Free Neon Dragon by John Dobbyn Page B

her expression said, “Poor baby.”
    I got the message. Mr. Devlin wanted to see me.
    I parked the coffee on her desk and caught her attention. She held a hand over the mouthpiece and looked up. I reached over and pushed her “hold” button. She looked indignant.
    â€œHey, you just cut off a client.”
    â€œNo, I didn’t. That was your lunch date.”
    â€œYou listened!”
    â€œOf course. Do me a favor. I may not get serious time in my office till Groundhog Day the way this thing is going with Lex.”
    Her eyebrows went up. “Oh, ‘Lex,’ is it?”
    â€œOnly out of his hearing. Otherwise it’s ‘Your Excellency.’”
    â€œYou better not get those two confused. You’ll be seeking employment.”
    â€œNaw, he wouldn’t fire me. That would be small and vindictive. He’d just eat me alive. To finish the thought, I’ll never get to my mail or messages. Go through it all, will you? If anything looks like an emergency, leave a note on my desk. I may get to it by Friday.”
    I headed for the lion’s den. I heard from behind, “What’s an emergency?”
    â€œDeath threats, malpractice actions, my subscription to
DownBeat
is expiring. I don’t know. I trust your judgment.”
    THE KING WAS IN his throne room, skimming the
Globe
and inhaling something black and steaming out of a paper cup. I thought of my own, cooling on Julie’s desk, and wished that I had known that it was the breakfast hour.
    He waved me into the chair in front of his desk. I accepted the invitation, beginning to feel like a golden retriever responding to hand signals.
    As he swung around to face me, his blackish blue suitcoat winged open over his barrel chest to a pair of red suspenders. I couldn’t help thinking that on another man they could be an affectation. Not Mr. Devlin. I sized him up as a man who measured himself by his ownstandards and to hell with anyone else’s. He was reminding me more of Miles O’Connor every time I saw him. I realized that if I didn’t catch myself, I could slip into something akin to hero worship.
    â€œWhat have you got for me, sonny?”
    I wasn’t proud of the catch. There was no way to make it look good.
    â€œI’ve got a witness, elderly Chinese woman, who kills our client with a positive ID. She says she saw him pull the trigger. Why, I don’t know. It’s hard to read her. She’s wound pretty tight, but what really makes it difficult is that she only admits to speaking Chinese.”
    â€œCould it be she’s telling the truth? I mean about Bradley.”
    My gaze had wandered to the window, but that last question brought me back to eye contact with a snap. I felt caught like a bug under a microscope.
    â€œI know I should never believe a client in a criminal case. I know they lie to get the best defense out of you. I know that.”
    â€œGood. Live by that, sonny. Because if you turn this into a crusade to free a poor innocent defendant, you’ll be worse than useless to me and the client. You’ll be dangerous. You’ll be looking for evidence to back up your theory instead of the truth. That’s the best way to get blindsided.”
    I gave him the agreement-in-principle nod he was looking for, but he knew there was more.
    â€œSo? Give it to me.”
    â€œI know that. But I talked to him.”
    â€œThat’s why I’m asking. I want to know what I’m working with here.”
    I sucked in an inch of stomach and looked back into those laser beams.
    â€œIt won’t change the way I work, but you might as well know this, Mr. Devlin. If they accused my grandmother of doing the Brink’s job, I’d be more likely to believe it than that this kid’s guilty. It’s not because of his background, the judge and all. It’s just something about the way he says he didn’t do it.”
    I knew what I meant, but it