The Witness

ponytail, shook her head. She kissed Russ’s cheek. “We’ll be all right. Brooks.” She kissed Brooks’s cheek in turn. “We’re grateful.”
    “There’s no need for that.”
    “She’s still sad,” Seline murmured, when her in-laws walked out. “She can’t find her mad through it. I want her to find that mad. She’ll feel better when she does.”
    “You’re mad enough for all of us.”
    Seline smiled a little. “God knows. I’ve got to get to school. The kids’ve probably traumatized the morning substitute by now.”
    She gave Brooks a hard hug, turned to Russ, held on to him for a long minute. “Don’t fret too much, cutie,” she told him.
    “Let me buy you a cup of coffee,” Brooks said to Russ when they were alone.
    “I should get to the hotel.”
    “Take a few minutes, decompress.”
    “I could use it. Okay. I’ll meet you there.”
    The minute Brooks walked into the diner, Kim grabbed a coffeepot and beelined toward him. She pointed at a booth, turned the mug on the tabletop over, poured.
    “Well,” she said.
    “Just coffee, thanks.”
    She poked him on the shoulder. “How’m I supposed to maintain my status as News Queen if you don’t give me the dish? Do you want me to get demoted?”
    “No, indeed. We can’t have that. They made bail.”
    Her mouth turned down, ferociously. “I should’ve known Stan Reingold would play weasel for Lincoln Blake.”
    “Now, I wouldn’t say that, Kim. I expected them to make bail. I didn’t expect the judge to set it as high as he did, and I can guarantee you Blake didn’t, either.”
    “That’s something, then.”
    “And he’s confiscating their passports until after the trial.”
    “Well, now.” Lips pursed, she gave a satisfied nod. “I take it all back. That had to burn Blake’s fat ass.”
    “Oh, I’d say he felt the heat. He mouthed off, and the judge fined him five hundred for contempt.”
    This time she slapped Brooks’s shoulder. “You’re shitting me.”
    “Swear to God.”
    “I take it all back double. Next time Stan Reingold comes in, I’m giving him pie on the house. You hear that, Lindy?” she called to the man at the grill. “Stan Reingold fined Lincoln Blake five hundred for contempt.”
    Spatula fisted at his hip, Lindy turned. “About time contempt cost him, ’cause the sumbitch has plenty of it. That coffee’s on me, Brooks.” Lindy lifted his chin toward the door. “And his, too.”
    Kim spotted Russ when he came in, turned the second mug over. “You sit right on down here, sweetie.” She rose to her toes to kiss his cheek. “And no charge for the coffee or anything else you want. You be sure to tell your folks that anybody worth spit in this town is sorry as hell about what happened, and behind them a hundred percent.”
    “I will. Thanks, Kim. It means a lot.”
    “You look tired out. How about a big wedge of that French apple pie you like to perk you up?”
    “Couldn’t right now. Maybe next time.”
    “I’ll leave you to talk, then, but you need anything, you just holler.”
    Brooks pretended to sulk. “She didn’t offer me any damn pie.”
    Russ managed a wan smile. “She’s got to feel sorry for you first. Did you know about the passports?”
    “I knew we were going to request it, but I didn’t figure Reingold would rule on our side. He surprised me, and maybe that’s on me.”
    “He’s let the Blake kid slide on plenty before today.”
    “Yeah, he has, and I think he’s feeling the weight of that. He may be Blake’s golf buddy, but he can’t—and I think won’t—brush off this kind of thing. I believe His Honor was well and truly pissed this morning. And I believe Blake isn’t going to let Harry talk his boy into a plea on this. He wants the trial because he absolutely believes he and his are too fucking important to bend to the law. That boy’s going down, Russ, and he may go down harder than I expected. I’m not sorry about it.”
    “Can’t say as I am, either.”
    Brooks shifted forward. “I wanted to talk to you for a few minutes because I’m dead sure Blake’s going to do whatever he can to buy you off or pressure you into dropping the assault charges. He gets that gone, he’s going to figure it’s mostly about money. Pay the two dollars, so to speak, try to manipulate community service and some rehab, a suspended sentence for the boy.”
    Russ’s bruised mouth set like stone. “It’s not going to happen, Brooks. Did you see my daddy this