Kill All the Lawyers

Steve shook his head. He hated cutesy boat names. Once, in a divorce, he got the wife her husband's boat, which she promptly renamed Ex on the Beach.

'Psycho Therapy,' Kreeger said. 'Two words. You like it?'

'It fits.'

'So anytime you want, call me. We'll take the boat down to Elliot Key.'

'Not without a Coast Guard escort.'

'With your history of violence, I should be afraid of you, not the other way around. Hypothetical question: Would you kill Janice to save your nephew?'

'What!'

'If your sister posed a threat to young Robert, would you kill her to save him?'

'If I say yes, you'll tell Judge Schwartz I'm a homicidal maniac, a danger to the community. At least the community of worthless junkies.'

'I can tell the judge anything I want. This is just between you and me. Now, there's such a thing as justifiable homicide, isn't there?'

'Yeah. Self-defense. Defense of others.'

'So who could blame you if you resorted to deadly force to protect an innocent child? What difference should it make if the person is your sister?'

'What's Janice have to do with anything? She-' Steve stopped. Suddenly, it became clear. 'You're not talking about me. You're talking about you.'

Kreeger smoothed out a fold in his silk guayabera, then laced his fingers together on his stomach. 'How so?'

'That bit about the umpire and me. And my father quitting the bench. You're the one who doesn't trust judges or the legal system.'

'Keep going, Solomon. It's always rewarding to a teacher when a slow child gets the hang of things.'

'All your questions about whether I would kill Janice to protect Bobby. You're saying you killed Nancy Lamm because she was a threat to someone. And you're implying that I would do the same thing.'

'We all would kill to protect someone we love. You and I are in the mainstream there, but it goes deeper than that. We're a lot closer than you'd like to admit.'

'You still stuck on that blood-brothers shit?'

'Where's your sister now?'

'Prison. She's got another eighteen months. But if I know Janice, she'll beat up an inmate or attack a guard and get more time.'

'Nope. She's out.'

'What are you talking about?'

'She's detoxed and rehabbed and ready for civilian life.'

'You're shitting me.'

'I examined her myself for the Corrections Department. Volunteered my services. Janice was quite credible when addressing the commissioners.'

'You helped her get out. Why?'

Kreeger smiled. 'To see how far you'll go to protect someone you love. Did I mention that your sister's goal is to start over? What did she call it? 'Form a new family unit. Me and my boy.' Not very grammatical, but extremely moving.'

'I don't believe this. You helped her so she can come after Bobby.'

'Is there anything as powerful as a mother's love?'

'You son-of-a-bitch. You killed Nancy Lamm. You killed Jim Beshears. And you want me to kill my sister to prove I'm just like you. Well, you're nuts! I'm not like you, Kreeger.'

'We'll see about that, won't we? And why do you keep bringing up poor Jim Beshears? Is it because you've been looking high and low for that boat captain?'

So he does know!

But if Kreeger was concerned, he didn't show it. A bemused smile played at his lips. 'Find Senor De la Fuente yet, Solomon?'

'As a matter of fact, I have. He's signed one hell of an affidavit. Maybe you'll get a chance to see it.'

'You'll give it to the State Attorney, I suppose. No statute of limitations on murder. Get him to indict me, that your plan?'

Kreeger slid open a desk drawer, and Steve caught his breath. If he came out with a gun, Steve would fly across the desk. Like sliding into third headfirst.

'If anything happens to me, my office is under strict instructions to deliver that affidavit to Ray Pincher.'

'Strict instructions, are they?' Kreeger laughed heartily, like coins ka-chinging out of a slot machine. A second later, he pulled an emery board from the drawer and began filing his nails. 'So how is the good captain? I haven't seen him in a long time.'

'Retired. Living a quiet life. But he's got a great memory.'

Kreeger showed Steve a patient smile. 'I'm sure he's retired. And I'm sure it's quite quiet. The 'great memory' bit, not too convincing. Last time I saw Oscar, he wasn't doing that well.'

Steve felt a chill, even though it was warm in the small office. Suddenly, he knew exactly where Kreeger was headed.

'Oscar had quite a drinking problem, you know,' Kreeger continued. 'And when he drank, he talked nonsense. Kept telling tales about these two med students who'd had a fight on his boat and one of them ended up dead. A fight! Oscar must have been drunk that day.'

'You say you saw him?'

'Floating facedown. Must have slipped hopping from the rail to his dock. Could happen to anyone.'

'And I'll bet he had a dent in his skull, too.'

'That'll happen if you hit a concrete dock on the way into the drink.'

So there it was, Kreeger delivering a message. Threaten me and I'll kill you. Just like he killed Beshears, Lamm, and De la Fuente. Steve felt his jaw muscles tighten. Yeah, Psycho Therapy was the perfect name for this freak's boat.

'Three bodies in the water,' Steve said, shaking his head.

'Is there a better place to die?'

'Meaning what?'

'I've never really believed in ashes to ashes and dust to dust. We all crawled from the swamp, so how fitting to return to a watery grave. From the swamp to the sea, Solomon. That's our journey. From the swamp to the sea.'

Twenty

TALKING STUPID

'You kissed a naked woman?' Victoria said.

'No. Yes. Not exactly.' Steve realized he was kerflumping. He opened the stainless-steel refrigerator door and looked inside. Empty, but the cool air felt great. They were in the model kitchen of a model townhouse on a model block three hundred yards from the ocean. Casa del Mar. Or Mar Bella. Or El Pollo del Mar, for all Steve knew. He hadn't bothered to read the sign.

'You kissed a naked woman!' Her voice had taken on the accusatory tone of a sentencing judge: 'You strangled a helpless kitten.'

'You're focusing on that?' Steve couldn't believe it. He had scarcely started telling Victoria about his visit to Kreeger, and she couldn't get past the suntanned nude in the backyard. 'What's important is that Kreeger pretty much admitted killing De la Fuente. That makes three!'

'Is she pretty?'