Free Private Vegas by James Patterson Page B

voice on the other end of the line, identified as belonging to Victoria Carmody. The only understandable word she uttered was
help
, which she got out in one long sigh.
    The operator said, “Stay on the line with me until help arrives, okay?”
    What had seemed almost theoretical, because Vicky Carmody was not present in court, suddenly became very real. Widner testified that he’d dispatched two ambulances and the police to the Carmody address, which served to establish the time line and focus the horrified jury.
    “The People call Mr. Dandelion Adar,” said the ADA.
    Dandelion Adar had a shaved head and a confident walk. He cleared the length of the courtroom in five or six strides, swore to tell the truth, got into the box, clasped his hands at his waist, and leaned forward.
    Lewis asked Adar what he did for a living, and Adar said that he was a paramedic, that he and his partner had answered the emergency call to go to Victoria Carmody’s address.
    Lewis asked, “You were the first responder?”
    “That’s right. The police and another ambulance were right behind me.”
    “And did you assist the victim, Victoria Carmody?”
    “Yes, I did.”
    “Will you please tell the court where you found her?”
    “She was on the floor in the bedroom. She was holding the phone, a landline.”
    “And can you tell the court about Ms. Carmody’s condition?”
    “Her head was a bloody pulp. Right eye socket was smashed. Nose broken, and she was breathing with difficulty. Her pulse was very weak. Along with the obvious severe head trauma, her right arm was fractured, bone coming through the skin in two places. I noticed a table lamp with blood on the base that could have been used as a weapon.”
    “What other observations did you make in your role as a paramedic?”
    “I determined that the lady had been lying on the floor for quite a while, because the blood pool had coagulated and hardened. I thought that she had probably been coming in and out of consciousness between the incident and her phone call to 911.”
    Dexter Lewis nodded soberly, gave the jurors a chance to think about a woman beaten bloody with a lamp and left for dead. I’d seen Rick fight men far larger than him, break bones, knock out teeth.
    But I’d never heard of or seen him hitting a woman.
    Lewis said, “What action did you and your partner take, Mr. Adar?”
    “We strapped her onto a board with a neck brace, loaded her into the bus, gave her oxygen and fluids, rushed her to Cedars-Sinai. I’ve seen people with less trauma die en route. I didn’t expect her to make it to the ER.”
    “Thanks, Mr. Adar. That’s all I have for this witness,” said Dexter Lewis.
    “I have no questions,” said Del Rio’s lawyer.
    If Caine thought he could discredit the prosecution’s witness, he would have questioned him, which led me to the inevitable conclusion: If Caine’s argument for the defense didn’t annihilate the prosecution’s case, Del Rio was going down.
    Judge Johnson dismissed the witness, adding that court was adjourned until two in the afternoon. I left the courthouse by a back door, got out to the curb unnoticed to wait for my cab.
    I was looking up the street when a red Ferrari zoomed into my view. As the car came closer, the driver honked the horn.
    It was Tommy. Our eyes locked, and in that brief moment, he grinned and blew me a kiss.
    Asshole.
    My brother is a gambler.
    He was betting that he was going to take me down.
    How did he think he could pull that off?

Chapter 29

     
    GOZAN REMARI WHISTLED through his teeth as he drove the rented Bentley north on Rodeo Drive, down the three-block-long strip of extravagant stores. The fantastic shopping area was planted with palm trees on the median, and palms poked through the sidewalks fronting the stores.
    Palm trees! In Sumar, there were
no
trees, and here, they were everywhere, waving their flirty branches, hellooo.
    There were really no suitable words in Sumarin to describe Rodeo Drive,