Taken to the Edge. Kara Lennox

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СКАЧАТЬ shook her head. “I want you to handle it.”

      “I can’t.”

      “Why not? I don’t understand.”

      He wasn’t going to explain it, either. But when he’d seen Katherine Hannigan lying in that hospital bed, literally black-and-blue, nearly murdered by a man Ford had helped to free, something had clicked inside his brain. He wasn’t going to take people’s lives into his hands anymore.

      “I’ll plead your case tomorrow morning, first thing,” he said. “Give me your number. Someone will contact you within forty-eight hours.”

      “I want you to handle it.”

      In her chin-forward, clench-fisted stance, he caught a glimpse of that belligerent girl he’d known in school, the one who had so steadfastly maintained her innocence when she’d been accused of a theft.

      The one he’d wanted to believe.

      “Why me?” he wanted to know. “I thought you hated me.”

      She flashed him the ghost of a smile, then sobered. My personal feelings for you are irrelevant. I know you’re determined. I know when you get a case in your teeth, you don’t let it go. And after years of being lied to by lawyers and scammed by private investigators, after having cops and D.A.s cover their butts rather than get at the truth, I want someone on my team who will work hard, stay the course. You’re the ideal candidate.”

      Ford could hardly believe his ears. Why would Robyn Jasperson put so much faith in him? “How do you know that about me?”

      “I pay attention.”

      They stared at each other, sizing up each other’s resolve in the dimly lit parking lot as rowdy music from the bar’s jukebox drifted out each time the front door opened.

      “I’ve changed,” he said softly, looking away.

      “People don’t change that much. Can you really walk away from a man who’s going to die by lethal injection in little more than two weeks? If there’s even a chance he’s innocent?”

      Damn it. He couldn’t. He wasn’t sure how she knew that about him, but she did.

      “I’ll think about it.” He wouldn’t make a promise he couldn’t keep.

      FORD DIDN’T TRUST MANY people, but Daniel Logan was someone he did.

      Daniel had no training as either a lawyer or a cop. But six years in federal prison maneuvering through the ins and outs of his various appeals had provided him quite an education.

      With the help of his billionaire father, Daniel eventually had found a way to prove he was innocent of his business partner’s grisly murder.

      Given his freedom and a full pardon, Daniel had wanted nothing more than to help others who didn’t belong in jail. Thus Project Justice was born. His father had financed the foundation and Daniel ran it, though the employees rarely saw him.

      “I never liked the looks of that Jasperson case,” Daniel said after Ford had spent all day reading the trial transcript, then presenting his evidence to Daniel. They were in Daniel’s study at his River Oaks mansion, which looked like NASA’s ground control, given all the computers and research paraphernalia.

      Daniel, tall and lean with a world-weary look that made him seem older than his thirty-six years, sat behind one of those computers rapidly tapping at the keys as he spoke. “The death of a child brings out the best and the worst in people. In this case, the people wanted blood. The cops and the D.A. gave it to them.”

      “The case was badly mishandled from the beginning.” Ford sat in a leather wingback chair, Daniel’s one concession to comfort in his high-tech lair. “A guy like Jasperson could have afforded the best lawyer in the country, and he chose some school buddy who couldn’t tell his ear from a leaf of cabbage.”

      “Jasperson was an arrogant idiot. He wasn’t worried enough to hire the best. He was so sure he would beat the charge—maybe because he was innocent. Maybe because he thought he was clever.”

      “I can’t help thinking that if he were clever, he’d have done a better job staging a crime.” Once Ford had started checking things out, he felt his blood thrumming. He loved the challenge of a complex case, ferreting out the tiny points of illogic, the in consistencies everyone else overlooked.

      “You know as well as I that intelligent people do stupid, stupid things, especially in the heat of the moment.”

      “So what’s the bottom line?” Ford asked, intensely aware that the evening was slipping away. He wanted to have an answer for Robynas soon as possible.

      Daniel tapped a finger to his chin. “I think there’s enough to warrant an investigation.”

      Yes! “I’d like Raleigh to take the case. She has experience with—”

      “Raleigh just took on the Simonetti case, the guy who supposedly shot his girlfriend.”

      “Well, Joe Kinkaid, then. He’s been asking for—”

      “I gave him the Blanchard case this morning.”

      Damn. Who did that leave? Project Justice wasn’t a large foundation. They received far more requests each month than they could take on, and regrettably had to turn down cases even when the evidence seemed strong.

      “Who, then?”

      “With your resignation—which I have not accepted, by the way—we’re running at full capacity and then some. While I feel strongly that the Jasperson case should get some attention, I don’t have anyone free. And I won’t have any of my people neglect a case they’ve already committed to. Nothing gets done half-assed around Project Justice.”

      Ford knew that. No one got a job with the founation unless they were willing to work nights and weekends when called for. Daniel was passionate about his vocation, and he demanded that same dedication from his people.

      “The fact of the matter is,” Daniel said, looking up from the screen, “if you don’t work this case, no one will.” He sighed. “I simply don’t have the manpower.”

      If it had been anyone else, Ford would have felt manipulated. However, Daniel Logan didn’t play games, not with Ford anyway. If he said the personnel were stretched to the limit, then they were.

      “Would you even want me to take this on?” Ford asked. “After the Copelson case…” He let that hang in the air.

      “The Copelson case was a mistake,” Daniel said.

      “It was worse than a mistake. Using my skills to get that animal out of jail was a crime. They should have put me behind bars.”

      “Don’t be melodramatic, Hyatt. The cops manufactured evidence on that case, and you proved it. He was unfairly convicted.”

      “Unfairly convicted, and guilty as hell,” Ford muttered. He should have seen the guy’s rotten soul oozing out his pores.

      “Better to let a hundred guilty men go free than one innocent man—”

СКАЧАТЬ