The Victim's Wife Read online

  He was dancing around the truth, hoping to avoid telling me.

  “You still haven’t told me why. Is Penny blackmailing you?”

  “Max and I did not get along; that’s no secret. When Penny and I got back together, I learned that her relationship with Max was just as contentious as mine, if not more. Perhaps that’s how we bonded initially. I dumped Penny before I met Justine because she is a difficult woman to be with. I had somehow forgotten that over the years.”

  “So there are only two possibilities. Penny is blackmailing you or you are stringing her along. Which is it?”

  Mason let out a long sigh. “I’m not stringing her along. I have made it clear we are not getting back together and that I’m sticking with Justine. I have gone so far as to say that if Justine were to die or divorce me suddenly, I still would not get back together with Penny. Penny knows that our relationship is over for good. She says she’s fine with that, but she is adamant that we need to put together a united front. Is she hoping that we somehow slip up?” He shook his head. “I don’t know, probably. As to the blackmail question.”

  He didn’t answer for almost a minute. “Penny has not said anything directly to imply that she would blackmail me. She still has feelings for me and is trying to be careful in how she proceeds. I know her well enough to know that if she ever feels spurned by me, I need to watch my back.”

  He glanced over at me. “So you see, I am walking a shifting road. On the one hand, I am at risk because if Penny gives up on me, there’s no telling what she can do. The potential harm she can cause is too great. Justine and I don’t want to deal with it. We just want to get through this. That’s why I am willing to sign a waiver so you can represent both of us.”

  While I mulled this over, I decided to take the conversation in a different direction. This information opened up new avenues for investigation. I now had a definite motive for Penny, something I still had not found for Vivian.

  Not to mention Penny just cashed out of the company.

  “So not only did Max think of you as an ex-boyfriend, there’s a chance that he might’ve known about the affair. Do you think this was the reason why he was so angry with you? Perhaps it wasn’t about the venture capital at all, or if it was, perhaps that was only an aggravating factor. Men tend to be a little bit more attached to their wives than their businesses.”

  Mason shook his head. “Impossible. We were cautious.”

  “You want to bet on that? You told Justine, didn’t you? How do you know Penny didn’t tell Max? Maybe she was hoping that all this would happen. Perhaps she didn’t think that you would end up killing Max, but maybe she was hoping that things would fall apart in your marriage because Justine would read into all the tension between you and Max and just assume that you and Penny were together again.”

  “Has your investigator turned up anything on us?” Mason asked, dodging my questions.

  “That’s beside the point. I only had him do a basic background check on you, just to make sure there weren’t any obvious skeletons hiding in the closet. I didn’t have him check for any past affairs. I had him check for past criminal convictions or trouble with the law. That’s how we learned about the police report, something we still need to talk about, by the way. I’m sure that he’d find evidence if I had him focus on the two of you. I’ve been having him focus instead on your partners because that’s the most likely explanation.”

  “I’m telling you we’re good on this. Penny and I never met anywhere nearby. It was always hundreds of miles away. We both had plausible reasons for being away from home, and nobody will ever know about it. It will never come out at trial. I’m telling you we were careful.”

  I repressed a snort. Things like this were what made trials sensational. It would likely garner the attention of newspapers. I’d be willing to bet money that Mason’s scandal would be headline news if word got out.

  As if that video of him red-handed wasn’t bad enough.

  “I recommend you have counsel that is independent from Penny. There has to be a way to make Penny see that this is the best for both of you without making her turn on you.”

  Mason shook his head. “Impossible. Before she was picked up for Frank’s murder, right before, she told me that she feared she would somehow be charged for Max’s death. That’s one of the things we were talking about when she was arrested. She was already talking about us only needing one attorney. I don’t think I can talk her out of it. If I don’t go along with it, I fear the consequences.”

  “There are a lot of good attorneys in this city. I’m hardly the only person who is qualified to represent both of you in this matter. There has to be a way to make Penny see that. If you were to go to almost any other criminal defense attorney, they would tell you—”

  “I’m comfortable with you.” Mason looked over at me. “Penny is too. Justine as well. We all believe you will get us through this. If we’re wrong, we’re wrong. This is a bet that we want to make, and we hope you go along with it. We’ll sign whatever we need to sign.”

  I didn’t quite know what to say. It wasn’t very often that I had a client tell me they were comfortable with me. Most of the time, as we were getting closer to trial, the client started to get antsy. In the past, I’d even had clients openly suggest that they needed to get other counsel on board or that they should replace me altogether.

  Their emotions are blinding them to the reality of the situation.

  “I’m not gonna give you my answer today. I’ll think about this for a little bit longer. I’m going to warn you right now. If I do take both cases, the moment I feel like I’m going to have to let one of you guys go, I will immediately walk away from both of you. I won’t look back. Got it?”

  Mason nodded. “I would expect nothing less.”

  37

  The first thing I did when I got back to the office was call Winston. I had many questions and not very much time before I needed to decide on this issue. Ellie tried to get my attention as I entered, but I put her off, telling her I needed a few minutes first to handle an urgent issue before I had some time for her.

  Where did Ellie go anyway? She’d been acting weird, and I hadn’t yet asked her about it.

  “I don’t have anything for you yet, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Winston said to me a few minutes later after I got him on the phone.

  “The case has changed in the last couple of hours,” I said. Winston already knew about Frank’s death; it had been in the paper now for a couple of weeks. I quickly filled him in on what had happened with Penny but did not tell him that Penny wanted me to represent her as well.

  I wanted him to investigate Penny as if she were our prime suspect. Perhaps it was technically going against my client’s wishes, but I had told Mason I was going to think about it. Part of me thinking about it meant that I was going to do my due diligence. If he was angry about it, so be it.

  Winston let out a low whistle when I got to the end. “Are they charging Mason with Frank’s murder as well?”

  “Not that I’ve heard. I haven’t seen any amended charges for Mason yet. If they’re going to charge her with conspiracy, they will charge him too.”

  I leaned back in thought, pressing the button to put my office phone on speaker.

  I was too anxious to relax. It felt like my blood was trying to jump out of my body. After a moment of trying to lean back in my chair, I got up and began to pace.

  Part of me wanted to fill Winston in on what was going on with Penny, if only so I had somebody to talk to, but I decided against it for now.

  “There are two questions we must answer, Winston.” I was trying my best to keep the urgency out of my voice. I wanted this research done now, but I also wanted Winston to give it his full attention without any distractions from me. “Did Penny have anything to do with the death of her husband? And did she kill Frank?”

  I could hear Winston scribbling on the other side. “Happy to look into this. This is a good time to tell y
ou that I have looked into Vivian and the other partners. I’m just not seeing any connection between them and Max’s death.”

  “Perhaps that’s because there is no connection. I’m starting to like Penny as our prime suspect.”

  “Sounds good to me. I’ll let you know what I find.”

  Once Winston was off the phone, I continued to pace for five minutes before Ellie knocked on the door.

  “Come.”

  She peeked her head in. “Is now a good time?”

  “Sure.” I continued to pace, hardly even looking at Ellie as she sat.

  “I just received a call from Penny. She wants to know if you’ve made a decision on representing her.”

  I gave Ellie a sideways glance. “I haven’t.” I wanted to say more but refrained.

  “Just to let you know, she’s called about four times already. I am expecting another call from her within twenty minutes. What would you like me to tell her when she calls?”

  “Tell her I’m busy and unable to take her call.”

  Ellie nodded. “If you don’t mind me saying, it looks like you’re pretty agitated, is there anything I can help out with?”

  “Nothing I can talk about at this time. Just keep Penny off me. It’s going to be a few days before I decide.”

  “She might get impatient and go to somebody else.”

  “I can only hope.”

  Ellie’s eyebrows rose as she stood. “I’ll do what I can.”

  “I should ask you the same question,” I said, stopping to look at her. “You’ve been missing a lot of work. Is everything okay?”

  “Yep. Just fine.”

  I shook my head as she left, trying to figure it out but not knowing where to start. I supposed she would tell me if it was something big, so I put the matter from my mind.

  I sat in my chair and ran my hands across the top of my head, wondering how I was going to get out of this situation. The more I thought about it, the more uneasy I was with Mason’s desire that I represent them both.

  The fact that Penny was so adamant about this and that she’d already been making a nuisance of herself prior to this did not bode well for handling her as a client.

  And there was the sneaking suspicion in the back of my mind that she was going to be our prime suspect.

  No, there was no way I could take her case. I just had to convince Mason. Then I would tell Penny to take a hike.

  Representing Penny was the last thing I should do, especially if Penny had already implied blackmail. She needed to be stopped in her tracks, not given more room to work. She had already been a demanding enough person to interact with when she was not a client. I did not want to learn what she was like when she was a client.

  With that thought, I opened my computer and turned to other matters.

  38

  I had immediately found the idea of representing Penny for Max’s murder repugnant the moment the possibility had arisen as an issue. I had listened to Mason’s arguments, and I even had Winston investigate Penny, but I knew deep down that I would not change my mind.

  I had given it three days just to make sure I was certain of my decision.

  I would not take Penny on as a client for this case and would never take her as a client if she ever had another case. I had not yet received Winston’s full report, but I’d done some preliminary digging myself.

  The woman did not seem to have any sense of control when she posted on social media; almost everything she thought ended up there.

  I’d even found several references to me. Not only that, there was a lot of anger in most of her posts. If I went back far enough, I found that there was anger towards Max as well. Six months before his death, that had all dried up, but I didn’t fancy the idea of fending off accusations based on her social media posts.

  Not only was Penny a determined woman, she came off crazy while on social media. In person, she seemed to do just fine. It wasn’t until social media that the crazy came out.

  She had posted on the day she came to meet with me, teasing the idea that Mason had not murdered her husband and that it had been somebody else. She’d gone so far as to say that she had involved another attorney who was going to prove it.

  I felt manipulated when I read that.

  There were the usual supportive comments from people who had no idea what was going on, all who wanted to just pat her on the back or cheer her on.

  If she couldn’t keep silent on something like this, I wasn’t going to trust her to keep silent about anything.

  I’d initially meant to read all of her social media posts after I’d found the one about me, but there were too many. I eventually called in Suzie, my paralegal, to take a look at them for me, giving her instructions to take screens shots of anything that referenced me, the case, Max, Mason, or any of the partners.

  The time spent thinking about the issue had not changed my mind in the slightest. I was even more determined to not represent her now.

  I could easily see myself pointing the finger at Penny during the trial, and whether or not that had ramifications for Mason’s life in other ways, it might just be the thing that kept him out of prison.

  If it also meant that Mason was going to walk, so be it. I was about ready to be done with this case one way or another anyway.

  I got a text message from Winston, asking if he could meet with me later in the afternoon. I replied in the affirmative.

  Right after I pressed send, my cell phone rang.

  Cindy.

  I hesitated over the answer button, wanting to just send it to voicemail, but I answered.

  “Word on the street is that you are representing Penny. Is that accurate?” Cindy asked, skipping all the typical niceties. When she had something on her mind, she was usually forthright.

  “I don’t have a comment at this time,” I said, figuring I needed to tell Penny first before I gave that information out publicly.

  The last thing I wanted was to make that woman angry; otherwise, she would go on social media to post about me. I wouldn’t put it past her to leave a negative impression of me wherever she could.

  “I’m telling you, Mitch, you got fleas all over this case. I think Penny and Mason were in cahoots through all of this. In fact, I have reached out to the other partners of Meridian Solutions and warned them to be careful, even recommending they hire bodyguards.”

  “An apparent prudent suggestion,” I said as neutrally as I could.

  “Come on. They’re dropping like flies over there. First Max, now Frank, who’s next?”

  I got the feeling Cindy was trying to wheedle information out of me, and I was determined not to give it up, so I changed the course of the conversation.

  “I haven’t seen amended charges for Mason yet. Are they coming?”

  “That’s just the thing I wanted to talk with you about.” There was a long pause. “Do you have time for lunch today?”

  I hesitated, I usually might have agreed to lunch, if only to keep things as friendly as possible with Cindy, but I didn’t want to take the time today. I also didn’t want to deal with another in-person discussion either. It was bad enough that after we had met the last couple of times, I had felt some nostalgia for our past relationship.

  I didn’t need anything arising to create complications for me with Barbara.

  “I’m sorry, today is not gonna work.”

  “It can wait until tomorrow.”

  “I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, Cindy,” I said, “but I am fairly busy this week and would like to just get to the matter at hand.”

  “I see.” Her tone changed, and I could tell that despite my best attempt to explain away my refusal, offense had been taken.

  I inwardly cursed. I had one split second to make a decision.

  “You know what,” I said, taking in a deep breath and letting it out hoarsely, “let’s just go ahead and do lunch today. I could use a break from all the paperwork piling up on my desk anyway.”

  “Perfect,�
�� Cindy said brightly.

  A little too brightly.

  I cringed. We agreed on a time and restaurant before she hung up.

  After I was off the phone with her, I couldn’t help but draw some parallels between Mason and me.

  I was not stringing Cindy along.

  She knew that I was in a relationship with somebody else and very committed to that relationship.

  But at the first sign of trouble, I backtracked immediately and agreed to what she wanted, didn’t I?

  What did that say about me?

  39

  I arrived at the restaurant a couple of minutes late, but Cindy was not there. I asked for a table for two, explaining that I was waiting for somebody. I sat down to wait, pulling out my phone to check the news.

  After perusing the top headlines, I was glad to see there weren’t any updates on either Mason or Penny. I quickly scrolled through the rest, scanning for any of my other active cases, and felt a small sense of relief when I saw there weren’t any updates coming from the news today. I always hated it when I learned something from the news about one of my own cases. It happened more often than I cared to think about.

  I slipped my phone back into my pocket and waited for Cindy to come. Five minutes passed, and that it was ten. She was a full fifteen minutes late before she finally walked in, rushing, but I saw through the act.

  She had been hurt when I had initially refused to meet with her, and now was getting some revenge.

  Once we were sitting down at a table, Cindy looked over at me and smiled. For a moment, it felt like we were back in college. I made a joke, and we both laughed together. We looked at each other for an awkward second.

  I had to remind myself of Barbara and that I needed to make some headway on Mason’s matter.

  “Thank you for moving things around to meet with me,” Cindy said, “I apologize for being late. I had something pop up at the last minute that I had to deal with.”