She folded her hands resting them on the bridge of her protruding belly. “Grand jury convened first thing Wednesday morning. Indictment was filed just before the clerk’s office closed last night. Jules is happy as a jaybird.”
“Wow,” was all Victoria could say at the moment. She looked at her watch, it was barely nine thirty. “That was a first degree murder case, a witness statement but no witness to testify and no prints on the gun. But Vega’s a known criminal. He’s Pena’s hit man, everybody knows that. I can’t believe that jury refused to convict him. Damn.”
“You said it right there, Vega is well-known in this area. There’re more people out there afraid of him and Louverde’s gang than there are in this entire city. Who’s going to find him guilty and risk retaliation?” Grace asked dryly.
“Even if he’s a drug-dealing killer?” Victoria couldn’t believe it. This man had a rap sheet as long as both her arms put together. He was dangerous and he was cocky as hell. He belonged behind bars. “You think Jules is going to re-try the case himself?”
Grace began fanning herself, the wispy bangs of her blonde-frosted hair lifting with the effort. She looked completely miserable, Victoria had to admit. Her once pert nose was now pudgy and was always red at the tip. That coupled with her light brown complexion, made her look like Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer even in the midst of summer. She was always hot, so there were no sleeves to her black dress, which fanned out into a full skirt beneath her heavy breasts. Once Victoria’s shoe shopping buddy, Grace now wore ballet flats whenever she didn’t kick them off and simply put on her house slippers.
“He doesn’t have a choice,” Grace replied. “The mayor and the DA will be on his ass if he doesn’t.”
Victoria nodded. “True.”
Two seconds after that acknowledgement Julius Talmadge, III, the felony trial division chief, was standing in her doorway.
“I need to see you in my office. Now,” he said to Victoria.
Then he was gone. Grace shrugged and braced her hands on the sides of the chair attempting to push herself up. After watching her friend’s unsuccessful efforts, Victoria chuckled and stood before walking around her desk. Reaching out she grabbed Grace’s hands. “On three,” she prompted.
Grace nodded.
“One. Two. Three.” She pulled and Grace basically pushed all her weight forward until Victoria took a couple steps back with Grace coming up to her feet. “Girl, you can’t last much longer,” she said as Grace let her hands drop to her side and tried to catch her breath.
“I know that’s right,” she said. “Now get on down that hall and call me the minute you come out of his office.”
She waddled out of the office and Victoria took a deep breath. Heading toward Jules’ office felt like walking to the principal’s office.
Of all the things in the world he could have said, Victoria would have never guessed this would be it.
“You want me to handle the new murder trial?” she asked, befuddlement clear in her tone.
“That’s right. Enter your appearance. File it and hand-deliver, along with a stack of discovery motions, to that cocky ass defense counsel at the end of the day. I want a new trial date ASAP and I want Vega picked up again and held on a no-bail status,” Jules said.
She’d taken her legal pad and pen with her into Jules’ office and was scribbling furiously as he talked. He, unlike her, had not closed his blinds so the glare shot across the room landing right on her bright yellow paper. The annoying glare making everything she wrote look like blurry lines.
“What were the specific grounds for the mistrial?” she asked.
“Because he’s got a cocky, rich attorney who thinks all he has to do is smile at the jury and they’ll believe whatever he says,” Jules spat, contempt dripping from every word.
Most prosecutors didn’t like defense attorneys. That was nothing new. But Victoria had a feeling this went a little beyond normal camaraderie. “Is that what the jury said?” she asked cautiously.
Jules could be very temperamental when he was working a case. He could also be a bit arrogant and on the better side of being an asshole himself, so she was taking his comments about defense counsel with a huge grain of salt.
His response was to slam both his palms down on his desk. The keyboard shook and his pencil holder tipped over, spilling its contents onto the blotter. But Jules’ dark gaze stayed fixed on her. She only realized when the silence alerted her something was wrong and she looked up from her notepad.
“I just meant—” She started but stopped when he began shaking his head.
“He’s got a silver spoon stuck up his ass and thinks that makes him invincible. The jury said they couldn’t reach an agreement. Half of them thought he was guilty and the other half thought innocent, because that damned attorney gave them some bogus alternative scenario in his closing.”
Victoria nodded. It sounded to her like defense counsel had done his job. But she wasn’t about to say that to Jules. “And the problematic defense counsel is?”
“Benjamin “I’m the King of the World” Donovan,” he said with pure, unadulterated disgust.
Normally, Victoria made a valiant attempt to be on Jules’ side whenever possible, just because they worked together and an allegiance to the justice system should come before personal opinions—at least when it had to do with work issues. This time there was another reason entirely to stand on the man’s side. As he’d said the name, Victoria’s insides did something weird and if she’d been standing she might have faltered. Instead she tapped her pen against the pad and vowed this was going to be the best case of her career.
Chapter 3
Ben
