Free All Day and a Night by Alafair Burke Page A

the Jerrod Carter case that led to all this new work?”
    “Something like that.”
    “Because I know she thinks that case is a big one, with a big payout. Like, that’s why we—well, she was going to be able to take more square footage in the building. I mean, he’s been in prison for fifteen years, and now there’s new DNA pointing to someone else. The problem is, Carter confessed. Or at least, he supposedly did. So Linda’s been digging into the detective’s history. Turns out he was extremely successful getting murder suspects to confess. He was considered one of the very best by the NYPD. Linda thought maybe he was a little too good. Buck Majors. That’s his name. Except the cops all called him Dime. Know why?”
    Carrie did know, because Linda had explained the connection between Jerrod Carter and Anthony Amaro to her before Carrie had even agreed to yesterday’s job interview. But she could see that Thomas was eager to tell her. She raised her eyebrows.
    “They joked that he should be named Dime instead of Buck—like you couldn’t be questioned by him without doing a ‘dime’ in prison. That means ten years. So Linda had already been digging around about the detective, wondering if he’d earned his big reputation by lying or beating it out of them or something.”
    So far, everything Thomas had said could be gleaned from information Linda had discussed during talking-head gigs about the Jerrod Carter case. She noticed Thomas’s eyes darting not so subtly around her table full of documents.
    “Anyway, that’s all I know. But, I’m not a lawyer or anything, so—I’ll leave you to be.”
    Carrie had seen how Linda treated Thomas the day before. She was friendly and full of praise, but when it came time to talk about the job and Carrie’s responsibilities, she had closed her office door, even though Thomas was the only other person around. She was so focused on her own priorities that she had never noticed the obvious: Thomas wanted to feel like a real member of the team.
    Thomas beamed when Carrie spoke up before he closed the door. “The reason she needed another lawyer is because there’s a pattern. It turns out that, in case after case, Majors claimed that the defendants confessed with phrases like ‘You got it right’ or ‘That’s how it happened’ or ‘I didn’t mean to do it.’ Linda’s still trying to find more police reports and trial transcripts, but she says that at least one of those phrases appears in about two-thirds of the detective’s confessions. And it was actually Jerrod Carter and another inmate who initially spotted the similarities between their two confessions to Major. Or, rather, their supposed confessions. So now she’s also representing the other inmate. His name is Anthony Amaro.”
    She showed him the letter Amaro sent to Linda, seeking her help.
    “All day and a night,” he said. “You know what that means, don’t you?”
    “I do.” She hadn’t until she’d looked it up online. A life sentence was “all day.” “All day and a night” meant a life sentence without parole. “I’m focusing specifically on the Amaro case, while Linda continues to track down other questionable confessions obtained by Majors. She’s finding more potential clients every day who are going to challenge their convictions.”
    “Wow. That’s amazing. Because Linda has built this huge platform, and is, basically, famous. But, you know”—he looked down the hallway, just to make sure no one was around—“we’re small,” he whispered. “And, like, I was wondering how she was going to pay for that space. And, well, for you.” He laughed nervously.
    Ah, and for him. He’d been wondering whether Carrie was here not as an addition but as a replacement, as the only other body Linda Moreland could afford.
    “Not to worry,” Carrie said. “From what I’ve been reading, Buck’s new nickname should be ‘Multimillion Bucks,’ as in, the millions of dollars he’s