Page 53 of The Piece You Stole

“Motive for wanting to kill the father who spent years abusing her?” Eli interrupts. “Surely there’s more to your case than a couple of eyewitnesses who saw a drunk knock his daughter to the ground?”

Silence.

I give my mafia attorney a—hopefully subtle—quick peek, because he might not have a brown file like the cops have, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t come prepared.

Eli never loses his smile, but now there’s something a little sharper in it. Something that makes me wonder just how many bodies the Mendicinis have buried, because if anyone would know, I have a feeling this guy would. “If you charge my client based on such flimsy evidence, the judge will laugh you right out of court.” He uncrosses his legs and bridges the distance between them. “Given this murder occurred nearly three years ago, I’m sure the judge would be interested to know how it took you so long to hunt Miss Leo down, when she never left the city, and often frequented the most popular—and public—restaurants you’ll find paparazzi hanging outside.”

I dart a glance at Eli’s face. He’s not blinking, so I shift my focus to the other side of the table, with the strangest sensation that I’ve stepped into a cop TV show.

Detective Ferdinand and Detective Bradley don’t say a word.

In the sharp silence, Eli straightens. “So, if we’re finished here…” He moves to stand.

Detective Ferdinand glowers so hard a vein pops out on his brow, making me seriously concerned he’s about to suffer a brain aneurism. Somehow, I can’t imagine Detective Bradley wouldn’t find some way of pinning his death on me if the worst happened. “We’re not even close to being done. There’s still the matter of two other men killed in suspicious circumstances. A man—”

“Who was last seen driving his car off a bridge?” Eli raises his eyebrow. “And another man killed by a wild animal in a hospital parking lot?”

“We have witnesses.” Detective Bradley juts his chin out, sounding obstinate.

“I wasn't aware that an animal attack was grounds for arresting a young woman for murder.” Eli angles his head, his face scrunched up, as if he’s become confused by the very threads he’d promised to untangle. “I’m curious—forgive me if I’m being slow—where Miss Leo was hiding said animal while she was lying comatose in a hospital bed for a week? Did the animal wait outside for her all this time? Was it hiding under her hospital bed? Perhaps evensharingher bed? I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation that I’m just not seeing…?”

My life is on the line here, but suddenly, watching Eli run rings around these cops is the most fun I’ve had in years. I almost don’t want it to end.

Detective Ferdinand’s vein bulges even more. I eye it warily. “Miss Leo admitted going outside with the doctor. Which means she was the last person to see him alive.” Now it’s his turn to stick his face over the table as he stretches a finger toward the recorder. “We can replay it if you’d like to hear it for yourself?”

He must have a serious problem with his short-term memory if he believes I said that.

Eli sits back in his seat with a sigh and a smile that could almost be genuine…if I didn’t believe he wasn’t getting ready to launch a counter-attack. “Nowthatchanges everything.”

“It does?” My question slips out before I can stop it.

Okay, so I was wrong about the counter-attack. Maybe about him being a shark at all if he’s folding this soon.

Eli nods, but never takes his gaze off the cops. “Yes, it does. If you’ll just produce the notarized document that shows my client signed away her Miranda rights in agreeing to this interview without the benefit of legal representation, we can talk about it. Because I’m sure I don’t have to remind you cops that anything she disclosed—bar her admitting to murder—without that signed document could not be admissible in court. It would be as if my client had never spoken a word.”

He holds his palm flat as if waiting for the cops to place the document in it, but he’ll be waiting for a long time for it because it doesn’t exist.

And that’s when I know he’s won. Eli could have asked for this document the moment he stepped foot in this room. But he didn’t. He wanted to humiliate them first.

Whatever bad blood they have between them must go back years.

I hold my breath as I wait for the cops to say or do something, but the fury filling their eyes must be making it impossible for them to speak because they don’t say a word. Detective Bradley continues to grip his folder, and Detective Ferdinand is frozen, bulging vein pulsing hard.

It’s Eli who reaches a hand toward the recorder and presses the button to turn it off. I release a quiet breath when the hum stops.

Eli’s smile falls away, and for the first time since he barged his way into this interview room, I see him for the shark he is. “I want my client released within the next ten minutes. If you force her to remain here for a second longer, I’ll make you the laughingstock of the city. You don't have a case, which is why you kept Miss Leo here, hoping against the odds she would incriminate herself if you pushed her hard enough.”

“Says the attorney to criminals that no self-respecting firm would ever take on,” Detective Ferdinand sneers.

My body tenses.Looks like the knives are finally coming out.

Eli recrosses his legs, folds his hands neatly on them and gives Detective Ferdinand a gentle smile. “You should be thanking me, gentlemen. I saved you from a great deal of embarrassment. You must be the only people in this city who believe anything other than an animal did away with Doctor Simon Trevor. No attorney in the city would win that case. Not even me, and despite your lowly view of me, Iamthe best.”

Detective Bradley looks like he’s envisioning laying this attorney out. He’s also in danger of ripping his folder in half if he grips it any tighter. “Says who?”

“Says my last five clients. All are free, happy, and tucked up in bed with their families. If you don’t want to believe me about your odds of winning this case, call Oscar. He’s the only DA who might be awake at this time…” His lips quirk in the most genuine smile I’ve seen from him so far. “Now, I doubt he’ll besober, but he’ll be awake. I’ll wait. Ask him if you have a leg to stand on. And when he’s done laughing, you can hang up, come back in here, and release my client before I walk out there and start drawing attention to the miscarriage of justice going on right under their rabid little noses.”

Under whose noses?

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