Page 9 of Fighting for Mallory

She frowned. “I think it might be…Andre?”

Luca showed her his driver’s license photo. “Is this him?”

Her face changed as her memory made a connection. “Yes.”

“Why are you afraid of Andre Lapeno?”

Mallory shook her head. “I’m not. What’s going on, Luca?”

“Finnigan and Macklin just found him, his wife, and sons shot to death in their home. Execution style.”

She let out a gasp. The color drained from her face, and her hands trembled on the metal table where they rested.

Luca continued, reading another message from Finnigan, “According to Finnigan, the family have been dead for at least thirty-six hours.”

“Andre Lapeno wasn’t your limo driver last evening,” Cameron commented. “Concentrate, Mallory. Is there anything you remember about him?”

Mallory held her head in her hands and closed her eyes. Moments later, she murmured, “My memory is blank. I have no idea why I was afraid of him, nor do I recall his face or anything else about him.”

“Go back to that moment when you realized Andre wasn’t your driver,” Cameron pressed. “Did Bentley know the replacement?”

A tense minute passed. “I’m sorry, Cameron. There’s nothing I can grab on to. Not even a flash or a shadow of a memory.”

Luca was about to suggest that Cameron call his eldest son, Trey, an agent with the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit, to help unlock Mallory’s memory, but Judd Morgan burst through the door. His face was flushed, and his bright blue eyes blazed with shock or anger, or perhaps both.

“You heard about the murder of Andre Lapeno and his family in Compton.”

“I have.”

“Then you know Mallory didn’t kill her husband.”

“I know nothing of the kind!” Judd snapped. “Bentley Hayes died of multiple stab wounds. Aside from alcohol, there wasn’t anything else in his system. No Rohypnol. Your DNA is all over him, Mrs. Hayes, and your fingerprints are the only ones on the knife. It was Mr. Hayes’ blood on your hands and clothes.”

Luca slammed his fist on the metal table. “She’s innocent!”

Cameron laid a warning hand on Luca’s forearm. “When is Mrs. Hayes being arraigned?”

“Now. Judge Cohen is waiting.”

“I intend to ask for bail.”

“I’ll oppose, of course. And Judge Cohen never grants bail on murder charges.”

Mallory was handcuffed and led to the rear of the jail where a van waited to transport her and other inmates to the courthouse.

“I don’t like this,” Luca commented as he and Cameron left the women’s central jail. “Arraignments aren’t usually conducted on weekends.”

“What do you know about the judge?”

“A real hard-ass. Tough on crime. Though the death penalty hasn’t been revoked in California and prosecutors can still ask for it, no one has been condemned to it. Hanging Judge Cohen would love nothing more than to make an example of someone.”

Cameron had taken a cab from LAX, so the two men drove together in Luca’s unmarked Dodge Charger to the downtown courthouse where criminal cases were tried. A lone security guard met them at the metal detector. He knew Luca, and Cameron by reputation, so he waved them through and allowed Luca to keep his gun. They rode in an elevator to the ninth floor and found Judge Cohen’s courtroom.

On a weekday, the corridor and courtroom would be flooded with lawyers, paralegals, clerks, family members, and spectators. Not today. Because it was a Saturday, the place looked like a ghost town. By the time Luca and Cameron slid onto an empty bench, the proceedings had already begun.

None of the other five women had representation. One, who appeared to be a spokesperson for the rest of them, protested loudly to Judge Cohen when the bailiff called her case that being arraigned on the weekend was a cheap trick to cheat them out of their right to an attorney. He told the woman to pipe down, or he would hold her in contempt and slap her with a five-thousand dollar fine. If they didn’t have an attorney, Judge Cohen reminded her, and the others, one would be provided, and they could speak to him or her on Monday. Without a lawyer, each woman was at a loss as to what to do, so they played follow the leader and pled not guilty to their various charges of prostitution, drug dealing, DUI, and shoplifting. One by one, Judge Cohen remanded them to the California Institution for Women until their hearings.

Mallory turned to look at Luca. He read the panic in her eyes and the unspoken question on her lips.

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