Fox is Framed by Lachlan Smith

Henry’s wounds bleed afresh.’ Thinks he’s a smart cop, that one. He told me, ‘That’s Shakespeare, case you’re curious. Richard III .’ Fuck him.”
    â€œHe’s going to know some things,” I said. “He’s going to have a warrant for our phone records soon if he doesn’t have them already.”
    After a pause Lawrence said, “So what?”
    â€œAll those calls to Bell up to the day of the hearing. He’s going to see those.”
    â€œLet him. I helped Russell and I thought he’d want to help me. Can’t I ask for help from a pal?”
    â€œThere’s asking and there’s asking . ”
    â€œWant to learn who your real friends are? Go to prison and then get out.”
    I pulled over into an empty space. There wasn’t another car parked on the block. “Look, it’s time for you to be straight with me. I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s going on. You told me Russell raped a girl and liked it. That’s what you said the other night, that he admitted the crime he was in for.”
    â€œI got him off because his lawyer, in his opening statement, stood up in front of the jury and promised an alibi witness he couldn’t deliver. The lawyer hadn’t interviewed any witnesses and he didn’t have them under subpoena. After the reversal, from what I understand, the state didn’t retry Russell because they couldn’t get certain witnesses to testify the same way again. It’s a miracle they prosecuted him in the first place. Any competent lawyer should have been able to turn that case inside out. But the bottom line is Russell raped her. He’s guilty.”
    â€œAnd he confessed to you, right? That’s why he had to go and invent a confession from you, because in real life he was the one who’d confessed. That’s what you said.”
    â€œHe might as well have confessed. He was dumb enough. He told me plenty.” Seeing the disappointment in my face, he went on. “You know everybody in prison is innocent, Leo. None of those guys doesn’t dream of one day getting out, and as soon as Russell fell in with me, he realized he had a chance. So he knew better than to confess. But I’m a good judge of character. Innocent men don’t get convicted and locked up. It doesn’t happen, popular myths aside.” His looked away, as if realizing that his cynicism was self-indicting.
    â€œ Might as well have confessed. So they let you out and he won’t help you, won’t pay you for your services rendered. In return, you decide to threaten him with this confession he might have made but didn’t.”
    â€œWhat I know is that Russell kidnapped and raped that girl, and he didn’t have to confess for me to know it. I didn’t kill him. What I think is maybe someone did the world a favor, shot the son of a bitch as revenge for what happened all those years ago.”
    â€œJackson mentioned Bo Wilder to me. It sounds like the cops have a theory that Bo was behind the hit. That he did it on your behalf.”
    â€œWell, if he did, he didn’t tell me about it. And it’s not like I’ve got anything to offer the man.”
    His quick dismissal of the idea only aroused my suspicion. “The main thing in our favor is that the cops still don’t have the shooter or the gun. Still, Bell was murdered in broad daylight. It’s hard to believe there weren’t witnesses.” My tone sounded harsher than I intended.
    â€œDon’t get too used to picking out my own clothes is what you’re telling me. Or rather, to having Dot pick them out.” He stared a thousand yards down the road. “Tell me this. Friendship aside, how much would it have cost him to hire a lawyer, and how many lawyers would have done as good a job as I did? Don’t you expect to get paid?”
    â€œIt’s called a retainer, and I collect it in