Mickey Haller 4 - The Fifth Witness

to get to you in the jail—either directly or through other inmates or visitors you think you can trust. So, remember—”
    “Talk to no one. I get it.”
    “Good. Now, I also want you to know that my entire staff is meeting this afternoon to review the case and set some strategies. Can you think of anything you want brought up or discussed? Anything that can help us?”
    “I just have a question and it’s for you.”
    “What is it?”
    “How come you haven’t asked me if I did it?”
    I saw one of the courtroom deputies enter the pen and come up behind Lisa, ready to take her back.
    “I don’t need to ask you, Lisa,” I said. “I don’t need to know the answer to do my job.”
    “Then ours is a pitiful system. I am not sure I can have a lawyer defending me who doesn’t believe in me.”
    “Well, it’s certainly your choice and I’m sure there would be a line of lawyers out the door of the courthouse who would love to have this case. But nobody knows the circumstances of this case or the foreclosure like I do, and just because somebody says they believe you, it doesn’t mean they really do. With me, you don’t get that bullshit, Lisa. With me, it’s don’t ask, don’t tell. And that goes both ways. Don’t ask me if I believe you, and I won’t tell you.”
    I paused to see if she wanted to respond. She didn’t.
    “So are we good? I don’t want to be spinning my wheels on this if you’re going to be looking for a believer to take my place.”
    “We’re good, I guess.”
    “All right, then I’ll be by to see you tomorrow to discuss the case and what direction we are going to be moving in. I am hoping that my investigator will have a preliminary take on what the evidence is showing by then. He’s—”
    “Can I ask you a question, Mickey?”
    “Of course you can.”
    “Could you lend me the money for the bail?”
    I was not taken aback. I long ago lost track of how many clients hit me up for bail money. This might have been the highest amount so far, but I doubted it would be the last time I was asked.
    “I can’t do that, Lisa. Number one, I don’t have that kind of money, and number two, it’s a conflict of interest for an attorney to provide bail for his own client. So I can’t help you there. What I think you need to do is get used to the idea that you are going to be incarcerated at least through your trial. The bail is set at two million and that means you would need at least two hundred thousand just to get a bond. It’s a lot of money, Lisa, and if you had it, I’d want half of it to pay for the defense. So either way you’d still be in jail.”
    I smiled but she didn’t see any humor in what I was telling her.
    “When you put up a bond like that, do you get it back after the trial?” she asked.
    “No, that goes to the bail bondsman to cover his risk because he’d be the one on the hook for the whole two million if you were to flee.”
    Lisa looked incensed.
    “I’m not going to flee! I am going to stay right here and fight this thing. I just want to be with my son. He needs his mother.”
    “Lisa, I was not referring to you specifically. I was just telling you how bail and bonds work. Anyway, the deputy behind you has been very patient. You need to go with him and I need to get back to work on your defense. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
    I nodded to the deputy and he moved in to take Lisa back to the courthouse lockup. As they went through the steel door off the side of the custody pen Lisa looked back at me with scared eyes. There was no way she could know what lay ahead, that this was only the start of what would be the most harrowing ordeal of her life.
    Andrea Freeman had stopped to talk with a fellow prosecutor and that allowed me to catch up with her as she was leaving the courtroom.
    “Do you want to grab a cup of coffee and talk?” I asked as I came up beside her.
    “Don’t you need to talk to your people?”
    “My people?”
    “All the people with cameras. They’ll be lined up outside the door.”
    “I’d rather talk to you and we could even discuss media guidelines if you would like.”
    “I think I can spare a few minutes. You want to go down to the basement or come back with me to the office for some DA coffee?”
    “Let’s hit the basement. I’d be looking over my shoulder too much in your office.”
    “Your ex-wife?”
    “Her and others, though my ex and I are in a good phase right now.”
    “Glad to hear it.”
    “You know