points? ('The Rule of Three,' Billy says. 'Always try to present your evidence in sets of three. It's the way juries like to hear it. It's always a minister, a priest, and a rabbi in the rowboat')
So what are my three strongest points? Well, the positive char samples make bullshit of Bentley's cigarette- in-the-vodka hypothesis. So that would be number one. Number two? The pour pattern — there's no way to reconcile that with an accidental fire. Number three? Multiple points of origin. Again, inconsistent with an accidental fire.
Now, what are the points against?
The counterargument is that certain contents in the room might have burned 'hot,' leaving an erroneous implication of multiple points of origin. And Bentley's point about the fuel load is correct as far as it goes. There was a lot of stuff in the bedroom, and it's possible that the heavy fuel load burn could explain away the other indicators of an accelerated fire.
It could provide reasonable doubt, anyway.
But not with the positive samples.
With a positive sample, Jack thinks, everything falls together.
Motive.
Dead-solid lock. The three strongest points? The balloon payment, the lack of income, the missed payments. It's an embarrassment of riches — no reverse pun intended — and there'll be no problem proving that Nicky had a motive to torch the house. The arguments against? There really aren't any.
Opportunity.
Three strongest points? Locked doors and windows with no sign of forced entry, Leo the pooch outside, and Derochik's statement having Nicky coming in at 4:45.
And now Nicky has lied. You have him on tape saying he never went out, that the phone call woke him up. And I guess that just fucks you.
Arguments against? No witness to put Nicky on or near the actual fire scene. No snitch to connect him directly to the fire.
Two: Mother Russia's alibi — but Derochik's statement is going to shoot that down.
So, opportunity?
A tougher call, but when you put it together with incendiary origin and motive, it plays.
Move down to the murder, because it's all connected. A jury will never believe the coincidence of a murder with an accidental fire. Conversely, they'll never buy an accidental death with an intentional fire.
We have a combo plate here, Jack thinks.
Strongest points that Pamela Vale was murdered?
One: She was dead in time proximity to an arson.
Two: Her bloodstream showed alcohol and barbiturates, but witnesses will say that she wasn't drinking, and someone else — probably an associate of her husband's — picked up her Valium prescription.
Arguments against?
Primarily, there's the ME's conclusion of death by overdose.
Second is Bentley's call of CO asphyxiation accelerated by acute inebriation. The alcohol reduces the amount of oxygen in the lungs, making CO poisoning rapid and deadly.
It's possible, Jack thinks.
If she was drinking.
And if there was no accelerant.
And if Jack thinks, you hadn't looked into Nicky's eyes and just known that he killed his wife.
And if the arrogant bastard hadn't lied on tape.
Jack goes in to see Goddamn Billy.
74
Viktor Tratchev is one tres pissed gangster.
'Valeshin wanted to be a real estate developer,' Tratchev says to his head enforcer, an obelisk of a human specimen known simply as Bear, 'so he's a real estate developer. Fine. What does he think, that he can just stroll in when he feels like it and be the boss again?'
Bear shrugs. Bear may not know the term 'rhetorical question' but he knows one when he hears one.
Tratchev's working himself up.
'What does he think?' Tratchev asks. 'That I'm going to lie down and just take this shit? I'm supposed to lie down on my belly and let him fuck me?!'
This is pretty much exactly what he's supposed to do, actually, according to Dani and Lev, who drop by Tratchev's house that afternoon for a glass of tea and some browbeating.
'You've been shorting the pakhan on his share,' Dani explains.
By about 100 percent, Dani's thinking.
'Bullshit,' Tratchev says.
'Not bullshit,' Dani insists. 'What do you think, you're playing with children here?'
Dani holds up a hand to stop him. 'Don't add insult to injury. Keep your lies inside your mouth. Listen, Viktor, between you and me, I'll admit that things have gotten pretty loose. So you take advantage. All right, you take advantage. Human nature. Maybe the fault then is on both sides.
'But I'm here to tell you today, Viktor Tratchev, that the free and easy days are over. The pakhan is the, pakhan again. From now on, until trust is restored, we will take the payments and give you your proper share. You will run a tighter operation that doesn't end up on the evening news. And Viktor Tratchev, if you cause any more problems, I will personally cut off your head and piss into your gasping mouth. Thank you for the tea.'
They get up and leave and Tratchev is about to throw a rod.
'I'll kill him,' he says.
'Dani?' Bear asks.
'Him too,' Tratchev said.
Who he has in mind is Nicky.
He starts working the phones.
75
Tom Casey's in with Billy.
'Let me get this straight, Jack,' Casey says. 'You want to deny a fire claim because a poodle had to take a piss.'
'A Yorkie,' Jack says. 'Because a Yorkie had to take a piss.'
Casey turns back from the window and smiles at him with beatific menace.
'Are you fucking with me, Jack?' he asks.
'I wouldn't fuck with you, Tom.'
This is definitely true, because not only are Jack Wade and Tom Casey good friends, but Tom Casey is the Meanest Man in California.
This isn't just Jack's opinion; it's an official title Casey won by unanimous vote at a California Defense Bar Association meeting after he gave a now infamous lecture on the fine art of cross-examination.
Casey's lecture was a joke.
Literally. And it went something like this:
'This accountant goes to prison for embezzlement,' Casey tells the audience, 'and the second he gets to his cell, his cell mate, an enormous, wean-looking guy, says, 'Now, here in this prison we like to play House. Which would you rather be, the husband or the wife?'
'The accountant — who is terrified — doesn't want to be either, of course, but when he considers the various
