10

It had been twelve days since David Slade had called George Chavez in San Antonio to put him in touch with the team that was going to save Toby Rosenthal’s life—and the waiting was driving him insane. He knew it would take some time for the team to research Toby and the case, but almost two weeks should have been long enough. He was beginning to think they had decided to give Toby’s case a pass—which meant he was going to lose a million-dollar fee and have to tell Henry Rosenthal that his punk kid was going to prison. He was thinking about calling Chavez again when his secretary told him there was a woman on the phone who refused to give her name but said she’d been referred to him by a lawyer in Texas.

Slade snatched up the phone. “This is David Slade,” he said. “I’d about given up on you.”

“Meet me in the MObar at the Mandarin Oriental at seven,” a woman said in a voice that was low and calm.

Then she hung up. She hadn’t even told him her name.

The MObar in the Mandarin Oriental hotel is on the thirty-fifth floor and offers a view of Central Park and the city’s lights. It’s a small, intimate place with a hammered-nickel bar and high-backed booths. There were only five people in the bar when Slade arrived, and four of those people were coupled up. The only single woman was a gorgeous blonde with short hair who appeared to be in her early thirties. She sat at the bar, drinking a glass of white wine. She was wearing a black suit over a white blouse, the skirt short enough to display two outstanding legs. On her feet were black stilettos with three-inch heels. Had David Slade known anything about women’s shoes he would have known they were Manolo Blahniks and sold for about six hundred bucks.

She gave him a little wave and got off the bar stool as he walked toward her. He wasn’t surprised she recognized him; all she had to do was google him to find his picture. Close up, he could see her eyes were blue and her complexion was fair and flawless.

“Let’s take a booth,” she said.

Watching her walk ahead of him to the booth was one of life’s small, but extraordinary pleasures.

David Slade had cheated on his wife, but only three times, and the last time had been ten years ago. He had a beautiful wife, she was the mother of his two children, and he didn’t want to lose her. But he knew if he ever had the opportunity to sleep with this woman, he would do so without hesitation.

Slade ordered a martini, and while waiting for it to arrive, he said, “I was told you were part of a team.”

“I am,” she said, “I work with a partner. But you’ll never meet him or speak to him. That’s for his protection. He’s the one who handles the, shall we say, more complex tasks.”

By “complex,” he assumed she meant illegal.

“We need to talk about the money first,” she said. “Our price is two million. And that’s not negotiable.”

Slade nodded. “That’s what I was told to expect.”

“Good. You have a week to deposit a million into our account. We know it takes a little time to arrange for that kind of money. But if you take more than a week, we’ll walk.”

“I don’t think so,” Slade said. “How do I know you won’t take the money and I never hear from you again? I certainly can’t go to the police.”

“David, we don’t advertise. We work on a referral basis. If we went around cheating our clients and failing to perform, you never would have heard of us in the first place.” Before Slade could object again, she continued.

“We’ll expect the other million a week before the trial starts. By then we’ll have done our job. That is, we’ll have provided you with a viable defense. Whether you win or lose at trial will depend on you. We don’t expect you to pay us if we haven’t done our job, but if we have, and if you fail to pay us, then I can assure you that we will use our considerable talents to come after you and Henry Rosenthal. And I’m not talking about a lawsuit, David.”

Slade nodded. He could see there was no point in arguing with her. He had no doubt that if he didn’t agree to her terms she would walk. And it wasn’t like it was his money anyway.

“The other thing is, your client will be expected to pay any expenses related to dealing with the witnesses.”

He assumed she was talking about bribes. “Understood,” Slade said. “So what’s your plan?”

“Our plan is to make sure that all, or at least the most important, witnesses don’t testify against Toby. Those who do testify will support your defense. And I can’t be more specific at this point, as we haven’t started looking at the witnesses in detail. And I have to be honest with you here: We’ve never had a case where we’ve had to deal with five witnesses; this is not going to be easy. We will also assist you in providing a plausible suspect for who killed Dominic DiNunzio. We’re assuming that’s your defense: that Toby left the bar, never returned, and someone else entered and killed DiNunzio.”

“Are you a lawyer?” Slade asked.

“No, but my partner is.”

“So what do you need from me?”

“Everything you have on the witnesses and DiNunzio. Make copies of your files and I’ll send a messenger to your office tomorrow to pick them up. But the files aren’t the main thing we need from you.”

“So what is?”

“Time. We need you to be prepared to delay the trial if we need more time; with five witnesses, that’s imperative. So get ready to ask for a delay, and after you’ve gotten one, get ready to ask for another. When’s the trial scheduled to start?”

“June seventeenth. For a felony case in the state of New York, the prosecution has to be prepared to go to trial ninety days after the arraignment. But nobody expects that to happen. The judge and the ADA both know I’ll ask for a delay, and I won’t have a problem getting one. How much time do you need?”

“We won’t know until we’ve had time to review everything: the witnesses, their statements, the victim, et cetera. But don’t ask for a delay yet, because as soon as we have everything in place, it will be to our advantage to have the trial as soon as possible. So, for now, figure out how to get a delay if we need one, then after that, figure out how to get another. That’s your primary job at this point: Delay the trial until everything is in place.”

She removed a folded piece of paper and a cell phone from her purse. “Use that phone to communicate with me, but only if necessary. My number is in the contacts list.”

“What’s your name?”

“David, do you seriously think I’m going to give you my real name? Anyway, don’t call me. Send text messages. You can never tell who might be listening in on phone calls these days. So if we need to talk, send a text and we’ll arrange a meeting. But we won’t be meeting very often. It’s not in your best interest or ours for us to be seen together.

“On that piece of paper are instructions for the best way to transfer the money. We have a lot of experience at this and suggest you follow the instructions. It’ll be safer for you and Henry Rosenthal if you do it our way. But the main thing is, wire the money to the account specified. After we have it, we’ll make it vanish.”

She rose from the table. “I think that’s all for now. I’ll be in touch, but like I said, not very often. Don’t pester me for status reports.”

She rose from the table and walked away, and he watched her until she was out of sight.

He wondered if she slept with her partner. Whoever he was, even if she wasn’t sleeping with him, he was a lucky man.