Margot shook her head and looked at Ames, “He’s not serious, is he? You two haven’t helped anyone since you got out of uniform.”
“We solve murders, we speak for the dead. I consider that helping.”
“Yeah, well, I’m still alive, so we both know you’re not here to do me any favors.”
“Try me.”
Margot held up her shackled wrist. “Let me go home.”
“Keep up this attitude and it’s never going to happen.”
There was a knock at the door and a trim man in an expensive suit let himself in.
“How’s my favorite P.I.?” he said to Margot.
“I’ve been better. How’s my favorite lawyer?”
“I can’t complain, though I probably still will,” he replied. He looked at the two detectives. “My name's Benton. Ms. Harris is my client.”
“I’m Detective Rad…”
“I don’t care,” Benton interrupted, “can we make this short? You’ve arrested my client for no reason other than to do some fishing. You can charge her with something or let her walk out with me right now. There is no third option.”
“You walk out of here now and I can’t help you…”
“You were never going to help her in the first place,” Benton said to Radcliff. “What part of ‘can we make this short’ did you miss?”
Ames unlocked the handcuff. Margot stood up and followed Benton out of the interrogation room.
“I’m always glad to see you, Margot. You’re going to owe me for this.”
“I figured. Can I work it off?”
“Of course. Is this something that’s going to be ongoing? Do I need to clear some space on the calendar?”
“Hopefully not. I can honestly say I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Benton nodded and then laughed, “When did that matter?”
“Matters to me.”
They stepped out of the station and Benton pointed at the cherry-red Porsche convertible parked in the front. “I suppose you want a ride?”
“You suppose correctly.”
They were on the road when Margot asked, “I don’t suppose you’ve heard from Mal?”
“No, is he involved in this?”
“I honestly don’t know. He was supposed to call me last night and I never heard from him. The police think so.”
“If he thought he needed a lawyer, I’m sure I would have heard from him.”
“I guess that’s a good thing.”
Margot wasn’t sure it actually was. If he wasn’t in legal trouble, that meant he could be in a whole different brand of trouble.
Benton pulled up to her apartment complex, “Do you want me to come in and hang out for a while? I know you’re not the average client but getting the Gestapo treatment can shake a person up.”