Read Online Final Judgment by Joel Goldman - Free Book Online Page B

repeated until he made his way to an easy chair opposite the two women.
    He tousled each child’s hair, hugging them in turn, and sent them off with gentle pats on their bottoms. Satisfied, they dove under their mothers’ chairs, retrieved their toys, and raced up the stairs.
    “My daughters, Sharon and Melissa,” Fish said.
    Mason crossed the room, shaking one hand at a time. “I’m Lou Mason, your father’s lawyer.”
    “I’m Sharon,” said the woman who was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt.
    “We know who you are,” Melissa added, tugging her warm-up suit around her as if the temperature had dropped when Mason entered the room.
    Sharon gathered the wrapping paper off the floor, disappearing into the kitchen. She returned wearing a winter jacket and carrying another over her arm. She handed it to Melissa, who had laid out four tiny parkas with mittens clipped to each sleeve in a line on the floor.
    “You don’t have to leave,” Fish told them. “My lawyer’s early. We’ve got plenty of time, don’t we, Lou? Besides, the kids are having fun.”
    “Sure,” Mason answered. “There’s no rush.”
    “I’ve got a full day, Dad,” Melissa said, straightening the parkas again. She stood and ran her hands through her hair.
    “Me too,” Sharon said.
    “But you just got here,” Fish said.
    “We’ve been here long enough,” Sharon said.
    Fish let out a deep sigh. “Is it so awful?”
    Sharon cocked her head at her father, bit her lip to keep from answering, and walked to the stairs, calling the kids instead. Melissa glanced around the room, looking for anything else that hadn’t been packed up as if she were checking out of a hotel room.
    “Dad,” Melissa said. “We’ve been through this. Sharon and I agreed to let you see the kids. You’ve seen them.”
    “I’m your father and you treat me like I’m a monster.”
    Sharon said, “We know what you are, Daddy. It wasn’t good for us, and in the end it won’t be good for our kids. Especially now with this whole dead-body thing.”
    “Tell them, Lou,” Fish said. “Tell them that I didn’t kill anybody. I just want to spend time with my grandkids.”
    “Stop it!” Melissa said, covering her ears with her hands. “I can’t take any more of this.”
    The four children galloped down the stairs, skidding to a halt in front of their jackets. They bent down, slipped their arms in their coat sleeves, and flipped them over their heads. Fish spread his arms wide and they rushed into his embrace.
    “Now!” Sharon said to the kids, clapping her hands. “Let’s get going.”
    Fish followed them to the door, watching until they drove off. He turned around. “They’re my kids,” he said to Mason with a shrug. “What are you going to do? I’ll get my coat.”
    They walked down the front steps towards Mason’s car. Fish waved to a man across the street picking up his newspaper at the end of the driveway. The man returned Fish’s gesture with a tentative half-hoisting of his arm, not certain what to make of his newly notorious neighbor.
    Fish and the decapitated corpse had made a media sensation, catching the attention of the cable news networks forever hungry for the next titillating case. Mason had given Fish strict instructions to refuse all comment. Mason limited his remarks to a firm assertion of Fish’s innocence coupled with a reminder of Fish’s full cooperation with the authorities. The media beast was barely satisfied with those crumbs. They would be back at each stage of the case: when the body was identified; when an arrest was made; when the preliminary hearing was held; when the defendant farted.
    Although Avery Fish had been identified as the prime suspect according to an unidentified source close to the investigation, he acted as though he didn’t have a care in the world since his near meltdown in the U.S. attorney’s office. Except when confronting his daughters, he was buoyed by instinctive optimism and reflexive good