See No Evil by Allison Brennan Read Free Book Online

one person.”
    “Which proves another point: Emily didn’t have to be involved at all. Two or more people entered the house and killed Victor either before Emily got home from school, or while she was upstairs.”
    “They think she tried to kill herself.”
    “Conjecture. Do they have a doctor’s report on that?” Iris glanced at her notes. “I was late because I was doing a little research. Emily was on probation, correct?”
    “Yes.”
    “And seeing a shrink? Garrett Bowen?” Iris smiled. “Interesting guy. I don’t trust him.”
    “You don’t trust anyone, Iris.”
    Instead of being insulted, Iris grinned. She tapped her notes. “We need our own shrink, and we want our person to talk to Emily first. I’m going to petition the court first thing in the morning. And I’m going to ask that you be appointed as Emily’s temporary guardian until the situation is resolved.”
    “Crystal will never agree—”
    “She doesn’t have to. She’s on record as believing her daughter is guilty of murder. That’s what you told me, correct?”
    “Yes, but it was phrased in the form of a question, so—”
    “Leave that up to me, Julia,” Iris said, dismissing her. She put her pen down and stared at Julia, making her feel distinctly uncomfortable. But Julia refused to squirm. She stared right back.
    “Okay, let’s lay out the ground rules now. You don’t like me because you think I work for the bad guys.”
    “You do.”
    Iris raised her hand to silence her. “Do you think Emily is a bad guy?”
    Julia felt tears spring to her eyes. She rubbed them. “No.”
    “Do you think she’s guilty?”
    Julia hesitated. “No.”
    “But?”
    “No buts.”
    “You don’t know, do you? But that’s okay. You don’t have to know. What you want is to protect her rights. She’s a minor child who has a troubled past and she has rights. But because she’s a minor, she needs a guardian and I’m confident I can prove Crystal Montgomery is unfit to make decisions on Emily’s behalf during this time.” Iris glared at Julia. “My question to you is, can
you
do it?”
    “Of course I can,” Julia snapped. “She’s my niece. My brother is dead, I can’t—” She stopped. There was no way she was going into detailed family history with this woman. Iris’s job was to protect Emily’s rights. That’s it. “I love Emily. I will do what I have to do to protect her.”
    Iris nodded. “I’d like to retain Dr. Dillon Kincaid for the defense.”
    “Kincaid? He usually works for Stanton.”
    “Unfortunately.” Iris fanned herself. “What a hottie. I’ve hired him for psychiatric evaluations and he’s good at his job. His credentials are impeccable. But I want him because he usually works for your people. If we hire him to evaluate Emily, they can’t use him for their side. We want him on our team. We’re building our case, Julia.”
    “Okay.” Julia had worked with Dillon several times—for the prosecution. She respected him greatly, and if anyone had to probe Emily’s psyche, she’d rather have Dillon do it.
    “Good, because I already called him. He’s meeting us here at nine this morning.” She glanced at her watch. “Six hours. Glad I don’t need a lot of sleep. Next step, we need to bring in a private investigator. We need to verify everything the police say and do, follow up on our own leads, interview friends, neighbors on our own. Our goal is to find holes in the prosecution.”
    “If it gets that far!” Julia had been pacing. She finally sat down, defeated. “They may not even charge Emily. They might not have a case against her.”
    “True, but when was the last time you heard of a detective telling someone to get an attorney? They know something we don’t.” Iris made a note. “I have Bruce Younger on retainer. He’s a top investigator, the best I have—”
    “I’ve already called Connor Kincaid.”
    Iris didn’t hide the surprise in her eyes. “Yet another Kincaid? Isn’t Connor