About six hours later, Hastings was preparing a search warrant when his cell phone rang. It was Henry Brummell.

“George, you busy?”

“Yeah, kind of. What’s up?”

“I’ll try to make it quick. The case against you has been dismissed.”

“What? Are you kidding?”

“No, I’m not kidding. I’ll tell you what happened. I filed a motion for sanctions based on Bradbury’s refusal to answer questions in deposition. What I was seeking from the court was an order prohibiting them from being able to present Bradbury as a witness at trial because of his refusal to cooperate with discovery. The judge turned to Cray and said, ‘What’s the problem?’ And Cray raised his fifth amendment concerns. The judge, sua sponte, says that’s not a concern, your client has already been acquitted of the criminal charges. So they go back and forth and the judge asked Cray if he had any authority to support his position and Simon said he didn’t and the judge said, well, that’s it then, go back to deposition and order your client to answer the questions. Cray refuses. The judge, he can’t believe it. He said, ‘Did you just refuse to comply with my order?’ Cray says he can’t ask his client to do that because it will compromise him in another lawsuit that Rana is going to bring for wrongful death.”

“She’s going to do that?”

“Of course she is,” Brummell said. “I told her to.”

“You did?”

“Yeah. I can do that.”

“Does Cray know you told her to do that?”

“He doesn’t, but I wouldn’t care if he did. She’s got her own lawyer and I’ll be shocked if they don’t file a wrongful death suit on behalf of Toni. Why wouldn’t they? An acquittal on a murder charge does not serve as a bar against a civil suit for wrongful death.…Anyway, now the judge is really mad at Cray. He says, ‘Do you mean to tell me Mr. Bradbury is refusing to answer questions in this suit because of that?’ And Cray says, ‘You don’t understand.’ Like the judge is stupid or something. And then the judge gets red in the face and says something like, ‘Counsel, I don’t care what you think of me. But you will respect this court.’ And Cray says — he’s such a dumbshit — Cray says, ‘I’ll give the court the respect its due.’ And then the judge held Cray in contempt, fined him and then dismissed the case.”

“Just like that?”

“Now, George, don’t get carried away. He dismissed it without prejudice. That means Bradbury can re-file it in twenty days. Whether or not he will, I don’t know. If he does, he’ll have to answer the questions I put to him. And he’s worried that if he has to do that, his answers will be leaked to the media.”

“Would you have done that?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Why you sneaky little devil.”

“This devil’s on your side, buddy. I’ll tell you something, George. Cray is a complete asshole and his ego really got him into trouble this time. But I don’t know that he had much choice.”

“I don’t follow you.”

“Well, I’ve sort of been in his place before. You have a client you simply cannot control. I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure that at some point Cray told Bradbury, ‘You’re going to have to answer these questions.’ And Bradbury said, ‘Bullshit I do. Go in there and fix it.’ I think that’s what happened. A man like Bradbury just doesn’t believe the law applies to him. So…if we’re lucky, Cray might be thinking he’s had enough of Ryan Bradbury.”

“You sure?”

“No, I’m not sure. I have no specific knowledge of that. But I know how lawyers think. They like to get paid. It’s one thing for a lawyer to represent a guy on a criminal case and get paid a huge retainer. It’s another to take a contingency fee case that’s probably going to blow up in your face and then get nothing. Cray may be saying to himself, I don’t fucking need this.”

“If we’re lucky.”

“Well you’re better off today than you were yesterday.”

“I know I am. Thanks very much, Henry.”

“I’ll be in touch.”

Hastings got off the phone. Klosterman walked in.

“Judge Reif is ready to see us,” Klosterman said.

They walked down the hall together, Hastings holding the draft of the search warrant and the supporting documentation.

Klosterman said, “You think we got enough?”

“I think we do,” Hastings said. “But sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.”