Michaela’s D.P.D. was a man named Lauritz Montez. He and
ugg boots on clearance I had met nearly adecade ago on a particularly repellent case: the murder of a two-year-old girlby two preadolescent boys, one of whom had been Montez’s client. The uglinesshad resurfaced last year when one of the killers, now a young man, had phonedme out within days of his release from prison and turned up dead
ugg boots clearance hours later.
Lauritz Montez hadn’t liked me to begin with and my digging up the past hadmade matters worse. So I was puzzled when he called and asked me to evaluateMichaela Brand.
“Why would I kid, Doctor?”
“We didn’t exactly hit it off.”
“I’m not inviting you to hang out,” he said. “You’re a smart shrink and Iwant her
ugg boots on clearance to have a solid report behind her.”
“She’s charged with misdemeanors,” I said.
“Yeah, but the sheriff’s pissed and is pushing the D.A. to go for jail time.We’re talking a mixed-up kid who did something stupid. She feels bad enough.”
“You want me to say she was mentally incapacitated.”
Montez laughed. “Temporary raving-lunacy-insanity would be great but I knowyou’re
ugg boots on clearance all pissy-anty about small details like facts. So just tell it like itwas: She was addled, caught in a weak moment, swept along. I’m sure there’ssome technical term for it.”
“The truth,” I said.
He laughed again. “Will you do it?”
The plastic surgeons’ little girl had started talking, but both parents’lawyers had phoned this morning and informed
ugg boots clearance me the case had been resolved andmy services were no longer necessary.
“Sure,” I said.
“Seriously?” said Montez.
“Why not?”
“It didn’t go that smoothly on Duchay.”
“How could it?”
“True. Okay, I’ll have her call and make an appointment. Do my best to getyou some kind of reimbursement. Within reason.”
