and have everyone keep their eyes peeled, but it’s not exactly a unique looking van. There has to be a million of these around. And you want to know the secret to an all-white van? You can paint it anything you want. That van could be completely tie dyed by now or it could have every single color of the rainbow painted all over it. Who knows? We can’t go by that.”
“I realize all of this,” Alex said. He was getting pissed at being given the runaround and he was getting pissed at the contempt that he was picking up in the chief’s voice. “But I was almost murdered here and I get the suspicion that you couldn’t care less.”
“Alex, we have the footage and we have the van description out. That is all we have to go on. We don’t have any reason or any evidence to back up your claim that Robin or Jess Lydell had anything to do with this.”
“Did you check her phone records? See who she called? Did you check his? Does Robin have an alibi since the time I left him?”
The chief sighed deeply as if he was getting so sick and tired of talking to Alex. It was evident that the chief and everybody else on the force had made up their mind on who they wanted for this thing and it was Joe Payden. Anything else that Alex was dropping into their world was just going to mess that up and they could not allow that.
“I know why you are going to all of this trouble. You are trying to save your buddy. But I hate to tell you the man is guilty as sin. We all know it and the evidence is going to convince the jury to send him away for a long time.”
“Wow, can’t believe you just came right out and admitted it. I’m not going to let this go. I know my friend is innocent and I will get to the bottom of this.”
Alex stormed out of the office and into the warm spring night. He was just reminded of exactly why he did not practice criminal law. It was worse than corporate law with all of the unscrupulousness that went on with it. Only in criminal law someone lost their entire life and not just their money. The entire justice system was a sham and Alex was wondering what it said about him to have practiced it for fifteen years. He was getting closer to hanging up his hat on it every single day.
He was still not remotely convinced that Robin and Jess were innocent, not by a long shot. He was going to put the screws to the both of them.
Chapter 7: Cat and Mouse
Joe listened as Alex finished telling him the whole story. It was like something out of a horror film or something. Someone had tried to kill his best friend. And if they had succeeded Joe would have felt partly responsible. Alex was trying to help save his life after all, but things were getting too dangerous. When was enough going to be enough? Maybe there really was no way to beat this thing, but just hope that he got a good jury who was unbiased against him and that he could have a fair trial. The jury had to see past all of the circumstantial evidence that the state had collected against him.
Joe looked around, thankful that his girls were not awake yet. That was a trait that all the women in his family seemed to share—they were all deep sleepers and hardly anything could disturb them before they caught at least nine hours. It was ridiculous. He himself could not remember when he had slept longer than six hours in a night. He had too much energy and he had too many things that he wanted to accomplish every day. There were not enough hours and if his body would function on less sleep he would gladly let it.
“I want you to call this thing off,” Joe said. He had reached a decision.
“What? What are you talking about?” Alex asked.
“It’s getting too dangerous. If there is someone now after you then they know you are investigating this and that you must be getting close. Something you did scared them enough to try to get you out of the picture.”
“Ok, that is what I want. I want to flush these assholes out of hiding. Eventually they will
“I realize all of this,” Alex said. He was getting pissed at being given the runaround and he was getting pissed at the contempt that he was picking up in the chief’s voice. “But I was almost murdered here and I get the suspicion that you couldn’t care less.”
“Alex, we have the footage and we have the van description out. That is all we have to go on. We don’t have any reason or any evidence to back up your claim that Robin or Jess Lydell had anything to do with this.”
“Did you check her phone records? See who she called? Did you check his? Does Robin have an alibi since the time I left him?”
The chief sighed deeply as if he was getting so sick and tired of talking to Alex. It was evident that the chief and everybody else on the force had made up their mind on who they wanted for this thing and it was Joe Payden. Anything else that Alex was dropping into their world was just going to mess that up and they could not allow that.
“I know why you are going to all of this trouble. You are trying to save your buddy. But I hate to tell you the man is guilty as sin. We all know it and the evidence is going to convince the jury to send him away for a long time.”
“Wow, can’t believe you just came right out and admitted it. I’m not going to let this go. I know my friend is innocent and I will get to the bottom of this.”
Alex stormed out of the office and into the warm spring night. He was just reminded of exactly why he did not practice criminal law. It was worse than corporate law with all of the unscrupulousness that went on with it. Only in criminal law someone lost their entire life and not just their money. The entire justice system was a sham and Alex was wondering what it said about him to have practiced it for fifteen years. He was getting closer to hanging up his hat on it every single day.
He was still not remotely convinced that Robin and Jess were innocent, not by a long shot. He was going to put the screws to the both of them.
Chapter 7: Cat and Mouse
Joe listened as Alex finished telling him the whole story. It was like something out of a horror film or something. Someone had tried to kill his best friend. And if they had succeeded Joe would have felt partly responsible. Alex was trying to help save his life after all, but things were getting too dangerous. When was enough going to be enough? Maybe there really was no way to beat this thing, but just hope that he got a good jury who was unbiased against him and that he could have a fair trial. The jury had to see past all of the circumstantial evidence that the state had collected against him.
Joe looked around, thankful that his girls were not awake yet. That was a trait that all the women in his family seemed to share—they were all deep sleepers and hardly anything could disturb them before they caught at least nine hours. It was ridiculous. He himself could not remember when he had slept longer than six hours in a night. He had too much energy and he had too many things that he wanted to accomplish every day. There were not enough hours and if his body would function on less sleep he would gladly let it.
“I want you to call this thing off,” Joe said. He had reached a decision.
“What? What are you talking about?” Alex asked.
“It’s getting too dangerous. If there is someone now after you then they know you are investigating this and that you must be getting close. Something you did scared them enough to try to get you out of the picture.”
“Ok, that is what I want. I want to flush these assholes out of hiding. Eventually they will
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