Page 7 of The Devil's Advocate

CHAPTER TWO

EDDIE

Berlin’s coat dripped water onto the floor of my office while it hung on the coat rack in the corner.

He took out a pair of glasses from his pocket and began wiping them clean with the wide end of his tie. If the old coat was a treasured gift from a loved one, the tie looked like a present from a mortal enemy. I let him settle, closed the file that was open on my desk and gave him my attention.

‘Who’s the kid, and why are you going to be responsible for their death?’

‘That’s a long story. Do you know what I do in government?’ he asked.

‘Can’t say that I do, exactly.’

‘Neither can I. Not without divulging classified information and thereby committing treason. All I can tell you is that I move around government departments solving problems.’

‘I knew you were a fixer of some kind. What type of problems do you solve?’

‘The kind of problems that Fortune 500 companies have with government policy, the kind of problems that law enforcement have when their hands are tied, and the kind of problems that we had two years ago.’

I’d first met Berlin in upstate New York, after a fed had been shot. Berlin helped us clear up the mess.

‘One of your dogs gone wild again?’ I asked.

He shook his head, said, ‘Let’s say part of my role is to keep the status quo. Government doesn’t like change. Doesn’t matter who’s in the White House, the day-to-day tasks of policing and justice need order and consistency. This is on a state and federal level. We’re not limited in our scope. There’s a district attorney in Sunville County, Alabama, named Randal Korn, and it was made clear to me that he was to be re-elected.’

‘You rigged a local district attorney election?’

Berlin rolled his eyes.

‘Please, Eddie. We’ve rigged national elections in more countries than I can count. This was small potatoes. There are businesses that finance our politicians, and they always have a hand in local elections. Someone with credibility and cash was running against Korn, and I made a few calls to the youngblood’s backers – got them to pull their checkbooks. That’s all it took. You win elections in the US by spending money. Usually, whoever spends the most wins.’

‘Okay, so then what?’

‘Then I got a little curious. Korn has been DA of Sunville County for the past seventeen years. In his tenure he has brought most crime statistics to record lows in the county. That’s why we liked him. Good for business, good for property prices in the area, good for investors. Maintain the status quo. I should’ve left it alone after the election, but there was something wrong about this guy. I went deeper, what I found was disturbing.’

‘What was that?’

Before Berlin could answer, he hesitated, distracted by the noise outside my office. The usual commotion. I got up and opened my door a crack to see what was happening. Harry was swearing at the new digital dog collar he’d bought for Clarence, still unable to activate the GPS signal through his phone and his agitation was wearing on the dog, who barked every time Harry used a cuss word. The Xerox machine had jammed again, and Bloch was banging the side of the copier with her fist. The phone was ringing, which Kate then answered, holding a laptop in the other hand and her cell phone cradled on her shoulder. Organized chaos. I closed the door. Sat down. Gestured for Berlin to continue.

‘It sounds busy out there,’ he said.

He was stalling. There was something he needed to say, but he didn’t feel able to do it. Not yet.

‘Just tell me the whole thing. You’re under client confidentiality here. This is a safe room.’

Berlin glanced at pictures on my desk. My daughter, Amy, at summer camp, paddling a canoe. I had since stopped putting up pictures of my ex-wife. She had moved on with another man.

‘Cute kid,’ said Berlin. ‘How old?’

‘Fifteen. Come on, you worked up enough spit to get this thing out yet?’

His eyes flicked to mine. They were troubled and red. The bags underneath them seemed heavier all of a sudden.

‘Sunville County leads the US in death-penalty convictions. The county encompasses a few big towns, but no cities. Randal Korn has sent more people to death row than any other district attorney in history. Currently, one in every twenty of the death-row population for the whole of the United States was put there by Korn. One hundred and fifteen convictions in seventeen years.’

I said nothing. I’d heard about zealous prosecutors in the South who valued marriage, church, family, assault weapons and the death penalty above all things. Even so, those figures couldn’t possibly be accurate.

‘Around two to three percent of the counties in the United States are responsible for convicting the vast majority of death-row inmates. Sunville County is top of the league. When I discovered this, I thought exactly the same as you’re thinking right now – bullshit. This can’t be true. Eddie, it’s one hundred percent accurate. I checked the records myself.’