Death Row by William Bernhardt Read Free Book Online Page B

the air force, man. They had a deal with the grays and they had to protect it."
    "Grays? As in space aliens?" Christina snickered. "I think it was the mob. Who else could bring off a hit like that?"
    "You're all nuts." Jones pivoted around. "What do you think, Ben? Who killed JFK?"
    Ben spread his arms. "Could it be... Lee Harvey Oswald?"
    Jones rolled his eyes. Loving slapped his forehead. "Jeez, Ben. You are so gullible."
    "You're right," he replied. "I'll believe anything."
    "I got some stuff you could read on this," said Loving, their fridge-size investigator and resident conspiracy buff. "I could get it for you."
    "Business is slow," Ben answered, "but, happily, not that slow." He paused. Something in here smelled. "Christina, did you have the office fumigated again?"
    "Yes. I found a spider."
    "Only one?"
    "He was a monster."
    " 'Bout the size of my pinkie nail," Jones muttered.
    "Even the little ones can be deadly," she shot back.
    "Christina, you've got to stop. All this pesticide is disgusting. Plus it's bankrupting us."
    "Not that that takes much," Jones said sotto voce.
    "I'm sorry, Ben, but I can't help it. I hate spiders." She shuddered. "They totally creep me out."
    Well, Ben thought philosophically, Christina was a lot tougher than he was about most things. It was nice to know she had at least one weakness. "Anything going on here?"
    "As a matter of fact, yes," Christina answered. "You've got someone waiting for you in your office. A young woman."
    "Hey, hey, hey, Skipper," Loving said, winking. "You got a little action goin'?"
    "Not to my knowledge. Did you interview her, Christina?"
    "I tried. She wants to talk to you."
    Ben's head tilted slightly. That was odd. Christina was the empathetic one. Usually clients preferred to spill their guts to her. "Do you know who she is?"
    "Oh, yes. I knew who she was the moment she came through the door. You will, too." She looked at him levelly. "And you won't believe it."
    With an invitation like that, how could he resist? "Let's do it."
    Ben started toward his office, Christina close behind. He stopped at the third door on the right and pushed it open.
    After he finished gaping, he stepped inside. Christina was right. He couldn't believe it.
    The cane leaning against her chair was a sure tip, not that Ben needed one. It hadn't been that long, and she hadn't changed that much.
    "Miss Faulkner," Ben said, offering her his hand. "This is a surprise."
    "I'll bet it is," she said, taking it. "And please call me Erin." She cast a glance around Ben's sparsely decorated office. "Did you ever consider maybe watering your plants?"
    "Why? They're all dead." He dropped his briefcase on the desktop. Christina sat in one of the outer chairs. " Erin, is this visit about a new matter, or... the previous one?"
    "The same one, I'm afraid." Her eyes didn't make contact with his. "My family..."
    Ben nodded. "Then I have to tell you, before you say anything, that technically anyway, Ray Goldman's appeal is still active and I'm representing him."
    "I know that."
    She looked good, Ben thought, with close-cropped dark hair and a tight-fitting sweater skirt. She had been a bit pudgy as a teenager, but judging by appearances, that baby fat was long gone. "So the prosecutors probably wouldn't want me talking to you. At least not outside their presence."
    "Are we breaking any rules?"
    "Christina?"
    Christina edged forward. "Are you personally represented by counsel, Erin?"
    "No, I'm not."
    "Then we're not breaking any rules. But the prosecutors still wouldn't like it."
    "Frankly, I don't give a damn what the prosecutors like."
    Ben's eyebrows rose. This was certainly a new attitude from the DA's star witness. And the sole survivor of the tragedy. "Okay. How can I help you?"
    "You got Goldman's execution stayed, right? I know-I was there."
    Ben's heart sank. Is that why she had come-to chew him out for stopping the wheels of justice? "True, but that's only temporary. We applied for federal habeas