Motion to Suppress (6 page)

6

THE PHONE CALL came after midnight on Tuesday. Nina had been lying between cold sheets, thinking that if she jumped up to get another blanket, her cold feet would freeze solid. The moment she heard the ring, she knew who it would be. She knocked her water glass over when she reached through the dark, shattering it on the floor.

"Ms. Reilly? It’s me, Misty Patterson. Anthony is dead. My husband."

"I’m listening," Nina said. "If interrupt you, stop talking right away."

"First off, I’m in jail. They say I killed him!" This the girl followed with an incoherent curse.

"Stop right there. Have you been booked? What’s the charge?"

"Murder."

"What have they told you about your husband?"

"All I know is they found him in Lake Tahoe. You’re my lawyer. You have to get me out of here right away before I start screaming again, please. Whatever it takes. I have to get out.... "

Nina knew an emergency when she heard one. This girl was having trouble holding it together. She made her voice as level as she could. "Keep your head. You have to tell me what you know about Anthony."

"Get me out of here!"

"I’ll talk to the officer on duty right after we talk, but from what you’ve said nothing can happen until tomorrow. Mrs. Patterson, Misty, listen—"

Sobbing on the other end of the line.

"You’re going to get through this. This may not be as bad as you think."

"I’m dying in here!"

"You’re not a kid," said Nina softly. "And I’m not your mother. They’re only going to give us five minutes. Understand?"

After a long pause, a shaky voice replied, "I understand."

"I’ll be down there in the morning. I’ll call your parents then, if you haven’t had a chance to. Two things. First, think of all the people you know who’ve spent the night in the hoosegow."

"I don’t feel safe in here," she said, in a sullen tone that told Nina she had calmed down.

"I’ll be looking out for you there, I promise. Second, if anyone wants to talk to you or ask any questions, tell them you are exercising your right to remain silent and refer them to me. Say that back to me."

"I’m exercising my right ..."

"To remain silent."

"You are my lawyer and they should talk to you."

"I’m depending on you to do that. Can you do that, Misty?"

"Sure," Misty Patterson said, crying again. "Whatever."

Turning on the bedstand light, Nina sat up on the side of the bed, pulling the covers around her. The icy night air crept into cracks around her body, and she could just hear Bobby’s light snore from the kids’ room.

Picking up the phone again, she located the officer on duty. Misty Patterson had been booked for the unlawful killing of Anthony Patterson. If Nina wanted to appear at the arraignment, she would need to talk to Collier Hallowell, the deputy district attorney who had signed off on the arrest warrant. Misty would have her own cell, because it was a Tuesday night, not too much action. That was all he knew. Nina lay back on the bed, her mind working busily.

She left the shards of glass for morning and finally sank back into her own troubled dream, in which Tom Clarke, looking disappointed, spanked her, then pulled her pants off and screwed her. She woke up feeling angry and cut her foot getting out of bed.

Off Al Tahoe Boulevard in a grove of pines, the county jail took up almost one floor of the low redwood building that also held the Municipal Court of the Lake Tahoe District, County of El Dorado. Nina spotted the crowded ski runs at Heavenly Valley through the trees as she approached. Spring wind whirled eddies between the parked cars. Soft green grass poked up through the last of the snow. Nina wrapped her coat around her and walked from the parking lot past a dry fountain, ringing a bell on the wall. A voice in a metal grate crackled, "Who is it?"

"Nina Reilly. I’m Michelle Patterson’s attorney. She was brought in last night." The door buzzed and she grabbed the handle.

Partway down the hallway a fresh-faced guard with slick hair and a spiffy clean uniform checked her California State Bar card from his glass kiosk, scrutinizing her with the alert curiosity required in his line of work. "Hi," Nina said, extending her hand. He shook it. "I need to see my client."

"You’re her lawyer?"

"Yes."

"This is a criminal case. Don’t you mostly do family law?" He laughed at her expression. "It’s a small town here. We hear rumors. Everybody talks."

"I am ... was representing her in her divorce."

"Oh. So she’ll be looking for a good criminal lawyer. You know, Jeff Riesner’s the local expert."

Lucky Jeff, to have the police chasing their own sirens on his behalf. "I’ve heard."

"Hey, Gordy," he said. "Get Patterson. Her lawyer’s here." While they waited for Gordy to return with Misty, he flipped through papers.

"He’s got the town locked up pretty tight, does he?"

"I’m not dumb enough to say a word against the man," he said. "You here to shake things up?"

Sensible Nina said no. Perverse Nina said, "You never know."

She walked past the kiosk and was buzzed into one of the visiting cubicles. She sat down. Misty Patterson came in and sat down in a chair on the other side of the glass partition, her hair pulled away from her face this time in a ponytail. Her eyes hid inside deep sockets. She looked about sixteen. Nina picked up her telephone, but Misty didn’t budge, wooden as the furniture. Nina pointed to the receiver. "Pick it up," she mouthed.

"Good morning, Ms. Reilly." Misty said formally into the receiver. "Don’t ask how I slept."

"How are you feeling?"

"Are you going to get me out now?"

"It doesn’t work like that. You’re charged with a serious crime, but there will be a bail hearing tomorrow."

"My dad’ll bail me out. He’ll be royally pissed off, but he’ll stand by me."

"There’s a problem. It’s hard to get bail on a charge like this. The DA’s office thinks you’re a flight risk. Remember how you ran when they came to arrest you? They’re going to ask to keep you here pending trial."

"Oh, no! No!"

"I’m sorry," Nina said. "I need to find out more about what’s going on, then I’ll see what I can do for you. So, help me out here."

"The South Lake Tahoe Police picked me up just after my shift was over at Prize’s. Probably nobody even knows where I am." Nina thought they would probably know this morning, when the Tahoe Mirror came out. "I got to call my parents this morning. They’re coming up. I gave them your name."

"Tell me what you can about your husband, Anthony. And what you said to the officers."

"They read me my rights. I’m not sure what-all I said at first." She sounded a little evasive. "Then they tried to get me to say I knew Anthony was dead all along. They said they knew we were having problems. They wanted to know why I didn’t report him missing."

"What? I thought you were going to go straight to the police station when you left my office."

"I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss Tom’s call, then I was going to go. Remember? You wanted pictures and he was supposed to call me. But he didn’t call." Her voice wavered from high to low. "My neighbor, Rick? He’s a real decent guy. He always let us borrow his boat. Anyway, he reported it stolen when he got back Sunday night. So somebody spotted it, not so far off the Keys yesterday sometime. That’s what they told me. When they went to get it they found Anthony. In the lake, the boat floating above him ..." Her voice faded. " ’Terrific visibility in Lake Tahoe that night,’ one guy said. ’Like the old days.’ "

"Are you okay, Misty?"

"I wish I could see him." She locked eyes with Nina through the glass. "I don’t believe he’s dead."

"You need a lawyer right away to represent you on this charge.’’

"You’re my lawyer."

"Not on this charge. You consulted me about a divorce. You and your parents need to talk about who to retain as your counsel. I know you’ll want the best representation you can get."

"Forget that. I want you as my lawyer. Sandy said you’re famous in San Francisco, and not just for family law. For criminal defense."

"Sandy exaggerated," Nina said, thinking she’d have to put a muzzle on that woman. "My experience is limited. I handled criminal appeals. I’ve never defended a client against a charge of murder in a trial. I’m not confident I could represent you competently."

"I have to unload something, Nina, even if it gets me into trouble. When the police came? I panicked and it wasn’t because they arrested me. I panicked because I figured I did kill him."

"Misty, wait—"

"I want you to hear this. If I killed him when I hit him, how did he end up in the lake? I’d never take Rick’s boat out by myself to dump him. I’d call Tom or somebody to help me. I just don’t remember what the hell happened that night after I hit him. I’m thinking maybe it’s like this stuff with my past, another thing I’m blocking out, something traumatic."

Murder certainly qualified as traumatic. Didn’t Misty realize that her loss of memory about the events that night, if real, pointed as surely to her guilt?

"I never intended to kill Anthony. I wasn’t mad like that. I just wanted it to be over with him."

"Were you afraid for your life? Can you at least remember that?" Nina couldn’t keep the skepticism out of her voice.

"He never hurt me like he wanted to kill me. Mixed in with all the love talk, I know he hated me sometimes. I think he wanted to make my life a living hell. But I never once thought he wanted me dead."

"Of course, you did strike out to defend yourself. Maybe you hit too hard. That’s hardly premeditated murder."

"Aren’t you listening? I just don’t think I hit him that hard. Believe me, I’ve seen a couple of bar fights. You can whack a guy pretty good without killing him. I didn’t kill him. You have to believe me."

"I believe you’re being as honest with me as you can." That was Nina’s standard line to a client who was probably lying. But sitting there, looking through the glass at the girl, having talked to her three times now and listened to the blunt and ingenuous revelations, she couldn’t imagine Misty had invented the whole ball, loose and tangled with strings dangling in all directions. Why not make up a tighter story? Even Misty must see that the actions she described were not logical.

"You think any other lawyer can defend me? I don’t even know what I did. And one look and they’re going to be like, ’Ditz. Airhead. Don’t go betting your allowance on that tootsie roll.’ Most of the time I don’t care what they think, but if your lawyer thinks you’re a piece of shit, that matters."

"Oh, Misty." She didn’t have any idea what she was asking Nina to do.

"I need you on my side."

"You need a good lawyer."

"You."

Nina felt herself wavering. "I can’t promise anything now, but I’ll let you know by tomorrow."

"Talk to my parents. I’ll give you the number. Tell them what you need for money."

Nina said, "Listen, a couple of things for now: Stay calm and keep your mouth shut. If anybody bothers you, call me. I’m leaving some money at the desk for you. Remember, don’t talk about your case. Don’t talk about your dead husband. "

"My dead husband." Misty closed her eyes, her chest heaving. Terrified, exhausted, she sat drooped in her chair, one hand clasped to her breast, tendrils of soft hair escaping from the rubber band. She looked tragic and melodramatically beautiful, a belle demoiselle weeping in a dungeon.

On her way out to the car, stepping over the mud puddles in the asphalt, Nina walked with her head down, thinking about Misty. Andrea said that most wives of battering husbands lived in fear. They generally tried to keep the batterer calm by behaving as close to perfectly as possible. This young woman did not seem to fit that mold.

Why had she married Anthony Patterson? Did Misty even know the real answer? He must have had something, Nina finally decided, to sweet-talk her into marriage, because whether she knew it or not, Misty could have her pick of the males of the world.

Nina shouldn’t take the case, not because she couldn’t handle it, she told herself, but because she should start small here, build a reputation block by block. She should avoid splashy cases with muddy circumstances. She should build a life. Jack would say ... Oh, the hell with what Jack would say. But Matt would be horrified. The community at large would not welcome her.

Yes, there was a sensible way to approach things, and she prided herself on her good sense and rationality at the same time she was feeding the cyborg ice cream. She wanted to take this case.

She would sleep on it. In the morning, she would know what to do.

Mulling, she reversed direction, walking back toward the building, this time turning into the offices of the El Dorado County District Attorney.

"Mr. Hallowell is in court in Placerville this morning," a clerk guarding the window reported. A square-faced Asian-American sailed out of an inner office, his arms full of files. The clerk called out, "Mr. Lam?" As he passed her desk, she tucked an envelope on the top of the pile.

"Mr. Lam? The new deputy DA, right?" Nina asked, falling into step beside him as he pushed through the double doors into the courtyard. She introduced herself. "I’ve been asked to represent Michelle Patterson. Do me a favor and tell me what you can about the charge."