First, Kill the Lawyers, page 27
“He killed her.”
“He didn’t mean to. He meant to kill the old man and she jumped in the way. You, on the other hand…”
“Me?”
“You knew Hayley would be at the Minneapolis Institute of Art; you’re the one who told me. Later, you conveniently slipped away so we could talk. You knew she would be at the Library, too, because I told you. Brooke, where did you get the rifle and suppressor? Where did you get the subsonic rounds? You know what? Don’t tell me. It doesn’t matter, anyway. I know a guy who’d be happy to sell you an M-60 machine gun.”
“You’re wrong, Taylor. I loved Hayley. I wouldn’t have done anything to harm her. Just the opposite.”
“Explain it to me, then.”
“Sean and Chad were trying to blackmail me over the prenuptial agreement thing. ’Course, I didn’t know who they were at the time. I didn’t know who was responsible for the computer hacks until you told me. It broke my heart when I found out it was Hayley. At the same time, I was frightened because you said that two men were after her. That’s why I brought my rifle to the MIA. I spoke to Hayley, remember. I said so when we were in David Helin’s office. She told me she would never have uploaded the email David sent me. I had no reason to harm her.”
“Why did you shoot at her in the park, then?”
“I didn’t shoot at her. Those were warning shots.”
“Who were you warning?”
“You grabbed her, Taylor. You grabbed her by the arms and shook her. You were working for the lawyers, after all. I knew you wanted the files, and I thought you were threatening her.”
“And at the Library?”
“When you pulled your gun I thought you were in trouble.”
“Did you know that the two men were Sean and Chad?”
“I guessed.”
“Putting them away saved you a lot of money, didn’t it? How lucky for you.”
“Taylor, I shot them to save Hayley and you.”
“It wasn’t necessary.”
“I didn’t know that at the time.”
“Yes, you did.”
“Are you going to call the police?”
“What would I tell them?”
“What I just told you.”
“Are you going to confess if they knock on your door?”
“Probably not.”
“Do you still have the rifle?”
“I kept the laser sight, but the rifle and the subsonics are gone. I watch TV, Taylor. I know the first rule is you never keep the gun.”
I thought about Chad’s automatic that I dropped at the scene of Clark Peterson’s murder.
“Actually, that’s the second rule,” I said. “The first rule is never talk to the police with or without a lawyer present.”
“I’ll remember.”
“In any case, I can’t prove anything, can I?”
“No.”
“A good lawyer could sue me for slander and probably win. Do you know any good lawyers?”
“One or two.”
“Good-bye, Brooke.”
“We’re not going to get together, are we, Taylor?”
“I don’t think so.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I think you’re attractive.”
“I used to think the same of you.”
It was a lousy thing to say, and I told myself so while I made my way back to my car. Did Brooke do anything that I hadn’t done? No, except she did it for money, I told myself. She did it for three-point-seven million dollars. What did I do it for? I did it to protect my friends. I did it for love. Did it make any difference? I liked to think so.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“I’m sorry about the girl,” Freddie said.
“There were so many things I should have done for her that I didn’t.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“Feels like my fault.”
Freddie didn’t have anything to say to that. Instead, he went to the bulletin board and removed the index cards and red yarn until all that remained was the card labeled NIMN. I stared at the card while I absently fingered the flash drive Hayley had given me.
“Why did Hayley do it?” Freddie asked.
“Fisk asked the same question.”
“It just doesn’t make sense after everything else she did.”
“Would you ever take a bullet for someone?”
“Echo. My son. Probably my mom.”
“Why?”
“Love, man. You do it for love.”
“As good an explanation as any, I guess.”
Freddie gestured at the flash drive I was playing with.
“I know where we can get a good cup of coffee,” he said. “If that’s what you’re thinking.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s a cryin’ shame that we didn’t anticipate that Hayley had established a dead man’s switch, you know, just in case. That she gave a copy of the hacked files to a friend with instructions that if anything happened to her, the information should be sent directly to NIMN. The lawyers can’t fault us for that, can they?”
“You wouldn’t think so, especially after how things worked out.”
“It’s not enough that Fisk went down, Taylor. For what happened to Siegle and O’Neill, even Sean, Chad, and that kid Cowgill—for what happened to Hayley—they should all go down. Every one of them damn Guernseys, including the rapist hiding out in Texas. The lawyers, to hell with them, too. They should all pay. Don’t you think? And”—Freddie waved a single finger in the air—“and we’d be helping out the cops in St. Paul and Minneapolis without looking like we did, get ’em off our backs. It’d be a win-win, is what I’m sayin’.”
“We’d be crossing the line,” I said.
“Fuck the line. Just this once, fuck it.”
* * *
Hours later I was sitting in my apartment with a bottle of bourbon and a glass that I never seemed to keep empty, no matter how hard I tried, when my cell phone rang. The call was from Dr. Alexandra Campbell, and I was tempted to swipe left. I answered instead.
“Hey,” I said.
“Taylor, I heard the news…”
Alex began to weep. She didn’t speak another word while she wept, and neither did I. Eventually, the phone went dead.
* * *
There was a knock on my door. It was after ten, and I thought it was too late for Amanda to visit, yet I hid the bourbon anyway. I opened the door and Claire stepped across the threshold. She closed the door and leaned her back against it.
“I waited until Mandy was asleep,” she said.
“Claire…”
“I heard on the news Clark Peterson was shot near Linwood Park.”
“Yeah, I did, too. That was crazy, so near the field where you and Amanda were.”
“Taylor, I need to know. Did you kill him?”
“God, no. Why would you ask a thing like that?”
“He was at Linwood, and I called you.”
“I know, and I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to get there in time. Claire, what you heard—did it say what Peterson was accused of?”
“It talked about how he had been acquitted at trial for murdering his wife.”
“I’m going to tell you something, but you need to promise not to tell anyone else. Not Mandy, not anyone. Okay?”
“All right.”
“If it gets out that I violated attorney-client privilege, it could cost me my license as a private investigator.”
“I promise.”
“I was working for Peterson’s lawyer. The computers in his law firm were hacked. The information that was stolen included facts about Peterson that hadn’t been revealed at trial.”
“Are you saying he really did kill his wife?”
“He killed his wife and at least three other women as well. We don’t know how many for sure.”
“Oh my God, Taylor. Why was he hanging around Mandy and me?”
“Like I said, I was working for his lawyer. Peterson wanted me to tell him who hacked the law firm. He was afraid that the information would get out and the cops would come looking for him. It’s going to get out anyway. In a day or two you’ll be able to read all about it. Claire, I don’t have the words to tell you how sorry I am about all of this. He was bothering you and Mandy because he knew that I cared for you both. He figured that if he threatened you, I’d tell him what he wanted to know. Claire, I didn’t kill Peterson. We think that he was shot by someone close to one of his victims. We might never learn who. If he had tried to hurt you or your daughter, though—I don’t know what I would have done. I’m sorry.”
“I don’t know what to say, Taylor. Half of me is absolutely appalled by all of this. The other half, knowing that you’re looking out for us…”
She finished her thought by giving me a gentle hug, kissing my cheek, and resting her head against my chest. We stood like that for a long time, my arms wrapped around her waist. Or maybe it was for only a second or two. It was hard for me to judge.
“Mandy and I are going all out making dinner tomorrow night,” Claire said. “Roasted chicken. Corn on the cob. Mashed potatoes. Gravy. Mandy is trying her hand at making buttermilk biscuits. Please dine with us. There’ll be plenty of food, I promise.”
“I’d like that very much.”
“You won’t mention any of this to Amanda, though, will you? What we talked about? I don’t want her to be frightened.”
“I wouldn’t do that to save the world.”
ALSO BY DAVID HOUSEWRIGHT
FEATURING HOLLAND TAYLOR
Penance
Practice to Deceive
Dearly Departed
Darkness, Sing Me a Song
FEATURING RUSHMORE MCKENZIE
A Hard Ticket Home
Tin City
Pretty Girl Gone
Dead Boyfriends
Madman on a Drum
Jelly’s Gold
The Taking of Libbie, SD
Highway 61
Curse of the Jade Lily
The Last Kind Word
The Devil May Care
Unidentified Woman #15
Stealing the Countess
What the Dead Leave Behind
Like to Die
OTHER NOVELS
The Devil and the Diva
(with Renée Valois)
Finders Keepers
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DAVID HOUSEWRIGHT won the Edgar Award for his first Holland Taylor crime novel, Penance, and is the three-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award for his crime fiction. In addition to the Holland Taylor series, he is also the author of several novels featuring Rushmore McKenzie. Housewright is a past president of the Private Eye Writers of America. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Also by David Housewright
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
FIRST, KILL THE LAWYERS. Copyright © 2019 by David Housewright. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.minotaurbooks.com
Cover design by Jonathan Bush
Cover illustrations: skyline © GeorgePeters / Getty Images; man © Tim Robinson / Arcangel
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Housewright, David, 1955– author.
Title: First, kill the lawyers: a Holland Taylor mystery / David Housewright.
Description: First Edition. | New York: Minotaur Books, 2019.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018040074 | ISBN 9781250094490 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781250094506 (ebook)
Subjects: | GSAFD: Mystery fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3558.O8668 F57 2019 | DDC 813/.54—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018040074
eISBN 9781250094506
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First Edition: January 2019
David Housewright, First, Kill the Lawyers
