Free Eye of the Storm by Ann Jacobs Page B

so.
    “Bennie’s after work?”
    Marcy forced a smile. “I don’t think so. Thanks anyhow.”
    “Sure.” Cam shrugged, as though her refusal was of no consequence to him. It probably wasn’t. “Thought I’d let you know Gray Syzmanski’s waiting to see you. Must be exciting, going up against him and Tony Landry.”
    “Yeah. Real exciting. If you’re not busy, go tell him to come on back.” Setting the file back on her desk, Marcy ran a brush through her hair and checked her lipstick. Habit, because she might as well have been invisible for all the attention Gray had ever paid her as a woman. Must be nice for Andi to have a guy who had eyes just for her.
    An eye, that is. Far from being off-putting, the guy’s scars and the black patch that covered his ruined eye socket gave him a rugged look as well as reminding everybody he’d gone through hell and survived to tell the tale.
    Marcy smiled and rose when Gray came through the door. “Sit down. I have the copy you asked for of the Katz file.”
    “Thanks.” Propping his crutches against the side of her desk, Gray sat and set out some papers. “Here’s some information our investigators have found. You might want to take a look.”
    “I’m not dropping the charges. We may as well get that straight up front.”
    Gray nudged the stack of papers her way. “I’ve got witnesses to Soto pulling a knife and demanding Stephen’s money before Stephen ever laid a hand on him. Two of them. One’s a hooker, but the other is a seventy-year-old lady who’s been staying at that fleabag motel because it’s the only place she can afford.”
    “Motel?” Marcy hadn’t seen anything in the police report about a motel.
    “The one next door to the club, the kind of joint where they rent by the hour or the week, customer’s choice. Most apparently choose the hourly plan. There’s a clear view out the old lady’s window to the parking lot where the action went down. The hooker was in the parking lot, apparently trying to drum up more business.”
    “What was your client doing, hanging out in the parking lot of the Club Tetras? It seems hardly the spot for a clean-cut college boy to go.” Drugs? A possibility, although if he’d been buying them, it apparently wasn’t for himself. Stephen had tested squeaky-clean following his arrest.
    “Trying to score with a lady of the evening.” Gray shook his head. “Yeah, it was stupid, but you don’t want to let it ruin the kid’s life forever. Come on, cut him some slack. Forget filing charges. File ‘ em against Soto instead. Get a real criminal off the streets for a few years.”
    “Don’t worry. We’ll be filing charges against Mr. Soto too. May I assume Winston Roe won’t be representing him ?”
    “You can. Come on, Marcy, Tony picks and chooses the firm’s criminal clients. Our scumbags have to have some redeeming qualities, or at least a defensible case. Soto doesn’t have either.”
    Marcy sighed. “Okay. I sympathize with young Mr. Katz. Really I do. There aren’t many of us who’ve never done something abysmally stupid.” Including me . “Let me think this over. I’ll get back to you by next Monday.”
    “Fair enough.” Gray grabbed his crutches and heaved himself off the chair. “ Andi said to tell you, we’re having some friends over on Saturday. We’d love for you to join us. Mexican food, margaritas and so on.”
    “I’ll be there.” Sex with anybody but Sam held no appeal, and Marcy figured by the weekend she’d need diversion or she’d be likely to chase him down and jump him. “Want me to bring something?”
    “Just yourself and a big appetite. Cocktails at seven, dinner at eight. Casual. If the weather’s good, we’ll do it outside by the pool.”
    “Okay. I’ll try to come to a decision before then on your case. Give Andi and the kids my best.”
    For a long time after he’d left, Marcy sat at her desk, going over the file and the additional information Winston Roe’s