Double Tap by Steve Martini Read Free Book Online

killer. Anything is possible. But that’s not what I see. What I see is the thousand-yard stare, what I have always remembered as Evo’s eyes.

CHAPTER THREE
    I introduce myself.
    Ruiz smiles, a little sheepishly, and shakes my hand. But it is his first stated concern that would endear him to most lawyers.
    “One question,” he says. “How the hell am I supposed to pay you guys? You do understand I’m out of a job right now?”
    Except for his Army pension, which isn’t much at present, Ruiz has no means of support.
    “For the moment somebody else is picking up the tab,” I tell him.
    “Who?”
    “An organization of retired military men. People like yourself. Some of them started businesses and have been quite successful. They set up a trust fund some years ago. Our firm has handled criminal cases for them in the past. We got the call on your case.”
    “Kendal told me you would be coming by. You come well recommended.”
    “I appreciate that.”
    “So, you’ve done cases like this before?”
    “You mean paid for out of the fund?”
    “I mean a murder case.”
    Though he doesn’t say it, what he means is a death case, a trial in which capital punishment could be the ultimate result.
    “Yes, I have.”
    “I hope you won them all.”
    I smile. “I have never had a client executed, except once.”
    He looks at me with a somewhat stark expression.
    “I never took much pleasure in the result.” I change the subject. “This is my partner, Harry Hinds.”
    He shakes Harry’s hand. “Mind if we sit? Ankle chains start to wear on me if I stand too long.”
    “Please.”
    Ruiz half steps, dragging the chains on the concrete floor toward the stainless-steel table with its welded benches on each side like a metal picnic table. It is bolted to the floor against one wall in the small conference room on the third floor of the jail.
    As Ruiz angles himself onto one of the benches, Harry taps on the thick acrylic window in the door. The guard opens it and looks at him through the crack.
    “Maybe you could take the ankle chains off our client,” Harry tells him.
    The guard shakes his head. “Sorry. Can’t do it.”
    “Why not?”
    “Orders.”
    “We see clients here all the time. This is the first time—”
    “First time for everything.” The guard closes the door in Harry’s face.
    Ruiz laughs. “That’s good, you talk to them. Kendal didn’t have any more luck than you just did. Only time they take the chains off is in court. And then there’s six of ‘em in uniform hanging over me like a dark cloud.”
    “I’ll talk to the sheriff. If I have to, I’ll get a writ.” Harry makes a note.
    “You’re hired.” Ruiz looks at me and smiles. “You wouldn’t have a cigarette, would you?”
    I don’t, but Harry does. My partner’s fallen off the smokeless wagon again. He offers one to Ruiz, then lights it for him.
    Ruiz takes a long drag, sucking the noxious vapor deep into his lungs, then settles back onto the bench seat and blows a smoke ring toward the ceiling. “Startin’ to like you guys already,” he says. “Now, if you could just get me a good-lookin’ woman . . .” He takes another drag, holds the smoke for a few seconds, then expels it through his nose. “Good-lookin’, hell,” he says. “‘Bout now anything would look good. Four months in this hole. It’s not that I haven’t been in worse places, you understand. It’s just that in those other places, they did things every once in a while to keep you entertained—break the monotony, so to speak.”
    “Where was this?”
    “Different places. Other countries. You know what they say: ‘Join the Army, see the world.’ Or is that the Navy?”
    “What exactly did they do to entertain you? In these other places?” Harry wants to know.
    “Oh. Sometimes they might use your tongue for an ashtray, put out their cigarettes on it. Other times they’d clean your fingernails with a knife.” He holds up his right hand and waves