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“Not guilty,” Dame Maggie says.
Rob Jacobson falls back into his chair as soon as the words are out of her mouth, grabs his head with his hands.
Then something quite amazing happens.
He starts sobbing.
Uncontrollably.
Like a child.
The remaining two verdicts are presented, both also pronouncing Jacobson not guilty. Then Judge Jackson Prentice III is thanking the jury for their service, even as they’re all staring at Rob Jacobson.
Then Judge Prentice tells Jacobson he is free to go. But he doesn’t go anywhere. He doesn’t pick his head off the table. The only real movement is the rise and fall of his shoulders.
He just keeps crying.
The last sound in Judge Jackson Prentice III’s courtroom, the last act of thePeople v. Robinson Jacobson, is that.
One Hundred Eleven
Jimmy
JIMMY KEEPS TELLING HIMSELFto turn off the television, he’s seen enough. But he hasn’t. So he doesn’t.
He watches Jane’s back-and-forth with the media, seeing how obvious it is that she just wants to haul ass out of there the first chance she gets. But she plays the good soldier to the end, as her client feels compelled to inform the world that he hasn’t just been acquitted, that he’s innocent, he wants to make that clear.
By now he’s composed himself, after breaking down the way he did after the reading of the verdict.
“You know the old line, right?” Jacobson says. “Now where do I go to get my good name back?”
“Whatgood name, asshole?” Jimmy says to the television.
Finally, and before he does turn the set off, he watches the foreperson, the woman Jane kept saying reminded her of some famous actress, talk about how convincing she and her fellow jurors found Jacobson’s testimony about his father’s suicide, his own suicide attempt, and his depression.
“We frankly weren’t expecting to see that kind of humanity,” she says.
“It wasn’t humanity, honey,” Jimmy says. “It was a master class in BS.”
Jane calls him from her car about a half hour later, asking if he’s up for meeting at Sam’s in East Hampton for pizza and beer. He says he’s always up for, and upto,pizza at Sam’s. So he’s in. Jane tells him she’s going to invite Dr. Ben to join them.
“Good,” Jimmy says. “Then you can tell him.”
“If not tonight, then very soon.”
“Sweet Jumping Jesus.”
“Just let me breathe for a minute, okay? The trial just ended.”
“Am I even allowed to congratulate you?”
“Fuck no.”
For a moment it seems that she’s ended the call on that line, like a mic drop. But then she says, “I haven’t even told you the last thing our client said to me before I headed for my car and he headed off to do more TV.”
“Did you believe those tears?” Jimmy says.
“I don’t know what to believe about this guy anymore,” Jane says. “What he’s capable of. Or not.”
