Free Blood Silence by Roger Stelljes Page B

they’d …”
    “I’m not mad,” Sally answered quietly. “I’m not mad at all. In fact, you know what I think?”
    “What?”
    “I think you should consider doing this.”
    For the second time in the last fifteen minutes, he was completely gobsmacked. “You … you… you want me to investigate this? You want me to help? You want me to help my … my ex-wife?” He looked around the room for a camera. “Am I being Punk’d here?”
    “You said it yourself, Mac. You didn’t want to see her spend the rest of her life in jail.”
    “Yeah, but that was before …”
    “Before what?” Sally replied. “Before two people who clearly still care for you showed up in your living room? Those are two very proud people asking for your help,
begging
for your help. I mean, Ann Hilary is a complete wreck. I can’t imagine they’ve ever begged for anything in their lives.”
    “Well … yeah, but I have you and …”
    “I’m not worried about us,” Sally answered, shaking her head dismissively. “I’m not worried about Meredith. This isn’t about me, or even you and me.”
    “It’s not?”
    “No, it’s about
you
.”
    “Me?”
    “Let me ask you a question.” Sally folded her arms and looked him in the eye. “Could you live with yourself—could you really, honestly live with yourself, knowing you didn’t help her when you could have and she ends up spending the rest of her life in prison?” Sally slowly shook her head. “I know you, and I don’t think you could. I think you’d regret it for the rest of your life. I think it would sit and eat at you. You would end up carrying this guilt, and you’d always be asking yourself, what if? Don’t do that to yourself.”
    Mac walked back into the living room and looked at Lyman. “How bad is it?”
    “Pretty bad,” Lyman replied and gave Mac a quick rundown. “Despite all of that, she says she’s innocent. She’s claiming she was set up.”
    “And you believe her?” Mac asked, not caring that Edmund and Ann were sitting there. Hard questions needed to be asked. Might as well start now. “And Lyman, no bullshit lawyer answers here. I’m not about helping someone who is guilty. I’m about saving the freedom of somebody who is innocent. So I’m asking: Is she innocent?”
    “Despite the evidence, I think she is,” Lyman answered, and then a little smile snuck out. “Don’t you think that was a quick arrest?”
    “Especially without a confession,” Mac replied, nodding.
    “Exactly.” Lyman pointed at Mac. “Exactly right, my boy. I think we have a rush to judgment.”
    “Meredith is just not this dumb,” Mac added, shaking his head.
    “No, no she is not. This whole thing is wrapped up all nice and neat with a big, red bow. In my experience, nothing is ever
that
neat. I guess the question is, kiddo, are you going to help me prove that?”
    “Yeah.” Mac nodded. “I think I am.”

CHAPTER SIX
“Is the pity party over yet?”
    M ac walked into the spacious lobby of the Wells Fargo tower in downtown St. Paul. There was scant activity in the lobby as Mac checked in with the guard at the security desk and was directed to the elevator bank for the seventeenth floor. In his hand he carried a leather folder with a notepad. On his shoulder he hauled a backpack with, among other things, his laptop inside.
    As he came off the elevator, he walked into the lobby for the law firm of Hisle and Brown. Lyman and his firm had done well over the years, as evidenced by the opulent lobby with a marble water fountain, fine furnishings, and an eighty-inch big screen framed on the wall. Straight ahead through the lobby was a large and expansive conference room, where he saw Lyman sitting with his partner, Summer Plantagenate, and the Hilarys, not to mention Teddy Archer. The whole family was here.
    Lyman and Summer, seeing his arrival, quickly came out to the lobby.
    “Hey, Mac,” Summer greeted warmly, giving him a warm hug. “It’s been a while.