Free The 3rd Victim by Sydney Bauer Page B

said David. ‘I was with Walter and his grandmother,’ he said, referring to his eighteen-year-old client and the woman who had raised him.
    ‘Is he okay?’ She looked up from the marmalade she was spreading on her toast.
    ‘As he can be,’ he replied before meeting her eye across the table. ‘You caught the news on the abduction murder in Back Bay, the one that stole Joe away from the Taj?’
    She nodded. ‘God, David, it's awful. The little girl was only a couple of months old.’ She shook her head, her hand automatically reaching across to touch a smiling Lauren on the cheek. ‘I mean, who in the hell …?’ She picked up her coffee. ‘I missed the news last night, was there an update?’
    ‘They've arrested the mother.’
    Sara stopped short. ‘The mother! You're kidding me?’
    ‘She's a friend of Daniel Hunt's,’ he added.
    Her aqua eyes hit him straight on. ‘Are you serious? How do you know?’
    ‘He called me.’
    Her eyes widened. ‘Hunt called you? Why?’
    He took a breath before relaying his conversation with Daniel Hunt, following that up with a recount of his earlier discussion with Joe.
    She listened intently, her only movement to sip the coffee from her oversized mug. ‘Oh god, David,’ she said again. ‘That is … unbelievable.’
    He nodded as he took a mouthful of his own black brew, the room turning quiet as he waited for Sara to go on, which she usually did, the two of them used to this familiar process of bouncing off of one another.
    ‘Sara?’ he said when she failed to go on.
    She met his eye. ‘I understand why you turned him down,’ she said. ‘It's your prerogative.’ She rose from the breakfast table.
    ‘My prerogative?’ This was not exactly the response he was expecting.
    ‘The woman killed her daughter.’ Sara rounded the breakfast bar with her plate and mug in hand.
    ‘You're saying she's guilty,’ he called to her as she moved out of sight. ‘And I only represent the –’
    ‘… innocent,’ she called back. And he had to admit it irked him the way she'd risen from her seat, heading to the kitchen as if this conversation didn't warrant any further discussion.
    ‘Sara,’ he said again, now standing to follow her into the kitchen, offering Lauren her sippy cup on the way. ‘Do you disagree with me?’
    ‘I didn't say that.’
    ‘She killed her daughter.’
    Sara turned from the sink to look at him. ‘Maybe. And even if she did, isn't that just …’ she leant back on the bench behind her, ‘… so sad, David. I mean, in no way do I condone what she is accused of doing, but you have to wonder – what kind of emotional state would a mother have to be in to take her own child's life like that?’
    ‘She didn't just take her child's life, Sara.’ David was ready for an argument if she wanted one. ‘She cut her throat and then disposed of the body in order to hide her culpability. That reeks of premeditation.’
    ‘No it doesn't, David.’ She put a finger to her lips indicating that they needed to keep their voices down. ‘It reeks of desperation, of serious emotional illness.’
    The finger annoyed him. ‘You're taking Hunt's side.’
    She sighed, and that annoyed him too. ‘I'm not taking anyone's side – but I have to admit, at face value it certainly seems like he is just trying to help his friend.’
    David rolled his eyes.
    ‘Post-partum depression is a very real, very tragic condition, David,’ Sara went on. ‘Women do things they would never consider under normal circumstances. It's hormonal, uncontrollable.’
    ‘Then why didn't she seek help?’
    ‘From the sounds of what Joe and Daniel Hunt told you about the presence of her physician, maybe she did.’
    Sara turned her back on him again, this time to rinse her plate. But David had heard enough. He had expected her to support him in his decision, even share a jibe at Hunt's audacity, but the fact that she had done the exact opposite – even rubbed his decision in his face …