4 Bodies and a Funeral. Stephanie Bond

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СКАЧАТЬ give a written statement …”

      His mouth was cottony, and his pulse pounded in his ears. Sweat trickled down his temples.

      “Wesley?”

      He blinked and focused on Liz’s face. “Huh?”

      “District Attorney Lucas asked you to tell us what happened.”

      “Do we have a deal?”

      “I’ll decide after I hear your story,” Lucas said.

      “Okay,” Wesley mumbled. His tongue felt thick in his mouth. “Okay.”

      Liz’s hand was back on his jumping knee with an encouraging squeeze.

      “Could I have a glass of water?” he croaked.

      A.D.A. Meriwether left the room and returned a few seconds later with a bottle. He took it with one hand, then stuck his other hand in his pants pocket, wedging the Percocet between his fingers so he’d be able to slip it into his mouth unnoticed. He set the bottle between his legs to twist off the top, but his hands were shaking badly now. The white pill popped out from between his fingers and flew under the table where it bounced twice on the carpet before landing next to Lucas’s ugly brown wing-tip shoe.

      At least no one else had noticed. But Wesley had to exercise restraint to keep from leaping under the table and pouncing on it. He lifted the bottle to his mouth and took a drink, sloshing water down the front of his shirt. He couldn’t take his eyes off that pill.

      “We don’t have all day,” Lucas intoned.

      “Wesley,” Liz said, tapping the table to get his attention.

      He looked up.

      “Tell us how you got involved in the body-snatching plan.”

      With great effort, Wesley brought his mind back to the matter at hand. “I was leaving a friend’s house, and a guy came up to me and said he worked for The Carver, that he had a job for me. He knew I worked for Cooper Craft moving bodies for the morgue and that Coop was going to Florida to pick up that celebrity, Kiki Deerling, and bring her back to Atlanta. He wanted me to help them steal the body—to let them know where we were on the road and to keep Coop preoccupied.”

      “In return for what?” Lucas asked. Beneath the table, the D.A.’s foot moved, covering the capsule.

      Wesley wiped his hand across his mouth. “In return for erasing my debt.”

      “Which is how much?”

      He thought hard before telling the truth. “About twenty grand, give or take.” It sounded even worse when he said it aloud.

      “Why did Hollis Carver want the body?”

      “His son, Dillon, sold heroin at the party where the girl died. He was afraid the drugs had killed her and that he’d be charged with murder.” Ironically, as it turned out, the starlet hadn’t taken any drugs, so it had all been for nothing. Coop would probably never ask Wesley to work for him again. Wesley hadn’t realized how much he wanted the man’s respect until it was too late.

      “What were they going to do with the body?” Lucas shifted forward and his shoe pressed down where the Percocet pill had landed.

      Wesley made a strangled noise in his throat. “Uh … I didn’t ask.”

      “My client was afraid for his life,” Liz interjected. “He felt as if he couldn’t say no.”

      “Funny,” Lucas said, “I heard your client say he agreed to help carry out a felony in return for twenty thousand dollars. Who is the man who approached you?”

      He looked at Liz before he spoke and she nodded. “Tell him.”

      Wesley’s throat convulsed from wanting that damn pill. “His name is Leonard.”

      “What’s Leonard’s last name?”

      “We were never properly introduced,” Wesley said drily. But he could ask his probation officer, E. Jones. The thug was her boyfriend, although she had no idea what kind of stuff the man was mixed up in, including moving drugs for Wesley’s friend Chance.

      “So how do you know this Leonard actually works for Hollis Carver?”

      Wesley scratched his neck in irritation. “Because he said he did.”

      “He could’ve been lying.”

      “I don’t think so. He knew I owed The Carver money.”

      “That doesn’t mean anything. This Leonard character could’ve been using The Carver’s name to pressure you into something he wanted done.”

      Wesley scoffed. “That makes no sense. The Carver and his son were the ones who didn’t want the body autopsied.”

      Lucas spread his hands. “I’m just telling you what a defense attorney will say. From where I sit, you got nothing on Hollis Carver that can be corroborated.”

      Wesley looked at Liz, at a loss.

      “What about calls between Hollis Carver and the celebrity’s publicist?” Liz asked Lucas. “They were the masterminds of the scheme.”

      “We have a record of phone calls, but the content of the calls could’ve been about anything. For all we know, they could’ve been lovers.” Lucas leered at Liz pointedly.

      But Liz didn’t shrink from the D.A.’s sly remark. “I would think that the publicist would be falling all over herself to turn on Hollis Carver.”

      A.D.A. Meriwether looked down and shifted in her seat.

      Liz looked from Lucas to Meriwether and gave a dry laugh. “Wait a minute. The publicist has already made a deal, hasn’t she?”

      Lucas took his arrogant time answering. “Yes. So as it turns out, we don’t need your client’s testimony after all, Ms. Fischer. Although it’s good to know that his story corroborates the publicist’s.”

      Wesley heaved a huge sigh of relief and pushed to his feet. “I’m outta here.” Once the room was vacated, he’d come back to rescue the flattened capsule.

      But Liz stopped him with a warning glance.

      “Not so fast, Wren,” Lucas said, then leaned back in his seat with a satisfied smile. “You confessed to conspiring to steal a body.”

      Wesley sat back down, his stomach churning with dread. Something was up.

      “But the body wasn’t stolen,” Liz protested. “And my client came clean.”

      “Only after the plan was foiled,” Lucas returned. “And besides confessing to a felony, your client’s actions revoke his previous probation. He’s going to jail.”

      Panic skewered Wesley’s chest. He’d spent a few hours in jail when he’d been arrested for hacking into the courthouse computer. СКАЧАТЬ