Leapholes (2006) (31 page)

Mr. Coolidge fell silent, seeming to mull over his thoughts. Finally he said, "I know you didn't do anything wrong. I did."

"You did?"

He broke the embrace, then looked his wife in the eye. "Don't you remember, sweetheart? The day after you saved that little girl, you told me that you'd put the emerald in my camera bag for safekeeping. You asked me to be sure to return the stone to the owners. I told you that I had already returned it. But I lied to you. I never returned it. I kept it."

Dr. Coolidge looked at her husband, confused. "That's not true at all. I never told you about the emerald. I never aske
d y
ou to return it to the owners. I couldn't have. I didn't even remember putting it in your bag in the first place."

"Listen to me," he said, his voice filled with urgency. "You heard what that lawyer said. You may be innocent, but your best bet is to plead guilty and put it behind you. But I'm giving us another choice."

"What are you saying?"

"/m pleading guilty," he said.

"What?"

"I told you that I had returned the emerald. But I never returned it. I kept it."

"That's not true!"

"Stop arguing with me, Sharon. From the minute we open that door and the lawyer comes back in here, that is going to be our story. Do you understand me? You can't stop being a doctor over this. And Ryan needs his mother."

"He needs a father, too."

"He needs you more." Ryan's father swallowed hard, as if building his resolve. Then he drew a deep breath and said, "So it's settled. I'm pleading guilty."

Ryan wanted to leap from his hiding spot and yell, Dad, don't do it! Get rid of that lousy lawyer and go back with Hezekiah! Let Mom go to trial!

But the minute he tried to say a word--the instant he consciously tried to alter history and change what had happened on that day--he felt himself being sucked from the room. He struggled to stay. But the force of the return leaphole was completely overpowering. He saw his mother crying and his father holding her tightly in his arms.

Then he saw that familiar bright light, and time was flying past him.

Chapter
37

Ryan's landing was much better this time, but he hardly noticed the improvement.

He didn't feel like talking when he returned. Hezekiah and Kaylee gave him some time to himself. He could hardly believe what he'd just seen. His father was innocent. So was his mother. In fact, no one had stolen anything. That stupid emerald had simply been misplaced. Yet the Coolidge family had been disgraced. Ryan's father was sitting in jail, and everyone in town assumed that Ryan was headed there someday himself. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, right?

What more proof did he need that Legal Evil was alive and well?

"Now you know," said Hezekiah.

"Yes," said Ryan. "Now I know. But why didn't my parents just tell me?"

"It's a tough situation, Ryan. The prosecutor suspected that your father was protecting your mother. He warned them: 'If I get a hint from anyone that Mr. Coolidge is taking the fall for his wife, I'll come after Dr. Coolidge with a vengeance. No deals, no mercy. I'll do everything in my power to put her away for the maximum sentence."

"So they couldn't tell anyone. Not even me."

"Not even you, Ryan."

"Then how do you know all this?" said Ryan.

"I was their first attorney, remember? Then your mother fired me. You think I wasn't curious to know what happened? I was shooting down a leaphole to State versus Coolidge as soon as your father went to jail."

"That's something else I don't understand. The prosecutor recommended no jail time. Why was my father sentenced to prison?"

"Just because a prosecutor promises to recommend no jail time doesn't mean that, the judge will honor the agreement. Usually, if a prosecutor strikes a deal, the judge goes along with it. But the judge in your father's case didn't."

"Why not?"

"Ah, Legal Evil strikes again, Ryan. Your father's a journalist, right?"

"Yes. He writes for the Tribune."

"Three years ago, your father wrote an article that exposed some very questionable conduct by a certain judge. As luck would have it, he turned out to be the judge in your father's case. That grumpy old codger was all too happy to disregard the prosecutor's recommendation of no jail time and put your father behind bars."

"That stinks," said Ryan.

"That's what I'm up against every day," said Hezekiah. "Why do you think I need more people like you on my side?"

Ryan nodded, glad to be on the team.

"You should get home now," said Hezekiah.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm pretty eager to see my mom." Then a wry smile came to his lips. "And my dad."

Hezekiah returned the smile. "Tell your father hello for me, will you?"

Little more needed to be said. They both realized that Ryan had a lot to talk out with his father. Ryan would be seeing a lot more of his father, even if he was in prison. "I sure will," said Ryan.

"You want me to give you a ride home?" asked Hezekiah.

"Aren't you a little old to be driving a car?"

"I didn't mean by car. I'll take you on my horse."

Kaylee groaned. "No way, Hezekiah! You nearly killed me and you on the ride here. Ryan, you can borrow the horse and bring it back later. Come on. Let's get our four-legged friend outside where he belongs."

Ryan reached out to shake Hezekiah's hand, but the old man pulled him close and hugged him. Ryan smiled and whispered, "See you soon." Then he and Kaylee led the horse toward the door. It behaved like a skittish thoroughbred at the gate as they lowered its head and led it through the doorway. Finally, it settled down when they were outdoors.

As Ryan climbed up on the horse's back, Kaylee asked, "Do you remember your way home from here?"

"I'm pretty sure I do."

"Good. Now, remember. If you need any tips or have any questions about being a junior Legal Eagle, call me. I mean, if you want."

"I'd like that. I think I will."

She smiled. "Good. I'll see you around, then. Right, L'new?"

"Yeah, definitely. And by the way."

"What?"

"The name's Coolidge. From now on, I'm Ryan Coolidge."

"That's a good name, too."

"Yeah. I didn't always think so. But now I do." He gave her a little mock salute, and she fired one back.

"Oh, one more thing," she said. "This horse is very--"

Ryan barely laid a heel on the horse's ribs, and he was off like a rocket.

"Sensitive," she added, chuckling under her breath as Ryan raced toward home on the back of Hezekiah's one-hundred-and
-
forty-seven-year-old thoroughbred.

Discussion Questions for Leapholes

1.
What is "legal precedent?" Should something that happened to real people a long time ago have any impact on how we decide what is right or wrong in today's society? Why or why not?

2.
In Leapholes, Legal Evil lives "where the brood follows the dam." That doctrine was created in ancient times to determine ownership rights over animals, such as horses or cattle. If someone owned the mother (the "dam"), they also owned her offspring (the "brood"). In 1842, the U
. S
. Supreme Court extended that doctrine to human beings. The Court decided that any child born to a slave was also a slave, even if the child was born in a state where slavery was illegal. Was this a proper use of legal precedent? Why or why not?

3.
Hezekiah warns that Legal Evil is alive and well today. Can you think of any modern-day examples of Legal Evil at work? Does everyone in today's society have equal rights under the law?

4.
Helping others through personal sacrifice is a recurring theme throughout Leapholes. When six people are infected with a deadly virus, Ryan refuses to cast lots and insists, that the five vaccines be stretched into six. Hezekiah rides straight into the slave catchers so that they will not capture Hannah and her baby. Ryan's father pleads guilty to stealin
g t
he emerald so that Ryan's mother will not be charged with a crime. Who made the bravest sacrifice? Please explain your answer.

5.
Ryan's father is in prison because he pleaded guilty to a crime. He tells Ryan, however, that he is innocent. Can you think of any reasons why a person might plead guilty to a crime that he did not commit? Have you ever confessed to something you did not do in order to protect someone else? Can people be forced into a confession? What makes a confession reliable? How can we decide if a confession is reliable?

6.
In the real life case about the sinking of a ship called The William Brown, a badly overloaded lifeboat was taking on seawater. Several crewmen began throwing passengers overboard so that the lifeboat would not sink. When the survivors made it to shore, one of the crewmen was put on trial for manslaughter. The judge condemned the crewman's actions. In his opinion, the passengers should have cast lots to determine who should live and who should die. Was the judge right? What would you have done if you had been on that sinking lifeboat?

7.
Hezekiah, the greatest Legal Eagle of all, chose Ryan over Jarvis to become the next Legal Eagle. What character traits did Ryan possess that made it possible for him to become a Legal Eagle? What character traits did Jarvis possess that made it impossible for him to become a Legal Eagle?

A Note From the Author

Historical Accuracy of Leapholes

On April 19, 1841, the American ship William Brown hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic while en route from Liverpool to Philadelphia. It was loaded with Irish emigrants. Roughly half the passengers went down with the ship, and the rest piled into two lifeboats. The boat commanded by the first mate was so badly overloaded that it began to sink. In the face of crashing waves and a driving rainstorm, the first mate in utter desperation ordered his crew to lighten the load. Twelve men and two women were thrown overboard and drowned at sea.

When the survivors finally reached land, one of the crewmen who had thrown passengers overboard faced criminal charges. It was undisputed that the lifeboat would have sunk and all would have perished if it had remained in its overloaded state. However, the American judge who decided the prisoner's fate wrote that the passengers should have cast lots to determine who should live and who should die. This opinion sparked sharp debate among jurists and legal scholars. Some believed that casting lots was fair, almost an appeal to God. Others believed that casting lots was effectively "playing God," a practice that dehumanized all of us.

The case of the William Brown has fascinated me since law school. It presents the ultimate survival dilemma--to save ourselves or to save others. That dilemma is a theme that runs throughout Leapholes. Ryan Coolidge is forced to confront that issue head on. But he does it in a way he had never imagine
d h
e would. Ryan encounters a magical lawyer who puts a new spin on time travel--a lawyer with the power of legal "leapholes," the power to bring to life the people behind famous legal decisions like the William Brown.

All of the cases woven into the Leapholes storyline are actual cases from American legal history. The case of the William Brown is reported at United States v. Holmes (1842). The Supreme Court's decision that slaves are property, not people, appears at Dred Scott u Sandford (1857). The slave doctrine that "the brood follows the dam" was embraced by the U
. S
. Supreme Court in Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842). I've tried to present these and other snippets of legal history in a way that makes for exciting reading. Hopefully, it will provoke thoughtful discussion, not only about the law, but also about the people whose lives were affected by the thousands of reported decisions in our law libraries. It's a fun way to discover that legal precedents are not just words on paper. They are about real people with real problems. And for many, the law was a matter of life and death.