The Home Court Advantage (11 page)

He thrust into me several more times and then held himself tightly against me and went still. With a groan and a shudder he came, staring at me intently with a euphoric smile.
Okay, Wayne, go get the jury.
I sat up immediately and Braden kissed me sweetly as we quickly fixed our clothes and gave each other a once over to make sure everything was in place.

“How do we get out of here?” I asked, feeling flustered.

“Through the door.” He smiled. He strode over confidently and swung it open, allowing me to walk out. Heads popped up as we exited.

“Mr. Pierce? Ms. Ginsberg?” Judge Channing said, raising his eyebrows inquisitively.

“Sorry to interrupt, Your Honor,” Braden said casually. “Defense counsel and I went in to quickly discuss a deal and we were in there when your hearing started.”

“We didn’t want to disturb the court,” I added.

“Did you reach a satisfactory result?” the judge asked.

“Oh yes, Your Honor,” Braden answered. “We were both quite satisfied in the end.”

“Good! That’s what I like to hear! Keep it up!” He turned his attention to something on the bench. I glanced over at Mark, who looked highly amused. Somehow, I don’t think that he bought the negotiation story. When we cleared the courtroom doors, Braden turned to me.

“That was crazy, you know,” he said, looking flushed and happy.

“I know but it was crazy hot,” I said. “I agree that it was like a sexual fantasy come true.”

“We can’t ever do that again.” He shook his head in wonderment.

“Definitely not. I think next time you should sit on the judge’s bench and let me go down on you,” I joked.

“What?!” He looked panicked as he reached out and pushed the down button for the elevator.

“I’m kidding!” I smiled at him as the doors slid open and we stepped inside.

“I’m never sure with you! You’re going to give me a heart attack one of these days but at least I’ll die happy.” He pushed the button for the lobby.

“I have a feeling that Mark didn’t believe our story.”

“Oh, ya think?” He laughed.

“Judge Channing believed it, though. In fact he wants us to keep it up!” I teased.

“Keeping it up is not a problem with you. Keeping my job might be, though.”

Friday

Adam was enjoying himself immensely as he questioned the convenience store clerk who my client had allegedly robbed. I knew there had to be one hell of a bomb he was going to drop for him to be this giddy, and I braced myself.

“So, Mr. Oberman, you testified that the defendant, Joseph Sanders, came into your store wearing a mask and holding a gun and told you to empty your register. What happened next?

“I gave him the money and he was going to leave but he stopped and ordered me to give him a carton of cigarettes too.”

“What did you do?” Adam stole a glance at me and I knew it had to be coming. I searched the police report again to try to figure out what it didn’t say.

“I said, no way, man. You sound like you’re about sixteen. You gotta be eighteen to get cigarettes in PA.”

“And what did Mr. Sanders say?”

“He told me he was eighteen but I said, man, but I need some proof.”

“What happened then?” Adam asked and turned to look at me, obviously wanting to see my reaction. This had to be the bomb he was going to drop and I had a feeling that I knew what it was. Please don’t tell me that this schmuck ….

“He took out his driver’s license and he showed it to me.” Kaboom.

“Wait a minute!” Judge Channing broke in incredulously. “He’s wearing a mask but he shows you his driver’s license?” You would think that nothing would shock this man by now.

“Yes sir.” Mr. Oberman and Judge Channing shared a moment. Adam could barely contain his mirth. I hoped that he peed himself.

“What happened then?” Adam asked, looking immensely pleased. Oh great! There was more! Why did I always get the scholars?

“I said, hey buddy I can’t tell if this is you or not with that mask on.”

“What did he do?”

“Well, he ripped off the mask he was wearing and held the driver’s license up to his face so I could compare.” What a freaking rocket scientist this kid was.

“And then?”

“I said, okay I guess that’s you and you’re eighteen. I asked what kind of cigarettes he wanted and he told me. It so happens that the cigarette company is doing a contest for a thousand bucks and I told him about it and gave him an entry form to fill out. He wrote down his e-mail address and cell phone number.” I sighed deeply. I wanted to leave.

“I said, okay and then I gave him the smokes. When he left I called the cops and gave them his name and address.”

“No more questions.” Adam sat down looking very smug indeed.

“Ms. Ginsberg, any questions?” Judge Channing looked like he expected me to say ‘no’ so when I got up to question the witness, he shot me an annoyed look. Jeez! So sorry to be a pain by, you know, trying to defend my client.

“He was holding a gun to you and you refused to give him the cigarettes? Pretty dangerous decision, wasn’t it?”

“Probably, when I look back on it, but something about him just didn’t seem like he knew what he was doing. For example, he was holding the gun wrong. If he would have shot it like that, he would have blown his fingers off.” I heard Adam cough behind me to cover a laugh. I was so glad that he was entertained.

“No further questions,” I said and sat down.

“Prosecution rests,” Adam said merrily.

“Defense rests,” I said irritably.

“Are you actually going to bother to argue, Ms. Ginsberg?” the judge asked. Somehow I didn’t think that question boded well for my client.

“I’ll reserve argument, Your Honor.”

“Uh huh,” he said dubiously. “I find that the Commonwealth has made out all of the charges listed in the complaint. Schedule it, Wayne. Mr. Pierce, call the next case.” Braden stood up and got the case he and Jessica had together started.

I went over and picked up a copy of the court order. Adam wasn’t as thoughtful as Braden was about walking the order over to me. While Braden and Jessica started in on their own preliminary hearing, I went over to talk to Adam.

“Make me an offer.”

“Are you kidding? He did everything but fingerprint himself and give a blood sample to the clerk. How the hell could I lose that case at trial?”

“Oh come on, Adam. The kid is harmless.”

“Harmless?! He held up a convenience store. With a
gun
.”

“He couldn’t even hold the gun right.”

“That’s right! He could have shot somebody by accident. I should have added reckless endangerment on there. He showed the clerk his driver’s license, Gabrielle. This guy is too stupid to be on the streets. He should be kept out of the breeding pool.”

“Do you hear yourself?”

“Do you hear
yourself
? I should give your client a break because he’s an idiot? What is that, ‘the dumbass defense’?”

“Fine, at least consider the fact that if you make a fair offer
you
won’t have to try this case and a jury won’t have to be empaneled.”

“I think I would enjoy trying it and you can always elect to go non-jury.”

“Adam, you
need
to work with me and we both know it, so stop screwing around!”

“I’m not screwing around with you. You want a deal, you should only try cases against the guy who is screwing around with you.”

“Are you saying you think Braden goes easy on me?”

“No. I think he’s a pro, but I think you’re used to trying cases with him and you forget that other prosecutors do things their own way. I also think, though, that the two of you are going to have to stop facing each other in court soon or some people
may
say that.” God, he pissed me off, even though I knew he was probably right.

That was my last hearing of the morning and I went over to get my files together. When his case was done, Braden came over and leaned against the defense table. I looked up at him and sighed. I was still totally in lust with him. I just happened to be in love with him now, too. Before I could say anything, though, I saw Jack Davis, one of the senior defenders from my office, approaching me.

“Gabrielle, I’ve got some news on that West Six Ten thing,” Jack began. “Turns out your guy’s a shooter.” This was the case that Mark had offered to take for me. The West Six Ten was a West Philly street gang and it sounded like the young guy I had been assigned wasn’t as uninvolved as they originally thought.

“They’re charging him with homicide? So, are you here to tell me that the office is taking the case away from me and transferring it upstairs?”

“That’s just it. No word yet on if or when they’re going to add the homicide charges. It’s your case until they do, unless you want somebody else to take him.”

“I’ll only have him for the preliminary hearing. If he’s really a shooter they’ll charge him and then our office will transfer it up to you homicide guys anyway.”

“Okay, I just wanted you to be aware.”

“Thanks, Jack. I appreciate it.” Jack patted me on the arm and left. I knew immediately that Braden was upset. Very upset.

“Gabrielle, let someone else take it,” he said immediately and he sounded deadly serious and very tense. He started pacing and raking his fingers through his hair and this time I knew it didn’t have anything to do with sexual tension.

“Braden, I’ll only have him for the preliminary. I’ve represented lots of shooters in prelims before. I’m a criminal defense attorney. That’s what I do – defend criminals.”

“Not gang members charged with homicide.” He paused in his effort to wear a hole in the carpet long enough to give me a look announcing that he was very serious about this.

“He’s not charged with homicide,” I reminded him carefully. I knew that I had to tread lightly here because we were close to having this escalate.

“Not yet!” Now, Braden sounded angry. This was it. The moment of truth. Did I dig in and tell him that I would make my own decisions when it came to my career choices, or did I try to understand where he was coming from and figure out if I could honor his request? Suddenly, it was like time slowed down and I saw the two paths ahead that I could take. I had a decision to make and after a few moments of thoughtful analysis and searching my feelings, I made it.

This was how the thoughtful analysis part went. If I gave up the gang case, Braden would be relieved and if he were less stressed out, he would be more reasonable about the other cases I handled. It wouldn’t have any impact on my career to give it up and the case didn’t have any special significance to me. Braden wasn’t doing this to try to control me or because he didn’t respect me. His fears weren’t totally unrealistic, even if amazingly few public defenders were actually lost, or even injured, in the line of duty. Mark had offered to take it and I would take whatever case he wanted to give me in return, so it wasn’t like I was unloading it on someone.

And this was how the searching my feelings part went. I don’t
want
to fight! Especially not over something stupid!

“Okay,” I said, committing to my choice. “If it means that much to you, I’ll trade cases with someone else. I can see if Mark will still take it and I’ll take one of his really lousy, but nevertheless, nonviolent cases.”

Braden looked stunned. I think he had been prepared for this to turn into a battle. I saw all kinds of emotions cross his face but the strongest ones appeared to be relief and love. I knew immediately that I had made the right decision.

“You would do that for me?” He had stopped pacing.

“Yes, if it means that much to you. It’s just one case. We are going to have to come up with some plan, though, because there will be others, and for the record, I would rather you didn’t handle them either; so we had better think of something fast.”

“Okay,” he agreed. “And thank you. I promise that I’ll try to come up with a plan.” Phew. Crisis avoided. Amazing what a little discussion and compromise could accomplish.

“What’s the plan for
tonigh
t?” I leaned against the defense table and looked up at my beautiful, and very happy looking fiancé.

“Some guys from my office invited me out to O’Malley’s with them for beers after work. I haven’t hung with them in a while and I think that I’d like to go.” He walked over to me and pushed a strand of hair behind my ear.

“They’re not going out to pick up women, are they?” I teased, giving him a raised eyebrow.

“No,” he assured me with a smile. “That’s Adam and Mark and they usually go out later and somewhere besides O’Malley’s. Most of these guys are happily married.”

“Well, okay then.” I smiled. “As long as you promise to say nice things about me. I’ll pick up Bruno and go back to my place and then Lily and Jess and I can get ready and have some fun of our own together. Remind Adam to be nice to Lily, by the way.”

“I’ll do my best but I can’t make any promises.”

“Don’t forget that we’re also there tonight to see if someone was trying to send us a message with that napkin.”

“Yeah okay, Nancy Drew. I’m just happy that I get to be included in The Mystery of Club 51. I would hate to think of what I might walk in on this time.” He leaned down to kiss me goodbye and promised to call me later.