Free Who Let the Dog Out? by David Rosenfelt Page B

for it and saw that the sender’s name was Robert Boyle. It was a name that was vaguely familiar to her, but she couldn’t place it.
    She opened the package, and inside was another, smaller package. She opened that as well, and took out a cell phone, the kind that you can buy at a store without signing a contract.
    Stephanie’s hand started to shake at the realization of what this meant, so much so that she had to steady herself to turn the phone on. She knew without a doubt that it was from Eric, and that meant that he was alive.
    She also knew that he was going to contact her, but probably feared that her phones might be bugged. So he would call her on this phone, and he would explain everything.
    All she had to do was wait.

 
    Hike had filed the motion, and it should have been just a formality. But Dylan challenged it, for no other reason than that Dylan challenges everything.
    That’s why we’re having this hearing in open court before Judge Klingman to decide the issue. Each side has explained their position in writing, and oral arguments should be brief.
    “As we stated, Your Honor, we want a defense expert to examine the diamonds that were found in the victim’s possession. The police confiscated them, which by definition means that they consider them possible evidence, and the defense is entitled to its own examination of all the evidence. As the court is no doubt aware, we are not exactly creating new law with this request; it is standard procedure.”
    The judge turns to Dylan. “Mr. Campbell?”
    Dylan stands. “No one is questioning the defense’s right to examine evidence, Your Honor. We are simply objecting to the timing; we have not even had time to examine it ourselves.”
    “Your Honor,” I say, “the examination should not take more than a couple of hours. They’ve had three weeks.”
    “Three weeks is not a lot of time to examine all of the evidence in this case,” Dylan says.
    I nod and speak to the judge. “That’s reasonable. So if the prosecution was planning to examine the diamonds today, we’ll wait until tomorrow. If they were not going to do it today, then we’ll take them and have them back tomorrow. That won’t set them back at all.”
    Judge Klingman turns to Dylan. “Were you planning to have your experts examine the diamonds today?”
    “No, Your Honor.”
    “Tomorrow?”
    “Possibly,” Dylan lies. The truth is he has no idea when they would do so; it may not even have been on their list of things to do.
    “Perfect,” I say, even though no one asked for my opinion. “We can go get them now, and we’ll have them back tomorrow. Mr. Campbell can have one of his associates present for the examination if he likes. But we’ll be quick, because the last thing we want to do is obstruct Mr. Campbell’s schedule.” I smile at Dylan, but he doesn’t smile back.
    “I’ll sign the order,” the judge says, and then continues, staring admonishingly at Dylan. “I think we’re done here; we never should have had to be here in the first place.”
    I send Hike down to get the diamonds, and call Willie to have him meet Hike there. Hike is even less physical than I am, and if he’s going to be carrying around two valuable stones, I want Willie nearby as protection. I had alerted Willie to this possibility, and he’s going to bring Zoe with him. He doesn’t want to leave her out of his sight, or leave Sondra alone with her.
    I head back to the office to do some paperwork, and am surprised to see Laurie and Sam there. “What’s up?” I ask, because I am the curious type.
    “Marcus called in,” Laurie says. “Stephanie Manning got a FedEx package.”
    “Do we know what was in it?”
    She shakes her head. “We don’t. But we know who and where it was from. Sam got it out of the FedEx computer.”
    “I suppose it’s too much to hope it came from Eric Brantley?”
    “That remains to be seen,” she says, and Sam chimes in, “It was sent by Robert Boyle, from a UPS