“I’ll let you know. Stay here.”
Marc said, “I’m going to be sick.”
“That makes two of us.”
Yuki reached under her desk, pulled out the trash can, and walked it over to where Marc was slumped over his knees. She handed him the wastebasket and said, “You’re despicable.”
She picked her phone up off the desk, left the room, and walked down the hall to Red Dog’s office.
He was waiting for her.
CHAPTER 94
YUKI PARKED HER car on Clayton Street in front of the pretty, shingled condo building where Briana Hill lived.
She grabbed her car keys and stepped out onto the tree-shaded residential block, walked up stone steps and under a trellis. She paused for a moment, checking her anxiety level, and then rang the doorbell.
She heard footsteps, the click of the peephole, followed by the clack of the lock. And there was Briana in her pink-and-blue-striped pajamas, smelling of liquor at three in the afternoon.
“What are you doing here?” Briana asked her.
“Hi, Briana. May I come in?”
“I can’t speak with you without my lawyer present. You know that.”
“Mr. Giftos is with DA Parisi right now,” Yuki told her. “He knows that I’m here and he knows why. It’s okay with him, but of course you should call him if you like.”
Briana stepped back and let Yuki in.
The place was a mess—clothes tossed on the furniture, coffee cups and bowls of half-eaten cereal on tables and counters, dried-out potted palms. An open bottle of vodka was centered on the coffee table.
Briana threw herself into a basket chair. Yuki sat on the edge of a facing sectional.
Briana said, “So, why are you here?”
“I’ve got good news and bad news.”
“For God’s sake. What next? A knock-knock joke?” Yuki could do nothing but press on.
“Paul Yates committed suicide, Briana. His body was found this morning.”
Briana’s expression was one o
f sheer disbelief. She shouted, “No way. Paul is dead? Why? Why did that creep kill himself?”
“According to his suicide note, it’s because he regretted what he’d done to you.”
Briana got up and paced around the room. When she had completed the circuit, she came back to Yuki and said, “Bad news and good news, you said?”
“The DA is dropping the case against you. It’s over.”
“Are you serious?”
“Absolutely,” Yuki said.
Briana said, “You’re dropping the case? I’m free?”
“That’s right.”