Read Online Motion to Suppress by Perri O'Shaughnessy - Free Book Online Page A

crackled, "Who is it?"
    "Nina Reilly. I’m Michelle Patterson’s attorney. She was brought in last night." The door buzzed and she grabbed the handle.
    Partway down the hallway a fresh-faced guard with slick hair and a spiffy clean uniform checked her California State Bar card from his glass kiosk, scrutinizing her with the alert curiosity required in his line of work. "Hi," Nina said, extending her hand. He shook it. "I need to see my client."
    "You’re her lawyer?"
    "Yes."
    "This is a criminal case. Don’t you mostly do family law?" He laughed at her expression. "It’s a small town here. We hear rumors. Everybody talks."
    "I am ... was representing her in her divorce."
    "Oh. So she’ll be looking for a good criminal lawyer. You know, Jeff Riesner’s the local expert."
    Lucky Jeff, to have the police chasing their own sirens on his behalf. "I’ve heard."
    "Hey, Gordy," he said. "Get Patterson. Her lawyer’s here." While they waited for Gordy to return with Misty, he flipped through papers.
    "He’s got the town locked up pretty tight, does he?"
    "I’m not dumb enough to say a word against the man," he said. "You here to shake things up?"
    Sensible Nina said no. Perverse Nina said, "You never know."
    She walked past the kiosk and was buzzed into one of the visiting cubicles. She sat down. Misty Patterson came in and sat down in a chair on the other side of the glass partition, her hair pulled away from her face this time in a ponytail. Her eyes hid inside deep sockets. She looked about sixteen. Nina picked up her telephone, but Misty didn’t budge, wooden as the furniture. Nina pointed to the receiver. "Pick it up," she mouthed.
    "Good morning, Ms. Reilly." Misty said formally into the receiver. "Don’t ask how I slept."
    "How are you feeling?"
    "Are you going to get me out now?"
    "It doesn’t work like that. You’re charged with a serious crime, but there will be a bail hearing tomorrow."
    "My dad’ll bail me out. He’ll be royally pissed off, but he’ll stand by me."
    "There’s a problem. It’s hard to get bail on a charge like this. The DA’s office thinks you’re a flight risk. Remember how you ran when they came to arrest you? They’re going to ask to keep you here pending trial."
    "Oh, no! No!"
    "I’m sorry," Nina said. "I need to find out more about what’s going on, then I’ll see what I can do for you. So, help me out here."
    "The South Lake Tahoe Police picked me up just after my shift was over at Prize’s. Probably nobody even knows where I am." Nina thought they would probably know this morning, when the Tahoe Mirror came out. "I got to call my parents this morning. They’re coming up. I gave them your name."
    "Tell me what you can about your husband, Anthony. And what you said to the officers."
    "They read me my rights. I’m not sure what-all I said at first." She sounded a little evasive. "Then they tried to get me to say I knew Anthony was dead all along. They said they knew we were having problems. They wanted to know why I didn’t report him missing."
    "What? I thought you were going to go straight to the police station when you left my office."
    "I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss Tom’s call, then I was going to go. Remember? You wanted pictures and he was supposed to call me. But he didn’t call." Her voice wavered from high to low. "My neighbor, Rick? He’s a real decent guy. He always let us borrow his boat. Anyway, he reported it stolen when he got back Sunday night. So somebody spotted it, not so far off the Keys yesterday sometime. That’s what they told me. When they went to get it they found Anthony. In the lake, the boat floating above him ..." Her voice faded. " ’Terrific visibility in Lake Tahoe that night,’ one guy said. ’Like the old days.’ "
    "Are you okay, Misty?"
    "I wish I could see him." She locked eyes with Nina through the glass. "I don’t believe he’s dead."
    "You need a lawyer right away to represent you on this charge.’’
    "You’re my