Free Unleashed by David Rosenfelt Page A

plea, and Denise does so in a clear, firm voice. A trial date is set, and Judge Hurdle taps his gavel and adjourns the session. A guard comes to escort Denise out, and she looks at me pleadingly, fear evident in her eyes.
    I really want to help this woman, and I really, really hope she didn’t administer a deadly poison to her husband.
    I go out through the back to avoid waiting reporters. I’m not above playing them for my benefit; I’m just not in a position to do so now. At some point I will be, and then I’ll be Mr. Accessible.
    Sam comes along with me, asking, “How did it go?”
    “Same as always. A nonevent.”
    “I just thought there was a nuance that I might have missed.”
    “Nope, it was a nuance-free zone. You on the team this time?” Sam has been a valuable member of our investigative team on previous cases, mostly because of his genius on a computer. He can hack into pretty much anywhere, getting information we might otherwise never have access to.
    Unfortunately, he extended his responsibilities to the noncyber world on our last case without my approval, and he almost got killed in the process. Marcus saved him, but it shook him up very badly, as it should have, and may have cured him of his desire to be involved in this stuff.
    It didn’t.
    “I’m in all the way, Andy. Just tell me what to do.”
    “Come on back to the office; we’re going to talk about it.”
    Sam had driven out to the court with Hike but for some reason doesn’t want to go back with him. I can’t imagine why.
    So Sam rides with me, which means I have to spend forty-five minutes listening to what a great dog Crash is. This despite the fact that he’s still recuperating and hasn’t yet left the vet’s office.
    “He’s amazing. I talk to him, and he understands what I’m saying.”
    “How do you know that?”
    “I just know, I can tell. It’s like we have this bond.” He pauses a moment and then says momentously, “God sent this dog to me, Andy. He sent him to save my life, to prevent me from getting on that plane.”
    “Why didn’t he just give you a flat tire?”
    “Because this was a test, to see what I would do,” Sam says.
    “I hope he doesn’t use the flat tire test on me. I don’t even know how to work the jack.”
    We meet Hike, Laurie, and Marcus Clark at my office for the initial preliminary meeting we have on all cases. Everybody is by now used to having Marcus around, though it’s impossible to totally get used to having Marcus around.
    Marcus is the scariest, toughest individual on the planet, and he’s particularly valuable if we need to do something that requires physical action, like, say, invading Argentina. I hope there’s no violence involved in this case, but Marcus also has terrific investigative skills. As always, he’ll work directly under Laurie, since she’s the only one who’s not scared to death of him.
    Marcus almost never talks, and when he does he usually just utters barely comprehensible syllables. So it’s left to everyone to ponder what he might be thinking, a hopeless task if ever there was one.
    Edna is the last one to arrive, although mentally I think she is in tournament mode. When I ask her, “How is the preparation going?” she says, “Twenty-four.”
    “Twenty-four? What does that mean?” I ask.
    “That’s how many letters were in your question,” she says. “Ability to count letters quickly is very helpful.”
    I nod. “Okay.” And then I say, “Four,” but she doesn’t seem amused by my joke. All she does is sit at her desk, enveloped in thought, completely uninterested in our meeting or case. What’s a four-letter word for unwillingness to work, first letter is e ?
    I start the meeting by bringing everyone up-to-date on the little that has happened so far and the information in the discovery documents that we have received.
    “The prosecution’s case is going to be mostly forensics,” I say. “There will also be witnesses describing the state