Mickey Haller 4 - The Fifth Witness

someone who colluded in the perpetration of the fraud.”
    “I did no such thing! I didn’t even know about all of this until you told me.”
    “That’s right. I told you and you did nothing. You chose to move forward with a thief despite knowing the facts. That’s collusion and that makes my case.”
    I reached into my pocket and pulled the tape recorder out. I held it up so he could see the red light was still on.
    “I’m going to tie this movie up so long, the girl whose ass you just slapped will be running this place by the time it’s done.”
    This time I walked away and he called me back.
    “Wait a minute, Haller.”
    I turned around. He looked off to the north, toward the sign high on the mountain that drew everybody here.
    “What do I need to do?” he asked.
    “You need to make the same deal with me. I’ll take care of Dahl. He deserves something and he’ll get it.”
    “I need a phone number to give Legal.”
    I pulled a card and gave it to him.
    “Remember, I have to hear something today.”
    “You will.”
    “By the way, what are the numbers on the deal?”
    “Two-fifty against a million. Another quarter to produce.”
    I nodded. A quarter million dollars up front would certainly fund Lisa Trammel’s defense. There might even be a piece left over for Herb Dahl. It all depended on how I wanted to handle this and how fair I wanted to be to a thief. Realistically, I’d have liked to put the guy in the ground, but then again he did find the project a legitimate home.
    “Tell you what, I’m the only guy in town who will ever say this, but I don’t want to produce. You keep that part of the deal with Dahl. That’s his end.”
    “As long as he’s not in jail.”
    “Put a character clause in the contract.”
    “That’ll be something new around here. I hope Legal can handle it.”
    “Pleasure doing business with you, Clegg.”
    Once more I turned and headed back toward my car. This time Clegg came up alongside me and walked with me.
    “We’ll be able to reach you, right? We’ll need you as a technical advisor. Especially on the screenplay.”
    “You have my card.”
    I got to the Lincoln and Rojas had the door open for me. Once again I carefully slipped in, nice and easy on the cojones, and then looked back at McReynolds.
    “One more thing,” the producer said. “I was thinking of going to Matthew McConaughey with this. He’d be excellent. But who do you think could play you?”
    I smiled at him and reached for the door handle.
    “You’re looking at him, Clegg.”
    I pulled the door closed and through the smoked glass watched the confusion spread on his face.
    I told Rojas to head toward Van Nuys.

Fourteen
    Rojas told me that my phone had been ringing repeatedly while I was talking to McReynolds. I checked it and found no messages. I then opened the call record and saw that a total of four calls from a line with an unavailable ID had come in during the ten minutes I was out of the car. The time intervals were too disparate for it to have been an errant fax call on a repeat dialer. Someone had been trying to reach me but apparently it wasn’t urgent enough to warrant leaving a message.
    I called Lorna and told her I was on the way in. I filled her in about the deal I had made with McReynolds and said to expect a call from the Archway legal department before the end of the day. She was excited about the prospect of money coming in on the case instead of going out only.
    “What else?”
    “Andrea Freeman’s called twice.”
    I thought about the four calls on my cell.
    “You give her my cell?”
    “I did.”
    “I think I just missed her but she didn’t leave a message. Something must be up.”
    Lorna gave me the number Andrea had left with her.
    “Maybe you can reach her if you call right back. I’ll let you go.”
    “Okay, but where’s everybody at right now, in or out?”
    “Jennifer’s here in her office and I just heard from Cisco. He’s heading back from some field work.”
    “What field work?”
    “He didn’t say.”
    “Okay, then I’ll see everybody when I get there.”
    I disconnected and called the number for Freeman. I had not heard from her since I’d been attacked by the black-gloved boys. Even Kurlen had come by to visit and check on me. But not even a get-well-soon card from my worthy opponent. Now six calls in one morning but no messages. I was certainly curious.
    She answered after one ring and got right down to business.
    “When can you