Criminal Intent - Brossura

Siegel, Sheldon

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0451209532 ISBN 13: 9780451209535

Casa editrice: Signet, 2003

Riassunto

Ex-priest and ex-corporate lawyer Mike Daley, and his ex-wife, lawyer Rosie Fernandez, investigate the murder of a legendary filmmaker when Rosie's niece is accused of the crime, a case that forever changes their views on truth, justice, life, and death. Reprint.

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Ingenious...a surprise ending that will keep readers yearning for more. (Booklist) Enough intrigue and courtroom drama to please any fan of the genre. (Library Journal)

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CHAPTER 1

"He's Definitely Dead"

Richard "Big Dick" MacArthur was once a promising young director. Now he churns out B movies on his best days and soft-core flicks on his worst. For those of us who remember his early work, it's a sad waste of an extraordinary talent.

-Film Critic Rex Lucas
San Francisco Chronicle. Friday, June 4

"HE'S DEAD, MIKE," the familiar voice says without the slightest hint of emotion. Even in the middle of the night, Rosita Carmela Fernandez, my ex-wife and current law partner, exudes calm professionalism. If we had demonstrated such reserve in our personal dealings a few years ago, we might still be married.

My eyes strain to adjust to the darkness in the unfamiliar bedroom as I fumble with my cell phone. A moment later, I'm able to focus on the green numerals on the clock radio. Four-fifteen A.M. It's June fifth and I'm freezing. Another glorious San Francisco summer. I ask, "Who's dead, Rosie?" I'm not much for guessing games before dawn.

"Richard MacArthur."

Three decades ago, Richard "Big Dick" MacArthur was heralded as the second coming of Stanley Kubrick. He made his first movie, The Master, when he was only twenty-five. It was nominated for best picture and he won the Oscar for the screenplay. Then he formed his own production company to make what he liked to call "high-quality art films." Some of his movies were more artistic than others, but all were over budget. He hit the skids a couple of years later when he depleted his bank accounts to cover the monumental cost overruns on his films. His lavish spending habits eventually pushed him to the brink of bankruptcy. In recent years, he's kept his creditors at bay by churning out formula action movies and soft-core flicks. If you believe the papers, the debts of MacArthur Films rival those of some third-world countries.

Notwithstanding his spotty track record, Big Dick still had a knack for convincing the major studios to pony up big bucks for a mainstream film every few years. The results have been mixed. His baseball film, The Leadoff Man, grossed over a hundred million dollars. The ill-fated sequel, Extra Innings, seemed longer than the seventeen-inning game it portrayed. Most of his spare cash has gone to pay alimony to his two ex-wives and to maintain his winery in Napa, where his Cabernets are on a par with his B movies. His new film, The Return of the Master, is scheduled for release next week. It's being touted as yet another attempt to return to mainstream respectability. We'll see. The early buzz has been lukewarm.

My brain shifts into second gear. I sit up in bed and reach for the lamp. For most people, a call before the sun comes up means serious trouble. When you make your living as a criminal defense attorney, it comes with the territory. Most of my clients don't have the common courtesy to get themselves arrested during normal business hours. I turn on the light and glance at the elegant four-poster bed and the sleek oak dresser. I look out the picture window that frames Alcatraz Island, but all I can see is a layer of thick fog. I remind myself that this fashionable condo on Telegraph Hill isn't exactly the working-class neighborhood in the outer Sunset where I grew up. Then again, this isn't exactly my condo.

I ask Rosie, "Where did they find him?"

"Baker Beach. Sounds like he may have fallen off the deck of his house."

Whether it was movies, divorces or houses, Big Dick did everything on a scale that was larger than life. His mansion is perched at the top of a rocky precipice in the exclusive Sea Cliff neighborhood just west of the Presidio and has a panoramic view of the Marin Headlands and the Golden Gate Bridge. It's an exclusive corner of town. The Chronicle magazine reported that he took out a three-million-dollar mortgage when he bought the house.

I fight to clear the cobwebs and ask, "Are they sure it's Big Dick?"

A pregnant pause. "Oh, it's Big Dick," she says. "He's definitely dead."

Rosie. She's one of the best criminal defense attorneys in Northern California. We met when we were working at the San Francisco Public Defender's office and got married after a whirlwind romance. She liked the idea of being married to an ex-priest. I liked the idea of being married. We called it off three years later on account of irreconcilable living habits. That was nine years ago. Unfortunately, we have an uncanny ability to push each other's buttons. Shortly after we split up, Rosie left the P.D.'s office and opened her own shop and I went to work for the white-shoe Simpson and Gates law firm at the top of the Bank of America building. We were reunited three years ago when the firm showed me the door because I didn't bring in enough high-paying clients. Rosie took me in, and we've been law partners ever since. It isn't an ideal arrangement, but we've always been better at working together than living with each other.

"Angel left the message," she says. "The police picked her up in the parking lot at the south tower of the Golden Gate Bridge."

Uh-oh. This is going to hit close to home. Angelina Chavez is MacArthur's third wife. He's old enough to be her father, and she's starring in his new film. She's also Rosie's niece, but there's a lot more to that story. Rosie isn't just Angel's aunt. She's her surrogate mother. Rosie's younger sister, Theresa, got married when she was eighteen and had two children. Angel's younger brother died of lymphoma when he was five, and her father left home a short time later. Theresa became addicted to antidepressants and alcohol while Angel was still in high school. She's been in AA for a couple of years. Angel spent a lot of time at our apartment when Rosie and I were married. Notwithstanding her family issues, she was a good student and got a scholarship to study drama at UCLA. She did some part-time modeling work and summer theater in college. This led to a recurring role on All My Children.

Angel met Big Dick at a party. He took an immediate liking to her and gave her a couple of small parts in his movies. They got married about a year ago, much to the dismay of the Fernandez clan, Rosie and Theresa included. Angel's starring role in The Return of the Master is her big break. She used her first advance check to buy her mother a small condo in the Mission District, not far from the house where Rosie grew up. Theresa has filled her modest apartment with photos and other memorabilia of her daughter.

I ask, "What was she doing at the bridge at this hour?"

"She didn't say."

This is uncharacteristic. Angel has a level head for a young woman who now travels in limos. Notwithstanding the temptations, she's managed to keep her feet on the ground and stay out of trouble. I ask, "Where is she?"

"The Hall of Justice."

"Why didn't they take her home?"

"I don't know." She has few details. We talk for a couple of minutes. I can hear the tension in her voice when she says, "I can't leave Grace by herself. And you know how she feels about Angel. She's going to be very upset."

Grace is our ten-year-old daughter. She lives with Rosie, but she stays with me every other weekend. Her bedroom walls are covered with her cousin's photos from InStyle, Elle and Vanity Fair.

Rosie adds, "I sure as hell don't want to take her to the Hall at this hour."

A highly commendable parental decision.

"Can you go down? I'll take Grace to my mother's, then come find you."

"I'm on my way, Rosie." I pause and ask, "Are you going to be okay?"

There's a hesitation before she says, "Yeah." She stops for an instant and adds, "Mike?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

* * *

A voice from behind me asks, "Rosie?"

I turn around. "Who else?"

"Naturally." Although Leslie Shapiro's delicate features and dark brown hair suggest she's in her mid-thirties, the crow's feet at the corners of her intense eyes reveal a woman who celebrated her forty-eighth birthday last September. She's a year younger than I am. She asks, "Why does your ex-wife always call when we're together?"

The room still smells of the aromatic candles that were burning a couple of hours earlier. Leslie has a taste for the exotic. "It just seems that way," I say.

We've been seeing each other for about six months. She asked me out for a drink after a bar association dinner, and one thing led to another. In a perfect world, judges and defense attorneys wouldn't sleep together-it creates certain inherent conflicts of interest-but it isn't a perfect world. It's still hard for me to refer to a sitting California Superior Court judge as my girlfriend. It's even tougher for the daughter of a California Supreme Court justice and a member of a prominent Jewish family to admit she's sleeping with an Irish Catholic criminal defense attorney who used to be a public defender and a priest.

For the time being, we're keeping our relationship to ourselves. At least we think it's a secret. Rosie knows about it, of course, but the rest of the San Francisco legal community is in the dark. For the moment, so is Judge Shapiro's family. We're reaching the point where we must consider a more permanent arrangement. This will get complicated. She's on the short list for the next opening on the Federal District Court, and mercifully, I haven't appeared in her courtroom since we started dating, but that could change at any moment. I guess you could say the practice of law makes for some strange bed partners.

"Just business," I say.

"It had better be." She's wearing only a UC Berkeley T-shirt, and she stands and pulls my face close to hers. Her eyes never leave mine as she kisses me and then lets go. "I sleep with only one man at a time," she says. "I expect the same from you."

We've covered this territory. "Not a problem," I say. "My relationship with Rosie is purely professional these days." This hasn't always been the case. We used to spend a fair amount of time rolling around together even after we got divorced. Old habits. The recreational aspects of our relationship came to a halt about a year ago when Rosie starte...

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Signet
• Data di pubblicazione: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0451209532
• ISBN 13: 9780451209535
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 432