him back so the jury see I the only one what coulda done it.”
“I took a chance,” she say. “It didn’t work.”
“That the way it is?”
“That’s the way it is.”
I let that sit. Pull my chair around close to her; let her smell the jail on me. She start to get up. I grab her arm, see sweat poppin’ above her lip. I talk low to her.
“My momma come see me yesterday. She say you come over to her house the night before she testified.”
“That’s right. I had to get her ready for her testimony.”
“That why you brought her those bottles of wine?”
Alex’s eyes get wide looking at her arm turning red where I’m squeezin’ her. Then she look at the door where the guard s’posed to be watchin’ us ‘cept I facin’ her and got my back to the door. No way he can see what I’m doin’ and she know the guard ain’t allowed to listen to what we sayin’.
She cough like somethin’ stuck in her throat. “I thought we were going to win. I told her to save it until after the trial for a celebration.”
I put my face right next to hers. “Now I tole you my momma like her wine too much. You knew she’d have them bottles empty ‘fore she ever open her mouth in that courtroom.”
She yank on her arm. I let her go keep her from screamin’. Now she sit back in her chair, squintin’ at me like she tryin’ to figure out how smart a nigga I am.
“Why would I want your mother to be drunk when she testified?”
I get out my chair, shove it against the table. “Damn bitch! I ain’t no dumb ass! You made sure that jury found me guilty.”
She get up and move for the door. I cut her off, back her up again.
“If you think it’s my fault, you can appeal on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel, just like I told you before.”
I ball my fist, cock my arm but I don’t let fly. “I asked you what chance I had and you say you my only chance ‘cept you don’t tell me you gonna steal it from me. I scare you enough you do all that?”
Her face start quiverin’, her eyes all wet, then hard. “Yes, Travis. You scared me that much. The D.A. had a good case on paper but it had holes. They had no physical evidence to tie you to the murder and Luis’ criminal record and the deal the D.A. gave him made him a vulnerable witness.”
“You coulda let him take the fall instead of me.”
“I could have except he was innocent and he wasn’t my client. You were guilty. I couldn’t take the chance that you’d get off.”
“Why you do me like that? You ain’t supposed to judge me. You supposed to be my lawyer.”
She turn away from me. I put my hand on her shoulder, spin her back around. She slap my hand away.
“A few years ago, I won a case for someone just like you and a month later he slaughtered the guy who testified against him along with his wife and kids. That’s when I said no more nightmares and stopped caring about who I represented. You’ll die in prison and I won’t lose any sleep.”
“I’ll get a new lawyer. Tell him what you tole me.”
She let out a sigh. “Of course you will. I’ll be called to testify and I’ll lie and the judge and jury will believe me, not you.”
The door open and two deputies come in, the D.A. followin’ right behind them. Alex she look at me, her mouth open wide enough for my whole fist but I don’t swing at her.
“Your client authorized us to tape your conversation,” the D.A. say.
“Like I tole you,” I say to Alex, “everyday is a knife fight.”
Also By Joel Goldman
The Lou Mason Thriller Series
The Jack Davis Thriller Series
The Alex Stone Thriller Series
Stone Cold
Short Stories
William Rabkin & Lee Goldberg’s The Dead Man Series
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Knife Fight, Copyright Joel Goldman © 2012
This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, companies, institutions, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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