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"The better part of valor," Dellray intoned cryptically. "Not a single problem in the world on that. But broachin' that subject: You sure our friends don't know anything yet? At NIOS?"
"No," the ADA said.
"Uh-hum."
Rhyme said, "You don't sound convinced."
He chuckled. "Good luck, one and all."
Sachs clicked the phone off.
"Now, where can I work?" Laurel asked.
"How's that?" Sachs wondered aloud.
The ADA was looking around. "I need a desk. Or table. It doesn't need to be a desk. Just something big."
"Why do you need to be here?"
"I can't work out of my office. How can I?" As if it were obvious. "Leaks. NIOS'll eventually find out we're running the investigation but I need to delay that for as long as possible. Now, that looks good. Over there. Is that all right?"
Laurel pointed to a worktable in the corner.
Rhyme called Thom in and had the aide clear the surface of books and some boxes of old forensics gear.
"I have computers but I'll need my own line and Wi-Fi router too. I'll have to set up a private account on it, encrypted. And I'd prefer not to share the network." A glance toward Rhyme. "If that can be arranged."
Sachs clearly didn't like the idea of this new member of the team. Lincoln Rhyme was by nature a solitary person but at least when a case was ongoing he'd come to tolerate, though hardly relish, the presence of others. He had no particular objection.
Nance Laurel hefted her briefcase and the heavy litigation bag onto the table and began unpacking files, organizing them into separate stacks. She looked as if she were a student moving into a dorm on the first day of freshman year, placing her few possessions on the desk and bedside table for most comfort.
Then Laurel looked up to the others. "Oh, one thing: In working the case I need you to find everything you can to make him look like a saint."
"I'm sorry?" From Sachs.
"Robert Moreno--a saint. He's said a lot of inflammatory things. He's been very critical of the country. So I need you to find what he's done that's good. His Local Empowerment Movement, for instance. Building schools, feeding third-world children, that sort of thing. Being a loving father and husband."
"You need us to do that?" Sachs questioned. The emphasis pointed the question in the direction of disbelief...and gave it a nice tidy edge, to boot.
"Correct."
"Why?"
"It's just better." As if obvious.
"Oh." A pause. "That's not really an answer," Sachs said. She wasn't looking at Rhyme and he didn't want her to. The tension between her and the ADA was simmering just fine on its own.
"The jury again." With a glance toward Rhyme who'd apparently fueled her argument earlier. "I need to show he was upright and a good, ethical man. The defense is going to paint Moreno as a danger--like lawyers try to portray a rape victim as somebody who was dressing provocatively and flirting with her attacker."
Sachs said, "There's a big difference between those scenarios."
"Really? I'm not so sure."
"Isn't the point of an investigation to get to the truth?"
A pause for digesting these words. "If you don't win in court, then what good does having the truth do?"
Then, for her, the subject was settled. Laurel said to everyone, "And we need to work fast. Very fast."
