Free A Bitch Called Hope by Lily Gardner Page A

transient hotel. A large drafting table covered with sketches and two ladder-back chairs furnished the room. Lennox glimpsed an unmade bed behind a paisley curtain. A stack of pizza boxes balanced over one of the burners on the stove.
    Alice pulled a pair of jeans from the chair back, wiggled into them. “Gabe went to the market. He’ll be home any minute,” she said. “If we’re not out of here before he gets back, say you’re my friend from school.” She yanked a black sweater out of the closet and pulled it over her head. “Tell him statistics class.” She pulled on socks and black work boots.
    “Doesn’t Gabe know about Bill Pike?” Lennox said.
    “He does now.” She grabbed a wool jacket. “Just the same, I don’t need to remind him. C’mon, let’s get out of here.”
    Taking the stairs down five flights, not bothering to brush her hair, this whole business with Bill Pike must not have sat well with her boyfriend.
    “Where are we going?” Lennox said.
    “You want to be my friend?” Alice said. “Take me to breakfast.”
    Lennox’s car was parked around the corner. Alice slumped low until they cleared the neighborhood.
    “Where do you want to go?” Lennox said.
    “Surprise me,” Alice mumbled.
    “Cup and Saucer?”
    Alice straightened in her seat. “Yeah, fine,” she said.
    A delivery truck sprayed water across Lennox’s windshield. She asked, “How did you know Bill?”
    Alice clamped her arms across her chest, stuck out her chin. “I already told the cops, Bill gave me that money straight up.”
    The light greened and Lennox turned left off of Alder onto Fourth Avenue. “I understand you had a relationship with Bill when you were young,” Lennox said.
    “Relationship!” Alice snorted. “That’s what you people call it when a middle-aged guy seduces a fourteen-year-old girl? Tell Fergusen he can go relationship himself.”
    Nice Mr. Pike was relationshipping a fourteen-year-old and what really uncorked Lennox was the mystery person hired to make it go away. What did that say about Lennox? She halted her arm across Alice’s midsection. “Who is Fergusen?”
    “He’s the Pikes’ lawyer.” Alice’s eyes narrowed. “How come you don’t know that?”
    “I work for Delia Pike’s defense team,” Lennox said. “Bowersox, Kline and Hansen.”
    Alice’s mouth stretched into a knowing grin. “Then Bill’s old lady has a different lawyer threatening me.”
    “Different?” Lennox said. Then stomped on the brake microseconds before rear-ending the car in front of them. The light turned yellow.
    Alice thrust her hand into an enormous messenger bag purse.
    “See?” Alice waved Chuck Fergusen’s business card under Lennox’s nose. Fergusen’s firm, Delancy and Firth, was known for being conniving, slimy bastards. It appeared that Lady Pike was swimming with the sharks. Was she simply protecting her financial interests, or was it bigger than that?
    You’ll be working for the defense , Tommy had said. At the time, Lennox had been feeling like the champion of the innocent, but how could Delia possibly think that Alice walked into her house for the first time and somehow between warming up the canapés and pouring champagne she went into Bill’s office, cracked his safe and removed ten thousand dollars? And what about Bill? Nice Mr. Pike? It was one thing to have an affair. Another thing to rape a kid.
    Lennox Cooper, champion of the innocent.
    Lennox crossed the Fremont Bridge to the east side, past Emanuel Hospital, past barbecue shacks and old houses broken into apartments, bicycles chained to their porch railings. Alice stuck out her chin. “He was my coach. Back then I thought I loved him. He made me feel special.” She blushed. “God, did I just say special? Okay, so I’m an idiot.”
    If Lennox had to put money on it, she’d bet Alice was on the level. They reached Killingsworth and Lennox sighted a guy pulling out of a two-hour parking space a half block from the