An Insignificant Case

Chapter Fifteen

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Charlie hadn’t slept much the night before he was taken to see Gretchen Hall’s corpse. He hardly slept at all the evening after the trip to the state park, tossing and turning into the wee hours as he wondered what Guido had gotten himself into. When he did fall asleep, all his dreams were terrifying.

In the morning, he went to work, hoping that Guido would call. As soon as he walked into his office, he had a feeling that something was off. He had won a drunk-driving case for a client who lived in Hawaii. Along with his check, the client had sent him a shark’s jaw as a joke. Charlie used it as a paperweight, and he distinctly remembered putting it dead center on top of a pile of reports in a case that was sitting on a corner of his desk. The jaw was off center.

A metal filing cabinet with four drawers stood against one wall. Charlie was certain that all the drawers had been completely shut when he’d left his office, but the bottom drawer was not shut as tightly as the others. He opened each drawer and looked at his files. They were in place.

Did someone search his office, or was he hypersensitive because of his lack of sleep and the shock of seeing two dead bodies? Before he could reach a conclusion, the receptionist buzzed him.

“There’s a Mr. Sabatini on line two,” she said.

“Guido, where are you?” Charlie asked as soon as they were connected.

“I am in the Multnomah County jail.”

“What are you doing there?” Charlie asked, afraid that he knew the answer.

“I have been arrested for murder, and I would like to discuss this with you.”

The Multnomah County jail was on the fourth through tenth floors of the Justice Center, where Guido Sabatini had been arraigned on his burglary charge. Charlie showed his bar card to the officer in the reception area before walking through a metal detector and taking an elevator to the floor where there were rooms for attorneys to have contact visits with their clients.

Charlie left the elevator and found himself in a narrow concrete hall. There was a button affixed to a thick metal door at one end of the hall. Moments after he pressed it, electronic locks snapped in place. A corrections officer opened the door and led Charlie into another narrow corridor that ran in front of three contact visiting rooms. Charlie could see into them through shatterproof windows. The officer opened the door to the first visiting room, and Charlie entered a concrete rectangle furnished with two plastic chairs and a table that was secured to the floor by metal bolts.

Moments after Charlie sat down, a second metal door in the wall opposite the window opened, and a guard led Guido into the room. Guido was dressed in an orange jumpsuit instead of his caftan, but he still flashed a warm smile at his lawyer and looked completely at ease.

“It is so good of you to meet with me, Charlie,” Guido said as he took the seat across from his attorney.

“I want to be clear that I won’t be your lawyer if you’re charged with killing Gretchen Hall and Yuri Makarov.”

“Why won’t you help me if these are the charges?”

“Because I’m not competent to handle a murder case. That’s a specialty. The only contact I’ve had with crimes of violence is a bar fight I handled two years ago, and I lost that case. But don’t worry. The court will appoint a lawyer with experience in homicide cases.”

“I don’t want another lawyer. I trust you.”

“I appreciate that, but I don’t think any judge will appoint me in a double homicide. They’d know I’m not competent to handle a murder case.”

Guido shrugged. “If I can’t have you as my lawyer, I will represent myself.”

“That’s ridiculous. You don’t know the first thing about being a lawyer.”

“I will read books.”

“Look, Guido, I know you have a genius IQ, but being good at math doesn’t mean you know the first thing about handling a murder case.”

Guido smiled, stood up, and rang for the guard.

“I have made my decision. Thank you for taking the time from your busy day to visit me.”