I had the feeling that Miss Jenks wastalking out of her deepest sense of herself: She had always been a good girl,but she might have changed.

"Why don't you call Crane up and tell him to layoff? Your niece needs delicate handling."

"You don't believe she's guilty of thismurder?"

"I said I didn't. Tell him to lay off or he'lllose the next election."

"I couldn't do that. He's my seniorin county work." But she was thinking about it. She shook the thought off."Speaking of which, I've given you all the time I possibly can. It must bepast twelve."

I was ready to leave. It had been a longhour. She followed me downstairs and out onto the veranda. I had the impressionas we said goodbye that she wanted to say something more. Her face wasexpectant. But nothing came.

chapter13

The fog had thinned out a little along thecoastline, but you still couldn't see the sun, only a sourceless white glare thathurt the eyes. The keyboy at the Mariner's Rest told me that Alex had drivenaway with an older man in a new Chrysler. His own red sports car was still inthe parking enclosure, and he hadn't checked out.

I bought a sandwich at a drive-in down thestreet and ate it in my room. Then I made a couple of frustrating phone calls.The switchboard operator at the courthouse said there wasn't a chance ofgetting hold of a trial transcript this afternoon: everything was locked uptight for the weekend. I called the office of Gil Stevens, the lawyer who hadunsuccessfully defended Tom McGee. His answering service said he was in Balboa.No, I couldn't reach him there. Mr. Stevens was racing his yacht today andtomorrow.

I decided to drop in on Jerry Marks, theyoung lawyer who had acted as Mrs. Perrine's defense counsel. His office was ina new shopping center not too far from the motel strip. Jerry was unmarried andambitious, and he might be in it, even on a Saturday afternoon.

The front door was open and I walked intothe waiting room, which was furnished with maple and chintz. The secretary'scubicle behind the glass half-wall on the left was deserted for the weekend,but Jerry Marks was in the inner office.

"How are you, Jerry?"

"I'm all right."

He looked at me guardedly over the book hewas reading, an enormous tome entitled Rules of Evidence. He wasn't veryexperienced in criminal practice, but he was competent and honest. His homelyMiddle-European face was warmed and lit by intelligent brown eyes.

"How's Mrs. Perrine?" I said.

"I haven't seen her since she wasreleased, and I don't expect to. I seldom see much of my ex-clients. I smell ofthe courtroom to them."

"I have the same experience. Are you free?"

"Yeah, and I'm going to stay that way. I promisedmyself a clear weekend of study, murder or no murder."

"You know about the Haggerty murder then."

"Naturally, it's all over town."

"What have you heard?"

"Really not very much. Somebody atthe courthouse told my secretary that this lady professor was shot by a girlstudent at the college. I forget her name."

"Dolly Kincaid. Her husband is myclient. She's in a nursing home, under a doctor's care."

"Psycho?"

"It depends on your definition ofpsycho. It's a complex situation, Jerry. I doubt that she's legally insaneunder the McNaghten rule. On the other hand I very much doubt that she did theshooting at all."

"You're trying to get me interested in thecase," he said suspiciously.

"I'm not trying to do anything to you. Actually Icame to you for information. What's your opinion of Gil Stevens?"

"He's the local old master. Get him."

"He's out of town. Seriously, is he a goodlawyer?"

"Stevens is the most successfulcriminal lawyer in the county. He has to be good. He knows law, and he knowsjuries. He does pull some old-fashioned courtroom shenanigans that I wouldn'tuse myself. He's quite an actor, heavy with the emotion. It works, though. Ican't remember when he's lost an important case."

"I can. About ten years ago he defended a mannamed Tom McGee who was convicted of shooting his wife."

"That was before my time."

"Dolly Kincaid is McGee's daughter. Also, she wasthe key witness for the prosecution at her father's trial."

Jerry whistled. "I see what you mean bycomplex." After a pause, he said: "Who's her doctor?"

"Godwin."

He pushed out his heavy lips. "I'd go easy withhim."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm sure he's a good psychiatrist,but maybe not so much in the forensic department. He's a very bright man and hedoesn't hide his light under a bushel, in fact he sometimes acts like amastermind. Which puts people's backs up, especially if their name is Gahaganand they're sitting on the Superior Court bench. So I'd use himsparingly."

"I can't control the use that's made of

© Alexander Sviyash, 2009