got the case two weeks ago in a workload shuffle. But the court assigned Connie Pearce’s defense to another lawyer at this firm ten months ago.”
“Connie Pearce?” Jack repeated. “Isn’t she the kindergarten teacher who killed her lover?”
“That’s what all the banner headlines proclaimed last year.”
“I remember hearing about that case.”
“You and nearly everyone else in this county. Getting a panel of jurors that hasn’t heard wasn’t easy.”
“She was supposed to have hit him with her car,” Jack said as the details began to come back to him. “There were a couple of eyewitnesses.”
“Are you having second thoughts about accepting this assignment?”
He smiled into the serious look on her face. “On the contrary. I love being on the side of the underdog.”
The tenseness in her shoulders seemed to increase with his assurance.
“Well, then you’re going to be ecstatic working this case,” she said. “The victim’s father suffered a fatal heart attack after witnessing his son’s death. The victim’s mother is one of our most prominent and politically connected superior court judges.”
“And this prominent, politically connected judge is out for blood,” he guessed.
“The Honorable Barbara Weaton insists she’s simply out for justice, but you can be sure she’s not going to take kindly to anyone who is trying to help the woman charged with her son’s murder.”
He pointed to the thin folder in front of her. “Is that what the other lawyer has done?”
She gave the folder a quick glance. “Over the past ten months.”
Despite the evenness of her tone, Jack knew she wasn’t only unhappy about the thinness of the folder in front of her. She was angry.
“Why didn’t this lawyer do anything?” he asked.
“Earl Payman said Connie wouldn’t speak to him. Or anyone else.”
“That sounds like a symptom of shock to me. Why didn’t he think of that?”
“He brought in a psychologist to examine her a week after her arrest. She wouldn’t talk to him, either. The psychologist said he couldn’t testify to whether she was legally sane or not. Earl decided the safest thing for him was to plead her not guilty and let a jury convict or acquit her.”
“He did nothing else in the intervening nine and a half months?”
“He played a lot of golf with the two senior partners at this firm.”
Although Diana’s voice remained calm, there was enough contempt in her expression to have sent the incompetent, golf-playing Earl into lockup for life.
“Where has Connie Pearce been all this time?” Jack asked.
“In jail. Earl made no attempt to get her a bail hearing.”
“Have you talked to her?”
“Nearly every day since I got her case. But it wasn’t until late last week that she opened up and told me what happened.”
“And that’s when you called White Knight Investigations.”
Diana nodded.
He was pretty certain he knew why. “Connie Pearce convinced you that she wasn’t the one driving the car that killed Weaton.”
“No, she was driving the car.”
“She didn’t see the guy run in front of her car?”
“She saw him.”
Jack let his mind quickly dig through the other possibilities. “It was self-defense,” he said as the obvious answer came through. “The guy was coming at her, threatening to do her bodily harm, and the only weapon she had to defend herself was the car.”
“No,” Diana said. “It wasn’t self-defense.”
Jack was stymied. He couldn’t think of anything else that made sense. “Okay, I give up. What happened?”
“Connie Pearce saw Bruce Weaton in front of her car and she hit him.”
Jack was more confused than ever. “If that’s what she has admitted happened, then what do you need me for?”
Diana locked eyes with him as she leaned forward in her chair. “I need you to help me get her off.”
CHAPTER TWO
JACK STARED at Diana for sixty very long and silent seconds. Did she really have the audacity to ask him to help get a guilty client off?
He understood that most defense attorneys didn’t care if their clients were guilty. All they cared about was making sure that the accused was tried according to the dictates of the law. Didn’t even matter to them if a guilty client ended up slipping through a legal loophole.
It mattered to Jack. He was a little disappointed to learn that Diana was proving to be one of those attorneys. His father had given him the impression she had integrity. That was one of the reasons he’d wanted the case. Now he had a strong urge to get up and leave.
Only the straight, no-holds-barred challenge on her face combined with the total absence of any apology kept him in his chair. A woman who could face him this squarely didn’t strike him as one who would sell out her conscience.
He wasn’t going anywhere until he learned what the hell was going on.
“All right,” he said, settling back in his chair, “tell me why you want Connie Pearce to get away with murder.”
Something that looked suspiciously like surprise flashed across Diana’s face. So, she had expected him to leave. He found that very interesting.
As she studied him quietly, he returned her assessment, trying to read what thoughts or emotions were going on in that lovely head of hers. But this attorney knew how to keep both well hidden when she wanted to. Damn if she didn’t intrigue him more by the minute.
Without warning, she got to her feet. “I’d like Connie to tell you the story in her own words.”
“We’re going to see her now?” he asked.
“I called early this morning to let her know I’d be stopping by.”
Diana grabbed her briefcase and headed toward the door, slipping the long strap of her bag over her shoulder without so much as breaking stride.
“I’ll drive you over,” he said, hurrying to keep up with her. Most men probably found themselves getting lost in this woman’s wake. He had no intention of making the mistake of most men.
“I have my own car, thank you,” she said.
