The Last Innocent Man Read Online Free Page A

heaving shoulders and spoke soothingly.David stared at the wall. It took every ounce of control he had learned in the courtroom to keep his features from showing any emotion. Sometimes he wondered if that wasn’t one trick he could do now without trying.
     
    M ONICA AND D AVID agreed to meet by the reception desk, and Monica took Jessie back to the girls’ detention area. It was a little past noon and the reception room was empty. David sat down on a couch in the corner. The interview had shaken him, and he wanted some time to calm down.
    A teenage boy walked up to the reception desk and David thought about the man-boy, Tony Seals, whom he was being paid so much money to represent. Eighteen years old, his brains burned out by controlled substances, not caring about anything or anyone, not even himself.
    And the boy’s parents. David would never have come into the office the day after the Gault verdict if Anton and Emily Seals had not been old and valued clients of his firm, and close personal friends of Gregory Banks, one of the senior partners and David’s closest friend.
    During the meeting Anton Seals had sat straight-backed and expressionless, wearing his conservative pinstriped suit like a uniform. His only show of emotion had been the constant stroking of his wife’s hand. Emily Seals had also kept her composure, but David could see that her eyes were red-rimmed from crying. The Sealses represented old money. They were elegant people. Neither of them fully understood what their son had done to Jessie Garza, himself, or their lives.
    “Why did you shoot Jessie Garza?” David had asked Tony Seals yesterday at the county jail. Even now Daviddid not know why he had asked the question. You didn’t have to know why a person violated the law to get him off.
    “She was a pain in the ass.”
    “You shot her because…”
    “Well, you know, she knew how to get drugs, so we used her like that for a while, but she was a pain in the ass. Then she tore up some marijuana plants that Sticks had growing. So we were talking about what a pain in the ass she was and how no one liked her because she’s got such a big mouth and Zack says he’ll bump her off.”
    “Just like that?” David had asked. “Just because of the plants?”
    “I guess so. Zack was always talking like that. About how he was a hit man. He said he’d killed guys before, but Sticks and me didn’t believe him even though he was always flashing this gun around. We didn’t think he’d use it.”
    “Why didn’t you try to get Zack to take her to the hospital after she was shot?”
    “I did say we should back at the hole, but Zack said, ‘Don’t worry about her, she’s just gonna die,’ so I forgot about it. Besides, I was real tired and I didn’t want trouble with the cops.”
    David saw Monica walking toward him and he stood up.
    “Is she okay?” David asked when they were outside.
    “It depends on what you mean by ‘okay.’ Physically, she’s doing fine. Psychologically…” Monica shook her head. “She’s one tough cookie, Dave, but I don’t know. And her ordeal on the mountain isn’t the worst part. We’re holding her until the trials are over; then we want to send her back to her parents in Montana. Only they’re not sure they want her.”
    “Shit,” David said.
    “Yeah,” Monica answered bitterly, “but that’s life, right? Why the interest?”
    David shrugged.
    “She got to you, right? You better watch that, Dave. It’s bad for the old ‘Ice Man’ image.”
    “Give me a break, Monica,” David said without anger. “I’m not in the mood.”
    Monica sensed his exhaustion and backed off.
    “Say, I haven’t congratulated you yet on the Gault verdict.”
    The way she said it, David wasn’t certain it was a compliment, so he said nothing.
    “Norm says you tried a good case.”
    “We both did.”
    “Who’s going to play you in the movie?” Monica asked with a mischievous grin. David laughed.
    “You angling for a