Page 61 of Broken Daddy
“It has to be from his more recent cases,” Kent said. “These letters have only been coming for two months. Let’s only look at people from the last three cases that he’s lost.”
Hayes flipped through the cases. That left eight people.
“Unless it’s a former client who recently got out of jail and is looking for revenge,” Donovan suggested.
“Shit,” Kent said. “That too.”
“Wouldn’t someone like that do something more than send a few threatening letters?” Zeke suggested. “Stein defends murderers and rapists. Those guys don’t send handwritten notes. They spray bullets at your house or firebomb your car.”
“Nice thought,” Donovan said dryly. “I’ll be sure to look out for firebombs the next time I’m driving that douche to work.”
“Donovan,” Kent said with a sigh. “Can we please try not to refer to the client as a douche?”
“I’ll try,” Donovan told him. “But the fact is that he’s a douche.”
“It’s true,” Hayes said. “He’s condescending and rude. And really jumpy. For someone that deals with hardened criminals all the time, he’s surprisingly rattled by a few letters.”
“Agreed,” Donovan said. “I understand that getting death threats is scary, but this seems to be something more.”
“And it isn’t the first time he’s received threats,” Liam said. “However, it is the first time he’s ever hired security. Which I find interesting.”
“So he likely knows something more than he’s letting on,” Kent said. “Liam, is there anyone who has recently gotten out of jail or from his past who could be behind this?”
“Not that I could find,” Liam said. “However, one of his former clients recently died in jail. So I’ve been looking into his relatives. That leaves us with three, uh, suspects for lack of a better word. Arnold James who died in prison. He’s got three kids. All boys. But they live in Texas. I’m digging into their backgrounds to see if any of them have visited Colorado recently or know someone who lives here. But that’s time consuming.”
“And it doesn’t feel likely that they’d start looking into revenge now,” Kent said. “Arnold James was sent to jail five years ago.”
“Yeah,” Liam said. “Then we have Miles Brown. He has a girlfriend who has some gang ties and a rap sheet of her own. I think she’s a likely candidate. He also has a mom and a nephew. Could be them too. The nephew has just joined the same gang he belongs to.”
“I don’t know,” Zeke said. “This seems too restrained for them. Would they really just send Stein notes?”
That was true.
“Well, then we move to Rohan Dawson,” Liam said. “He’s a member of the Black Scorpions. But I’ve started digging into his background and it’s hard to find anyone who has a bad thing to say about the guy. Even in prison, apparently he does his best to keep out of trouble. While staying alive.”
“You think he was wrongly incarcerated?” Kent asked.
“It’s an interesting case. He’s in for murdering his best friend. But the cops had a really weak motive. They claimed that the two of them must have had an argument. But the only witness to this argument was a homeless guy who ended up dead about a week after the trial.”
“Not suspicious at all,” Donovan muttered.
“But it is suspicious,” Liam said. “This guy has a record, but for stuff when he was younger. However, he is a member of the Black Scorpions gang so he’s likely done a few shady things. But he had no real motive for killing his friend. He was found at the scene with the victim’s blood on him. The murder weapon was next to him. And his reason for being there was a text message from the victim that apparently went missing from both his phone and the victim’s.”
“Sounds like he could have been set up,” Hayes said. “Someone who hated him or the best friend.”
“Yeah, but seems like he was a well-liked guy. Lots of people came forward at the trial to talk about him,” Liam said.
“What did he get?” Kent asked.
“Sixteen years. Ten without parole,” Liam told them.
“Surprised it wasn’t more for murder,” Zeke said.
“Someone might be angry that he got that much if he’s innocent,” Kent said.
“I don’t know, I think I would be spending my time trying to find out who set him up, not sending Stein threatening letters,” Hayes said.
“Right,” Liam said with a sigh. “So maybe not anyone related to this case. I went through some financials, Rohan sold everything he had to pay Stein’s bill. He grew up in a trailer park. He has a drunk for a father. His mom died years ago. And his only other close relative is a little sister. She still lives with the father.”
