One Dead Lawyer by Tony Lindsay Read Free Book Online

DTS. Once the car is in, the door closes and the garage is pitch black until I give the verbal command for lights. Sitting in the complete darkness with me not talking must have spooked Stanley.
    â€œLights please, Wilma” was the command for lights. The garage lit up completely. I said nothing to Stanley. My mood didn’t allow for explaining the garage or the technology in it. The boy followed me in silence. Once we entered the house, Yin and Yang, my Dobermans, greeted us at the door.
    They separated me from Stanley as they were trained to do. They held him at bay against the door. I introduced a petrified Stanley by giving the command “Friend,” and they allowed him to pass.
    â€œWicked,” was his response. “Man, this is some Fort Knox type shit.”
    Yin and Yang scared people. No matter how much money I offered the cleaning service, the owner would not agree to have her people feed them. They are trained to my voice command and also a sequence of chimes I have installed in my home-security system. I gave the cleaning service the code, allowing them to enter. However, it appears that in my absence Yin and Yang split up and follow the cleaning crew through the house while they do their duties. This apparently makes some of them nervous, and more times than the owner of the cleaning service likes, she has to come to my place and clean.
    I showed Stanley to the guest bath and bedroom which was on the main level. As a result of remodeling, my home had been transformed into a two-bedroom house, with the master suite upstairs. Stanley didn’t appear happy about being downstairs alone. I told him Yin and Yang slept at my door, but that didn’t appear to settle him any. I told him there was a phone in the guest room and he could feel free to call his mother. With that, he settled in. I gave the kid some towels and a fresh bar of soap and headed upstairs.
    I took off my mesh T-shirt and flip-flops and plummeted into the middle of my bed. The night had not turned out like I planned. I started thinking about lawyers I could call. A couple owed me favors, but I wanted a good lawyer, one with as many powerful connections as Randolph Peal. My oldest brother, Charlie, the Republican alderman, would have the associations I required. With that thought I was able to drift off to an almost restful sleep, until the phone rang.
    Being in the protection business I often get calls at 3:00 A.M. , but an early-morning call is still an interruption. I yanked the phone up. “Yeah.”
    â€œD, it’s me, Nelson.”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œDaaaphna, from Harvey. A few hours ago we were over Gina’s together. Remember? Those boys who were bothering my son are parked in front of my home. I was afraid to go in. I didn’t want to call the pooolice, ’cause I don’t know what Stanley’s true association with them is. So I called Gina and she gave me your address. I’m parked outside your home. Is that okay? What should I do?”
    She sounded a bit tipsy to me. I wanted to tell her to take her drunk behind back over to Regina’s.
    â€œHold on. I’ll be right down.”
    I was expecting to go outside, sit in her car and give some rational advice, but as soon as I opened the front door she was standing there and immediately got in my face. She was crying and babbling at the same time.
    â€œI don’t know what to do about all this mess. It’s too much for me. It’s way too much, it’s all wrong and I know it. It’s been wrong for a long time.”
    She fell against my chest, blubbering like a baby. Yin and Yang were at my side. They didn’t try to separate us. They didn’t even wait for the “friend” command, they just walked away and left me there holding her crying, reeking-of-liquor behind.
    â€œI don’t know where or who to turn to, D. It’s all a mess, a mess I made and now my boy is in it. My baby involved in my