The Lincoln Lawyer: A Novel by Michael Connelly Page B

meek prey I had seen earlier in the day in lockup.
    “Ms. Campo reported that the man who attacked her had his fist wrapped in a white cloth when he punched her.”
    I looked across the table at Roulet’s hands and saw no swelling or bruising on the knuckles or fingers. Wrapping his fist
     could have allowed him to avoid such telltale injuries.
    “Was it taken into evidence?” I asked.
    “Yes,” Levin said. “In the evidence report it is described as acloth dinner napkin with blood on it. The blood and the cloth are being analyzed.”
    I nodded and looked at Roulet.
    “Did the police look at or photograph your hands?”
    Roulet nodded.
    “The detective looked at my hands but nobody took pictures.”
    I nodded and told Levin to continue.
    “The intruder straddled Ms. Campo on the floor and grasped one hand around her neck,” he said. “The intruder told Ms. Campo
     that he was going to rape her and that it didn’t matter to him whether she was alive or dead when he did it. She could not
     respond because the suspect was choking her with his hand. When he released pressure she said she told him that she would
     cooperate.”
    Levin slid another photocopy onto the table. It was a photo of a black-handled folding knife that was sharpened to a deadly
     point. It explained the earlier photo of the wound under the victim’s neck.
    Roulet slid the photocopy over to look at it more closely. He slowly shook his head.
    “This is not my knife,” he said.
    I didn’t respond and Levin continued.
    “The suspect and the victim stood up and he told her to lead the way to the bedroom. The suspect maintained a position behind
     the victim and pressed the point of the knife against the left side of her throat. As Ms. Campo entered a short hallway that
     led to the apartment’s two bedrooms she turned in the confined space and pushed her attacker backwards into a large floor
     vase. As he stumbled backwards over the vase, she made a break for the front door. Realizing that her attacker would recover
     and catch her at the front door, she ducked into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of vodka off the counter. When the intruder
     passed by the kitchen on his way to the front door to catch her, Ms. Campo stepped out of the blind and struck him on the
     back of the head, knocking him to the floor. Ms. Campo then stepped over the fallen man and unlocked the front door. She ran
     out the door and called the police from the first-floor apartment shared by Turner and Atkins. Turner and Atkinsreturned to the apartment, where they found the intruder unconscious on the floor. They maintained control of him as he started
     to regain consciousness and remained in the apartment until police arrived.”
    “This is incredible,” Roulet said. “To have to sit here and listen to this. I can’t believe what has happened to me. I DID
     NOT do this. This is like a dream. She is lying! She—”
    “If it is all lies, then this will be the easiest case I ever had,” I said. “I will tear her apart and throw her entrails
     into the sea. But we have to know what she has put on the record before we can construct traps and go after her. And if you
     think this is hard to sit through, wait until we get to trial and it’s stretched out over days instead of minutes. You have
     to control yourself, Louis. You have to remember that you will get your turn. The defense always gets its turn.”
    Dobbs reached over and patted Roulet on the forearm, a nice fatherly gesture. Roulet pulled his arm away.
    “Damn right you are going to go after her,” Roulet said, pointing a finger across the table at my chest. “I want you to go
     after her with everything we’ve got.”
    “That’s what I am here for, and you have my promise I will. Now, let me ask my associate a few questions before we finish
     up here.”
    I waited to see if Roulet had anything else to say. He didn’t. He leaned back into his chair and clasped his hands together.
    “You finished,