'Is anyone else there?'
'You mean someone other than me? Sure, there's bodies here.'
'Anyone on the Jackson case? Walker or Calabrese?'
'Sorry, babe, just me. I'm getting the feeling that's not the answer
you're looking for.'
Damn. I had tried to minimize Chuck's involvement on the case, but now
I didn't have much of a choice. I told him I didn't have time to
explain anything but needed him to meet me and Nelly.
'Far as the department's concerned, the case is cleared, Sam. The
lieutenant will look at any OT we put in on it, and that might ripple
back to your office. You sure?'
See, this is why it's not wise for us to work together. His heart was
in the right place, but Chuck was questioning my judgment when any
other cop would be happy at the chance for easy time-and-a-half. 'You
don't need to tell me how it works. Just meet me over there.'
When he got to the corner where I was waiting, he tried to give me a
peck on the lips, but I held a hand up.
I led the way up the escalator to the main lobby. Nelly was already
waiting.
She was visibly alarmed that I wasn't alone, and seemed even more
uncomfortable when I told her Chuck was a cop. For a second, I thought
I was going to have to give her the 'I'm not your lawyer, so there's no
privilege' speech, but Nelly had obviously been paying attention during
her ethics classes. 'I guess even if I talked just to you, you could
turn around and tell him everything anyway.'
'And I would. Now why don't you go ahead and tell me what's going on.
You sounded pretty worked up on the phone.'
She looked around the lobby to confirm that no city hall types were
around. 'I don't know whether to be worked up over it or not. But
when I got back to the office after I testified, Dennis Coakley was in
Judge Loutrell's office. He's the chief administrative judge.'
I nodded.
'I've been helping him out, now that I'm down to one judge. Anyway,
they were talking about Judge Easterbrook and were saying something
about privileged information. I don't think they heard me come in at
first, but then when the phone rang and I answered, they closed the
judge's door.'
'Could you tell what kind of information they were talking about?'
'No, but it sounded like the judge thought they should tell you about
it, and Coakley was saying they couldn't because it was privileged.'
'They were talking about me specifically?'
'Well, I don't know if Judge Loutrell knew your name, but he said
something about telling the DA, and then Coakley said something like,
'We can't tell her anything that's privileged.''
'And you don't have any idea what they could have been referring to?'
'No. I knew Coakley had reviewed Judge Easterbrook's files for
privileged materials, but he said he didn't have to remove anything.'
Nelly stopped talking, but I could tell from the way she ended the
sentence that she had cut herself off.
'But?'
'I went back to the chambers and searched Judge Easterbrook's office. I
didn't find any files other than the ones you already saw, but I did
find a key.'
'To what?'
She reached into her jacket pocket and removed a tiny silver key. 'I
don't know, but it looks like it could fit a safe deposit box.
I found it in the drawer she keeps her personal junk in. She used to
throw her purse in there during the day with some makeup and a
hairbrush, that kind of thing.
'It's probably nothing,' she said, 'but I was still getting over my
nerves from testifying, and when I heard them talking about the case
and then shutting the door, I got majorly paranoid. I was in her
office searching like crazy. I opened her compact, and this was in the
bottom with the puff. At the time, it felt important but now I guess
it sounds a little stupid.'
It was definitely worth looking into. Given its location, the key had
clearly been important to Clarissa. I took it, gave Nelly my home
number, and asked her to call if she overheard anything else about the
case.
'For what it's worth,' she said before turning away, 'you were great in
