Switchblade: An Original Story Read online

  “Okay, and you told them about going to the victim’s apartment on Sunday night?”

  “Yes, and I told them she was alive when I left.”

  “Did you tell them about grabbing her by the neck?”

  “Yes.”

  “Was that before or after they read you your rights and had you sign the waiver?”

  “Uh, I can’t remember. I think before.”

  “It’s okay. I’ll find out. Did they talk about any other evidence, confront you with anything else they had?”

  “No.”

  I checked my watch again. I was running out of time. I decided to end the case questions there. Most of the information I would get in discovery if I took on the case. Besides that, it’s a good idea to limit the information you get directly from a client. I would be stuck with whatever La Cosse told me and it might color the moves I made later in the case or at trial. For example, if La Cosse told me he had indeed killed Giselle, then I would not be able to put him on the stand to deny it. That would make me guilty of suborning perjury.

  “Okay, enough on that for now. If I take this case, how are you going to pay me?”

  “In gold.”

  “I was told that, but I mean how? Where does this gold come from?”

  “I have it in a safe place. All my money is in gold. If you take the case, I will have it delivered to you before the end of the day. Your manager said you needed twenty-five thousand dollars to start. We’ll use the New York Mercantile Exchange quote on valuation and it will simply be delivered. I haven’t really been able to check the market in here but I’m guessing a one-pound bar will cover it.”

  “You realize that will only cover my start-up costs, right? If this case goes forward to preliminary hearing and trial, then you’re going to need more gold. You can get cheaper than me but you’re not going to get better.”

  “Yes, I understand. I will have to pay to prove my innocence. I have the gold.”

  “All right, then, have your delivery person bring the gold to my case manager. I’m going to need it in hand before your first appearance in court tomorrow. Then I’ll know you’re serious about this.”

  I knew time was fleeting but I silently studied La Cosse for a long moment, trying to get a read on him. His story of innocence sounded plausible but I didn’t know what the police knew. I only had Andre’s tale and I suspected that as the evidence in the case was revealed, I would learn that he wasn’t as innocent as he claimed to be. It’s always that way.

  “Okay, last thing, Andre. You told my case manager that I came recommended to you by Giselle herself, is that right?”

  “Yes, she said you were the best lawyer in town.”

  “How did she know that?”

  La Cosse looked surprised, as if the whole conversation so far had been based on a given—that I knew Giselle Dallinger.

  “She said she knew you, that you’d handled cases for her. She said you got her a really good deal once.”

  “And you’re sure it was me she was talking about.”

  “Yes, it was you. She said you hit a home run for her. She called you Mickey Mantle.”

  That stopped my breath short. I’d had a client once—a prostitute, too—who would call me that. But I had not seen her in a long time. Not since I put her on a plane with enough money to start over and never come back.

  “Giselle Dallinger was not her real name, was it?”

  “I don’t know. It’s all I knew her by.”

  There was a hard rap on the steel door behind me. My time was up. Some other lawyer needed the room to talk to some other client. I looked across the table at La Cosse. I was no longer second-guessing whether to take him on as my client.

  Without a doubt, I was taking the case.

  About the Author

  Michael Connelly is the author of twenty-five previous novels including the #1 New York Times bestsellers The Black Box, The Drop, The Fifth Witness, The Reversal, The Scarecrow, The Brass Verdict, and The Lincoln Lawyer, as well as the bestselling Harry Bosch series of novels. He is a former newspaper reporter who has won numerous awards for his journalism and his novels. He spends his time in California and Florida.

  michaelconnelly.com

  MichaelConnellyBooks

  @ConnellyBooks

  Download the FREE Michael Connelly app.

  Books by Michael Connelly

  Featuring Harry Bosch

  The Black Echo

  The Black Ice

  The Concrete Blonde

  The Last Coyote

  Trunk Music

  Angels Flight

  A Darkness More Than Night

  City of Bones

  Lost Light

  The Narrows

  The Closers

  Echo Park

  The Overlook

  Nine Dragons

  The Drop

  The Black Box

  Featuring Mickey Haller

  The Lincoln Lawyer

  The Fifth Witness

  Featuring Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller

  The Brass Verdict

  The Reversal

  The Gods of Guilt

  Featuring Jack McEvoy

  The Poet

  The Scarecrow

  Other Novels

  Blood Work

  Void Moon

  Chasing the Dime

  Anthologies

  Mystery Writers of America Presents The Blue Religion: New Stories about Cops, Criminals, and the Chase (editor)

  Nonfiction

  Crime Beat: A Decade of Covering Cops and Killers

  Short Stories

  Suicide Run: Three Harry Bosch Stories (ebook only)

  Angle of Investigation: Three Harry Bosch Stories (ebook only)

  Mulholland Dive: Three Stories (ebook only)

  The Safe Man: A Ghost Story (ebook only)

  Switchblade (ebook only)

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  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Welcome

  Switchblade

  A Preview of The Gods of Guilt

  About the Author

  Books by Michael Connelly

  Newsletters

  Copyright

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Copyright © 2014 by Hieronymus, Inc.

  Excerpt from The Gods of Guilt © 2013 by Hieronymus, Inc.

  Author photograph by Mark DeLong Photography

  Cover design by Allison J. Warner

  Photograph by Baevskiy Dmitry/Shutterstock

  Cover copyright © 2014 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  Little, Brown and Company

  Hachette Book Group

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  First edition: January 2014

  Little, Brown and Company is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Little, Brown name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

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y the publisher.

  ISBN 978-0-316-36986-2

  E3