Sasha McCandless 03 - Irretrievably Broken by Melissa F. Miller Page A

back to that morning in June,” Larry suggested in a neutral voice.
    Larry had asked Sasha if he could sit in on the meeting to get a sense of Greg’s personality and demeanor, but he planned to play a behind-the-scenes role. Sasha couldn’t wait to hear what Larry thought of their client: Greg had been agitated and short-tempered ever since he’d arrived ten minutes late for their nine o’clock meeting. But, now he’d finally shown a flash of humanity.
    “Okay,” Greg said, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. “Fine.”
    “Try to remember why you chose that particular day to go to the casino.”
    Greg rolled his eyes to make sure they understood how put upon he felt and repeated, “Fine.”
    He fell silent for a moment, searching his memory—or at least pretending to do so. Then, he said, “My comp was about to expire.”
    “Your comp?”
    He sighed. “Yes. Around Memorial Day, I guess it was, I got an introductory certificate in the mail, inviting me to try out the table games at The Rivers. There was a coupon I could exchange for fifty dollars in chips, but it expired at the end of June.”
    “Hold on,” Naya interrupted. “Aren’t you a recovering gambling addict?”
    Anger flashed across Greg’s face. “No. Look, I got in a jam with some guys on sport betting ages ago. Before Ellen and I were even married. It was stupid, and they were ... unsavory people. Ellen helped me out. My going to Gamblers Anonymous was her requirement. I wasn’t then—and I’m not now— addicted to gambling.”
    Naya opened her mouth to respond, but Sasha beat her to it.
    “Nonetheless, you had given up gambling completely, correct?”
    Greg answered right away. “Yeah. I hadn’t set foot in a casino or placed a bet of any kind in fourteen years. Until that day. And, you know, to be clear, I wasn’t gambling. I was playing poker. It’s a game of skill .”
    From the way he said it, at once defensive and aggressive, Sasha knew he’d tried that argument on Ellen. She imagined Ellen hadn’t found it any more persuasive than she did.
    “Let’s leave that aside for the moment. Do you believe the marketing department of a casino randomly sent a certificate for chips to someone who could be considered a recovering gambler? They’re pretty heavily regulated; I don’t think they can just send out that sort of thing unsolicited.”
    Greg reddened. “The brochure had a cover letter that claimed it was sent in response to my inquiry, but I swear, I didn’t sign up for anything. Besides, I was in France most of May, biking seventy-five miles a day. How could I have?  I figured it was a mistake, but, it was fifty dollars. I didn’t see the harm. I’d cash it in, play a little bit of poker, and then head to work.”
    Sasha could see in both Larry’s and Naya’s eyes that they thought the same thing she did: Greg Lang was, quite possibly, the perfect patsy.
    The phone rang; its electronic beep cut off Greg’s efforts at self-justification.
    Naya stepped over to Sasha’s desk and picked it up.
    “The Law Offices of Sasha McCandless.”
    After a pause, Naya continued, “I’m sorry, Ms. McCandless is in a client meeting. May I take a message?”
    Naya started to scribble a note on the pad beside the phone, then she stopped.
    “Please hold, and I’ll see if she can be interrupted,” she said, pressing the hold button.
    Sasha gave her a quizzical look. She couldn’t stop and take a call in the middle of this.
    Naya held out the receiver toward Sasha and said, “It’s the crime beat reporter for the Post-Gazette . He got your name from Greg’s former counsel. He wants to know if you have any comment.”
    “On what?” Sasha asked.
    “On the fact that Clarissa Costopolous was found dead in her car in the P & T garage this morning,” Naya said, her face unreadable.
    Sasha blinked and processed the news. Then she said, “Okay, have him hold.” She felt light-headed.
    Sasha and Larry huddled together to