Free Three Weeks to Say Goodbye by C. J. Box

your control and he and his buddy flushed it down the toilet and crapped on it. Exactly what kind of kid are you dealing with?”
    CODY SAID , “ LET’S COME up with a plan.”
    We were up until two in the morning. It took an hour for the four of us to strip the rugs and hose them down outside and to clean the bathroom floor. Brian wore abandana over his nose and mouth, but we could hear him saying, over and over, “Animals.” Before we started cleaning, Brian took photos of the mess with his digital camera and put the camera in his pocket.
    Brian thought we needed a new attorney since I’d fired Dearborn. We needed a bulldog, Brian said, someone who would “go after the Morelands and drop a nuclear bomb on them.”
    “We can’t afford someone like that,” I said. “We’re strapped as it is with the house, the adoption. We don’t have Melissa’s income anymore.”
    “I was wondering if that would come up,” she said more heatedly than I could have anticipated.
    Before I could explain myself, she said, “We can sell the house. I can go back to work. I’ve gotten calls from Marriott and Radisson …”
    “I’ll help you out,” offered Brian. “Don’t worry about money. In fact, let me be your advocate in this whole mess.”
    He leaned forward, his voice dropped an octave. His business voice. “Since I’ve been in Denver I’ve met a hell of a lot of people, and a bunch of them owe me favors. It’s a big city, yes, and it’s growing like crazy, but that’s at the margins. At its core it’s still a small town run by a cabal of old-timers, developers, and politicians. There are levers of power, and I know how to work them. I’ve been doing it for years. I know city councilmen and media people, and you know I’m familiar with the mayor’s inner circle. If word gets out I’m fronting for you, this changes your problem into an
issue
. That’s the last thing the powers that be want.”
    “Thank you, Brian,” Melissa said, her eyes glistening with tears.
    I didn’t know what to say. No one in my life had ever said the words
Don’t worry about money
.
    “No,” Cody said. “I don’t think it’s the best plan. Even with a loan and a new attorney …”
    “I never said ‘loan,’ ” Brian said sharply to Cody.
    “…you’re still up against Judge John Moreland,” Cody continued, dismissing Brian just as curtly. “Moreland is a judge, and he’s connected in more ways than you can know. He can hire teams of lawyers to tie you up and drain you for years. Plus, any judge would determine he could provide real well for the baby while you two get deeper and deeper in debt.”
    “It’s just not right,” Brian said through clenched teeth.
    “No, it ain’t,” Cody said, not without sympathy. “But the fact is Garrett didn’t sign away custody, right? He may be a thieving, humping little scumbag, but he has the law on his side. And lots of luck finding a good lawyer who wants to take on a sitting judge. Particularly this sitting judge.”
    Melissa sighed, sat back. Her eyes were rimmed with red. There was a set to her mouth that indicated she was fighting back tears. “It’s so unfair. We don’t deserve this. We did everything right. I’ll fight them to my last breath,” she said, almost spitting the words out. “I’ll do anything, say anything, to keep my daughter. If I need to act like I’m flirting with Garrett—I will.”
    I winced.
    “Somehow,” she said, “we’ve got to convince him to sign the papers. I can’t believe he has any interest at all in Angelina. He doesn’t want to be a father although I can’t figure out what his game is. Maybe he’s just using this situation to intimidate us.”
    “Sounds like he likes
you,
” Brian said to her.
    “We can’t confront him,” she said. “We’ve got to find a way to convince him to come around.”
    “This is headed the same direction Julie Perala suggested,” I said.
    She turned to me. “You can continue to be nice