Mickey Haller 4 - The Fifth Witness

telling me that Andrea Freeman was already in there waiting. I made a quick detour to the other office, knocked once and opened the door. Cisco and Bullocks were behind their desks. I went to Cisco’s and put my phone down in front of him.
    “Lisa’s husband called. In fact he called several times. Unavailable ID. Can you see what you can do?”
    He rubbed a finger across his mouth as he considered the request.
    “Our carrier has a threat-trace service. I give the exact time of the calls and they’ll see what they can find. Takes a few days but all they’ll be able to do is identify the number, not the location. You need law enforcement if you are going to try to triangulate this guy’s location.”
    “I just want the number. Next time I want to call him instead of the other way around.”
    “You got it.”
    As I turned to leave I looked at Aronson.
    “Bullocks, you want to come in and see what the district attorney’s office has to say?”
    “Love to.”
    We moved through the suite to my office. Freeman was sitting in a chair in front of my desk, reading e-mail on her phone. She was in non-court clothes. Blue jeans and a pullover sweater. It must’ve been all inside work today. I closed the door and she looked up.
    “Andrea, can I get you something to drink?”
    “No, I’m fine.”
    “And you know Jennifer from the prelim.”
    “Silent Jennifer, of course. Didn’t make a peep at the prelim.”
    As I came around my desk I checked Aronson and saw her face and neck start to color with embarrassment. I tried to throw her a line.
    “Oh, she wanted to make a peep or two but she had her orders from me. Strategy, you know. Jennifer, pull that chair over.”
    Aronson dragged a side chair toward the desk and sat down.
    “So, here we are,” I said. “What brings the DA’s office to my humble place of work?”
    “Well, we’re getting close and I thought, you know. I figured you work the whole county and might not be as familiar with Judge Perry as I am.”
    “That’s an understatement. I’ve never even been in front of him.”
    “Well, he likes to keep a clean docket. He doesn’t care about headlines and hoopla. He’ll just want to know that there was a vigorous effort to end this matter through disposition. So I thought maybe we could have one more discussion about it before we get down to a full-blown trial.”
    “One more? I don’t remember the first discussion.”
    “Do you want to talk about it or not?”
    I leaned back and swiveled in my chair as if mulling the question over. This was all a little dance and we both knew it. Freeman wasn’t acting out of some desire to please Judge Perry. There was something else unseen in the room. Something had gone wrong and there was an opportunity for the defense. I wiggled my fingers in the cast, trying to relieve an itch on my palm.
    “Well…,” I said. “I’m not sure what you’re thinking. Every time I bring up a plea with my client she tells me to pound sand. She wants a trial. Of course, I’ve seen this before. The old no deal, no deal, no deal, yes deal scenario.”
    “Right.”
    “But my hands are sort of tied here, Andrea. My client has twice forbidden me from approaching your office with a tender. She won’t allow me to initiate. So here we are, you’ve come to me, so that works. But you have to open negotiations. You tell me what you’re thinking.”
    Freeman nodded.
    “Fair enough. I did make the call after all. Are we in agreement that this is off the record? Nothing leaves this room if no agreement is eventually struck.”
    “Sure.”
    Aronson nodded along with me.
    “Okay then, this is what we are thinking. And this already has approval from on high. We drop down to man and recommend the mid-level.”
    I nodded, projecting my lower lip in a manner that suggested that it was an offer with merit. But I knew that if she opened with manslaughter with a mid-range sentence recommendation, it could only get better for my client. I also knew that my instincts were right. There was no way the DA would float an offer like this unless something was seriously wrong. By my estimation their case was weak from the moment they put the cuffs on my client. But now something had fallen out of place. Something big, and I had to find out what that was.
    “That’s a good offer,” I said.
    “You’re damn right. We’re coming down off premeditated and lying in wait.”
    “I’m assuming we’re talking voluntary manslaughter?”
    “It