Conflict of Interest

Chapter Fifty One

Well, Feliz Navidad and shit...I'm really, really sorry about how slowly I'm updating. Thanks for hanging in there, y'all.

Xoxoxo
Railene

***

Jenn

Eventually, I'd begun to learn that people don't want you until they need you.

I spent a good forty minutes that evening sitting around the precinct waiting for Maggie, who didn't seem to have any intentions of showing up. I'd run out of words for Leon Gaines, who I knew wasn't going to crack until his ass was cooked and a deal was on the table, and who had since buckled down and asked for a lawyer. Luckily for all of us, legal aid was about as backed up as Maggie's schedule must have been.

As I hung up on the ninety seventh unreturned phone call, a very frantic Detective Clapp ran in holding an ambiguous envelope, looking like he'd just moved faster than he had in his life.

"CSRU got back to us on Gaines's firearm," he said hurriedly. "Two sets of prints."

"His own, I presume."

"Yeah, but you'll never guess who else."

"O.J.?"

His face fell. "McVale."

"Cut it the fuck out."

"Eighteen-point match," he said, laying the report in front of me. "This pins them both. One of the two of them killed Saenz, and whoever did used Gaines's gun to do it."

"And what if it wasn't him? I could be holding him for no reason now."

"He's still guilty of a crime, Carver," he reminded me like I'd never been to the police academy. "He provided the firearm, aided and abetted McVale, and we still have his prints - and only his - for the break-in. No doubt he's the one who did the dump job too. Where the hell is Maggie?"

"Ignoring my calls," I complained all too readily. "I just don't get it. You've met the girl, you know how she is."

"I guess," he said.

"Imagine you're an ambitious, over-zealous law student who just got assigned her first real case. Then imagine the case is as high profile as this one, and it has personal strings for your boss, whom you worship. And then, the police have someone in custody, and the only thing keeping them from the deal that will get the apprehended to flip on your defendant is you. How, on Earth, are you going to disappear?"

"How long have you been calling her?"

"Forty minutes," I said, then looked at my watch. "Forty three."

"Maybe she's in a meeting."

"Meeting with who?"

"I don't know, lawyers are busy. Carrie doesn't always call us back right away. Sometimes she's in a hearing, or a trial, or arraignment court."

"This is Maggie's only case," I reminded him.

He just shrugged. And that was that. When finally my phone rang minutes later, it wasn't at all who I was hoping for.

"Speak of the devil," Clapp said, being nosy and reading my caller ID over my shoulder.

"The devil indeed," was my reply, knowing full well that I'd pick up anyway. "Carver."

"Jennifer," she said unnecessarily. "It's Carrie."

"Hi," I said, because what else was I supposed to say?