Free The Dead Room by Robert Ellis Page B

over his desk. “When you met Holmes last night, was he still insisting on a trial?”
    Teddy nodded.
    Barnett frowned, thinking it over. “We’ve got plenty of time to talk to him before we make any decisions,” he said. “If we need help, we’ll get it.”
    “Who?”
    “I spoke with William Nash last night, but he refused. I was hoping you’d give it another shot this morning. You went to Penn. He may not be practicing law any more, but he’s still the best defense attorney in the city. I think it’s worth a try.”
    Teddy thought it over. William S. Nash and his legal workshop at Penn Law had been responsible for proving that District Attorney Alan Andrews prosecuted an innocent man and sent him to his death. It was a good bet that Andrews hated Nash for it. If Nash agreed to help, there was a chance the DA might want to make a deal in order to get rid of Nash. The DA would hold out for a week or two, working the Darlene Lewis murder until the headlines changed in his favor and his mistake was old news, but then he might give in to the pressure. He might be willing to deal. Andrews could take credit for Holmes’s quick arrest and putting the man away forever. And Holmes would avoid the death penalty and get the psychiatric care his family was hoping for. Barnett’s idea to bring Nash in was actually brilliant, and probably the result of a night spent mulling over the case in every detail. Quietly, Teddy imagined, with the phones switched off and a drink in his hand.
    Teddy looked up and caught Barnett staring at him. He’d been watching him think it through as if seated at a poker table with a winning hand.
    “You see how we’re gonna play it,” Barnett said.
    Teddy nodded, even smiled. Barnett had found a quick way out for everyone concerned. Once Nash was in, he guessed the only player in the mix who wouldn’t be willing was Oscar Holmes. But Barnett was probably right about that, too. They had plenty of time to work on Holmes. The longer he sat in a cell, the more pliable he’d be.

 
     
     
     
    NINE
     
     
     
    Teddy set the murder book down on his desk and looked at Jill sitting before the computer at the worktable by the window. She had a desk of her own with the rest of the clerks in an open room off the library. Although there were times after hours when they were both working late and she used the computer in Teddy’s office to study, this wasn’t one of them. He knew she’d been waiting for him to finish with Barnett and wanted to know what happened.
    “You’re defending him, aren’t you?” she said. “Oscar Holmes.”
    He nodded and took a deep breath, then sat down and opened the binder. The murder had occurred twenty-four hours ago, yet the paper on the homicide was already half an inch thick. Teddy thumbed through the pages and realized they were in chronological order. Half the reports were filed by Detective Vega. But the other half were authored by a Detective Nathan Ellwood. Teddy hadn’t met the second detective, but assumed he was Vega’s partner. Barnett had told him the investigation was on the fast-track, and Teddy checked the time and dates at the top of the detectives’ preliminary reports. They’d begun writing at four in the morning. Both detectives had worked through the night.
    Jill gently cleared her throat. “How could you defend someone who did the kind of things they’re saying Holmes did on TV?”
    “What are they saying on TV?”
    “That he cut her up. That maybe he tortured her.”
    “I don’t know,” he said quietly. “I’ve never done this kind of thing before.”
    She looked at him a moment, her light brown eyes searching his face. When she turned back to the computer, he checked the time and returned to the binder. He needed to get through the murder book before he faced William Nash. And he wanted to be on campus within the hour.
    The early reports mirrored what the district attorney had told him yesterday. An elderly neighbor, Beatrice