“Maybe they’ll let me in the room,” Lynch said. “I’ve been known to be very persuasive.”
Hutchinson smiled. “Ah. So you can get in a few more licks on an injured man? Trust me, I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you stay as far from him as possible.”
Time to throw out another bit of bait and see if he’d take it. “Your client may be involved in another abduction,” Kendra said. “A man named Dr. Charles Waldridge.”
He didn’t change expression. “Your proof?”
“We’ll have it. I promise you, if anything happens to him, we’ll find all the proof we need to nail everyone responsible.”
Lynch added softly, “Everyone.”
“More threats, Mr. Lynch.”
“Call it a warning. In my line of work, I’ve always found threats a waste of time. You just make a decision, then you act.”
“Call it whatever you like. I’ve instructed my client not to speak to anyone about this case. Go look elsewhere for your proof.”
Hutchinson crossed his arms in front of him, assuming the pose of a thuggish bouncer guarding the door of a college-town bar. Something that didn’t quite work in this setting, Kendra thought. Maybe it was the six-thousand-dollar suit.
“Oh, we will,” Kendra said as she turned away. “But expect us to be back.”
*
AS THEY STEPPED OUT of the hospital parking garage, Jessie held up Hutchinson’s business card and snapped a picture of it.
“Think you can get his client list?” Kendra asked.
Jessie put away her phone. “Maybe. I can search some databases and scan online court records for filings. But good attorneys usually keep their clients from going anywhere near a courtroom.”
“I’ll look into it, too,” Lynch said. “It would help if we could find out who’s paying for Powers’s defense.”
Jessie had stopped at her motorcycle. “I’ll look into it right now.” She looked at Kendra and slowly nodded in approval. “By the way, you handled yourself pretty well on the back of this bike.”
“I’ve ridden a few motorcycles in my time.” Kendra smiled. “But tell me, do you always travel with a pocket full of ball bearings?”
Jessie smiled back at her and pulled a few of the little silver balls from her pocket. “Pretty much. I got the idea a few years ago, when smash-and-grab thieves were using them to break car windows and steal purses on passenger seats. No one thinks of these as weapons, so even if I’m searched, I can go anywhere with them. I’ve gotten very accurate, and can inflict pretty heavy damage if the occasion demands it.”
“How accurate?” she asked curiously.
In response, Jessie swung her arm in a lightning arc and released one of the ball bearings. The motion was followed by a metallic ting behind them.
Kendra whirled around. “What did you do?”
Lynch chuckled. “I’ll show you what she did.” He walked twenty feet to a steel lamppost, where a cardboard sign advertising a local band had been taped. Lynch tore off the sign and brought it back to Kendra.
She took the sign. A hole had been punched cleanly through the head of the band’s lead singer.
“Wow,” Kendra said. “Very good. Are you some kind of ninja?”
Jessie gave her a peculiar look. “What makes you say that?”
“I’m just … impressed. You nailed this all the way from over here.”
“Oh. Well, I’m no ninja. I’ve just picked up a few things along the way.”
Yet that response had been a little strange, Kendra thought. “I meant it as a compliment.”
“Then that’s how I’ll take it.” Jessie threw her leg over the bike and started it. “Stay in touch. I accepted that you might have not had time to contact me this time. Next time remember we’re working together.”
Jessie revved the bike and roared away.
*
HUTCHINSON ENTERED THE HOSPITAL room and closed the door behind him. He walked over to the bed, where the extremely banged-up and bruised Powers was handcuffed to the side rail.
“We don’t have much time,” Hutchinson said. “They’ve gone, but the police will be here anytime now.”
Powers nervously adjusted himself on the bed. “So what’s the play? I don’t think they have any real proof.”
“They say they have DNA.”
“No way. I was careful. Incredibly careful. I did just as I was told.”
“DNA can be left behind in many ways. A finger on a touch screen. Perspiration on a shirt. A sneeze on a window. Or…” Hutchinson placed his fingertips on Powers’s left temple and turned his head to reveal the scratches on his neck. “… skin under a fingernail. Did Michaels give you those scratches?”
“Shit,” Powers whispered.
“This clearly puts you in that building as her attacker. So you see, there’s careful, then there’s careful.” Hutchinson moved Powers’s head back with slightly more force than was necessary. “You have the right to remain silent. You’re going to avail yourself of that right, do you understand me? When the police come, don’t say a word.”