Presumption Of Death

Britta was saying, “The Bangkok leg has aisle seats but no window except over the wing. You want that? Okay. And vegetarian meal, right? Okay. I’ll see what I can do. What?” Nina looked over the desk. All she saw was travel brochures, tickets, notes, and schedules. No plant, no photos, nothing personal. How odd, she thought. On the wall she saw a poster for Icelandic Airlines.

Britta hung up. “So where are we going today?” she said in her mocking voice.

“I wonder if we could talk for a few minutes.”

“As you can see, I’m trying to make a living.”

“It’s important.”

“To you, maybe.” But curiosity got the better of her, and she said, “Irene, I’ll be out back.”

She led Nina outside to a small, su

“Nice poster. By your desk. Are you originally from Iceland?”

“Yes. Home of hot springs and Bjork.”

“You don’t have an accent.”

“I speak four languages without an accent. I was a flight attendant for Icelandic when I met David. He was drunk and I was poor. A perfect match, I thought.”

“How long have you been married?”

“Eight years.” She inhaled the smoke with pleasure. Sun filtered through the trees and made a halo of her hair. “And here I am.”

Nina was having trouble finding an opening. She decided to try to match Britta’s bluntness.

“A happy marriage?” she said.

“Sure.” Britta smiled slightly, enjoying Nina’s discomfiture.

“But you had an affair with Da

“Yes. And Sam Puglia too. But Sam was only good for a few nights. He ran home to Mama.”

“And Da

“A kid.”

“Was he in love with you?”

“No. In fact, I think he despised me. But we got along in bed. Are we having fun yet?”

“How did your husband take these affairs?”

“David doesn’t care.”

“Then why do you stay married to him?”

“Faithfulness is overrated. We have things in common. Next question.”

“All right. Da

“I told him to get lost. He was borrowing money from me. The thrill was gone.”

“Did Da

For the first time Britta’s eyes clouded. She smoked some more, then said, “Maybe. Maybe I don’t want to be a witness in court about any of this, though.”

“I can understand that.” I’ll take that as a yes, Nina thought to herself, and furthermore, I’ll subpoena you if you know anything. She went on, “Did you ever meet Robert Johnson?”

“Coyote? Yes.”

“Where?”

“At a bar.”

“Alma’s?”

“Very good!”

Nina chose her next words carefully. “What did you think of him?”

“A jerk.”

“How so?”

“The type who gets belligerent and shoots his mouth off when he gets drunk. The type who dies in a bar fight.”

“What were he and Da

“The score.”

“The score?”

“That’s what they called it.”

“They were going to make some money?”

“Da

“What else, Britta?”

“I don’t want to say.”

Nina apologized to Paul, Jaime, and all authority figures in her mind, then said, “You know, Britta, Coyote has disappeared. He may have killed the Cat Lady. And he has made some threats.”

“Against who?”

“Some children. We don’t know yet whose children.”

“I’ll be sure to take mine out of town.” But her mouth trembled. “So he’s the man you were talking about at Debbie’s house.”

“If you know anything about Coyote that might help, you shouldn’t keep it a secret, no matter how much you don’t want to go to court.”

“You think he’d come after me?”

Nina shrugged. “What do you know?” she said.

Britta stubbed out her cigarette under her sandal. “You told me something,” she said, “so I’ll tell you something. Your client’s guilty.”

Nina closed her eyes and took that in. “Why do you say that?”

“Because Da

“How do you know?”

“Alma’s. We’re sitting at the bar and they’re talking, and Coyote says something about laying in enough kerosene. And Da

“Was anyone else there who could have heard that statement?”

“I was drinking too. The room was turning into a carousel. But let me think. Yes. A cute guy with a gray beard. Paint all over his clothes. I think he knew both of them.”

The paranoid artist spent a lot of time at Alma’s. What had Cowboy Two said? Something about him doing drugs.

“I met him,” Nina said.

“He didn’t talk much, he just listened. And stared at me. I managed to slip him my phone number. He called and a couple of days later I went to his place.”

“I don’t need to know that-” Nina started, but Britta held up her hand.

“Da

“Thank you, Britta.” Stay calm, Nina told herself, and began analyzing this information, deciding how it impacted Wish’s case.

“Maybe it’s my ass on the line now. Or my kids. I think I better go home and deal with this.”

“Just one more question. At any time-did Coyote or Da

Britta said, “I never heard of your client. He came out of the blue. Maybe Da

“Okay,” Nina said.

“But if you subpoena me, I’m go

“I see that you might.”

“Good.” She smoked calmly. She was quite beautiful, shiny with her polished nails and lip gloss on her plump mouth.

“Britta? I still don’t understand. About your marriage. About you.”

“And I’m not going to enlighten you. I’ll tell you just one thing. David and I will be together until the end of time.”

“Just a suggestion,” Nina said. “You might want to double-check your husband’s bank accounts to see if he’s the one who paid Coyote. Just to be sure. About that end-of-time thing.” She left Britta on the su

“Hello, Sandy,” Nina said into the cell phone. “So you have a cell phone too now.”

“I got right in there with the twenty-first century. It does come in handy. Have you got Willis out of jail yet?”

“Not yet.” Nina updated Sandy, then said, “I’m afraid it’s going to go into a prelim.”

“Well, you’re pretty good at those. You’re go

The preliminary hearing in California had only two purposes-to determine if there was probable cause to believe that a crime had been committed, and that the defendant was the person who had committed the crime. If so, the defendant would be bound over for trial.

At this early stage, the defense usually assumed probable cause would be found to exist, and let the D.A. present its minimal evidence for that purpose. Though the defense might cross-examine, in general the defense did not put on its own witnesses.

Nina did not agree with this traditional strategy of defense attorneys. With current discovery rules, the defense often knew as much as the police at the time of the prelim, and with hard and fast work could put on a sort of minitrial. Since a defendant might be incarcerated for months before finally going to trial, it made sense to fight hard every step of the way.