around the “national security” roadblock so we could access our client

  and the case against him. In a normal criminal trial the prosecution

  is required to give the defense all the evidence against their client,

  including any evidence that might help prove the client’s innocence.

  But this was hardly a normal case, and Dub was using every means in

  his power to keep us in the dark. All the normal rules of law seemed to

  have been suspended. We spent the last half hour talking about how

  to deal with Bullock’s offer. I needed to plant the seed with liz before

  she went to Memphis.

  Moira had taken liz to work out, and was making arrangements

  for her protection while she was in Memphis. liz’s plane didn’t leave

  until eight, so I was going to meet both women at the hotel around

  five. I’d leave for DC in the morning, returning Friday, unless we got

  access to Doug earlier.

  Micki asked if I could handle the meeting with liz without her. She

  wanted to spend some time with eric, who apparently was feeling a

  bit deserted.

  “Sounds like eric is a permanent fixture,” I commented.

  “It’s getting pretty serious. We have the same interests, the sex is

  beyond great, and when I’m not with him I find myself wishing I were.

  He’s too possessive though—you know I’m overly sensitive about feeling

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  owned. Then again, I get jealous when some nurse flirts with him at the

  hospital, so, yes, it’s getting serious.” She gave me a wry smile.

  “My advice—and, yes, I know you haven’t asked for it—is to let this

  thing with eric run its course. See where it goes. Allow yourself to be vul-

  nerable.” I cleared my throat a bit before continuing. “But enough with

  the personal stuff. I’m off to see liz. Anything you want me to tell her?”

  “She needs to take the Bullock deal. Civil forfeiture laws are the

  hardest part of being a defense attorney these days. The government

  can seize everything the accused owns, and even if the verdict’s ‘not

  guilty,’ they don’t give it back. I still don’t get why Mr. Reasonable has

  offered to let liz keep her home, with immunity no less. It doesn’t

  make sense—nothing in this case does—but we can’t look a gift horse

  in the mouth. The cars may have some strong sentimental value, but

  it’s hard to argue about the rest. His lab equipment can’t be worth

  much. If his research is about marijuana, we don’t have a chance in

  hell of convincing anyone that it isn’t part of an illegal activity.

  “I say get her permission to accept it, and use it as leverage. I’ll tell

  Bullock we have a deal subject to meeting with Doug. Maybe that will

  break things loose.”

  I’d been thinking along the same lines. “You’re right; let’s go with

  it. I’ll explain it to liz. I smell a skunk, but it’s probably just Dub’s . . .

  well, his aftershave.”

  Micki laughed. “You’re starting to think like a criminal lawyer.”

  She walked me to the door, where Clovis was waiting to drive me to

  the hotel.

  liz and Moira were perched on barstools, liz sipping on a large

  martini. She’d pulled her hair back loosely and was dressed casually

  in jeans and a crisp, white shirt.

  “Any news? Is Doug safe?” liz asked nervously.

  No games this time, not even a hello. The bar was still mostly empty,

  so I pulled up a stool and ordered a glass of wine.

  “Well, we know he’s in a federal facility, and they’re pretty good

  about protecting their charges. If he’s in oklahoma City, at worst he’ll

  be in a cell with one other guy. They’ll share a bunk bed, toilet, and a

  desk. During the daytime he’ll be allowed to go out into a big central

  area with the other inmates. He’ll have three passable meals a day,

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  and as long as he doesn’t get into an argument, he’s safe—much more

  so than if he was in a county jail. The worst part is the boredom.” Not

  exactly what my friend had told me about oklahoma City, but there

  was no sense in worrying liz at this point.

  “Sounds pretty miserable,” liz said into her drink, absently poking

  the olive with a straw.

  “It is, but he’s safe, and that’s the important thing.”

  Moira jumped in. “liz, he’ll be okay. If he has to be locked up, a

  federal facility really is a whole lot better than the county jail.” Her

  soothing tones were out of keeping with her blunt appearance.

  Time to change the subject. “So, liz, you still have family in

  Memphis?”

  Her face lit up slightly, and she gave me a hint of a smile. “Dad and

  my stepmother are still alive and kickin’. My stepmother plays a lot of

  mah-jongg with her friends and takes classes at the Culinary School—

  lucky Dad! He still goes to the exchange every day, although what he

  does I haven’t a clue.”

  Moira asked, “Does your dad know anything about what’s going

  on here?”

  “I’m sure they’ve read the papers. I feel bad–he’s tried to call a

  couple of times. That’s why I need to go back—they need to hear

  what’s happening from me, in person. Dad will try to convince me

  to move back, but no way. Can you imagine what Memphis would be

  like? I mean, a woman whose husband is in prison for selling dope?

  Then again, it might be fun.” liz laughed and drained her glass. She

  seemed more at ease—I hoped it wasn’t just the gin.

  I hadn’t really taken to liz when I met her in DC. Having grown

  up in an old area of Memphis, I had a built-in prejudice about people

  from Germantown whose daddies were “in cotton,” but she’d grown

  on me quite a bit the last couple of days.

  She turned to Moira. “You’re driving, right?”

  Moira nodded.

  “Good. I’m going to have another martini, then let’s order some-

  thing to eat. Jack’s about to give me some bad news, and I want to hear

  it on a full stomach with something to ease the pain.”

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  Nobody could say she wasn’t perceptive. I didn’t realize I tele-

  graphed my blows. We talked idly about life in little Rock until the

  waiter finally brought her another martini accompanied by a trio

  of Texas Caviar, hummus, and deviled eggs as well as a dish of spicy

  Pimento cheese with crackers and flatbread.

  “My father, Conner Flowers, is likely to call you after I tell him what

  really happened. He’ll mean well. He and Doug always got along,

  although he still thinks I should have married Bud Potter, the full-

  back I dated in high school. Good thing I didn’t. Bud came out of the

  closet about ten years ago. Dad still refuses to believe it.”

  “of course I’ll talk to him, liz. I look forward to it. But you were

  right; we need to talk about something else that’s come up.”

  “Here it comes. Shoot.”

  “As you know, an assistant U.S. attorney who works with Dub came

  by after you left. He suggested that, although they fully intend to pros-

  ecute Doug, they’re willing to negotiate a deal regarding the asset

  forfeiture. They’re willing to let you keep your house and furnishings

  and, better yet, have agreed not to bring any charges against you.”

  “Well, that wasn’t so bad. What do I have to do? Give that weasel

  Blanchard a blow job?”

  I wanted to hug her, but I pretended shock.

  “Sorry, Jack. I forget how old-fashioned you are. Seriously, why

  wouldn’t I take that deal?” She smiled. “I’m not ruling out the blow

  job if that’s what that oily bastard wants. I’d just have to have a few

  more of these.” She pointed to the martini and laughed loud enough

  that heads turned.

  I shook my head. “Nothing like that. Actually, all they want are

  Doug’s cars, his lab, and his research. We might have an argument

  over the cars unless they have pictures of Doug dealing out of the

  Healy or carrying plants in the pick-up. But if he did use the mar-

  ijuana in his research, it’s hard to argue it’s not part of the illegal

  operation. It’s not like it has any value. He won’t be able to continue

  his work even if we can get him a plea deal.”

  Her face softened as she reflected. “I bought Doug that Healy

  after he won the ‘DeWitt.’ I think he was more excited about the car

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  than being named outstanding Chemist in North America. He’ll be

  heartbroken, but I’ll buy him another one. or would the government

  maybe sell it back to me? The pick-up isn’t worth a thousand bucks,

  but he loved driving it to class and football games. What is it with men

  and pick-ups? They’re uncomfortable as hell.”

  “Well, they’re . . . well, honestly I don’t know. But I do know that if

  they’ll be content with a couple of clunkers and his research, we can’t

  complain. Maybe Dub wants to look magnanimous, put away the bad

  guy without any appearance of overstepping.”

  She gave me a withering look.

  I continued. “Sorry, but maybe that’s what he wants the public to

  think. I don’t trust Dub any farther than I can throw him, but we can’t

  afford to let cynicism get in the way. Keeping you free of any criminal

  charges is a huge deal. As often as not, prosecutors indict the wife for

  the sole purpose of getting the accused husband to plead. Just think

  about it—we don’t have to decide tonight.”

  Moira reminded us it was time to get liz to the airport, and I invited

  her to join Clovis and me when she returned.

  I walked them out of the bar and said to liz, “I promise I’ll be back

  to meet with Doug just as soon as they let me. I’ll tell him about the

  deal they’ve offered, and if he’s all right with it, we’ll talk again.”

  She hesitated. “If Doug says ‘yes,’ go ahead. You don’t need to ask

  me again. But, let’s see what he thinks. The house has no value if Doug

  isn’t there. The house, the furnishings, what happens to me—I’d swap

  it all for Doug.”

  on first meeting liz, I wouldn’t have figured loyalty to be one of

  her major characteristics. I usually trusted my first impressions, but in

  this case, I was happy to revise my opinion.

  “Jack, talk to Doug, tell him I love him, and no matter what, don’t

  let him compromise to protect me. If the government is up to no

  good, he’ll know why. You don’t know him like I do. He’s much

  smarter and tougher than those bastards think he is, and the two

  of you make one formidable team. He told me things would get

  rough, but I didn’t want to hear about it, didn’t want to know. Well,

  my head’s out of the sand now. I didn’t marry him for the short

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  haul; so if keeping him means losing a few sticks of furniture, so be

  it. No deals, Jack, without you talking to him. That’s my bottom line.

  Got it?”

  “Got it.” I gave her a grin, a kiss on the cheek, and said, “He’s got

  one hell of a partner. You be careful.”

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  D

  It felt good to settle into my room at the Armitage and relax. Pon-

  dering the different faces of liz, I had just opened the bottle of wine

  in the ice bucket when Clovis opened the door. He always had a key to

  my room, and this time, had no reason to knock.

  “I’m not up for going out tonight. Get yourself something to drink.

  let’s order room service and talk about what’s next.” I tossed my

  shoes in the corner, plopped onto the sofa, and stuck my feet up on

  the coffee table.

  Clovis grabbed a beer from the mini fridge and ordered us both gua-

  camole and bacon cheeseburgers with extra crispy fries. I like to think

  I enjoy fine food as much as the next man, but sometimes nothing

  beats a good cheeseburger. He took a pretty good pull, looked at the

  bottle and said, “I guess you’ll be busy trying to reach your client. So

  while liz is out of town, I’ll ask Moira to find out what sort of research

  Dr. Stewart was doing at UAlR. Maybe there’s another professor or a

  graduate student who knew what he was up to.”

  “You seem to have a lot of faith in Moira.”

  “Well, if she lives up to the recommendations from her superiors,

  she’ll fit right in. Her immediate boss in Detroit said she’s tough as

  they come, good instincts for her age. I’m happy to have liz lie low in

  Memphis for a while—it’ll be good for her and good for us. It frees up

  Moira and, well, liz makes me nervous.”

  “I noticed.”

  He didn’t take the bait, so I let it go. The cheeseburgers arrived and

  we wolfed them down. We caught up on Ben, the owner of the best

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  barbecue restaurant in the South, talked about the NFl season, and

  how the Razorback baseball team seemed to have run out of luck again

  this year. Moira knocked on the door just as I was starting to yawn. She

  had changed out of her blue suit into a sweater and jeans. She glanced

  at our almost empty plates, and I offered to order her dinner.

  “No, that’s okay. I got a bite on the way back from the airport.”

  She smiled at Clovis. “Am I off duty, too?” He nodded, and I poured

  her a glass of Cabernet. She reached into the hobo bag hanging from

  her shoulder and handed her Glock to Clovis. She caught the look on

  my face.

  “I have a rule. If I have a drink, I don’t carry. And it’s not often I get

  to have drinks with two handsome men, even if we are talking shop.”

  “Sounds like a good rule to me.”

  She’d let her hair down and put on a little make-up—I found myself

  looking at her curiously as Clovis took the gun and stowed it in his

  briefcase. The moment passed in a flash and we were back to business.

  “We’ve got to get a handle on Dub’s claim that Doug was selling to

  kids. If it’s true, his distributor has to be local. Right? If you two can’t

  learn anything on campus, dig deeper. If Doug is as evil as they say, he

  has to have made enemies, stuck his nose in somebody’s business. or

  maybe somebody’s looking for a new supplier.”

  Clovis looked thoughtful. “Dub’s brought in a slew of DeA agents.

  Agents usually don’t talk out of school, but I bet they all hang out at a

  bar somewhere, and where there’s booze, there’s gonna be talk. I’ve got

  some guys who can get a story out of a rock. lawyers are no different.

  They love to talk about themselves—you just got to get ‘em going. Give

  us a few days, and we’ll know if Dr. Stewart’s the only target or if there’s

  more to Dub’s task force than the garden in the Stewart’s back yard. It’s

  not like we’re dealing with a thousand acres in a national park.”

  I thought about it for a minute, picking at the last few fries on my

  plate.

  “If Doug was sneaking marijuana onto the campus to perform

  experiments, somebody had to have known. Moira, talk to his stu-

  dents, and find out if he held seminars. Seminar students get pretty

  close to their professor. Maybe someone helped unload the stuff.”

  I handed Clovis a list of Angie’s colleagues at NIH who had worked

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  with Doug, asking him to work with Maggie to contact them. I made

  a mental note to ask my daughter if she and Angie had ever talked

  about Doug. Moira said she had a friend in Ann Arbor who could ask

  around. Ideas were coming quick now.

  “Clovis, tell me a little bit about this Novak guy and his connection

  with Debbie. Could he have any connection to Doug? Is his operation

  something we need to worry about?”

  “Novak is trash. He’s evil, ruthless, and as immoral as they come.

  I hope you never meet him. He looks like what you might expect–

  big, burly, lots of bling around his neck, and bad teeth. Rumor has it

  he was an olympic wrestler who ended up as a bodyguard for a Rus-

  sian mobster in Miami. When his benefactor met an untimely death,

  Novak somehow landed in Arkansas. Who knows how or why? He pays