The Hallows, page 28
He flung me off him like a doll and rose to his feet. I lay out of breath, my knuckles bleeding, on the dirt floor.
“Forget this bullshit,” he said. “You’re too much trouble.”
He lifted the gun.
81
I looked into that gun and thought of Gates. Of the life I should’ve had. Most of my life had been spent acting like someone else. They say that depression is your mask, telling you that you’re tired of the role you’ve been putting on for everyone else. My mask had had enough and was just tired. I closed my eyes and pictured Gates the night we rode under the moonlight on her ranch, the smell of grass in my nostrils.
“Mark!”
I opened my eyes and saw Will enter the barn with two officers. The cops had their guns drawn. One officer stepped forward and said, “Mark, put your weapon down.”
Howard grimaced. “Shit, Jim, this here’s the killer. This son of a bitch killed Patty Winchester. When I found out, he came after me, man.”
“If that’s true, we’ll work it out. But for now I need you to put your weapon down.”
“It’s him, Jimmy. He’s right here, and you’re gonna let him go?”
“Mark,” he said, coming within a few feet of Howard, “please put the weapon down. I don’t want to fire, but I will if you don’t give me a choice.”
Howard chuckled and lowered the weapon to his side. He looked at me and said, “What’d I tell ya, Counselor? You can’t rely on nobody.”
He lifted the gun to his head, the muzzle pressed against his temple. I jumped up. “No!”
Howard pulled the trigger. Warm blood hit my face as his body tumbled over. The officer he’d called Jim stood in shock for a few moments before he put his gun away and checked Howard’s pulse. There was no need. A hole the size of a tennis ball had blossomed on the right side of his skull. His dark black blood was mixing with the dirt and making a thick mud.
Will ran up to me. “You okay?”
“We need to find Lyle,” I said, brushing past him to get out.
“Hey, wait a second. Tatum, stop. Tatum!”
I turned around.
“We found them. They were in the basement. They’re both okay. You saved them, man. You came in right before Howard did anything. They’re okay.”
I nodded. Will put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Let’s sit down.”
“Better idea, let’s lie down.” I got down to the ground, my heart a second away from bursting out of my chest, my stomach a pit of acid about to burn through the skin. I lay back on the dirt and stared at the light coming through the cracks in the roof of the barn, then turned on my side and vomited.
When the ambulance arrived, Lyle and Nikyee were checked by a paramedic. I went over to her.
“If you hadn’t come in—” she said.
“Hey, no use playing that game. We’re all still here.”
“Tatum!”
Gates ran up and threw her arms around me. “That was the stupidest damn thing I ever—”
“Can you do me a solid and save the yelling for later tonight? I think I’m about to pass out.”
She stared at me, anger and worry in her eyes, and then said, “I think I have to fire you. You’re too reckless.”
“Hey, won the trial in a weird sort of way, right? That’s all that matters.”
“Is it?”
I grinned. “No, it’s not.”
82
I was there when Nathan Ficco was arrested a week later. The audio recording I had of Howard spilling his guts, and the transfers Jia had established from an offshore account owned by Nathan Ficco’s construction company into Howard’s account, were more than enough for a conviction. He tried to hire Pritcher, but Pritcher said, rightly, that because he had defended Anderson, it would be a conflict for him to represent Nathan as well. He couldn’t care less about conflicts, I’m sure, but Judge Allred would’ve thrown a fit, and I had a feeling he’d had enough of River Falls.
Pritcher stood with me outside Nathan’s house as a deputy with the sheriff’s office helped Nathan out. Nathan’s hands were cuffed behind his back and a news van was there, the cameraman slowly striding along with him until he was put in a police cruiser.
Thanks to Jia’s brilliant digging around in everyone’s bank accounts, we’d also been able to connect withdrawals of $2,000 in cash from half a dozen men in town that lined up with deposits of $1,000 in Patty’s account the next day. I guessed that the other $1,000 went straight into Farah’s pocket.
Horace Webb, Gates’s opponent for county attorney, and good friend of both the mayor and Nathan Ficco, had actually been stupid enough to write Patty a check and put “services rendered” in the “memo” line. The story was statewide and had even gotten some national press on the cable news networks. That kind of publicity would be enough to win the election for Gates.
I’d also made a call to the Attorney General’s Office about a little bar in Las Vegas that was engaging in the trafficking of underage girls. Too bad. Despite the horror of what she was doing, I’d liked Farah.
I had Steven Brown charged with perjury but would be cutting a deal for probation with him. Turned out the stalking injunction Patty had supposedly filed against him had been faked by Howard.
“You do know,” Pritcher said, “that Anderson was an unwilling accomplice in all this. His father and Howard were the ones that pressured him to, allegedly, help in the killing and burial of Patty. And he certainly, again assuming he was actually there, did not kill her himself.”
“He almost killed her by hitting her with a hammer, Russell. And then he covered up her death afterward.” I thought a moment. “But he certainly wasn’t the brains of the outfit. Considering his age, I’ll cut him a little slack. Aggravated kidnapping and attempted murder, five to life, but I’ll stipulate to fifteen years and write a letter to the parole board. The offer’s good for today. Otherwise I keep the homicide charges and go forward on conspiracy to commit homicide and accessory after the fact. Might even hand it over to the feds and let them seek the death penalty.”
He nodded. “No need, he’ll take it.” He motioned toward Nathan with his head. “What about him?”
“Him, I’m going to put in prison for the rest of his life. And I’m going to charge every man that took advantage of that girl with statutory rape. Including the mayor.” I grinned. “He’s giving a press conference this afternoon, and he’s getting a little surprise visit from the boys in blue when he comes off that podium.”
I gazed at Nathan Ficco in the back of a police cruiser. Venom was shooting out of his eyes at me, and I winked at him. I turned away and folded my arms, staring at Pritcher.
“I’m just willing to bet I’m not going to find any evidence about how you convinced Steven to lie on the stand, but if I do, Russell, I’m coming after you, too.”
He chuckled, his eyes never wavering from mine. “Well, I would say it was a pleasure, but it certainly wasn’t. I still think you’re a traitor to your profession, but you seemed to do well in this one instance.” He brushed something off my suit. “Take care of yourself, Tatum.”
I watched him leave, and then I turned to Nathan’s house. Anderson and his family would have to find a life without Nathan, but from what I’d seen, Nathan was a tyrant anyway. They would be better off.
Will came out of the house and over to me and said, “Arrest warrant was executed properly. I think we should start holding some seminars on the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments for the city and county cops. They need to learn what they’re doing.”
“Cool. I think I know the perfect prosecutor to head that up, too.”
“Me? I don’t know. I’m not very good at public speaking.”
“You’ll do great. Besides, you gotta have the backing of the cops if you’re gonna be mayor one day.”
“Mayor?”
“Call me psychic, but I see politics in your future. And I think this town could use someone like you.”
I turned to get into my car and Will said, “Tatum? Thanks, man. For . . . I don’t know. Just being here, I guess.”
“You can buy me a beer tonight when we go out to celebrate.”
83
It was in the afternoon that day when I sat on Gates’s porch and looked out over the meadow behind her house. Some cows were roaming around, and I could see her horses in the pen by the fence. Dandelions dotted the landscape, and farther out were trees and then a valley. She came and sat down in the rocking chair next to me.
“You know the local paper has been bugging me about getting them an interview with you.”
I waved my hand. “Hate that stuff. Always have. Besides, you’re a much prettier face for the media.”
“It wouldn’t hurt to get your name out there. I mean . . . if you’re planning to stay.”
I inhaled deeply and looked out over the grass. “I think I’ll be around for a while. My dad gets out of the hospital today and I want to be there. I don’t know him, and he sure as hell doesn’t know me. I thought maybe we could change that.”
She watched me a second and said, “I think he would like that.” She sipped water out of a bottle she was holding. “Guess who else will be staying?”
“Jia. I know.”
“How do you know?”
“She texted me and said she turned the job down. It’s a good move for her. I don’t think she’ll stay here, but she needs to cook a little bit in the fire of the courtroom before she heads out to bigger and better things.”
“Better?”
I grinned. “Well, at least bigger.”
She reached for my hand. I took hers, and we sat quietly a minute and watched the grass and the cows before I said, “I have a surprise for you.”
“What?”
“I’ll show you.”
We pulled up to the City and County Building.
“What is it?” Gates said.
“Wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you.”
Once inside, she was going to head downstairs, and I said, “No, up here.”
Gates and I took the stairs to the third floor. The floor was massive and people were boxing things up. Some movers were there as well, and Gates glanced around and said, “What’s going on?”
“The city manager’s office is moving downstairs. And guess who’ll be moving up here to the nice offices?”
“Are you kidding me? How’d you manage that?”
“Easy. I bought the building.”
She chuckled. “What?”
“I bought the building. What? It’s a good investment. I looked at the demographics, and the town is slowly—albeit very, very slowly—growing. One day I can leave this building to my kids.”
“Kids? Who are you and what have you done with Tatum?”
I approached her and took her hands in mine. “I don’t . . . I screwed it up once. You don’t get many second chances. I’m not going to screw it up this time.”
I kissed her, and as I did, one of the guys from the city manager’s office walked by and said, “Get a hotel. And don’t think I’ll forget you’re moving us into the basement. Better make sure your lawns are up to code, ’cause I’ll be watching.”
“Hey, don’t make me move you guys into the bathrooms.”
He scoffed and mumbled to himself as he went down the stairs. Gates grinned at me. “You make friends wherever you go, don’t you?”
“It’s a gift.”
She wrapped her arms around my neck, and we stared into each other’s eyes.
“What do you think about dogs?” I said.
“What?”
“Dogs. I was thinking it’s time I got one.”
“Well, Adam mentioned something about wanting grandkids actually.”
“Let’s just start with a dog and see how he does, shall we?”
She grinned and kissed me, and it seemed like she was the only person in my world. And I knew I could be perfectly happy with that.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d like to give a special thank-you to my awesome team at Thomas & Mercer and Amazon Publishing. You guys rock.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Victor Methos knew he would be a lawyer at the age of thirteen, when his best friend was interrogated by the police for over eight hours and confessed to a crime he didn’t commit.
After graduating from the University of Utah S. J. Quinney College of Law, Methos worked for a special kind of lawyer—the kind who put up neon signs and would do anything and everything to win. Afterward, he sharpened his teeth as a prosecutor for Salt Lake City before founding what would become the most successful criminal defense firm in Utah.
In ten years, Methos conducted more than one hundred trials. One particular case stuck with him, and it became the basis for his first major bestseller, The Neon Lawyer. Since that book’s publication, Methos has focused his work on legal thrillers and mysteries. He currently splits his time between Salt Lake City and Las Vegas and continues to defend the poor and the weak against the strong and the powerful.
Victor Methos, The Hallows
