Read Online Acts of Malice by Perri O'Shaughnessy - Free Book Online Page A

truck?’’ Nina said, pointing toward the faithful white Bronco not far from the door.
    Jim hardly spoke on the short trip, just looked out the window. The snowplows ground through the streets around them.
    The receptionist passed them through to the conference room and they waited a few minutes. The District Attorney’s office consisted of a wide central area for support staff with several small offices coming off it for the lawyers, and a conference room at the far end.
    A couple of uniformed officers were drinking coffee and chatting as she and Jim came in. Jim said, ‘‘Whussup, Charlie,’’ to one of them.
    ‘‘Sorry about Alex,’’ said the one called Charlie, who obviously had no idea why Jim was there. ‘‘Awful. I watched him on the slalom run every year. He skied like a maniac, but he was so fast on his feet I never thought he’d crash so bad. He knew the hill like the back of his—’’
    Collier came in, bearing files. ‘‘Well. Take care,’’ Charlie said. The two cops went out, and Nina introduced Jim. They sat down. Collier offered coffee.
    In spite of the informality Nina was on high alert, acutely aware of being in the enemy camp. Each contact Jim had with law enforcement could bring disaster down on him; a careless statement or a discrepancy could be magnified into a lie, or made to look like guilt. It was how the Elephant Celebes operated.
    Collier seemed ill at ease. He passed by her on his way around the conference table and brushed against her. She gathered her jacket around her as if he’d tried to tear it off.
    ‘‘Sorry.’’
    ‘‘No problem.’’
    Coffee came. They all blew on it. Collier was thinking about something, his approach, maybe. Or maybe this was another witness technique they taught at D.A. training school. Make the witness sweat; that was it.
    She caught him looking at her as she sat across from him, trying not to notice him. Was he thinking about her?
    ‘‘Shall we start?’’ she said, her voice higher than she had intended.
    The tape recorder started to whir. Collier identified the parties present and stated the date and time.
    ‘‘Just for form’s sake, I’m going to give Mr. Strong his Miranda warnings,’’ he said, and took care of that technicality.
    She decided to wrest what control she could immediately. ‘‘We’re not here for some long inquisition,’’ she said. ‘‘Mr. Strong has already talked to the police on two occasions. You know everything he knows. You mentioned that you had a few more questions. That shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes. And we would like to see the statement of Heidi Strong before we begin.’’
    ‘‘I really don’t know how much time we’ll need,’’ Collier said, but he took out a single copy and handed it over.
    Without looking at it, Nina said, looking Collier in the eye, ‘‘We’d like to read this in private.’’
    ‘‘Sure. I’ll go make a phone call.’’ He clicked off the recorder.
    ‘‘There’s a phone here. Feel free. We’ll step outside.’’
    They left. They walked past the busy secretaries through the buzzered door.
    ‘‘You think he bugged his conference room?’’ Jim said.
    ‘‘Maybe,’’ Nina said. ‘‘You make a big production about turning off the tape on the desk, then you leave another one winding away in some closet. It’s his bailiwick and we don’t have much of an expectation of privacy in there.’’
    ‘‘What about attorney-client privilege?’’
    ‘‘Keeps confidential statements out of court, but doesn’t mean they won’t listen when they can.’’
    ‘‘Would you do that? Listen in on a conversation between a lawyer and a client in your conference room?’’
    ‘‘No,’’ Nina said. ‘‘But somebody else might. I have had some experience with bugs recently. You never know about these questions of ethics. Lawyers take an exam to prove we know legal ethics, but real life presents ethical dilemmas they never imagined at the good