The 19th Christmas - James Patterson Page 0,24
the guy. He doesn’t return their calls. They think he just took their money and ran.”
Yuki sighed. “That’s crazy.”
“Agreed,” said Cindy. “I don’t get the feeling that this has never happened before. I’m sure this isn’t the first time an immigrant has paid a lawyer and then been blown off. Can you give me an idea how many undocumented immigrants are overcharged or poorly defended?”
Yuki said, “Hey, do I look like your research assistant?”
Cindy laughed. “Sorry. I’m on a tight deadline.”
Yuki said, “If this helps, you’re onto something. Even US citizens get improperly detained, and some are intimidated into waiving their rights or confessing when not guilty. Immigrants with no criminal record have been bused over the border and abandoned in wide-open spaces with no papers, no money.”
Cindy nodded. “I read that, last year, eighty people who were detained in California died of injuries or untreated illnesses. And in the US, four hundred thousand people pass through detention every year.”
“See, you don’t even need a research assistant,” Yuki said. “But your primary interest right now is Eduardo Varela.”
“True.”
“And why are you so convinced he’s innocent?” Yuki asked her friend.
“I believe his wife. There’s that—and my solid-gold, award-winning gut instinct.”
Yuki laughed. “Don’t go public with your gut-instinct opinion until Zac and I meet him, okay? Not all undocumented immigrants who are arrested are innocent.”
“I know, but Eduardo only has a traffic violation and a fake ID on his record. He’s not a criminal.”
“Did you hear me say I was going to help?”
“Yes. Yuki, you are the best of the best.”
Cindy got up, hugged her friend, and said, “I wish I could go with you.”
There was a knock on the door frame, and they looked over to see a tall man standing there. Yuki said, “Zac, come in and meet Cindy. Cindy, Zac Jordan of the Defense League. From time to time, Zac’s been known to save the day.”
“Great,” Cindy said. “Nice to meet you, Zac. I think today is a day worth saving. It’s almost Christmas, after all.”
Chapter 28
Yuki got into Zac’s old baby-blue BMW, and they took off toward County Jail #5 in San Bruno. She hadn’t seen him in a year, and she was struck by how much he’d changed. He had a pierced ear and a bunch of string bracelets, and he’d swapped his cords and camel hair for denim. His longish hair needed a cut.
He saw her looking at his attire and smiled. “My day off,” he said.
“You look younger,” she said, meaning it.
The drive was a great opportunity for Yuki to catch up with her old friend. She told Zac about her most recent case. “I believed the victim, but he lied to me from the moment we met.”
Zac commiserated and shared with her what he called his “extremely rotten year.” Not only had Zac lost more cases than he had won, but his wife had filed for a separation. Then Mike Stoddard, the mega rich donor who kept the Defense League’s lights on, had died at the age of fifty-two.
“It was sudden,” Zac said. “Mike was such a good friend to us. I’ll miss him, and not just for the money. He kept me fighting the good fight.”
“But surely he provided for the Defense League in his will?”
“Nope. He just…never expected to have a massive coronary.”
A few moments of silence ensued. Then Yuki said, “Zac? You okay? Will you be able to keep the Defense League going?”
“I’m fine. Really. Enough about me, Yuki-san. Tell me more about Eduardo Varela.”
Yuki was glad to get into it. According to Cindy, she explained, Eduardo was a hardworking undocumented immigrant with a family who had been arrested for going ten miles over the speed limit and driving with a fake license. Then he claimed that he’d been falsely charged with murder.
“Eduardo’s friends and family would all testify that he’s innocent,” she said, “and now he’s got the indomitable Cindy Thomas of the San Francisco Chronicle on his side. If you take the case, his odds of acquittal zoom from ‘no frickin’ way’ to ‘maybe a shot.’”
“Nice of you to say so,” Zac said. “We’ll have to see.”
Of course, Zac was right to reserve judgment. He was a good-as-gold person, a terrific lawyer and a busy one, but she had taken a chance asking him to look into this sad and likely hopeless case a couple of days before Christmas. Her pitch to Zac was based only on Cindy’s enthusiasm and gut instinct. Of course, in Yuki’s humble opinion, Cindy