Animal Instinct by Rosenfelt, David (novels for students TXT) 📕

Mahler: “I need to think about this. Please give me until tomorrow.”

Andy: “No longer than that. But understand that it is coming out no matter what. Your only decision is which side to be on.”

Mahler: “I understand.”

Andy: “Don’t blow this one, Rico. You’ve only got the one shot.”

When the tape is finished, I say, “I want to play this again.” So I do, listening carefully to every word Mahler says.

When we’ve heard it for the second time, Dani says, “Maybe it wasn’t Harold Marshall that Mahler was worried about. He says he never heard of Marshall. Maybe he was reacting to Andy calling him ‘Rico.’ It wasn’t until he heard that that he started to sound worried.”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“Why not?”

“Because that voice on the call … that wasn’t Richard Mahler.”

I can tell that Andy has doubts that I’m right about the Mahler phone call.

I only met with Mahler once, and voices can sound different over the phone than in person. But I’m good with voices, and I am 100 percent positive that I am right. Well, maybe 90 percent. Or 80.

If I am right, and it wasn’t Mahler on the phone, then he was murdered. Pure and simple. There is no other credible explanation for his death.

I suspect we can find a number of other people who were closer to Mahler that could confirm or deny his voice. But there is time for that later; right now we have to figure out what it means, and how it can help us … how it can help me. I am officially a self-centered defendant.

I mentally go back over all the times we thought we had something and were thwarted. One thing that sticks out in my mind is Steven Landry. Andy and I thought he was lying to us when we talked to him about his mother, Doris. She had been the person Lisa Yates emailed about her fear of Rico, and whose obituary was one of three in her suitcase.

When I called him back to ask about his mother’s friends, all of whom he said he had contacted to inform them of her death, he got belligerent and refused to help. That has bugged me periodically, but I never followed up on it.

Now is as good a time as any.

I call Sam first thing in the morning. “Sam, can you access Doris Landry’s email account? I want to know who some of her friends were … who were the people she emailed most often. We know that Lisa Yates was one of them, but who were the others?”

“No problem,” Sam says, as usual.

“I’ll be in court. Just call me when you have something; I’ll get your message and call you back.”

“Will do.”

When I get to court, Andy seems to be taking my claim that it wasn’t Mahler on the call more seriously, or at least he’s contemplating what it might mean if I am right.

“We still don’t know what’s going on … where they’re making their money,” he says. “But if that wasn’t Mahler, then it means he was murdered, and it means they’re cleaning up all the loose ends.”

“I agree, and Jason Musgrove is the last one standing.”

“The last one that we know about. Musgrove might be a lying piece of garbage and a total thief, but I’m not sure he has the connections or guts to be arranging all this violence.”

I tell Andy about my instructions to Sam about Doris Landry’s emails, and he approves. “If we throw enough crap against the wall,” he says, “we might get something that sticks.” It’s an interesting legal strategy.

Today our defense will focus on the attempt by Carlos Evaldi to murder me in my home. To tell the story, Andy calls Lieutenant Scott Leeman, a homicide detective who was with Pete Stanton when they arrived at the house that night. Andy could have had Pete tell the story as part of his earlier testimony, but Andy felt that the more respected cops that testify during the defense case, the better. He also plans to recall Pete later on a different subject.

After setting up that Dani called 911, Andy asks Lieutenant Leeman what they found when they arrived at the house that night.

“A man named Carlos Evaldi was in Mr. Douglas’s bedroom. He was deceased, having been shot once in the head. A gun was still in his hand.”

Dylan predictably objects and asks for a conference. This time Judge Wallace sends the jury out and hears arguments in open court. I’m glad about that, because it means I can hear it.

“Your Honor, Mr. Carpenter is conducting a fishing expedition on a scale that I personally have never seen before. Are we going to hear about every murder ever committed? Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman? Sharon Tate? Unless and until Mr. Carpenter makes a showing otherwise, they have as much to do with the case we are trying as Carlos Evaldi.”

Andy shakes his head as if saddened by what he is hearing. “Your Honor, Mr. Douglas was actively investigating the murders of both Lisa Yates and Gerald Kline. It is a fair inference to draw that this was an attempt to stop those investigations in their tracks.

“The larger point is that people related to this case have been dropping like flies: the murders have been piling up since day one. The jury has a right to know about them and to decide whether it makes sense to pluck Mr. Douglas out of the chaos and charge him.”

Judge Wallace has gone too far down this road to make a U-turn now. He allows the witness, with a half-hearted admonition to Andy that he needs to demonstrate relevance.

The jury is called in again, and Andy goes back to questioning Lieutenant Leeman. “Had any other shots been fired?”

“Yes. There were three bullets fired into pillows on the bed. They had obviously been placed that way to make it appear that Mr. Douglas was sleeping in it.”

“Were you able to determine how Mr.