still looking at a possible life sentence as opposed to ten years. And, with your connections, you’d probably be out on parole at the first opportunity.”
Every muscle in Blair’s face tightened. He leaned toward Benedict, his face scarlet with anger.
“Let me make myself perfectly clear. I did not kill my wife. I am innocent and I will not plead guilty to anything, not even if Hamada offers me a jay-walking charge. Do you get that?”
Benedict held up his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “Hey, Horace, ease up. I’m on your side. I believe you’re innocent one hundred percent, but I have a duty as your attorney to bring you any offer a prosecutor makes. I’d be disbarred if I didn’t.”
“Then you’ve done your duty and we will have no reason to ever discuss a plea again.”
“I’ll tell Hamada.”
Blair was still angry when the guard escorted him back to his cell. Benedict was just disappointed. He had a pretty good fix on Blair’s personality and he had not expected the millionaire to take the offer, but he had held out hope that he might. If Horace had pled, Benedict’s life would have become much simpler. Oh, well, life was like that. Sometimes it didn’t hand you an easy solution to your problems on a silver platter.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Horace Blair looked terrible. His hair was snarled and he was unshaven. There were dark circles under his eyes. The night before, the guards had placed an insane person in isolation and the man had howled like a dog for several hours before running out of steam. To make matters worse, the other inmates had added to the din by screaming at the lunatic and the guards. Horace had pressed his pillow over his ears, but his attempts to block out the manic baying and the angry shouts had failed, and he was exhausted.
Horace was used to being on the go constantly, so he found surviving the empty hours that comprised most of his day in jail very difficult. He could not help spending a lot of his idle time thinking about his case. When he could not sleep he found himself mulling over the evidence that had landed him in jail. Much of it made no sense. There were all these anonymous tips. There was the gun, which he had never seen until Frank Santoro held it up in front of his eyes. There was the other evidence the police had found in the trunk of his car. And Barry Lester! How had that little weasel learned the terms of his prenuptial agreement and the location of Carrie’s grave? But what bothered him the most was that damn key with his prints on it. How had a key to his front door found its way into Carrie’s grave?
Horace was trying to solve these seemingly impossible problems when the door to his cell opened.
“You have visitors,” the guard said.
Horace was eager for any change in his mind-numbing routine. The guard led him to a contact visiting room. He assumed that his visitor would be Charles Benedict. Instead he found Jack Pratt waiting for him.
“How are you holding up?” Pratt asked with genuine concern.
“How do you think?” Horace answered angrily. “I can’t sleep, I get no exercise, the food is inedible, and I’m facing the possibility that I may be executed for a crime I never committed. Not to mention the fact that the businesses I’ve cultivated all my life are swirling down the toilet.”
“Don’t worry about business. The people you’ve put in place are doing a great job.”
Suddenly all of the anger drained out of Blair. He looked like a beaten man.
“I don’t know how I’m going to get by in here. I’m going crazy.”
“You have to stay positive, Horace. You can’t let this thing beat you. And right now you’ve got to focus. We have something very urgent to discuss.”
Blair looked up.
“You have to change attorneys. You’re making a big mistake by having Benedict as your lawyer.”
“Why? What have you learned?”
“Very little that’s good and a lot that is very bad,” Pratt replied. “Even if I didn’t know what I’ve learned recently I’d be urging you to drop Benedict. He’s out of his depth with a case like this. He has handled a few murder cases but only one went to trial. Most of his caseload involves narcotics and prostitution. He’s had some success with those cases, but a friend in the commonwealth attorney’s office told me that there’s something fishy about the way