Page 96 of One of Us Is Guilty

We stood in the hallway, outside the courtroom. Vanessa was in the consultation room, having some privacy and peace away from the courtroom. Even though neither the press nor anyone else was allowed to take pictures inside the court building, she didn’t want to be around the crowds of media gathered to watch the trial, who all stood around now, keeping one eye on us or typing into laptops balanced on their knees or furiously using their thumbs to make notes into their phones.

‘It seems when Patrick Vanderpool isn’t on trial this case suddenly has a lot of media interest from all areas,’ said Harry.

‘Yeah, and did you see who else has come out to watch? Voss is here,’ I said.

‘Didn’t Vanessa fire her?’

‘Yeah, but she’s still here. And I’d say it’s not idle curiosity. If Voss is here, then she’s on somebody’s dime. Probably Julian’s.’

‘I’ll keep one eye on her. And the other on you. I still don’t know what happened in Tanner’s chambers.’

‘She fined me for contempt. She’s instructing the jury to disregard some of the witness’s testimony. I don’t think it matters somuch. The jury heard it. And they were really listening. If nothing else, we’ve shaken them up. Maybe if the judge allows us to put forward some kind of defense the jury might even get to consider it?’

‘Don’t bet on it,’ said Harry.

‘How’s Vanessa doing?’

‘She’s holding up. She’s tough, Eddie. Maybe tougher than we know,’ said Harry.

‘What makes you think that?’

‘I don’t know. Sometimes it’s the way I see her staring off into the distance. She doesn’t scare easily. She’s been through a lot with Patrick. I think the divorce is on her mind too. That’s a whole other dirty game.’

‘I need to find her a real divorce lawyer when this is over. It’s not our field.’

Harry leaned against the yellowed, stained marble wall, shook his head.

‘Does she even know what you’ve been up to with Patrick’s divorce lawyers?’

I shook my head, said, ‘She signed the retainer agreement, which gives us a broad discretion to act in her best interests.’

‘We have to tell her,’ said Harry.

‘No, not yet.’

Harry shuffled his feet, scratched his head and said, ‘I don’t like keeping things from clients. Especially not something like this.’

‘It’s worse when clients keep things from us.’

He gave me an admonishing look.

‘Come on. It’s not the same. I’m not comfortable with it.’

‘Me either, but look at it this way – yeah, she’s tough, but she’s been through a lot, and I can’t get her hopes up and then crush them if we’re wrong.’

‘Why haven’t you told her?’ asked Harry.

There was no point in lying to Harry. Some people just see through all your bullshit.

‘I don’t completely trust her,’ I said.

‘We have to tell her. If this blows up in our face and a judge finds out what we did without our client’s permission, neither of us will practice law again. We’ve got no choice.’

‘Do you always have to be right?’ I asked.

Without another word, I followed Harry to the private consultation room where we’d hidden Vanessa from the reporters.

Vanessa sat at the desk quietly as Harry and I took seats opposite her.