Marcia Clark - Blood Defense

“So waived. My client will enter his plea at this time.” I nodded to Dale, who was now standing.

He straightened up, looked straight at the camera, and spoke in a voice as loud and strong as a trombone. “I plead not guilty, Your Honor. To all charges.”

I’d say I couldn’t have scripted it better except that I had scripted it. And I’d made him rehearse it. But I had to hand it to him-he really delivered. I backed up to the glass enclosure and whispered to him. “Nice job. I’ll see you back in lockup.”

Judge Magnuson assigned us to a trial court, gave us a date for our next hearing, and looked down at the camera crew. “Show’s over.” He called the next case.

Greta caught my eye as I pulled out my cell phone. “Oh, girl, you done stepped in it now. Zack Chastain? You better not let any women on your jury.”

“Now I know for sure God’s a woman. And she obviously hates me.”

A younger, but already tired-looking deputy public defender came up to Greta, and I headed back to the lockup to give Dale a little TLC. I had only a few minutes. I needed to get downstairs and give the press a sound bite to counteract whatever Zack was saying-because there was no doubt he’d be saying something.

Dale was handcuffed to a chair next to the sheriff deputy’s desk. I was glad to see he wasn’t in the cage with the rest of the prisoners. If he were, he’d probably be bleeding out on the floor by now. “Hey, you did great out there.”

He looked tired. His knee was bouncing a mile a minute, and his eyes were scanning the room in a continual arc, back and forth. “Thanks.”

“What time did they get you up this morning?”

“Four. And I couldn’t sleep. They never turn out the lights.”

“Yeah, it sucks. The only thing I can say is that you’ll get used to it.” Dale nodded, but his expression said that didn’t even qualify as cold comfort. “Sorry. Hey, I meant to ask you, did you ever meet Chloe’s folks? I heard her mom’s a psycho, but what about her dad? I know he left when she was two, but he must’ve come back at some point.”

“Her dad’s dead. Got killed in a drunk-driving accident about three years ago.”

“Only three years ago? Then how come he wasn’t around when-”

“She was the star on All of Us ?” I nodded. His eyes had been darting around the room, but now he looked directly at me. “Maybe because he was a fuckup, but he wasn’t a big enough jerk to think he could just waltz back into her life when she got famous.”

He looked into my eyes for a long beat. I was about to ask him if there was more to it than that when the deputy came over to us. “Time to roll it up. Next batch is coming in.”

I patted Dale’s arm. “I’ll come by tomorrow, after I’ve checked out the discovery. Be safe.”

He gave me a serious look. “You, too.”

He really meant it. That was a first, a prisoner worrying about me.

I hurried out to catchthe press. Trevor’s head stuck up above the crowd. I’d give him a quote, but right now I needed cameras. I spotted Brittany and Edie near the front steps. They were doing stand-ups and had their backs to me. I slowly headed their way. Brittany’s cameraman pulled his head up from the lens and said something to her. She turned around and hurried toward me. Edie and a few others noticed and followed.

Brittany got to me first. “The DA gave you a pretty good chunk of discovery. Can you tell us what you know so far?”

I spoke straight into the camera. “I haven’t had the chance to get into it yet. But I can promise you, we will be working day and night to bring out the truth: that Dale Pearson is innocent.”

Trevor was right behind her. “Do you have any other suspects in mind?”

“We’re certainly looking into that burglar.” I didn’t want to get into any specifics until I saw what Zack had given me.

Edie jumped in. “But the police are saying they don’t believe it was a burglar.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time the police have made a mistake. They didn’t spend five minutes looking into the possibility that the burglar was the killer. In fact, they never even tried to find him. As usual, they jumped on the easiest target-the boyfriend-and ignored all the evidence that pointed to someone else. So since the police won’t do their job, we’ll have to do it for them.” I looked around at the crowd that’d gathered. “That’s all for now, folks.”

I let the cameras follow me as I got into the limo. It was a much classier exit than trudging up the hill to the cheapest parking lot. I hoped it sent the right message: successful lawyer = innocent client.

This time I had a different driver, an older, balding man with a round face and a Brooklyn accent. He pulled away right on cue, as I was rolling up my tinted window. “Hey, I saw you on TV. Actually, on this thing.” He held up his cell phone.

I looked at the image on his screen. “That was yesterday. At the Twin Towers jail.”

“So you’ll be coming to court a lot, then?”

I could practically hear the wheels turning in his head. “Yeah. And I love this, but I can’t afford it.”

“I think the boss might be able to work something out for you.”

I had a feeling the boss was very nearby. “Like?”

“Like how about we give you fifty percent off and you plug us on your website?”

“That’s a good deal, but I still can’t afford it, and my website’s only for legal services. But thanks, I appreciate it.”

He concentrated on navigating through the crowded streets until he got to the freeway. “Tell you what, you pass out my cards, I’ll drive you for free.”

“Seriously? For how long?” I could spare Beulah, save on gas… it was too good to be true.

“For the next month. But just for court. What do you say? Deal?”

“Deal.” He pulled a stack of cards out of the glove compartment and held them over his shoulder. I took them and smiled at him in the rearview mirror. “Your boss really knows how to work it.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, he’s a pretty sharp guy. Besides, any friend of Alex’s is a friend of mine. He’s good people.”

“He sure is.” I looked at his cards. “Nice to meet you, Xander.”

“You too, Ms. Brinkman.”

“Samantha.”

“Samantha. You got it.”

The morning had given me only a glimpse of the shit storm that was heading my way. Freebies like this were the lonely pockets of sunshine. I took a few minutes to lean back and enjoy the scenery, then took out the discovery Zack had given me.

It was time to find out exactly what I’d gotten myself into.

When I walked into the office, Michelle was on the phone. She rolled her eyes as she spoke into her headset. “All I can do is give her the message; I can’t promise when she’ll get back to you.” As she ended the call, the phone rang again. “Brinkman and Associates.” The other line rang. Michelle put the first one on hold, answered the second one, then put it on hold, too. She blew her bangs off her forehead and looked up at me. “It’s been like this all morning. Ever since they saw you in court.”

“They who?”

“The press. And hopefully a few paying clients. Fingers crossed.”

I handed Michelle the discovery for scanning. “Study time. I’m changing into my sweats.” We had to get on top of the reports immediately, because we were about to get buried in them. The phone lines kept ringing as I headed into my office. Day one and it was already crazy. I changed into my sweats, then opened the door. The phone was still ringing nonstop. “Michelle? Let the service pick up, and get Alex.”

They plopped down in the chairs in front of my desk. Alex opened his iPad.