Page 77 of The Devil's Advocate

The food sat untouched on the table. We fell into silence. Harry broke it when he picked up his fork and started eating.

‘When I was in Vietnam we ate when we could. You never knew when you would get another hot meal. Eat something, both of you. We’ll figure it out,’ said Harry.

‘What is there to figure out? We’re dead in the water. We’ve got no defense. Eddie, we should pull this case. Get a continuance and let’s take some time to regroup.’

‘No, putting the case off for a month or two isn’t an option. For a start, you think Judge Chandler would give us a continuance? Not a chance in hell. Not that it matters, because we’re going to be in the same shit situation a month from now. This case isn’t getting any better.’

‘We’re going to lose,’ said Kate.

‘It looks like it,’ I said. ‘All the evidence points to Andy Dubois, and the jury probably won’t listen to us anyway. I’ve had tough cases before, but nothing like this. Korn has rigged a favorable jury, he’s scared away our witnesses … he’s got forensic evidence of Andy’s blood under the victim’s fingernails, two confessions, a witness that establishes Andy as the last person to be with her before she disappeared – there’s no end to how many ways we’re going to lose this case.’

Kate shook her head, said, ‘We don’t have a way to win, but I didn’t get into the law to start bribing jurors either,’ said Kate.

A couple of days in the sun had brought out more of the freckles across her nose and on her cheeks. Strands of hair clung to her forehead, laminated there in sweat. She wore a black tee under her grey suit, the jacket hanging from the chair. The heat and the case were getting to her more than I had anticipated.

‘Look, you have nothing to worry about. I’ll never ask you to break the rules or bend the law. We’re partners, remember?’

‘That’s what I am worried about. If you get caught, they’ll say I must have known about it because I’m your partner. I’ll be screwed too.’

‘No, you won’t,’ I said.

‘How?’

‘Look, Korn is playing this one as dirty as it comes. It’s personal for him. This is war. Lawyers have died, for God’s sake. Professional witnesses won’t testify because they’re afraid he will kill them. Playing by the rules isn’t going to be enough to save Andy. I think I can save him, but I’ve gotta get down in the dirt with Korn to do it. There’s no other way.’

‘There has to be a way to win without breaking the law.’

Harry started laughing.

‘Did I say something funny?’ asked Kate.

‘We’re dealing with a prosecutor who thinks he’s above the law. I used to think like you, too. Then I realized, well, actually Eddie taught me, that justice and the law can be very different things,’ said Harry.

‘I just don’t like it.’

‘You think Bloch has never stepped outside of the rules?’ I asked.

She picked up her fork, started to pick at her food.

‘Bloch does her own thing. I’m not saying she’s above the law either, she’s just, you know, Bloch, she’s—’

‘Different,’said Harry and I, at the same time.

‘Yeah,’ said Kate, nodding.

‘She wouldn’t fit in around us if she was normal, whatever the hell that is,’ I said.

The mood lightened with Kate’s smile. Harry gave her a very gentle nudge with his elbow. She nudged him back, harder, in the ribs, and he let out one of his trademark rolling laughs that infects everyone within hearing distance. Harry never had a daughter. We used to work with an investigator named Harper. She and Harry didn’t quite have a father/daughter relationship, but it would’ve grown into that if we hadn’t lost her the year before. Her death hit us both like a dump truck.

I still dreamed about her. Most nights. When she died, I knew this was a wound that would never heal. I would carry it around the rest of my life. Only two possibilities. Either I would learn how to live with it, or it would kill me. I had a daughter, and I couldn’t let her down. Even though, sometimes, I didn’t want to be in the world without Harper.

I took peace from the little things. Like now, watching Kate and Harry smiling and laughing together. Kate looked up to him, and he admired her strength and intelligence. Soon he would be complaining she didn’t eat enough and she would be moaning that he hadn’t taken his pills. A father and daughter-type relationship was on the cards. Kate’s father was very much alive, but you can have many parents. And everyone needs a mentor. I was damn sure there was nothing I could teach her.

Right then I was glad I was at the table with them. It was a passing moment of levity, and it broke, just for a second, the crushing weight of representing a man who would be put to death if we lost.

Those are the stakes. And they don’t come higher.

We enjoyed our food, and for the time it took us to demolish the plates, that burden lifted.