“No,” she says, “I prefer my news from the tabloids. Did yousee the Weekly Inquisitor up front?”
Larry laughs. “I did. ‘Killer Novelist in Love Nest with BenAffleck.’ The photo takes ten years off you, by the way.”
“Yeah, I’m really pleased.”
“My point is,” Larry says, “a lot of people are supportingyou.”
“Well, I think the list is pretty short.” She sighs. “Imean, Mat has really been great. It’s a bit odd, under the circumstances, buthe’s been great. It’s just that-I think he wonders about me. I don’t think he’sconvinced of my innocence. I don’t think my lawyer thinks I’m innocent, either.And I think you do.”
Larry frowns at the mention of Allison’s ex-husband. He hasbeen plenty clear, over the last months, about his opinion. “Oh, I think Matknows you’re innocent,” he says.
She will not engage him. They have done battle on this frontmore than once. The development in her relationship with Larry Evans over thelast few months has been interesting. He came to her initially as an aggressivejournalist, unseasoned, which he pitched as an advantage to her. Regardless ofhis experience or lack thereof, he could be seen as little more than part ofthe pack of media people who wanted her story, wanted to write a true accountof the murder of Sam Dillon and the trial of Allison Pagone. But then, as hebegan to dig, he took up Allison’s cause. He has shared his information withher. And he has slowly shown himself to be someone who is less concerned withgetting the behind-the-scenes story of Allison Pagone’s trial than with showingthat Allison is, in fact, innocent.
“Hey, it’s your life,” he says, raising a hand, sensing theobjection from Allison and probably not grasping how literal his comment is. “Ihave something for you. It’s probably not much.”
Larry has shown an impressive ability to uncover informationon this case that is probably more easily found by a journalist than by adefense lawyer or his investigator. Not necessarily cold, hard factualinformation that could be used at trial, but details, rumors, things that couldgive her an advantage.
“Still got my nose to the ground,” he says. “Theprosecutors, they know Sam Dillon called you several times before his death.They’re working on the assumption that it was due to your relationship. Peoplewho are dating talk on the phone, right? But then they have this otherinformation-someone who worked with Sam-someone is saying that Sam hadmentioned something about an ‘ethical dilemma.’ Which-”
“An ‘ethical dilemma,’ they said?” Allison feels her stomachtighten.
She could sense it in his voice immediately. Something wasdifferent, wrong.
“Is something the matter, Sam?” she asked over the phone.
He didn’t respond at first, which wasn’t like him. One ofthe things she had liked most about him was his lack of reservation, hisopenness to her. Her first response, an insecure response: Sam was unhappy withtheir relationship. He wanted to end things. She felt a tingle down her spine,a turn in her stomach.
“Something I’m dealing with,” he finally said, then tried tochange the subject to dinner. Was she in the mood for Thai? Tapas? Greek?
“Sam.” It was late January, only a few weeks into the newyear. They had been together only six weeks-okay, forty-five days, she had beenkeeping count-but they had reached levels of intimacy she had never neared withMat Pagone. And now he was evading her.
Sam sighed. “It’s something I’m going to have to-I guess youcould say I’m having an ethical dilemma.”
Ethical dilemma. Buzzwords used by an attorney, whichAllison was, or used to be. She didn’t know the rules governing a lobbyist,didn’t know how closely they resembled the rules of ethics governing a lawyer.“Something with one of your clients?” she prodded.
“I–I think it’s best we not discuss it,” he answered. “Notyet, anyway.”
Yeah,” Larry says, “an ‘ethical dilemma.’ So the cops, theprosecutors, they’re thinking that this probably related to all this Flanagan-Maxx stuff. The idea being that Sam had an ‘ethical dilemma’ because herepresented Flanagan-Maxx and he was becoming aware that this company hadbribed legislators. It’s like a lawyer hearing that his client committed acrime. A lawyer can’t rat out his client, right?”
“Not for a past crime,” Allison says. “Not for somethinglike this, at least.”
“But then again,” Larry says, “Sam’s not in business as alawyer. He’s a lobbyist. Does he have to follow the same rules? Who knows? Idon’t know. But the cop I’m friendly with, he says some people think maybe Samwasn’t calling you to whisper sweet nothings. He was calling you to see if hehad to turn in his client, Flanagan-Maxx. He was calling for legal advice.”
Allison nods, crosses her legs. Larry looks at her but shewill give neither confirmation nor denial. She will simply listen.
“The thinking is that Sam called you because he wanted toknow what he should do,” Larry continues. “Maybe it was part legal and part,you were someone he trusted. But some people prosecuting this case think thatmaybe Sam confided in you about that information.”
“Yes?”
“Yes. And those same people are thinking that when you gotthat information, you started to feel threatened. Because Mat Pagone lobbiedfor Flanagan-Maxx, too. So-Sam tells you that Flanagan-Maxx did some bad thingsand he wants to tattle on them, and that possibly implicates your ex-husband.So. .” Larry shrugs.
“So I killed Sam,” she finishes. “To protect a man to whomI’m no longer married.”
“But who is still your daughter’s father.”
“And they’re going to say that at trial?”
The thing about criminal trials is that, no matter howstrictly the prosecution is required to disclose information and evidence, itdoes not have to turn over its opening statement to the defense. Theprosecution does not have to explain to the defense how it intends to tie theevidence together. Sometimes the prosecution’s theory comes out in pre-trialmotions, but it hasn’t in this case. So while the prosecution has toldAllison’s defense team that it intends to introduce Sam’s many phone calls toAllison in the days before his death, her lawyers have assumed that they aredoing this to prove a romantic relationship, because Allison has never owned upto it. What she is hearing now is that they might be using the phone calls toshow that Sam was talking about turning Flanagan-Maxx-and possibly MatPagone-in to the feds.
The trial starts this week, and Allison doesn’t know whatthe prosecution is going to say.
“Some people over there think that,” Larry answers. “There’sa debate over what course of action to take. Some want to say that Sam jiltedyou and you were upset.”
That is what Allison and her attorneys have always thoughtthe prosecution would say at trial. The scorned lover, seeking revenge.
“But some want to say that Sam told you he was going to takeMat down, and you did what you did to protect him. I thought you should knowthat.”
“Either one gives me a motive to kill,” she says flatly.“Either I was a jilted lover or I was protecting Mat.”
“Well, sure-but if they say you killed Sam to protect Mat,you have an answer.”
“I have an answer?”
“Of course you have an answer, Allison.” Larry shakes hishead, takes a drink from his coffee, frames a hand. “Let’s pretend they’reright. Their premise is that Mat was bribing senators, and Sam told you aboutit, and was maybe going to tell the U.S. attorney as well. If that premise istrue, then, sure, arguably you’d have a reason to want to kill Sam. Arguably.But again-if that premise is true, wouldn’t there be someone else who had thatmotive? More strongly than you?”
“That’s no answer,” she says.
“The hell it isn’t. Mat was bribing lawmakers and Sam wasgoing to give him up. And you are the only suspect?”
Allison leans forward on the table. “Thank you for theinformation,” she says. “I appreciate anything you can give me.”
“But you’re not going to use-”
“Mat didn’t bribe anyone, Larry.”
“You don’t know that. You couldn’t.”
“I know he wouldn’t-”
“Then what was Sam confiding in you, Allison?”
He didn’t confide in me about anything of that sort, Larry.He-” She looks away from him, lowers her voice.
