Read Online Against the Wind by J. F. Freedman - Free Book Online Page B

demonstrably with several hundred people, enough of whom can be compelled to testify on their behalf. In fact, virtually every minute of their time since they arrived in Santa Fe until their arrest down south is accounted for, and of greater importance, witnessed. The murder took time; the coroner’s report is explicit about that. If what they’re telling me is true, they were never alone long enough to have done it.
    “They gonna set bail tomorrow morning?” Lone Wolf asks.
    “And how much?” The fourth man, Goose, speaks for the first time. He’s older than the others, probably past forty, his beard and pony-tailed hair more salt than pepper, a squat barrel who looks like a character in Disney’s Snow White . “We ain’t millionaires, you know.”
    “But we can cover the costs,” Lone Wolf says quickly. He doesn’t want me getting cold feet.
    “You’re going to have to cool your heels in here a few days,” I inform them. “The prosecutor can hold you without a formal charge until he can get a judge to hear this on Monday, and after that he’s going to press for confinement until he goes to the grand jury. So you won’t skip.”
    “We didn’t skip before,” Roach reminds me.
    “You weren’t under suspicion of murder before,” I inform him. “It won’t be long,” I say, trying to put the best face on it I can, “only a couple of days more than you were going to be in town anyway. You’ll save money on room and meals.”
    They don’t protest, they’ve been through this, they can do a week in hell if they have to.
    “That should do it for now,” I tell them, packing up. “I’ll check in on you tomorrow.”
    I start to call the guard to let me out. Lone Wolf stops me.
    “If worse comes to worse … if somehow we gotta go all the way to trial … how much freight do we have to pay?”
    I was waiting for that. I’d hoped it wouldn’t come up tonight.
    “A murder case like this is normally going to cost fifty to seventy-five grand,” I tell him. This isn’t the time to pull punches. “Depending on what flows to the surface.”
    They blink, swallow hard. All except Lone Wolf, who doesn’t flinch a muscle.
    “Apiece,” I add.
    Now they react, even Lone Wolf. He tries to mask it.
    “We can cover it,” he doggedly assures me.
    “Half up front.”
    “I said we can cover it.” He only has one gear: forward, full-speed. The others eye us nervously, spectators in a high-stakes game.
    Goose clears his throat.
    “We got to talk about this,” he declares.
    “Let me say something first,” I interject quickly.
    They turn to me.
    “I won’t be charging my normal fee,” I tell them. “I’ll be giving you a special rate.”
    Lone Wolf stares at me.
    “Why?”
    “Because I believe in this case,” I tell them. “Because you need me—you need the best.”
    Because I need you , is closer to the truth. I’m out of work, I can’t afford to let this one slip away. Not only for the money, but for the notoriety, the publicity, as well. Not many cases this inflammatory come down the pike; I need the visibility as well as the hard cash.
    “So how much?” Lone Wolf asks.
    “I’m going to try to do the whole thing for a hundred-fifty grand,” I say. “One-seventy-five tops. Anything less won’t give you the defense you’re going to need, if anyone tells you less they’re lying.”
    Lone Wolf stares at me.
    “We can cover that,” he says. “If it won’t go higher.”
    “We’ll have to make sure it doesn’t,” I tell them.
    They smile.
    “We want the best,” Goose says. “And that’s you, man. And you’ll have your money—that’s a promise.”
    I’m sure I will. I don’t want to know where it comes from, though. Manuel Noriega’s lawyers don’t want to know where their client’s money comes from, and neither do I.
    “Let’s hope you don’t have to spend much of it,” I say. “Personally I think it’s a long shot this gets past the grand jury.”
    “How