Noah's Law (35 page)

That's what my efforts over six weeks had come down to. Throw out intellect, cunning and sleuthing, and replace it with a ridiculous and emotional ‘fishy feeling'. I'd never live it down either at school or home.
Keen to follow in his father's footsteps.
I groaned. Dad had already called to congratulate me on my first experience of media exposure and to tell me how proud he was that I looked up to him.

Apart from that humiliating paragraph, the rest of the report fairly accurately summed up what had happened. Bernie, Rodney Marks and Webb were in custody waiting for their trial. I'd jokingly suggested to Dad that he use his connections to either get me on the jury or get himself appointed as a judge and have the case assigned to him.

‘The rule of law, son,' he'd said in a solemn voice. ‘Never allow your pursuit of the greater good to undermine it.'

Obviously, I hadn't told him, or Aunt Nirvine, or anybody besides Casey, about the finer details of my involvement in the case. That meant Casey had taken most of the credit. It sucked and Amit was so angry that we couldn't show off about his mobile phone switch that he'd threatened to leak the information to the papers.

‘I think there have been enough anonymous tip-offs for one year,' I'd warned him.

He only backed down when I shouted him lunch at the yum cha restaurant Dad had taken me to. It cost a couple of days' wages but it was worth it.

‘Okay, fine,' he'd finally agreed, then burped loudly. ‘Your secrets are safe with me. But if I ever meet a hot chick, justice demands I have the right to use the case to make me look good.'

I couldn't argue with that.

‘I'm going to grab a drink,' I told the guys. Thankfully, they weren't interested and I walked off alone to the kiosk on the esplanade.

I called Jacinta, my heart pounding, which was so stupid but totally out of my control.

‘Do you miss me already?' she teased.

‘Actually, I was just calling to tell you to save me a space at law school. I'll be harassing you next year.'

‘That's if you get in. No more school pranks. Just hard-core studying.'

‘I can multi-task, remember? Of course, once I get in as dux of my year, I'll probably ace the first semester and end up being fast-tracked to second year, where you'll be anxiously waiting for me.'

‘Keep dreaming, Noah. You always did have an overactive imagination.'

‘So what am I thinking about now?'

‘You're thinking about how much you like me.'

‘Well, future lawyer to future lawyer, you gave me a
motive
for that.'

She giggled. ‘Oh, very funny. Flirting with a legal play on words. I'm hot for you now.'

I laughed.

‘Okay, Senior Counsel,' she continued, ‘I gave you a motive for liking me.'

‘That's right. Now I'm just missing
opportunity
. Motive and opportunity, Jacinta. It's corny but we all know they're the elements of the perfect crime.'

‘So liking me is the perfect crime?'

‘No,' I said, ‘it's just perfect.'