JO01 - Guilty or Else Read Online Free Page A

gavel.
    I figured I’d push it a little. “Wait a minute, Judge, let’s keep the date open.” Without consulting Rodriguez, I said, “My client waives time. It’ll take longer to be properly prepared.”
    “You will be in Norwalk Superior Court in sixty days ready for trial. Is that clear?” Johnson raised his gavel, ready to slam it down. “And, remember, not a dime from the county. I’ll see to it.”
    “Judge, I want to discuss my client’s bail—”
    “Bail denied. Now get the hell out of my courtroom.” He banged the gavel. “Court’s adjourned.”
    He jumped up and bolted from the room. Any ideas I had about getting future favors from Johnson left the room with him.
    The guards started to march my client back to the courthouse cell, where he would wait for the return bus to the central jail. I asked them to hold up for a moment.
    “Ernesto, I’ll see you downtown tomorrow. In the meantime, I want you to think about everything you did on the day before you were arrested. Go over in your mind every second of that day. We need to fill in the blanks. And for God’s sake, don’t talk to anybody. And I mean about anything.”
    The guards pulled him away. In mid-step, he turned his head and looked back over his shoulder. “
Su muerte no era a mi mano
,” he said in a voice choked with emotion. She did not die by his hand.
    Roberta walked hurriedly down the aisle toward the exit. I caught up with her just as she reached the rear of the courtroom. “I need to see you, go over the case, evidence, autopsy report, stuff like that,” I said.
    “The judge was pretty hard on you just now. I won’t make it any harder.” She pushed the doors open. “I’m tied up the rest of the day and I’m due in court in the morning. You open for lunch tomorrow?”
    I looked at her face and inhaled, exhaling slowly. “Where and when?”
    “The Regency in Downey. Twelve-thirty?”
    “Fine,” I said. “I’ll take care of the reservations.”
    “See you tomorrow.”
    She rushed through the doors, down the hall, and glanced back at me. Did I imagine it? Or did she give me a warm smile before she disappeared around the corner?

C H A P T E R  5
     
    I cruised east on Firestone Boulevard, drove over the Long Beach Freeway bridge and heading to my office, a two room storefront on Second Street in the neighboring city of Downey.
    Rita Flores, my law clerk and secretary, worked at her cluttered desk in the outer office, which doubled as our lobby. Bills, junk mail, and personal mementos cluttered her desk. A small stuffed bear with a big red paper heart pinned to it rested close to the phone. Pictures of her mother and her boyfriend sat next to the bear along with a white rose from an anonymous admirer—the young salesman at the business next door. I didn’t know what the bear was all about.
    “Hey, Rita, do me a favor. Call the Regency and make reservations, lunch tomorrow, booth for two.”
    Rita, in her final year at Western States Law School, had been with me for six months. With her petite and shapely figure and innocent face, she appeared young and naïve and acted a little ditzy at times. But Rita was bright, one of the few Hispanic women in the school, and the only one to graduate in the top ten percent of the class. She studied night and day and had taken the bar exam a month ago. The results would be published later in the year.
    “Okay, Boss. Hey, you had a call while you were gone, told him you weren’t here.” She looked at me with a playful pout on her face. “But he wouldn’t leave a message.”
    “That’s fine, Rita,” I said.
    “Probably trying to sell you something. More insurance, maybe. For heaven’s sake, we can’t pay the bills now. I’m glad he hung up.”
    Rita flashed me one of her winning smiles. She had dimples in her cheeks, and rich dark hair flowing softly to her shoulders. I never asked her about her age. I wouldn’t, and anyway the new employment rules disallowed asking