The Advocate's Ex Parte (The Advocate Series Book 5) (27 page)

"What you want?" she said in a heavy accent, her tone more friendly than the syntax of her words.

JP looked at the envelope as if he were reading it. "I'm looking for someone named Quang Pham," he said, thinking of one of the few names he knew to be Vietnamese.

"No one here by that name."

"Are you sure?" He looked at the number on the side of the house. "This is the address on the envelope. It's very important that I get this to him."

"Not here."

"Thank you," JP said and left as the machines buzzed away. He had satisfied at least one of his suspicions.

***

The Durham Case

Child: Matt Durham, Defendant

Type: Delinquency case

Charges: Two counts of First Degree Murder

Victims: Hannah Rawlins & Mason Usher

Facts: Double homicide. Two teenagers bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat.

Since he was not far from where Matt Durham's friend Ralph worked, JP decided to stop in and have another chat with him. All three stalls at Jim's Oil and Lube were empty, but JP parked off to the side and walked to where Ralph was standing out back smoking a cigarette.

"Good, I caught you on a break. Remember me?"

"Yeah, you're the private dick for Matt."

"Yes. JP," he said, extending his hand to shake.

Ralph put his cigarette in his mouth so he could reciprocate. "Is that good-looking attorney going to get Matt off? Get…Matt…off.” He chuckled at his own double entendre.

JP felt his face redden at Ralph's sick joke, but immediately wondered how Ralph knew Sabre was “good-looking.” He didn't think he had ever seen her. "Have you met Ms. Brown?"

"No, but I seen her on TV. Matt's been in the news a lot, you know. Besides, Matt said she's pretty hot."

JP wanted to punch this guy and his psycho buddy. He didn't want either of them even thinking about Sabre, much less talking about her. He could only imagine the disgusting conversations they had about her.

"You weren't with Matt the night when Hannah and Mason were killed, were you?" JP's anger made him change his tactics.

"Of course I was."

JP decided to call Ralph’s bluff. He looked around as if he were making sure no one was listening, and then he lowered his voice. "The cops think he had an accomplice. They're looking for the second guy." JP watched the color drain from Ralph's face. "Have they come to talk to you yet?"

"No, why would they? Matt said you and his attorney are the only ones who know about me."

"For now, maybe, but when we go to trial they'll have to know."

"Yeah, but then it'll be too late, right?"

"Too late to charge you? Absolutely not. Besides, you've been to visit him. They'll be checking on you soon. You can be sure of that."

Ralph finished his cigarette. He crushed the stub against the brick wall next to him and lit up another one. "You think?"

"Look, Ralph, we work for Matt. We want what's best for him and all we need now is the truth from you. If you were really with him, tell me, and we'll use it to help Matt. But if you weren't and we go to court with it, he'll look worse when the prosecutor pokes holes in your testimony—not to mention how guilty it’s going to make you look.” JP's voice escalated slightly. “So level with me. That's all we want."

Ralph took a long drag on his cigarette. "I just wanna help the kid. He said he didn't do it. He said he was getting set up by that Flynn kid who stole his bat."

"And maybe he is. We're looking into that," JP said. "So, were you with Matt that night?"

"No, I was at a bar."

“What bar?”

“The Handle Bar.”

JP nodded his head. "Okay. Did Matt ask you to cover for him?"

"Yes, he said he was out alone but nobody believed him. He was really scared."

"Was that before or after his arrest?"

"After. It was the second time I visited him." Ralph took a long pull on his cigarette. The smoke floated out of his mouth as he spoke. "He swore he didn't kill nobody. Do you think he did it?"

"It doesn't matter what I think."

"I never even seen him get mad really. Never heard him threaten nobody or nothing, you know. All he ever did was play video games. He liked to kill people in the games."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing really. He was just good at it. I mean, that's the whole point of the games, right?"

Chapter 46

Sabre looked across her desk at JP. She couldn't help but think how ruggedly handsome he was. She shrugged it off. "So, what have you discovered on the Tran case?" Sabre asked.

"I'm not sure, but there are a lot of strange things happening. First, both Kim-Ly and Jade are younger than they claim to be. Second, I found two houses where Jade, whom we are not supposed to know is Kim-Ly’s sister, has lived for short periods of time with other young girls. Third, those houses led us to Scott Le, who is connected to two more houses with women working on sewing machines and to several dry cleaning businesses."

"So the women on the sewing machines are probably working for the dry cleaners, which in itself is not illegal."

"Not if they are paid proper wages and are here legally. But I would bet my last possum they aren’t," JP said.

“And how many possums do you have?”

“Not enough.” He smirked.

"Even so, what do the sewing machine houses have to do with Kim-Ly? How does that affect the custody of her daughter? I realize we have to figure out the whole age thing, but that's a different issue. And we don't know if Scott Le has done anything illegal as far as the houses where Jade has lived or if he's even connected to Kim-Ly."

"Oh, he's connected alright. We just don't know to what extent. We know that Jade is Kim-Ly’s younger sister who has lived in at least two houses that have gone into foreclosure. We know Scott Le is the one who signs off on the foreclosed houses so other people can enter and ready them for sale or rent. He'd have to know if someone was living there unless he is a total bumbling idiot."

Sabre shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe he is. What if he’s not doing his job? Maybe he’s passing his authority to sign off on the houses to someone else and that person is the one using them. Perhaps the sewing machine houses and the dry cleaners have nothing to do with Kim-Ly."

"Maybe," JP said. "I need to find the guy in the black car. I’ll bet that’ll give us the answers we need."

"How do you propose to do that?"

"I don't know yet."

"We go to trial in two days and I can't recommend anything until we have some answers. How can we prove Kim-Ly's real age? She has documentation that says she's twenty-one, but if she’s a minor we need to provide her with a whole different set of services. And then there's Jade, or Bich, or whatever her name is. I know she's not our responsibility, but something’s going on in those houses, something’s that’s not kosher. The problem is we don't have evidence of anything illegal.

"No, not yet," JP said. He waited a moment to allow Sabre’s impatience to dissipate. "I have some more information on the Durham case."

Sabre shook her head in frustration. "Do I want to hear it?"

"Probably not."

"Tell me anyway."

"Ralph lied about being with Matt the night Hannah and Mason were killed. Ralph was at The Handle Bar in Kearny Mesa. He only claimed to be with Matt because Matt asked him to give him an alibi."

"Why would he do that?"

"Because he's dumber than a bag of hammers."

"Or he's an accomplice," Sabre conjectured.

"I considered that and I haven't ruled it out yet. I just haven't had a chance to check with the bar where Ralph claimed to be."

Sabre slumped slightly in her chair. She had too many cases without answers, decisions that needed to be made, and not enough information to know how to deal with them. The Tran case was wrought with all kinds of problems. Matt's 702 hearing was quickly approaching and she had little to fight with to keep him in juvenile court. She had a psychological report but no doctor to support it since Dr. Heller remained in a coma. In a way, that could work in Matt's favor if she could get the DA to let the report in without testimony. She knew Dr. Heller had concerns about Matt, too.

And then there was the decision she had to make about whether or not to keep Matt's case if she lost the 702 hearing. Did she want to take the case downtown? It was always a struggle trying to balance her calendar when she had a case outside of juvenile court. But her biggest concern was that she believed Matt bludgeoned those two kids to death with his own baseball bat, especially now that Ralph recanted his alibi. Many of her past clients were guilty, but that never stopped her from defending them before. So, why was this one bothering her so much?

"Are you okay?" JP broke her chain of thought.

Sabre sat up straight. She was glad she had JP to investigate the facts in these cases and to figure out who killed Judge Mitchell. She could concentrate on the legal issues. "I'm fine. Just trying to sort this all out."

"What can I do to help?"

"Exactly what you're doing. Figure out which time Ralph was lying. Is he an alibi for Matt or not? And find the man in the black car or something that resolves the Tran case." Sabre picked up a file from her desk. "What do we know about the King case? Anything more on Isaiah Banks?"

"No. I've reached a dead end on that one, but the police are really watching him. They think he has gained some new status in the Piru gang. I'm sure I'll hear if anything breaks on him. Also, I spoke to Klakken again about the judge's murder. They don't seem to be any closer to an arrest. And they still don't know if Dr. Heller's hit-and-run is connected to the judge’s murder."

“I’m working on something that might help us.”

“What’s that?” JP asked.

“I had lunch with Jeanette, who was Judge Mitchell’s clerk, the other day and she said Scary Larry had her keep a record of every case he ever presided over. At the end of each day she had to enter the info into a spreadsheet.”

“Why would he do that?”

“That’s the funny thing. She asked him about it once and he told her that if anything suspicious ever happened to him, she should give the list to the police because the murderer was probably someone on the list. He said to make sure they eliminate his ex-wives first. At the time she thought he was kidding. Now she’s not so sure.”

“So do the police have it?”

“Yes, she sent it to them this morning. She emailed me a copy earlier today.”

“Why did she wait so long? Have they ruled out the ex-wives?”

Sabre chuckled. “I don’t know, but she’d forgotten all about it. About a year ago he stopped adding to the list. He gave no explanation; he just told her she didn’t have to do it any longer.”

JP stood to leave. “Let me know if you find something,” he said. “I’m just a phone call away.”

***

After JP left, Sabre opened her computer and googled “places to buy Shiner Bock in San Diego.” When the list popped up she clicked on Keg N Bottle, but when she searched on the site it read “not in store.” She called each one of the locations to make certain. She phoned Pat’s Liquor in Ocean Beach, but they didn’t carry it either. She hadn’t intended on spending this much time on her search, but now it had become a challenge. Besides, she wanted to let Clint know that she was interested enough to make the effort.

She tried a couple other stores to no avail. Then she clicked on BevMo! She tried the Mission Valley store because it was closest, but they were out of stock. Then she tried the Point Loma and Carmel Mountain stores with the same result. Finally, she found it in the Mira Mesa store. The beer was available for pick-up in one hour so she ordered two six-packs. Even if Clint wasn’t around long enough to drink all of the beer, it had been too much trouble to just buy one six-pack.

Sabre finished the preparation on the rest of her cases for court the next day. Then she perused the list Jeanette had provided of Judge Mitchell’s cases, starting with the most recent date and working backwards through the list. It contained thousands of cases but the information on each was minimal. It included the date, the type of case, the defendant’s name, the charges, the attorneys (both prosecution and defense), the end result, and a brief note about disposition and/or sentencing.

Since the judge had stopped posting to the list last year, Sabre’s dependency cases were not there. She did have several delinquency cases with him. None of those cases seemed to stand out except for one: the Juarez case. Renaldo Juarez was a sixteen-year-old gangbanger charged with armed robbery. Immediately following his sentencing, he pointed his finger at the DA, the judge, the bailiff, and Sabre in a sweeping motion around the courtroom. The bailiff grabbed his hands, pulled them behind his back, and handcuffed him. As the bailiff led him from the courtroom, Renaldo threatened the lives of everyone involved in his case. Sabre pulled his file from her file cabinet of completed cases. She made a few phone calls and found he was safely tucked away at a juvenile camp in Arizona. To her surprise, Renaldo Juarez was purported to be doing quite well.

She continued through the list in reverse chronological order for another fifteen minutes with no luck.

She glanced at the time. If she left now she could pick up the beer, drive home, put it in the refrigerator to cool, and have time to relax a bit before she showered and dressed for her date.

She decided to take one last look at the list before she left. This time she clicked on the defendants and shifted them into alphabetical order. She quickly glanced down the list. Bingo!

Date: April 3, 2002

Type of case: Juvenile Delinquency

Defendant: Isaiah Banks

Charges: PC 215, PC 12031

Attorneys: Prosecutor Jane Palmer, Defense Jerry Leahy

End result: Convicted

Sentence: Four years at CYA, one-year enhancement under PC 12022

Sabre saved the list in her Dropbox so she could look at it from any computer. She gathered up her things and headed out the door. She punched the address for BevMo! into her GPS and then called her friend, Jerry Leahy, using the Bluetooth technology between her phone and microphone clipped to the visor.