Hurt by Lila Bruce Page A

lamented, sitting down in her leather chair. “Maybe next time.”
    “So,” Jamie said, leaning against the wall, “I understand congratulations are in order.”
    “God, yes. I was worried when the jury was out as long as they were. I figured it being the week of Christmas, they’d want to get in and get out fast. Guilty on all charges, though.”
    “Good work there, Counselor,” Jamie said. She and Samuels had gotten the message earlier in the morning that the Thompson jury had come back. Thus far, that was the only thing that had gone right in her world since Saturday.
    “Well, it helps to have a strong case to work with in the first place,” Megan said. “So, you by yourself today?”
    Jamie shook her head.
    “No, Samuels is tracking down Judge Smith. We got a tip on some teenagers who’ve been stealing lawnmowers, so he’s trying to get a search warrant signed. One of the kids’ grandparents own a couple acres and with several outbuildings on the far side of the county, so we think that’s where they’re keeping the stolen goods.”
    Megan nodded and shuffled around some papers on her desk.
    “Okay. Let me know what you find. Sounds like a minor case to stop by and run by me, though. Was there something else?”
    “There is. We have reason to believe that one of the guys pulling off the home invasions in Hixson is former military. We’ve put in a request with the Army C.I.D., but thus far have got nothing solid back from them. Samuels and I wanted to see what the odds are of getting a subpoena through to the V.A. to see if any we can match records to our guy’s description.”
    “I wouldn’t hold your breath,” Megan said with a little snort. “If all you have is a vague description and no name, it’s going to be tough to get a judge to sign off on what amounts to a fishing expedition through veterans’ medical records.”
    “I was afraid of that.”
    “So, V.A. I take it, then, the suspect has a line of duty injury or condition of some sort?”
    “Yeah,” Nicole said nodding. “The pawn shop where we recovered some of the property described him as having missing fingers and a prosthetic leg.”
    Megan sat back in the chair and pursed her lips as she thought.
    “Likely. Of course, just as likely he was in a car accident or something like that. I’ll tell you what, let me put some calls in to a friend of mine at the newspaper. If your guy is local, then the military may have sent out a press release when he was injured. Let me see what I can dig up.”
    “That would be great,” Jamie said. She pushed off the wall and wiped her hands on her black pants. “Well, I won’t take up any more of your time. I better go round up Samuels.”
    Megan sat up in the chair and held a hand up to Jamie.
    “Hey, before you go…”
    “Mm-hmm?”
    “Why don’t you close the door first?”
    Jamie raised one eyebrow questioningly, but did what the blonde woman had asked. She leaned against the shut door and crossed her arms.
    “What’s up?”
    “Well,” Megan said, clearing her throat. “I just wanted to see how you were doing. I heard about…you know.”
    Oh, good Lord , Jamie thought.
    “I suppose there’s just no such thing as a private life around here, is there? Do I even want to know what you’ve heard?”
    Megan grinned and shook her head.
    “You should have learned by now. Men are worse than little old women when it comes to gossiping.”
    “Damn Samuels,” Jamie muttered with a shake her head.
    “Don’t blame Samuels,” Megan said. “The story I heard was short on details, so I don’t think it came from him, at least not directly.”
    “Still…”
    “Do you feel like talking about it?”
    She eyed the attorney, who was leaned back in her chair, absently twirling the black pen between two fingers as she spoke. Jamie briefly thought about just walking out, but then decided that Megan was as close as she was going to get to an understanding, if not sympathetic, ear outside of