It Should Be a Crime (22 page)

For now, she had to wait in the gallery. The judge allowed only two attorneys at a time to sit at the counsel table. Today Dex occupied the second spot. Parker wondered how they would handle the issue of who got to sit where at trial. Her experience at the public defender’s office told her juries had mixed feelings about seeing a gaggle of attorneys surrounding the defendant. On one hand the presence of so many legal minds gave the appearance of power, but power doesn’t always equal right. Sometimes the best approach when your client was dressed in mismatched clothes gathered from the public defender’s suit closet was to take advantage of the David and Goliath scenario and play it for all it was worth. No crowd of expensive suit–wearing lawyers sporting fancy watches and taking notes with Montblanc pens. Only one attorney and one client facing the might of the State of Texas. She imagined Morgan and Ford would sit at the table with Luis while she and the other students would position themselves in the first row of seats behind the railing—within spitting distance.

Parker watched Morgan and the DA make their way to the back of the courtroom. With Morgan gone from the room, Parker felt the slow burn of eyes focused her way. She knew, without looking up, the eyes were gray, beautiful, and flame-throwing. She had once admired Skye’s ferociousness. There was a time when their intensity was evenly matched. Parker realized her own fervor was now tempered by perspective. She feared Skye hadn’t learned a thing from witnessing Parker’s ride on the rail out of the department. Instead, Skye clung to the safety of believing if Parker had stood up for justice, she would still be standing strong with her law enforcement brethren on the right side of good versus evil. It was so easy to believe your cause was the right one when you never had to see things from the opposite point of view.
I was no different. I thought the people we arrested were scum, and defense attorneys no better, especially the ones like Morgan who gave blow-by-blow accounts of decimating the prosecution on Court TV. Yet here I am. Ready to defend this man accused of breaking the law with the same zeal I used to enforce it.
Skye’s first words summed up every ounce of what Parker was feeling.

“You’ve changed.”

Parker shook her head, then stopped abruptly to acknowledge the truth her former lover spoke. “Well, Skye, you’ve finally caught on.” When Skye didn’t reply, Parker turned to go find Morgan, but she felt a tug on her arm.

“Have dinner with me.” Skye’s tone was not questioning.

“You’ve got to be kidding.” Parker was sure she must be.

“You still eat, don’t you? We’ll go to Campasis, have some wine.”

Parker couldn’t find enough words to express how much she didn’t want to break bread with Skye. The search left her speechless.

“I’ll pick you up at seven.” Skye’s confidence was still alive and well.

Parker finally found the words she was looking for. “No. No way. Not in a million years.”

“Why not?” Skye asked as if she could not imagine a single reason Parker might turn her down.

Parker looked deep into Skye’s eyes, but she could not see beneath the veneer of bravado Skye had in place. Ignoring Skye’s question, she shrugged and turned away again. Within a second she felt the warm whisper of Skye’s voice in her ear.

“Another time then. See you at trial.” Skye slipped away.

Parker looked around, but Morgan had yet to emerge from her meeting with the prosecutor. Moments later, Parker nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of another voice over her shoulder.

“So, what do you think they’re talking about back there?”

Dex. Parker wondered if he overheard any part of her encounter with Skye and prayed he had not. Things had been strained enough between them since the scene at her house when he found out about her fling with the professor. Because they’d been thrown into working together, their relationship survived out of necessity. Parker missed their camaraderie but feared she had lost the thing she wanted most from Dex—his respect.
Maybe he’ll come around,
Parker hoped.

“Maybe they’re working out a plea. And then we can go back to the way things were.” Parker intended every layer of meaning and she silently willed Dex to hear her plea.

“Maybe they are. Frankly, I’d prefer we go to trial. I’m beginning to appreciate seeing things from another perspective.” Dex feigned nonchalance, but Parker knew him well enough to peel away the indifference. Knowing he relied on her to maintain a stoic front, she rewarded his overture of friendship with a simple nod.

“Good point. Let’s go make sure we get to trial.”

He pointed to the door. “Are you ready to go?”

Parker glanced at the closed door of the DA workroom, then at her watch. Even if she waited for Morgan, it was doubtful she would have a chance to talk to her alone. The entire group was meeting for lunch in twenty minutes. She decided to leave with Dex and catch Morgan alone later. As they left the courtroom, Parker locked arms with Dex, grateful they had reconnected.

The trial team gathered for lunch at Market Diner. Ford saved them one of the only large tables in the back. Morgan resigned herself to having to eat greasy diner food for the duration of the case and gave a recap of the morning’s action against the noisy backdrop of the lunch crowd. Gerald, who had not attended the hearing, had a ton of questions, and his tone insinuated he didn’t think she knew what she was doing.

“I don’t understand why you didn’t try harder to suppress Luis’s statement. Especially after all the time and research that went into preparing the motion.”

Morgan started to respond with an observation that Gerald couldn’t take any credit for the hard work on the motion, but Parker and Dex both started talking at once. Dex punched Parker in the shoulder and won the right to deliver his response first. His tone was engaging, as if he was trying to win the grumbling student over. “She made the prosecutor think she didn’t want the tape in evidence, which means it’s definitely coming in. And she reserved the right to challenge it again at trial.”

Gerald wasn’t buying it. “My father says you should never concede a point to the other side.”

This time it was Ford who responded first, and he shut Gerald down. Ford said, “I know your father well and I can assure you if he knew the situation, he would have made the same decisions Morgan did.” Ford’s tone made it clear he would not tolerate any more grousing from Gerald.

Morgan smiled a look of appreciation. Ford had not been able to attend the pretrial hearing because of a conflict in another court, but he embraced Morgan’s strategy as if they had planned it in advance.

With the issue of Luis’s statement resolved for the time being, Morgan decided it was time to talk about the defense investigation. Trial was two weeks away and the investigator assigned to work with the public defenders was clearly pulled in too many different directions. Ford was able to name three cases set for trial in the coming weeks the investigator was working on, all of them “top priority.” Ford hadn’t been able to get a solid answer on the status of the work on this particular case and he expressed his concern to the group.

“I think we should file a motion asking Judge Thompson for money to hire a private investigator,” Ford suggested. “We’ll just explain the situation about the PD’s in-house investigator.”

Morgan agreed. “We don’t have any time to waste. We need to start interviewing people we think are going to be on the State’s witness list. We should draft the motion and take it to the judge today. Any volunteers to write the motion?”

Dex, who had been exchanging whispered conversation with Parker, was quick to answer. “I’ll do it.” Morgan caught him exchange a conspiratorial look with Parker and wondered what was up. “Okay, I’ll need it by three. Gerald, talk to Ford about some additional items he wants to include in the trial notebooks, and, Parker, I’d like you to prepare a list of proposed jury instructions.” Morgan let her gaze linger on Parker. “I’ll be in touch soon to go over your first draft.” She wondered if Parker realized she didn’t want to talk about jury instructions, or evidence, or anything else related to this trial. She only wanted to see Parker alone so they could reconcile the blazing passion of their first encounters with the tender intimacy of their last night together. She wanted to explore her feelings, figure out if the connection between them was forged from stronger stuff than a physical craving. Even as she had the thought, she decided it would be a mistake to delve any deeper. It was obvious Parker was still smarting from the betrayal she had suffered from her fellow officers, Skye in particular. She didn’t need to be the subject of Morgan’s self-discovery, didn’t need to have her feelings put at risk. Better they stick to the clearly defined roles of teacher and student than to wade into murkier waters.

*

Parker drove Dex back to the courthouse to retrieve his car. Once they got in the car, Dex couldn’t wait to unveil his plan.

“I think you and I should do the investigation ourselves.”

Parker gave him a look that indicated she thought he had lost his mind. “Morgan—” Seeing Dex’s raised eyebrows, she hastily said, “I mean, Professor Bradley, will never go for it.” While Ford had insisted the students call him by his first name, Morgan had not made a similar offer.

“Why not?” Dex asked.

“I think she has a healthy dose of cynicism about law enforcement types.”

“Most PIs are former cops. She has to know that.”

“I’m sure she does. We just might not be ‘former’ enough. Besides, we’re technically the lawyers on the case. We can’t testify.” Parker voiced what they both knew. A non-lawyer investigator was necessary, especially for witness interviews. If a witness took the stand and said something different than they stated in a previous interview, the person who conducted the interview would be called to the stand to impeach the witness’s credibility, which meant they were done in their role as the attorney. A lawyer testifying in his or her own client’s case was too confusing for juries and raised too many questions about bias and motivation.

“I know, I know. But if we help with the investigation, then we’ll be able to get it done more quickly. We can type up the witness summaries and we’ll have firsthand accounts to pass along to Ford and Professor Bradley.” Dex was excited about the prospect of doing something other than research and writing. “Come on, this is right up our alley. Especially yours.”

Parker had to admit the prospect was exciting. The one thing she missed about her former career was the challenge of sifting through pieces of information to solve the whodunit puzzle. Though the State believed Luis was the only possible answer to the question of who, why he had killed Camille Burke was still a missing piece. Parker couldn’t help but think if they could find out why someone had wanted Camille dead, the resulting picture might not be what everyone expected.

“All right. I’m in. But you have to do the asking. By yourself. Do it this afternoon when you take the motion to Morgan.” Parker gave up trying to remember to call her Professor Bradley with Dex, but she didn’t want to admit she didn’t want to risk seeing Morgan outside the formal bounds of their teacher-student relationship. The fast pace of trial preparation meant she hadn’t spent any time alone with Morgan since she had poured out her soul in Morgan’s hotel room the week before. In the context of preparing, she had seen her plenty and on every occasion she heard Kelsey’s words, whispering truth. She struggled to ignore her feelings, knowing there was no hope they would be returned. Morgan was her teacher and had expressed clear regret every time she had crossed the line of propriety. Parker figured if Morgan felt something more than physical attraction, she would find a way to disregard the boundaries, but obviously that was not the case. Parker pondered whether she should let Morgan know about Gerald’s accusation. If he decided to, he could try to make trouble for them both. But it wasn’t as if Gerald had said anything directly to her. If she told Morgan, she’d have to admit Dex knew something was going on between them. She decided telling Morgan would merely heighten her anxiety about the impropriety of their relationship, and that was the last thing she wanted to do. Besides, it was pretty clear there wasn’t going to be a relationship anyway, so Gerald’s supposed bombshell would turn out to be a dud.

*

Hours later, Parker sat in her room pretending to study. Dex was supposed to come by this evening and let Parker know where things stood. Parker was finding it hard to be little more than an observer in the case and hoped Ford and Morgan would allow them the more active investigative role. Waiting to hear from Dex contributed to her inability to focus, and when she heard the doorbell, she jumped at the sound. Before she could make it to the hall, she heard Erin call out, “I’ll get it.” She waited upstairs, knowing Erin would tell Dex to go on up. Moments later, she looked up to see Erin in her doorway with a furrowed brow.

“Hey, Parker, there’s someone here to see you. Not Dex.”

“Any idea who it is?” Parker asked.

“Not a clue and she wouldn’t tell me. She said she wanted to surprise you.”

Parker smothered a grin. Of course, Erin hadn’t met Morgan so she wouldn’t have a clue who she was. Well, except for the fact Dex was supposed to show up any moment, Morgan’s visit was a very pleasant surprise. Though they had agreed on friendship, it seemed their chance encounters were laced with something more. Each had stolen glances at the other during class and trial preparation, and more than once their surreptitious outreach happened simultaneously. When it did, the effect was smoldering. Parker refused to let herself reflect on the meaning of the physical force she felt every time she caught Morgan’s eyes locked on her. For once in her life, she chose to revel in the feeling and ignore the consequences. If they were nothing more than friends, then surely these feelings would subside at some point. In the meantime, she felt good, right, and warm. She wasn’t in the mood to let meaning steal those feelings away.