The Perfect Alibi (Robin Lockwood #2)(77)

“Hi, Judge, is Regina there?”

“Yeah. We’re just getting ready to go out.”

“I’ve got a problem at work and I hoped she could advise me on what to do. Do you think she’s up for that?”

“Her meds have been working pretty well, so I think she’ll be able to help you. Let me get her.”

“How’s Greece?” Robin asked a minute later when Regina took the call.

“We toured the islands. It was wonderful. Santorini is the most romantic spot on earth.”

Robin laughed.

“Stanley says you have a problem at work.”

“This is attorney–client stuff, so you can’t discuss it with anyone, including Stanley.”

“We’re still law partners, and I still remember my ethics rules. So, shoot.”

Robin told her about the Hastings case and Randi’s confession that she had framed Hastings.

“But he did rape her in high school, and I believe that Hastings framed Ryan and coerced or paid his friends to lie. And that may have led to Ryan’s death,” Robin told Regina. “And he probably raped Julie Angstrom in eighth grade and other women we don’t know about.”

“You’ve got a very interesting dilemma, don’t you?”

“You hit the nail directly on the head. What should I do?”

“Nothing. You can’t disclose what Stark told you. And did she really tell you anything? She never admitted to framing Blaine, did she?”

Robin thought about that. “No,” she said a few moments later. “She kept saying that she did not frame him.”

“A bad person is in jail, where he belongs. I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it.”

“I can’t keep representing Randi. Not now.”

“Probably not.”

Robin was quiet, and Regina let her think.

“You’ve been a big help. Go enjoy Athens and send more postcards.”





CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN


Marsha took her seat on the other side of the glass from Doug. She hadn’t slept well in weeks. The only way she could get any rest was if she took medication. And she’d lost weight. Doug stared at her for a few moments. Then he raised the receiver that was attached to the concrete wall on his side of the noncontact visiting room.

“I’m so sorry,” Doug said. Tears trickled down his cheeks.

Marsha stared at them, at a loss for what to say.

“I did it for us, Marsha. I did it because I love you and I couldn’t lose you.”

“You … you killed three people,” she said.

“I killed Rex Kellerman because of what he did to you and tried to do to me.”

“What did Frank do? He was your best friend. How many times have you told me that you owed him everything?”

“Frank would have ruined our lives,” Doug said. “I begged him to let it lie. I reminded him of everything we’d built together, but he said I had to go to the bar and tell them. I would have been disgraced and disbarred. We would have been sued by every client whose case we lost. We would have had to give up our home, all of our savings. And I could have gone to prison for pretending to be a lawyer. Worst of all, I would have lost you.”

“I would never have deserted you, Doug. I love you. I would have stood by you.”

“You say that now.”

“I’m here for you now.”

Doug looked down. “I don’t want you to be here for me. I want you to file for divorce. I’ve thought about this a lot, Marsha. You’re young, you’re beautiful and smart. I don’t want you wasting your life out of a misguided sense of loyalty.”

Doug looked through the glass. Marsha had never seen anyone look as sad as Doug.

“This is our reality now,” he said. “I’m never getting out of prison, not ever. I don’t want you sitting by yourself in some cheap apartment for the rest of your life, waiting for the next visiting day at the Oregon State Penitentiary. You have to think of me as if I died, because it will be the same thing.”

Doug choked up. “I ruined my life thirty years ago when I made my decision to lie about graduating from law school,” Doug said when he regained his composure. “I couldn’t admit that I’d failed, and I never imagined that there would be consequences. I fooled myself then, but I’m facing reality now, and you have to do the same thing.”

Marsha looked sick.

“You have to leave me. If you don’t, I’ll find a way to kill myself. If I don’t have the nerve to commit suicide, I’ll get a prisoner to do it.” Doug smiled. “Finding someone who’ll kill me for a price shouldn’t be hard where I’m going.”

“Oh, Doug. Please don’t say that.”

“Then promise me that you’ll never visit me again; that you’ll get a divorce and find someone who is worthy of you. I’ve never been. You should be able to see that now.” Doug pressed his hand to the glass.

Marsha started to raise her hand to cover his, but she stopped halfway. Then she looked into Doug’s eyes, broke into tears, and ran away.

Doug watched her go until she disappeared from view. The phone Marsha had held dropped to the end of its cord. It swayed back and forth like a pendulum until the last evidence that the woman he’d loved and killed for had ever been on the other side of the bulletproof glass stopped moving.