Killer Ambition

48

The press was ecstatic. If there was blood in the water at the arraignment, they could expect Armageddon when this thing went to trial. They shoved microphones in my face and shouted questions: “Did Terry catch you by surprise?” And my favorite: “Is there bad blood between you two?”

I kept my head down and refused comment as Declan and I made our way through the mass of reporters. Not wanting to give them a chance to corner us by waiting for an elevator, I headed for the stairs. But the heat made the stairwell feel like a tomb. After two floors I was panting and it felt like the walls were closing in. I pushed open the door at the seventh floor and poked my head out. The coast was clear. I heard the ding of an arriving elevator. We ran for it, but there were people inside, so we didn’t speak until we got into our wing of the eighteenth floor.

“Is she always like that?” Declan asked.

“Pretty much. Though I didn’t expect her to bite this hard at an arraignment.” We stopped at my door, which I’d taken to locking, and I pulled out my key and let us in. “On the other hand, I’ve never seen a lawyer who doesn’t prance and strut when there’re cameras around. So my advice is to get used to it.”

“Can’t the judge stop them?”

“To a certain extent. But not all judges want to. Some are worse press panderers than the lawyers-”

I was about to launch into all the ills of high-profile cases when Melia practically skidded to a stop at my door. I’d forgotten to close it-my bad.

“Rachel, have you seen the news?” Her voice was breathless, her eyes wide.

“What’s up?”

“Come on, you can watch in Eric’s office. He’s at a meeting.”

I wanted to ask her to just tell me what the heck was going on, but she’d already trotted back up the hallway. I shrugged at Declan and he gestured to the door. “After you, Fearless Leader.”

“You may never call me that,” I said as I stepped out into the hallway. “I’ll explain why later.” It was our nickname for Vanderputz-well, one of them.

The television was tuned to a local news channel and Melia was holding the remote. She turned up the volume as we entered the office. A young blonde who looked like a Victoria’s Secret model-plunging neckline and all-was emoting into the microphone.

…the reaction in Hollywood has been one of disbelief and anger. The camera cut away to a scruffy-looking young guy I vaguely recognized as a television actor on one of the law shows. Well, she’s obviously looking for her fifteen minutes. I mean, it’s just a bogus case-The camera cut to a forty-something woman in a black suit and leopard-print blouse. Ian Powers and I have locked horns over many deals and many clients, so I’m not exactly his best friend, but even I have to say that this is simply outrageous. The DA’s office is going to crash and burn and they richly deserve to-The camera cut away, and this time it was a young actress I’d seen in ads for a recently released vampire movie. Ian Powers has been my manager for years and I know him very well. Believe me, there’s no way this could possibly be true and that DA, what’s her name? A voice off camera supplied my name, and she repeated it. Yeah, Rachel Knight. Everyone knows she only filed these outrageous charges because she thinks it’ll make her famous. I felt as though I’d been smacked in the face with a frying pan. It’s one thing for friends and relatives to protest a defendant’s innocence, but this kind of nasty, personal diatribe against a prosecutor was unheard of. I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t.

The anchor moved on to a young Hispanic man in a mechanic’s uniform. I don’t know about this case or nothin’, but Ian Powers came around to my hood when I was about to get jumped into a gang. He got me out of there… The young man started to tear up. He saved my life. That’s all I wanna say. He turned away, and the anchor looked after him with an Awww expression. I felt sick. The camera cut to a young man in a paramedic’s uniform. I braced myself for another shot to the heart as he began, Yeah, I met Ian Powers when I was-but suddenly, the screen went black. I turned, blinking and dazed, and saw that Declan had taken the remote from Melia and turned off the television.

“I heard the drumbeats starting last night. I was going to say something, but I didn’t want to distract you before court, and I guess I hoped it’d go away. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. You did exactly the right thing, Declan.”

I turned to go, but Melia grabbed my arm. “I’m sorry, Rachel! I didn’t mean to upset you, I just thought you should know.”

I patted her hand. “Don’t sweat it, Melia. I did need to know. At least now I’m ready for…whatever.” But my readiness wasn’t really the issue.

If I kept getting slammed this way in the press, I’d never find a decent jury. And foisting the case onto someone else wasn’t an option, not after I’d pushed to get it filed. If I abandoned it now, it’d look like I didn’t believe in the case, and that would just prove the Hollywood toadies right: that I’d only filed the case because I wanted to be famous, and when I saw my approval ratings hit the skids, I’d jumped ship. In short, that I was a sleazy coward. No, I believed in the case, and if it sank under the weight of public opinion, then I’d go down with it.

But now that I was playing out the ugly possibilities, I had to take it all the way. If I lost the case after this drubbing…then what? I’d be exiled to live out my days in the hinterlands, relegated to drunk-driving and shoplifting cases. My career as a prosecutor moribund. And if I left the office, who’d hire me? I couldn’t even hang out my own shingle because no one would retain a former prosecutor who’d filed what some thought was a trumped-up case to gain fame and fortune-a case proven to be a sham when she lost it on national television.

It’s not that I wanted to go into private practice-I didn’t. I’d only ever wanted to be a prosecutor. But being a lawyer was all I knew how to do. I had no other way to make a living.

Now that I’d played out the possible repercussions, I was forced to face facts: I was staring down the barrels of a shotgun that read career-and life-destroyer.