"Broussard, John A - Kay Yoshinobu - A Body, More Or Less" - читать интересную книгу автора (Broussard John A)

= A BODY, MORE OR LESS
A Kay Yoshinobu Mystery
by John A. Broussard


Attorney Kay Yoshinobu could tell from her colleague's face that he was a bearer of bad tidings...for her. Sid Chu was grinning from ear to ear as he stepped into her office. "Your cousin strikes again, Kay," he announced. "Freddie Yoshinobu just put through his one allowed call from the station."

Kay pushed her reading glasses up into her hair and sighed, "What is it this time?"

"Burglary. Beyond that, he wouldn't say. You do have to give him credit. I'll bet the police caught him red-handed but he isn't about to say word one until he has you by his side. What's with you Japanese, anyway? What happened to that vaunted law-abiding quality you people are so famous for?"

"Third generation, Sid. Freddie's joined the rest of the Americans: God-fearing and crime-ridden. He's got snake tattoos on his arms and rings in his eyebrows. It's all about to break his mother's heart, to say nothing of driving my Dad wild. If Freeloading Freddie wasn't his brother's kid, he wouldn't lift a finger to help him, but family's still family for Dad." As she spoke, she picked up her briefcase and headed for the door.

Sid's parting words were, "Give him my best, and tell him he should have been born Chinese. Then he'd have a tong to belong to and wouldn't have to waste his time operating as a loner."

Freddie greeted his cousin with an enormous smile. The orange jump suit, the stark interrogation room - to say nothing of the charge hanging over his head - seemed to make only a minor impression on him. Kay didn't return the smile. As she had many times before, she still couldn't help but wonder at the charm of this innocent looking twenty-two year old delinquent who could pass for sixteen, and who had a long record running back to age eleven. Even so, there seemed to be something different about him this time. There was a hint of uneasiness that even his jauntiness couldn't completely mask.

Exasperated, she unpacked the tape recorder, sat down opposite her client, hit the play button and said, "Start at the beginning."

"Sure, Kay. The cops picked me up outside in that new subdivision, you know, Puupuu Heights. That was last night around nine-thirty or so. They claim I'd burglarized a house."

"Freddie!" Kay's voice was sharp. "No game playing. This is the third time you've come up on a felony. The chances of my getting you off with just a short stretch in Kulani like last time are minuscule as it is. If you won't tell me the truth, and all of the truth, then it's hopeless, and I'm not going to defend you. Now: do you want to start over?"

Freddie immediately looked contrite. Kay remained skeptical, as he went on. "It did look easy. I didn't think anyone was home, so I decided to try a window. I happened to have a glass cutter and a suction cup along and..."

"Where did you learn that trick? Oh, never mind. I know. Prison's a great teacher. You picked up that skill in Kulani."

A wide grin spread over Freddie's face. "Sure. Actually, it's real easy to do. It only takes a few seconds. All you have..."

"Skip it. I don't need instructions in B and E. So you reached through, unlatched the window and went in."

"Right. It's a big house. Used to be one of the model homes there. I went in through a bedroom window in - I guess it's the west wing - and saw a watch on the nightstand. I was using one of those pencil flashlights. So I stuck the watch in my pocket and was looking for something else small - I wasn't about to lug around one of those forty-six inch TVs or anything like that - when I heard a snort from the other end of the house. You know, the kind of noise some people make when they're sleeping and really let out a snort." He made a valiant attempt at imitating the sound.

"I took off like a scared rabbit. Right out the front door. I was about to run out to my car--it was a couple of blocks away--but when I didn't see any lights go on, I figured whoever was home hadn't heard me. So I decided I might as well take a shot at the next house over. I tried to open the first window I came to - one on the living-room side. You know, sometimes people leave a window unlocked. Sure enough, this was one of those."

Kay was watching her client's face and could see some of the earlier uneasiness coming back. Freddie shifted his gaze, stumbled over a few words, and then went on; "The cops came roaring up about then. So did the old guy from the first house I'd gone into. The sneaky character hadn't turned on a light because he was carrying a flashlight. He must have heard me go out the door and called the cops. Anyhow, they frisked me and found the watch. I wouldn't tell them anything until I had a lawyer." Pride filtered through as he made the last statement.

"Freddie!" Kay's tone hadn't softened. "You're leaving something out. Did you steal something else the cops didn't find? What is it you aren't telling me?" Though the room wasn't particularly warm, Kay could see drops of perspiration forming on her cousin's forehead.

The entire tenor of his voice changed. "Is everything I tell you confidential?"

"You've been in court almost as much as I have. You know that all lawyer-client conversations are privileged."

"Absolutely everything?"

"There are exceptions, but I don't think they should concern you. If I thought you might do harm to yourself or to others, then I'd have to reveal what I knew. Or if you told me about a bomb ticking somewhere ready to go off, I'd definitely pass that information along to the authorities."

Freddie shifted uneasily. "Yeah, but I don't want to get blamed for planting the bomb."

Kay smiled in spite of herself. "Once we get it defused, I'll defend you. Now what's going on?"