Page 61 of Fifty-Fifty

‘Shit, and you’re representing Alexandra?’

‘I am,’ she said.

I stood back and took a second to look at Kate properly. She seemed to stand taller. She wore a nervous and excited smile, but now she looked like a lawyer

rather than a beat-down paralegal who jumped and clapped for the boss every ten minutes.

‘Congratulations, I’m really pleased for you. I do have one thing to ask though. I didn’t get any of your motions to the court. I take it you’re moving to split the trial?’

Kate took her own damn time to look at me now. She was gauging me, trying to figure out if I was a threat or if I was making some kind of play.

‘We’re not objecting to the DA’s joint trial,’ she said.

I heard Harry sucking air through his teeth, and the legs of his chair slapping down on the tiled floor. This was a major play from Kate. She’d realized that she had the better chance in a joint trial – that a jury would be more likely to believe Alexandra than Sofia. A brilliant strategy, but for one thing.

‘I understand your thinking. But it’s high risk, there’s lots of ways that strategy might backfire,’ I said.

‘It can’t backfire on me, only on your client,’ she said.

‘It can backfire if you destroy my client’s credibility, and if I, in turn, destroy your client’s. Then the jury won’t believe either defendant and both get convicted. It’s called a cut-throat defense – the DA just has to hand out the razor blades and sit back while we cut each other’s throats.’

‘I’ve considered it. I don’t think you can lay a glove on my client.’

‘Don’t be so sure. I don’t think this is wise. We should be fighting the prosecutor, not each other.’

‘It’s a risk my client is aware of, but we’re confident. Tell me, is Sofia going to take the polygraph?’

‘Is Alexandra going to take the polygraph?’ I asked.

Kate folded her arms, shifted her weight. Her tongue grazed the inside of her cheek. She wasn’t going to give that away so easily.

‘Look, the way I see it, the prosecution is getting an easy ride with a joint trial. It will make us fight each other instead of fighting Dreyer.’

She pulled out a chair and sat down at the defense table, placing her three identical Muji pens in a neat row before her. The conversation was over. This was shaping up to be a war on two fronts for Sofia. It made it even more important that I got the trial split.

‘Kate, I’m real pleased for you going out on your own. That’s brave and no more than you deserve. I thought Levy was a creep. This is great for you, but I’m worried about making life easy for this prosecutor. At least don’t object to my motion to split the trial? Don’t muddy the waters.’

‘I’ve got to do what I think is right for my client,’ she said.

‘Okay, let’s see what happens,’ I said. I didn’t want to start a fight with Kate. I liked her. She was smart, and I was glad she’d ditched Levy and managed to wrestle his biggest case away from him.

I returned to my table, Harry giving me a worried look.

‘If we don’t split this trial—’ he said, under his breath.

‘I know, I know.’

Wesley Dreyer was the last player to show up and he looked like he’d been shopping for a new outfit for today. A pale yellow tie in a Windsor knot lay over a crisp white shirt. The combination was set off by a smart blue suit. Cut especially for him, of course. He looked like he was about to go for a photo shoot with a magazine, and in some ways that was exactly what would happen

after the hearing. I’d no doubt Dreyer had called a press conference from the DA’s office straight afterwards. He had one assistant with him, a young man in a suit that looked almost as smart as Dreyer’s.

I did notice one other thing about Dreyer’s outfit, though.

‘I see you’re not wearing your pin,’ I said.

‘I don’t need to wear the pin today,’ said Dreyer, a smug grin on his pink face.

The court clerk came through the chambers door and said, ‘All rise.’