“I need to find a lawyer,” he said. “I need you to recommend a lawyer who’s good and affordable. I know I can’t afford your dad or anyone like that.”
It was Terrance. Maybe he thought that because I’d moved to a small town I’d be easy to deceive now. That said, I also didn’t want to antagonize a stalker who’d already killed someone. He’d eventually be out on bail, and even though I was headed home in a couple of days, Ahanti would still be here.
I made a you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me face before I spotted Lucas, the private investigator, watching me.
I mouthed the words Peeping Tom.
He smirked and looked away.
“Nicole, are you still there?” Terrance asked.
I sighed. What was it about me that made all these people call me? Maybe my parents’ genes emitted some sort of criminal-enticing pheromones and that was part of their success secrets. Unfortunately for Terrance, he’d called the wrong Fitzhenry-Dawes. “I’m still here, but I’m not sure why you’re calling me for help. The police can set you up with a great public defender if you’re not able to afford a lawyer.”
“I’m a black man covered in tattoos. Jurors are going to assume I did it without even listening. I need someone great.”
He didn’t sound delusional. He sounded like he’d thought this through. Maybe I didn’t need to cater to him quite as much. “Ahanti is my best friend.”
“She’s my friend too. You don’t think I really did this, do you?”
“They have your fingerprints on the picture of Geoff with the threat written on the back.”
In the silence that followed, I caught voices in the background. Wherever he was, he wasn’t back at his apartment. He might still be at the police station, and I was the call he made to try to find a lawyer to help him when he went before a judge. If he’d been smart, he would have asked for a lawyer when the police first started to question him.
Not if he was innocent, the annoying voice in my mind that loved to play devil’s advocate said. Innocent people often don’t think to ask for a lawyer until it’s too late.
It had been the first time in memory that Terrance had asked a question and waited for me to finish it. This time he cared about my answer. That was out of character enough to make me less confident than I had been before my phone rang that he was our guy.
Terrance cleared his throat in an awkward, phlegmy way. “I sent that one message. I’ll admit that. I was overdrawn on all my cards. I didn’t want to break them up permanently. Just a little longer until I could get back on my feet. I didn’t kill Cary, and I’m not some crazy stalker. Ahanti isn’t even my type.”
I’d only met one of Terrance’s girlfriends over the years, and she’d had a lot more in the way of curves than Ahanti. But one voluptuous girlfriend didn’t prove he wasn’t obsessed with Ahanti. “Are you saying you didn’t owe Cary money?”
The silence stretched out again. “I owed him money, yeah.”
He wasn’t giving me much to go on. “Can you give me a clear reason that I should believe the police are wrong?”
This time he didn’t say anything at all. A lot of my parents’ clients—ones I knew were guilty—told even their friends and family that they were innocent. My dad would happily tell you how few were. I think he actually preferred it that way. The challenge was higher, but the stakes were lower. In a way, for him, defending someone who was guilty was a win either way. If he lost, a criminal went to prison. If he won, his reputation went up. And he got paid either way.
I was not my father. If Terrance couldn’t convince me he was innocent, I wasn’t going to help him. “I’m sorry, Terrance. I have to go.”
I disconnected before he could say anything else.
I spent the rest of my time at Skin Canvas watching Ahanti match the stencil she’d created from her design to the flow of Eddie’s back and make notes on adjustments she needed to make. They wouldn’t be starting the actual inking today. Based on the complexity of his design, Ahanti said they’d start out with a six- to eight-hour session, and then they’d have to wait for his skin to heal for the next round.
I left Ahanti safe under the watchful eyes of Eddie and the private investigator to get ready for dinner out with Mark’s potential future boss and his wife.
With all that had gone on in the past few days, I’d completely forgotten to ask Mark about his coffee date with my mom. He hadn’t come out of it with the same I-need-to-think expression as he had his golf round with my dad, so I’d already guessed she hadn’t said anything too shocking. Still, my curiosity couldn’t let it go at that.
Once we were on our way and sitting in traffic, it seemed as good a chance as any to ask. Especially since Mark looked like he was verging on turning into the Hulk, road-rage version, again.
“Did you and Mom have a good time on Sunday?” I realized belatedly how stupid that sounded considering they’d ended up cutting it short so Mark could join me at the hospital. “I mean, did she behave herself?”
Arg. That didn’t sound much better. That made it sound like I expected her to flirt with him or something. The subtle approach was clearly not going to work for me today.
Mark glanced sidelong at me, his scowl replaced with a dimpled grin. At least my garbled speech worked as a distraction. “In other words, did your mom try to bribe or bully me the way your dad did?”
I faked an I-don’t-know shrug.
Mark chuckled. “Her approach was different, but I think they’re united in wanting us to move here. She asked how I liked the position I’d been offered, and then she wanted to know what I thought your biggest objections to moving back to the DC area were.”
That was a different tactic, but it didn’t surprise me as much as it might have. My mom was incredibly adaptable. She’d set out to deconstruct me the same way she did opposing arguments since I opposed her desire.
“And what did you tell her?”
“That I could see myself enjoying the work and the people I’d be working with.”
I stuck my tongue out at him. Not only was that not what I meant, but I knew that already. Mark and I had talked a lot about how he felt about the job offer while we were enjoying the sights on Monday. “What did you tell her about me?”
“I said you’d miss the friends you’d made in Fair Haven.”
He was spot-on with that one, but moving back to DC meant being closer to my mom and Ahanti, and even my dad, all of whom I also missed. Too bad my mom couldn’t find jobs in Virginia for everyone I loved. “What else?”
“I said you were worried about Velma and Toby having enough space in the city. You didn’t want them to be stuffed into an apartment.”
Even though the apartment I’d lived in before had been spacious by DC standards, I couldn’t imagine Mark, me, a Great Dane, and a Bullmastiff all crammed into it. Plus, Toby was an older dog with a back leg that sometimes gave him trouble. If we got a place where he had to navigate more than a few stairs, that could become a major problem the older he got.
“I also said you’d never be happy in a career where you had to defend people who are guilty. It’s not who you are.”
