A Matter of Life and Death

crime? He had to find out. He remembered the name of someone who could tell him if he was in trouble.
Joe put on a dark hooded sweatshirt and dark jeans and slipped out of the room. There were cars parked across the street, but the van wasn’t one of them. Joe hoped that the giant had been bluffing about the around-the-clock surveillance. If not, Joe would say he was going on a training run. He went to the far end of the second-floor landing, walked down the stairs, and ran into the night toward McGill’s gym.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Robin ran to McGill’s gym at five in the morning every weekday to work out before going to her office. When she walked out of McGill’s on Monday, she thought a man in a dark sweatshirt, hoodie, and jeans was watching her from an alley across the street. She crossed the street, and the man fell in behind her. Robin made some random turns and noticed that the man was still behind her. When she found a street crowded with people, she stopped and turned.
“Are you following me?” she challenged.
The man raised his hands and showed open palms. “Please, Ms. Lockwood, I just need to talk. I’m Joe Lattimore. You’ve seen me at McGill’s. I used to box professionally.”
Robin stared at Joe. She did recognize him.
“Why are you following me?”
“Barry McGill says you’re a good lawyer. I was hoping we could talk and you’d give me some advice. I’m homeless, but I’m married and I have a little girl. I can’t pay you now, but I will when I get a job.”
Joe seemed desperate. Robin made a decision.
“The advice will be free, so don’t worry about the money. Let’s get something to eat and we can talk over breakfast.”
Joe looked embarrassed. “I don’t have the money for breakfast.”
“Don’t worry about that either. It’s on me.”
“Why do you need my advice?” Robin asked when they were seated in a booth and the waitress had taken their orders.
Joe leaned forward and lowered his voice. “This is just between us, right?”
“Anything you say is protected by the attorney-client privilege and is completely confidential.”
“Okay, then. I used to box until Maria got pregnant. I wasn’t making much money boxing, so I got a job as a short-order cook, but I got fired, and I haven’t been able to get steady work since, so I was hoping my manager could get me a fight. I was on a training run when this guy came up and told me I could make good money fighting in a no-holds-barred fight. I knew it was probably illegal, but I was desperate. We were living in a tent city, and I was scared all the time that something would happen to Maria and Conchita, so I did it.”
Joe looked very upset. He took a sip from his water glass.
“I killed the guy I fought.”
Robin thought that Joe might cry.
“I didn’t mean to. I never meant to hurt him bad. I just wanted to win and get the money for Maria and the baby. But he agreed to it. The fight, I mean. We both knew what we were getting into. So, I want to know if I’m in trouble if we both agreed to fight?”
The waitress brought their order, which gave Robin time to think. Joe had asked for coffee, scrambled eggs, and toast, but he barely touched his food.
“You probably are in trouble,” Robin said. “I can’t remember the number of the statute, but there is one that says that you aren’t justified in using physical force on someone even if you both agree to fight, if the fight isn’t authorized by law. I don’t think you can be charged with murder, but you might be charged with manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide.”
Joe was quiet. Then he stood up. “Thank you, Ms. Lockwood.”
“Don’t go. Sit down and finish your breakfast.”
“I don’t have much of an appetite,” Joe said. Then he thanked her again and left.


CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Ian Hennessey’s Friday-morning docket had wrapped up by eleven. Both cases had been resolved with a plea. The only thing left on his calendar was a late-afternoon hearing in Judge Carasco’s court concerning a case that originally had been assigned to another judge but had been transferred to Carasco’s court that morning.
Hennessey was walking up to his office when his phone vibrated. There was a text from Stacey Hayes. The young DA’s heart rate accelerated.
The dinner at Bocci’s had been amazing. Ian had been enchanted by Stacey’s beauty and the unmistakable interest she had shown in everything he had to say. There was no question in his mind that he and Stacey had instant chemistry, and what happened after their second date proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that she felt it too.
During the dinner at Bocci’s, Ian had asked Stacey if she would like to go to a movie on Saturday, and she had agreed. After their Saturday-night date, Ian had driven Stacey to her riverside apartment, and she’d asked him in for a drink. Things had moved quickly after that, and Ian had woken from a deep sleep on Sunday morning thoroughly exhausted from the most explosive sexual experience of his young life.
Ian had spent Sunday in Stacey’s bed, and he’d been thinking of her all week long, but frequent calls to her cell phone had gone to voice mail, and she hadn’t returned any of them. Ian had become frantic. Had he done something wrong? Had she moved? He’d driven by her apartment several times, but there was no sign of her car, and she hadn’t answered her door.
Ian hurried to a corner of the corridor and phoned Stacey.
“Ian, I’m so glad you got my message,” Stacey said.
“I’ve been trying to get in touch all week. Where were you?”
“I was out of town visiting a friend. I’m such a ditz,” she said with a self-deprecating laugh. “I forgot my cell phone. I just heard