Coin said, “Leona Helmsley over there talked old Mrs. Piper into selling her the land without going through a broker.”
Charlie rolled her eyes, but she could feel the last crumbs of disbelief falling away.
Roland provided, “Hoodwinked the widow out of two million bucks’ worth of highway access. Tell her what you paid, Flora-girl.”
Flora did not answer, but a smile teased up the corners of her mouth.
Coin told Charlie, “She played on the old lady’s heart strings, said she had a moral obligation to keep that kind of land in the Pikeville family, stop those greedy developers from ruining the town.”
Roland took back over. “And then Little Miss Girl Scout turned around and parlayed it into blackmail for one of the greedy developers.” He asked Flora, “You pay the widow in Thin Mints or Tagalongs?”
Flora tittered at the joke.
Charlie wanted to shake her like a Polaroid.
The smell of bullshit permeated her nostrils.
Roland said, “Flora knew Mrs. Piper from her cookie-selling route. Talked the widow into selling her land for less than half a million bucks.”
“Three hundred seventy-five thousand dollars, to be exact.” Coin slid over a stack of pages. The deed for the Ponderosa was on top. He asked Flora, “They give out a badge for swindling old ladies?”
Roland suggested, “Something with a kid yanking out an old lady’s walker right from under her, for instance?”
Coin said, “You gonna answer or just keep sitting there like the cat got the canary?”
Flora’s eyebrow raised. She slowly turned her head toward Charlie, that familiar angelic expression on her face as she waited for her hot-shot idiot lawyer to talk her out of this mess.
“Jesus,” was the only word that Charlie could push out of her mouth.
There was a flash of white teeth from Flora before she got her smile under control.
Coin asked, “What’s that, Charlotte? You need a moment to talk to Jesus?”
Roland snorted a laugh. “More like she just had a come to Jesus moment with herself.”
Charlie felt hot and cold at the same time. She tried to swallow but ended up coughing instead. Her throat had gone dry. There was a weird ringing in her ears.
“Charlotte?” Coin said, feigning concern.
“I need … I should look …” Charlie held up a finger, asking for a moment. She pretended to read the closing documents from the Ponderosa. The number kept mumping into her line of vision: three hundred seventy-five thousand dollars, roughly what she and Ben owed in student loans. Invested in a dinky piece of land on a desolate strip of highway that might one day turn into a thoroughfare through which half the county traveled.
Charlie got to the last page. She studied Leroy Faulkner’s shaky signature.
She finally made herself accept the facts that Ken and Roland had laid out in front of her: Leroy controlled the money, but he was also an addict. Flora trafficked in the drug to which Leroy was addicted. You didn’t need to be a world-class economist to figure out supply and demand. Leroy did whatever Flora demanded so long as she kept him supplied. Which meant that Charlie had spent the majority of her day chasing her own tail on behalf of a budding psychopath.
And still, Charlie had an obligation to defend the little asshole.
She had to clear her throat before she could speak. “According to your own paperwork, the Widow Piper sold the land to the trust, not to Flora Faulkner.”
Coin smiled. “That’s how you wanna play it?”
“It’s not a game, and I’m not playing,” Charlie told him, because he knew as well as she did that she couldn’t simply get up and walk away from Flora. Now that they were here, she had a professional obligation to at least see the interview through. “You have no proof that my client had anything to do with this transaction or anything else. Flora is a minor. She cannot legally enter into any agreements, real estate or otherwise. Her name is not on any of these documents.” She let the papers flutter back together. “Leroy Faulkner signed off on everything. The only other signatures are the notrary, the director of trust relations at the bank, and Mrs. Edna Piper. I don’t see Flora’s name anywhere.”
“Here.” Coin jammed his finger on the top of the front page where it read PURCHASER: THE FLORABAMA FAULKNER TRUST.
Charlie met his smug grin with a smirk. “Do I need to explain to you the difference between a financial entity set up through common law jurisdictions and a minor child?”
Coin’s expression remained unchanged. “Do I need to explain to you about collusion to commit fraud?”
“I think you mean civil conspiracy, which you would know if you’d gone to a law school that wasn’t housed between a massage parlor and a Panda Express.”
Coin stood up, fists clenched, and walked out the door.
Charlie knew he was pacing the hall. She had seen him do this before. His fuse burned quick, but the explosions tended to be of the premature variety.
Roland ignored the antics, asking Flora, “Did you see a map or a drawing on Mark’s desk? Is that how you figured it out?”
“Nope.” Flora knew she had lost Charlie, so there was no point in pretending anymore. “If I did what you’re saying, which I didn’t, I’d tell you that I’ve got two eyes in my head. Anybody can see that land needs a right-a-way.”
Roland had the pleased look of a man who understood that criminals loved to brag about their bad deeds. “How’d you find out who owns the property?”
“It’s all at the courthouse. Anybody could look. If they wanted to, I mean. Not that I wanted to. But if.”
“And you recognized the old widow’s name?”
“Mrs. Piper?” Flora shrugged. “I could sell her the moon if I wanted to.”
“And?” Roland gave her a second before prompting, “Keep going, little bit. Tell me how you worked it. I mean, if you worked it.”
“No,” Charlie said, because Flora seemed to think her ifs were some kind of legal krypton. “Flora, my advice as your lawyer is to shut the hell up.”
Flora cut her with a look, her eyes flashing like a snake’s.
Charlie suppressed a shudder that could’ve shaken her out of her chair.
“Charlotte, let’s figure this out together.” Coin stood in the doorway. He had one hand tucked into the waist band of his shiny slacks. His anger had been chased away by his idiotic belief that she could be persuaded to throw her client under the bus. “
You need to talk your client into taking a deal or she’s gonna be too dried up for anything by the time she breathes free air again.”
Charlie said nothing.
Coin tried another track, talking to Roland instead. “I gotta give it to her: gal’s got the nose for property.”
Roland nodded. “Too bad she didn’t know Mark Patterson’s broke. He can’t afford to pay her market value for the highway access, and nobody wants the apartments without Mark’s land attached to the deal.”
Flora could not quell her grin. “Good thing I’ve got the cash to buy Mark’s piece when he goes into foreclosure.”
“Flora,” Charlie tried, literally the least amount of trying she could do. “You need to stop talking.”
“I will, Miss Charlie. But you can see they ain’t got nothing on me.” Flora crossed her arms. She told Coin, “You heard my lawyer. I’ve talked about as much as I’m gonna talk.”
“Good, because I’m tired of pussy-footin’ around your bullshit.” Coin leaned over the table. He told Flora. “We’ve got you dead to rights on the drug trafficking, peanut. Come clean and maybe we can shave some time off your sentence.”
“I know my rights,” Flora shot back. “You gotta charge me or let me go.”
Charlie felt her head swivel around so hard that her neck popped. “What did you say?” Flora started to speak, but Charlie held up a hand to stop her. “You’re not in cuffs. Did they fingerprint you?” Flora shook her head. “Did they take your photograph?” Flora shook her head again. “Did they ever say you were under arrest? Read you your rights?”
Roland sighed. He switched off the recorder.
“Flora?” Charlie prompted.
“No. None of that.”
Charlie asked her, “Why did you change into jail clothes?”
“They told me to because my other ones were dirty from being on the ground.”
“But they let you keep your sneakers and your necklace.” Charlie gave Ken Coin a furious look. “You fuckwad.”
Coin shrugged.
She remembered the first full sentence that had come out of his mouth.
“You’re gonna be charged …”
He hadn’t said that he was actually charging Flora. Charlie had been so stunned by the possible prison sentence that she hadn’t noticed, but now she understood that the district attorney had played her almost as well as Flora had.