“I didn’t expect that,” I said.
“Neither did I. Washington was the only thing keeping me going in this job. He’s being retired on an ill-health pension. Says he wants to buy into a private investigators firm on the Upper West Side – needs a partner. I’m thinking about it,” she said.
“Good for you.”
Her stance became awkward. She opened her arms, as if for a hug, thought better of it and held out her right hand. I shook it.
“See you around, Eddie,” she said.
Her Charger was double parked across the street. She tore up the ticket on the windshield, got in and lay down an inch of rubber before joining the traffic.
I looked up at the blue sky, the clouds weaving above the skyscrapers. I thought about my family – Christine and Amy. I decided to sack the rest of my week, drive up and spend some time with them. Amy was growing taller by the day, it seemed. And I’d missed a lot of that growing. I walked a block, got into my car and stared the engine. Let it purr for a few seconds. I put it in gear and eased out just as my cell went off. The Bluetooth system picked it up.
“Eddie?”
“Yeah, Eddie Flynn. Can I help you?”
“Desk Sergeant Barnes here at the twenty-first precinct. Got a client for you.”
I pulled up at a red light.
“You there?” said Barnes.
“I’m here,” I said.
A mother and daughter passed me on the crosswalk. Kid was around Amy’s age. The woman was wearing a red coat that flared open in the wind.
“You want the case or not?” he said.
The young girl broke free of her mother’s grasp just before she got to the pavement, and ran into the arms of a tall brown-haired guy. He swept up the child in a twirling, joyous hug.
“What’s the charge?” I said.
“Triple homicide,” said the desk sergeant.
The woman stepped onto the sidewalk and kissed the man holding their child. I couldn’t take my eyes off them.
My light changed to green.
“Eddie, you still there?” said the desk sergeant.
The car behind me hit the horn to get me moving. I ignored it.
“You want the case or not?” said the desk sergeant.
A couple more cars joined the chorus of horns. I let go of the steering wheel and watched the girl skipping away as she held her father’s hand.
Acknowledgements
As ever, this book would not be in your hands if it wasn’t for Euan Thorneycroft at AM Heath. He has guided me and put a lot of work into this novel. For Euan, Helene, Jennifer and all at AM Heath, I am eternally grateful.
The Orion Publishing team have been invaluable in kicking this novel into shape. I am particularly grateful to Jemima Forrester, Jon Wood, Francesca Pathak, Bethan Jones and Francine Brody for all of their incredible insights and hard work. Each of them have contributed in remarkable ways to making this book so much better.
To my family and friends, for believing in me. To John Ross and Son for their support and understanding.
And the greatest debt of gratitude is owed to my wife, first reader, and Pickle point picker, Tracy, who has helped me enormously with this book. I couldn’t have written it without your support and ideas. Thank you.
The first in the explosive Eddie Flynn series
Eddie has forty-eight hours to save his daughter – with a bomb strapped to his back . . .
It’s been over a year since Eddie vowed never to set foot in a courtroom again. But now he doesn’t have a choice. Olek Volchek, the infamous head of the Russian mafia in New York, has strapped a bomb to Eddie’s back and kidnapped his ten-year-old daughter, Amy. Eddie only has forty-eight hours to defend Volchek in an impossible murder trial – and win – if he wants to save his daughter.
Under the scrutiny of the media and the FBI, Eddie must use his razor-sharp wit and every con-artist trick in the book to defend his ’client’ and ensure Amy’s safety. With the timer on his back ticking away, can Eddie convince the jury of the impossible?
Out now in paperback and ebook!
The second pulse-pounding novel in the Eddie Flynn series
‘Highly intelligent, twist-laden and absolutely unputdownable’ Eva Dolan
When David Child, a major client of a corrupt New York law firm, is arrested for murder, the FBI ask Eddie Flynn to secure Child as his client and force him to testify against the firm.
Eddie’s not a man to be coerced into representing a guilty client, but the FBI have incriminating files on Eddie’s wife, and if Eddie won’t play ball, she’ll pay the price.
When Eddie meets Child he’s convinced the man is innocent, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. With the FBI putting pressure on him to secure the plea, Eddie must find a way to prove Child’s innocence while keeping his wife out of danger – not just from the FBI, but from the firm itself.
Out now in paperback and ebook!
Find out where it all began for Eddie Flynn in
A race-against time e-short thriller and prequel to the series
‘I can’t wait to see more of Eddie Flynn’ Mark Billingham
Eddie Flynn has an impossible choice. He has damning evidence against a corrupt NYPD detective who stands accused of killing a suspect. But if he uses this evidence in court, both he and his client – the dead man’s widow – will be in mortal danger.
Should he risk their lives to win the case – or keep quiet and let a murderer go free?
Available for just 99p!
Do you love the Eddie Flynn books?
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Ask Steve Cavanagh …
Q. Eddie’s journey to becoming a lawyer is so interesting and is a key part of his character. Can you tell us a little about your own journey to becoming one?
A. Quite a lot of people become lawyers because they have a strong, innate sense of what is right and wrong. They want to be Atticus Finch, defending the freedom of the poor and oppressed. They want to fight for truth and justice. I became a lawyer by mistake. I’d always thought of the law as something that I could probably turn my hand to, if needed, but I didn’t really fancy all the hard work. I knew it would be a good profession and so I put it down as one of my choices of degrees at university. Eventually, I was accepted into university and had the choice of business studies and marketing or law. I thought I’d be better suited to business studies and decided to go and register my place on the course at matriculation. However, the night before matriculation day I found myself in a bar. It was a very pleasant place to be at age eighteen. The next day was not so pleasant. I was suffering my first ever hangover, and I had to complete what seemed to be an endless parade of standing in long queues, handing over forms, and the general malaise of registration day at university. After that, I went to my marketing lectures, but couldn’t find my name in the list for tutorial groups. I spoke to a very nice lady at the University help desk, who couldn’t find my name on the business and marketing course. But she did find it on the law course. In my fragile, hungover state, I’d brought the wrong forms with me to register and I’d signed up for law. My grant for the fees had been paid. I could take a year out and come back and do marketing, or I could stick with law. I decided to stick with the law course. Eventually, I became a lawyer. All because I’d essentially joined the wrong queue at one stage.
Q. Why did you make Eddie a defence attorney, rather than a prosecutor? Some might say that defending people who are implicated in a crime is far worse than trying to take them down…
A. The justice system doesn’t really work like that. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. I could never prosecute. I don’t have it in me. I grew up in a working class family in Belfast during the troubles. Maybe because of that, maybe something else in me, I have always been on the side of the underdog; the ordinary citizen. I believe in people. I
don’t necessarily believe in the state. Growing up I heard about internment, and people in my community, from both sides of the divide, who were wrongfully convicted or murdered. I suppose, at a young age, I developed a healthy disrespect for the law.
Q. Eddie always seems three steps ahead of everyone else, particularly when he’s cross-examining witnesses. Can you tell us a little bit about how you approach cases? And why do you think a con-artist like Eddie makes such a good lawyer?
A. A good cross-examination, as Eddie says, is like daylight robbery. You go in fast, you get what you need, and you get the hell out of there. But a great cross-examination is a burglary. You go in and get the answers you need without the witness even knowing you were there. You’re picking the pocket of the witness. You have to think of a case as a story. There are always two sides of the tale. Whoever tells the best story in court usually wins. Every con-artist is a story teller. So is every lawyer. Also, con-artists and lawyers share the same skills – misdirection, manipulation, distraction and persuasion.
Also by Steve Cavanagh
The Defence
The Cross (novella)
The Plea
Copyright
AN ORION EBOOK
First published in Great Britain in 2017 by Orion Books.
First published in ebook form in 2017 by Orion Books.
Copyright © Steve Cavanagh 2017
The right of Steve Cavanagh to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978 1 4091 5240 8
The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London, EC4Y 0DZ
An Hachette UK company
www.orionbooks.co.uk
Table of Contents
Dedication
Contents
Epigraph
Part I
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Part II
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Part III
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Three
Chapter Sixty-Four
Chapter Sixty-Five
Chapter Sixty-Six
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Chapter Seventy
Chapter Seventy-One
Chapter Seventy-Two
Chapter Seventy-Three
Chapter Seventy-Four
Chapter Seventy-Five
Chapter Seventy-Six
Acknowledgements
Ask Steve Cavanagh …
Also by Steve Cavanagh
Copyright