Robin didn’t want to disillusion her client, so she didn’t tell him what she’d learned about the gunpowder. “I’ve done some digging, Jimmy. Peter Knox thought Timothy Rankin ratted him out to the police, but he didn’t. I know some people in Narcotics. They wouldn’t tell me who informed on Knox, but they assured me it wasn’t Timothy. I also found out that Loretta moved out of state two years ago, so Timothy couldn’t have been having an affair with her. Knox made that up, hoping you would go after Timothy. So, I have to ask you, are you going to try to hurt Rankin when you’re released?”
“I’m never gonna hurt nobody again. God gave me a chance to be redeemed, and I’m gonna prove he wasn’t wrong to do it.”
“That’s good to hear. You’re going to be released in the next half hour. Do you have someone who can drive you home?”
“My brother, but he’s working a late shift.”
“When does he get off?”
“Around midnight.”
Robin hesitated. She usually kept her relations with clients to legal assistance, but she liked Jimmy. “Where do you live?”
Jimmy told her. The address was a twenty-minute ride away, and she’d brought her car to work because she’d had an appearance in Salem that morning.
“I can give you a ride home. I’ll wait across the street in the park for you.”
Robin rode down in the jail elevator and walked to the park that was across from the Justice Center. She found an empty bench, opened her attaché case, and took out a respondent’s brief that the attorney general had filed in one of her appeals. She’d been reading it for twenty-five minutes when a shadow obscured the page.
Robin looked up. Looming over her were the men who had attacked Robert Chesterfield behind the tavern. Robin’s primitive brain sent her body into fight-or-flight mode. When she started to stand, Marco pressed his meaty fingers into her shoulder and forced her back onto the bench. Rafael sat beside her and winced. Robin guessed that he was still hurting from his stab wound.
“Can I help you?” Robin asked, trying to stay calm.
“You can help yourself by telling me where I can find Bobby Chesterfield,” Rafael said.
Robin was certain that the two men wouldn’t expect a woman to know how to fight, and that was her advantage. She visualized smashing her fist into Rafael’s groin before springing up and spearing Marco in the throat. An elbow strike to Rafael’s temple and a punch or kick to Marco’s crotch would disable the pair long enough for her to run back to the Justice Center and its police presence.
While that course of action would help her in the park, she realized that more problems would come later when the men came after her to avenge their beating. Robin decided that violence would be plan B, and she opted to use her brain to defuse the situation.
“I don’t know where he is,” she said.
“We both know that’s not true. You’re Bobby’s lawyer, so you have to know how to get in touch with him.”
“I was Mr. Chesterfield’s lawyer. He hired me to resolve a legal matter for him, but I wasn’t able to, so I’m no longer doing any work for him. And I really don’t have any idea where he is.”
Rafael smiled. “Nice try, but a lawyer is always going to know how to get in touch with someone who owes her money. So where is he?”
“Chesterfield may be a lot of things, but dumb isn’t one of them. He warned me that you were watching my office. That’s why he insisted that we meet at that tavern. It’s also why he hasn’t told me where he’s living. He figured you’d try to pressure me into telling you where you can find him. He calls me when he wants to talk,” Robin lied, not wanting Rafael to know that her contact was Horace Dobson. “He hasn’t given me an address or a phone number.”
Again, Rafael smiled. “That logic shit may work with juries, but it’s not working on me. Last chance. Tell me where Bobby is hiding, or Marco is going to hurt you.”
Robin was preparing to put plan B into action when Jeff walked up.
“Is there a problem, Miss Lockwood?”
Rafael got up and Marco turned toward Jeff, who was pointing a .38 Special at them.
“Who the fuck are you?” Rafael barked.
“I’m someone who won’t hesitate to shoot you if you don’t walk away right now.”