CARSON
“You’re sure he said that?” I say into the phone.
“You know I don’t ever lie to you. Hell, you should be paying me for the information I get you.”
“Lionel, I do pay you.”
“No, you pay for Lulu’s school.”
I laugh into the phone. “How about I take you and the wife out for one of those fancy dinners then?”
“Before you win the case?” he asks me and I can hear the smile on his face.
“And after.”
“Every case.”
I prop my feet up on the desk. “Every case you help me with by providing valuable information.”
“Mm-hmm. I would love some surf and turf.”
“I’ll even order the fancy wine for Maribel that she likes to drink.”
“Mr. Taylor, you really are too generous.” I hear his car come to a stop on his gravel driveway. “Well I better get going now. Just got home.”
“You have a good evening, Lionel. I’ll talk with you soon. Thanks, as always, for the information.”
“You’re welcome, Mr. Taylor.”
I hang up the phone and smile. Lionel is one of my informants. He works as a custodian at the prison and has a keen sense of hearing. Gets me information I need when I need it.
“Oh my god, did someone die?” Grace says to me as she’s walking into the office with an armful of files.
I drop my feet and stand. “Uh, no. Why?”
“You just had a huge smile on your face I’ve never seen before. Figured someone died. Thought that would please you.”
I head over to the bar, confused.
“You know, because usually you’re so serious your face could cut through glass.”
“The only time I have that smile on my face I’m usually—”
“Winning a case,” Owen says as he steps in beside her.
Not what I was going to say at all. More like I smile like that when I am coming so hard inside of Grace.
“Close enough to that.” I pour myself a hefty glass of scotch. Then offer one to Owen. He swoops it up so fast I probably should have poured him more.
“What happened?”
I look over at Grace, who is setting everything on the table. I drop my voice low. “I talked to Lionel.”
Owen raises a brow as he drinks nearly his entire scotch. “What did he say?”
“Phillips was going off to some other uppity in the prison about the ass he has out in Wilmington.”
Owen hands his glass to me and I chuckle as I refill it. “So this alibi Phillips has may actually be true.”