Cold Wind

“It seems to me, Mr. Hand, if your client is as wrongly accused as you claim and as innocent as you insist, that you’d want to clear her as quickly as possible and let her go home for good. Why you’d want to let her twist in the legal wind for weeks and months is something that doesn’t strengthen your position. And if the charges are as shallow and contemptible as you indicate, you should want nothing more than an opportunity to quickly disprove them. Am I missing something?”

“No, Your Honor,” Hand said. “It’s just that I want to present the best possible defense. We’ve yet to see all the evidence gathered by the prosecutor, or had a chance to interview their so-called star witness . . .”

“You heard her—you’ll have all that,” Hewitt said. “Miss Schalk, turn everything over without any further delay and make the statements of your witness available to the defense. Got that?”

Hewitt turned to Hand. “Any motions?”

Hand made a motion to dismiss the case. Hewitt laughed, denied it, and asked if there were any others. Joe expected Hand to open his briefcase and produce a dozen motions to delay the trial or make Dulcie Schalk’s life a living hell.

“No motions, Your Honor,” Hand said.

Joe sat back, perplexed.

“So we’re set,” Hewitt said.

Schalk nodded, then followed with a weak “Yes, Your Honor.”

Marybeth talked briefly with Missy and Marcus Hand after the proceeding was recessed, while Joe went into the hallway to wait. The bailiff, an ex-rodeo cowboy nicknamed Stovepipe, sauntered from behind the metal detector he manned into the courtroom and grinned at Joe.

“He’s something, ain’t he?” Stovepipe said.

“Moves things right along,” Joe said.

Stovepipe switched a toothpick from the left side of his mouth to the right in a deft move. “I get the impression that celebrity lawyer from Jackson might not know what hit him.”

“He knows,” Joe said. “He’s done this before.”

“You think?”

As they approached Joe’s pickup, Marybeth said, “What just happened? Mom’s in shock.”

“He runs a tight ship,” Joe said. “Judge Hewitt doesn’t screw around. Marcus Hand will have to be amazing. Of course, Hand’s specialty is jury manipulation, not judge manipulation.”

“Which won’t be necessary,” Marybeth said, “for an innocent woman.”

Joe nodded.

“I’m pretty good at reading people,” she said, climbing up into the cab, “but I couldn’t read the judge. He seemed to be angry at everyone.”

“He’s in a hurry,” Joe said, starting the engine.

“But why?” Marybeth asked, shaking her head.

“Talked to Stovepipe,” Joe said. “Judge Hewitt drew a tag for a Dall sheep in Alaska. If he gets one, he’ll complete his grand slam: Stone, Rocky Mountain bighorn, desert bighorn, and Dall. Trophy hunters like Judge Hewitt will do anything to complete their grand slam, and this may be his only chance. The season up there opens and closes next month. I’ll check with a couple of buddies I know in the Alaska Fish and Game to get the particulars.”

Marybeth moaned aloud. “He’s hurrying so he can go hunting? When my mother’s life is at stake?”

“Man’s got priorities,” Joe said. “Hand has to realize he needs to work within them. A Dall sheep permit is a once-in-a-lifetime deal.”

“She looked so . . . lonely up there,” Marybeth said. “For the first time in my life, I realized she has no one to support her. She has no friends, Joe.”

He turned toward the library. “Can’t blame that on anybody but her,” he said.

“But it’s so sad. She’s truly alone now.”

“She’s got you,” Joe said.

“But not you,” Marybeth countered.

“Didn’t say that.”

“Don’t look so glum, pretty lady.” Marcus Hand grinned at Marybeth as he approached them across the courthouse lawn.

“Why not?” Marybeth asked. Joe looked on.

Hand said, “’Cause we’ve got ’em right where we want ’em.”

Marybeth looked at Joe for an explanation, and he shrugged back at her.

She said, “I thought you objected to the two weeks? I was surprised you did absolutely nothing to gain more time.”

Hand chuckled. He looked at Joe, and Joe raised his eyebrows, also curious.

“Okay,” Hand said, “but this is the last time I talk strategy with you. Not because I don’t trust you two, but because . . . well, just because.

“The news about Bud was unexpected, but wonderful. It means one of two things: they’re hiding him away or they don’t know where he is. We can work with each of those possibilities. But the important thing is their entire case rests almost entirely on the credibility of their star witness. If they’re hiding him, it’s for a reason, like they can’t trust what he’ll say in public or my questioning of him will destroy their case. That’s good, too. If they don’t