Double Tap by Steve Martini Read Free Book Online Page A

the fingers as if to show us a ring. “Drive it right up in there,” says Ruiz. The nails from the middle two fingers are gone. Just a little cuticle and wrinkled skin remaining. “Then, for a little variation on the theme, they’d wake you in the morning with a good beating, either truncheons or a cane, depending whether they wanted to work on the bottom of your feet or your back and legs. But these assholes”—Ruiz gestures with a slight nod of the head toward the guard outside—“they just leave you in your cell twenty-three hours a day.”
    “Some of my other clients claim they beat the crap out of them over here all the time,” says Harry. “If you like, I can talk to the guards, see what I can do.”
    Ruiz laughs. “No, thanks. But maybe you can see if you can get me out of here. What are the chances of bail?”
    This is not likely. A capital case involving a high-profile victim, a defendant with few contacts in the community, and a penchant for travel . . . If Ruiz were to disappear, the judge who sprung him would have a lot of questions to answer. We put the issue of bail on the back burner for now.
    He takes another drag, removes the cigarette from his mouth, and looks at it as he inhales the smoke deep into his lungs. “Kendal’s people, none of ‘em smoke,” he says. “Health nuts every one. Gonna live forever, I suppose. Fucking humorless bunch to boot. Don’t know why I miss ‘em so. Bit of a mystery, though.”
    “What’s that?” says Harry.
    “Why did Kendal quit the case?” he asks. “He pitched it in right after the preliminary hearing. I thought he did a pretty fair job. I mean, he couldn’t have expected to win there, what with all the evidence they had stacked up against us like that.”
    “You think they’re out to get you?”
    Ruiz is looking at the guard outside the door as I ask the question.
    “What, him? No. He’s just doing his job. Working stiff like me. He’s gonna do whatever they tell him. But Kendal pisses me off. No excuse to cut and run. And I thought we hit it off pretty well. Then he ups and quits on me. I wasn’t mad at him for losing the prelim. Hell, anybody could have done that.”
    “I trust you’ll cut us the same slack if we lose at trial,” says Harry.
    “Your partner’s got a good sense of humor,” he tells me. “You I’m still trying to figure out.”
    “According to what I understand, Mr. Kendal had a conflicted calendar. Two other trials coming up,” I tell him.
    “Yeah, that was the story he told me, too.” Ruiz is busy bending over, sitting on the bench, adjusting the chains on one ankle, cigarette dangling from his lip as he glances up at me from under hooded lids. “Still, it would be nice to know exactly how they got to him.”
    “Who’s ‘they’?” Harry wants to know.
    “Who’s ‘they’?” says Ruiz. “Who do you think? The government, that’s who.”
    “Why do you think the DA—”
    “I’m not talking about the DA. I said the government. There’s only one government counts in this country, and that’s the federal government, as in U.S.”
    Harry dances his pupils in my direction, the kind of look he normally reserves for clients relegated to a padded cell.
    “Yeah, I know. But if you want to analyze me, at least let me lay on the table.” Ruiz sniffs Harry’s judgment from the ether in the room without even looking up. “We’ll see how long it takes them to reach you.”
    “What makes you think the federal government is on your case?” I ask.
    “That’s not it at all. They’re not out to get me. Not in the way you think. The fact is, I happen to be convenient. In the right place at the wrong time, so to speak. What they want is this thing with Chapman to go away and with as little fuss as possible. A quick conviction and a closed case, and right now I’m what you might call handy. Like a Kleenex. It’s nothing personal. Just another interchangeable unit to be used by people in high places.” He