"Man, I never thought you'd actually be able to pull this off," Barnett said, taking the seat, seemingly not bothered that Max remained standing. It was a trick Max had learned long ago in his early years as a defense attorney. Get the client to sit down while you stand over him, instant authority. At five feet seven inches Max Kramer had to use every trick he could.
"So how does this work?" Barnett asked, even though Max had explained it several times during the appeal. His client sounded as if he believed there was still a catch. "I'm really free to go?"
"Without Danny Ramerez as a witness the prosecution has no case. The rest of the evidence was all circumstantial. As long as there's no eyewitness testimony from Ra-merez, there's nothing to connect you to Rebecca Moore." Max watched Barnett, measuring his response, or rather his lack of one. "It was quite admirable of Mr. Ramerez to come forward and finally tell the truth, that he wasn't even there that afternoon."
Barnett smiled up at him, but there was somtuung about his smile that creeped Max out. Never once during the appeal process had he asked how Barnett had managed to get Ramerez to recant his original testimony, but he suspected Barnett had, indeed, made it happen, despite being locked up.
"What about the others?" Barnett asked.
"Excuse me?"
Max waited, but Barnett sat cleaning his fingernails, using his teeth to scrape them out and then bite off the cuticles. He had seen him do this in court-a nervous habit, probably an unconscious one. And now Max wondered if he had heard him correctly. Jesus! What others was he talking about?
Max hadn't handled Barnett's original case, only the appeal. But he wasn't stupid. He knew there had been others. Other women, all murdered with the same M.O. and the signature gunshot wound up through the jaw as if the killer had hoped to remove the victim's identity by shattering her teeth. It didn't matter. Barnett had only been charged with Rebecca Moore's murder. Why the hell would Barnett even be asking about the others?