stone off the path and then turned toward me grinning. “I might put you to sleep.”
“Boring stuff?” He nodded. “Embellish if I start to yawn.”
“Embellish? I’m an attorney—I make my living embellishing. By embellish, I presume you mean make up copious amounts of bullshit?”
I nodded. “Nothing too heavy, just enough to keep me from lapsing into a coma.”
He smiled, showing off his dimples. “I spent my early years in Vermont—typical farm-boy childhood. I played baseball when the ground wasn’t frozen, skied … milked cows.”
I chuckled—I didn’t know many guys who knew their way around udders … well, not bovine udders anyway. “I haven’t met many farm boys.”
“A city girl like you … I didn’t think so. Anyway, my father sold the family property when I was about ten and made a bundle. My mom had grown tired of rural life, and so that’s when we moved to Manhattan.”
“So when did you decide that you didn’t like bad guys?”
“When the DA offered me a job.”
“That’s pretty honest. No call to justice? You’re not going to rant about ethics and morality?”
“Initially it was just a paycheck. My family has always been pretty private—I didn’t have a lot of connections to fall back on, so I took what I could get. After a while though, the job grabbed hold of me. I’ve been hounding dirtbags ever since.”
Some of the cops on the job didn’t think very kindly of lawyers, even public prosecutors like Farrell. It was something of a no-guts-all-glory mentality. I didn’t have a problem with them—guns and handcuffs aren’t for everybody. “Is that when you became the Brooks Brothers Avenger?” Farrell had that down-home lawyer look honed to a tee: gray, natural-shoulder suits, neatly cropped hair, and wire-frame glasses—like Clark Kent but without the comma of hair over his eye.
“Ha. You’re all right, Chalice.”
Just all right? Did you check out my butt? Wait a second, I’ll walk a few paces ahead. I’m told it’s not to be missed. I watched smoke puff from the rooftop of a nearby building. “What about your mom?”
I’m not sure why my question hit Farrell so hard. It took him a long while to answer, and he had a far-off look in his eyes when he did, “That’s a long story.”
It felt as if we were having a good time until I hit him with my bull-in-a-china-shop question. I wasn’t sure where to take the conversation after that, so I made the mistake of talking about the case. Sometimes I have the romantic instincts of a Doberman. “So Hartley was one step ahead of us.”
“The alibi affidavit? Gee, I don’t know; I kind of saw that coming. He was just doing what any good lawyer would have done. Hartley’s not exactly small time. As a matter of fact, I’ve been wondering how Quinlan can afford to retain him. Hartley doesn’t do a lot of pro bono work, and then when you told me that he gave Quinlan a place to stay …”
“Yeah, maybe that’s worth looking into.”
“I’ll see what I can find out. “
Our cell phones went off at practically the same time. We exchanged suspicious glances—there’s no such thing as coincidence in our line of work.
~~~
Max Blick adjusted the focus on his field glasses; the image of the young woman next to Farrell sharpened. She had just pulled a cell phone from her pocket and was gazing at it. He watched as she put the phone to her ear.
He scratched his thick sideburns and tugged down on his plaid cap until only the ends of his sideburns remained visible. He looked through the lens again—Farrell was now on the phone as well. Blick heard the ground crackle behind him and quickly angled his binoculars toward the top of a distant tree, just as an elderly couple approached.
“Birding?” the gray-haired man asked. The couple came to a stop alongside Blick and gazed in the direction of the treetop.
Blick nodded. “I thought I saw a cardinal.”
“Oh, cardinals are so beautiful,” she said.
“Boring stuff?” He nodded. “Embellish if I start to yawn.”
“Embellish? I’m an attorney—I make my living embellishing. By embellish, I presume you mean make up copious amounts of bullshit?”
I nodded. “Nothing too heavy, just enough to keep me from lapsing into a coma.”
He smiled, showing off his dimples. “I spent my early years in Vermont—typical farm-boy childhood. I played baseball when the ground wasn’t frozen, skied … milked cows.”
I chuckled—I didn’t know many guys who knew their way around udders … well, not bovine udders anyway. “I haven’t met many farm boys.”
“A city girl like you … I didn’t think so. Anyway, my father sold the family property when I was about ten and made a bundle. My mom had grown tired of rural life, and so that’s when we moved to Manhattan.”
“So when did you decide that you didn’t like bad guys?”
“When the DA offered me a job.”
“That’s pretty honest. No call to justice? You’re not going to rant about ethics and morality?”
“Initially it was just a paycheck. My family has always been pretty private—I didn’t have a lot of connections to fall back on, so I took what I could get. After a while though, the job grabbed hold of me. I’ve been hounding dirtbags ever since.”
Some of the cops on the job didn’t think very kindly of lawyers, even public prosecutors like Farrell. It was something of a no-guts-all-glory mentality. I didn’t have a problem with them—guns and handcuffs aren’t for everybody. “Is that when you became the Brooks Brothers Avenger?” Farrell had that down-home lawyer look honed to a tee: gray, natural-shoulder suits, neatly cropped hair, and wire-frame glasses—like Clark Kent but without the comma of hair over his eye.
“Ha. You’re all right, Chalice.”
Just all right? Did you check out my butt? Wait a second, I’ll walk a few paces ahead. I’m told it’s not to be missed. I watched smoke puff from the rooftop of a nearby building. “What about your mom?”
I’m not sure why my question hit Farrell so hard. It took him a long while to answer, and he had a far-off look in his eyes when he did, “That’s a long story.”
It felt as if we were having a good time until I hit him with my bull-in-a-china-shop question. I wasn’t sure where to take the conversation after that, so I made the mistake of talking about the case. Sometimes I have the romantic instincts of a Doberman. “So Hartley was one step ahead of us.”
“The alibi affidavit? Gee, I don’t know; I kind of saw that coming. He was just doing what any good lawyer would have done. Hartley’s not exactly small time. As a matter of fact, I’ve been wondering how Quinlan can afford to retain him. Hartley doesn’t do a lot of pro bono work, and then when you told me that he gave Quinlan a place to stay …”
“Yeah, maybe that’s worth looking into.”
“I’ll see what I can find out. “
Our cell phones went off at practically the same time. We exchanged suspicious glances—there’s no such thing as coincidence in our line of work.
~~~
Max Blick adjusted the focus on his field glasses; the image of the young woman next to Farrell sharpened. She had just pulled a cell phone from her pocket and was gazing at it. He watched as she put the phone to her ear.
He scratched his thick sideburns and tugged down on his plaid cap until only the ends of his sideburns remained visible. He looked through the lens again—Farrell was now on the phone as well. Blick heard the ground crackle behind him and quickly angled his binoculars toward the top of a distant tree, just as an elderly couple approached.
“Birding?” the gray-haired man asked. The couple came to a stop alongside Blick and gazed in the direction of the treetop.
Blick nodded. “I thought I saw a cardinal.”
“Oh, cardinals are so beautiful,” she said.
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