The Justice Game

58

Jason stayed awake the entire night after receiving the e-mail from Luthor. He paced around his small apartment over the boathouse. Eventually he went outside and sat on the bulkhead, staring at the bay.

Mostly, he asked questions.

What “proof” could there be about the accident? It was ten years ago. Maybe some investigator at the time could have reconstructed the accident based on the damage to the interior of the automobile, the blood in the car, the injuries sustained by Jason and LeRon-that type of thing. But the car had been hauled to the junkyard and the case file closed. There could be no evidence left.

Unless Matt Corey had preserved something. But why would he do that?

The prospect of a lie-detector test popped into Jason’s mind and caused his pulse to pick up speed. As a lawyer, he knew he couldn’t be required to take a polygraph. But what if somebody raised a question about who was driving and suggested a lie detector to put the issue to rest? What reason could Jason give for refusing?

Did Luthor really want Jason to win the Crawford case? If so, why had he threatened blackmail? If you want somebody to win, you call them in the full light of day using your real name.

Jason had looked up the resume of former Atlanta chief of police Edward Poole. The man’s credentials were impressive. And Jason could use an expert witness to testify about the black market for guns, someone to explain that criminals like Jamison can obtain guns regardless of whether stores engage in illegal straw sales. But did Jason dare use someone suggested by Luthor?

What was Luthor’s real agenda?

As the darkness of the cool spring night gave way to the first hint of sunrise, Jason began focusing on the most important question of all.

Whom could he trust?

Certainly not Rafael Johansen. In fact, it occurred to Jason that both the Case McAllister memo leak and the e-mail from Luthor had occurred not long after Rafael joined the team.

The more he thought about Rafael and the amount of dirt Rafael always managed to dig up on the jurors for the Justice Inc. trials, the more Jason became suspicious of his own investigator. He decided to limit Rafael’s access to the files. The man could conduct his juror investigations at arm’s length-Jason didn’t need him around the office. He thought about firing him the next day but knew he needed Rafael’s skills to properly select the jury in the Crawford case.

Besides, Jason believed in the principle of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer. He wouldn’t fire Rafael until a week or two before trial, until Rafael had completed his investigative profiles on each of the jurors.

What about the others? Could Jason confide in Matt Corey? Andrew Lassiter? What about Case McAllister? Or Bella? What did he really know about her background? For that matter, could Jason even trust his own father?

Maybe he was just dog tired. Maybe it was the gut-wrenching prospect of his past finally catching up with him. Maybe he was just being paranoid.

But right now, Jason Noble didn’t know anybody he could trust. He would play it the way he had always played it-alone. He would buy some time by meeting with Poole and listing him as an expert. Jason could always withdraw that designation later if something came up.

But he had a sickening feeling he had not heard the last from Luthor. Figuring out a strategy to win this case could well become the least of his worries.

Before heading to the bathroom for a shower, Jason he checked the Kryptonite blog. He had a feeling he would be doing this the first thing every morning and the last thing before going to bed at night for a while. Just like he would open every e-mail addressed to him with a nagging sense of dread and uncertainty.

Kelly Starling spent the three months prior to trial in what she called “the zone”-an adrenaline-laced focus that allowed her to work fourteen-hour days for weeks on end. She was billing nearly thirty-five hours a week for her paying clients and spending another forty hours on the Crawford case. She reduced her morning swims to four times a week, ate meals at her desk or in her car, and could barely find time to go to the dry cleaner. E-mails piled up in her inbox, and phone messages from her dwindling list of friends went unanswered.

Kelly’s life had been pretty much reduced to keeping the plates spinning for her other cases while focusing on the single most important case of her legal career.

Judge Shaver’s confirmation hearings remained stalled. He checked in with Kelly occasionally, ostensibly calling for an update on her high-profile case, encouraging her like a proud dad. But the phone calls always contained a nebulous question or two- “ Any new developments? Have you heard anything from our mutual friend? Any settlement negotiations, or are you still planning to go to trial?”

Each time, Kelly assured him there were no new developments. She was beginning to think she might never hear from Luthor again-that he (or she) just wanted to ensure that the case would go to trial.

Luthor certainly wasn’t much of a pen pal. And without more frequent contacts, Kelly had given up trying to figure out who it was. How could she draw out information if the mysterious Luthor never bothered to contact her?

For three months, she focused on getting ready for trial. Blake Crawford was counting on her. She couldn’t let speculation about Luthor distract her from the task at hand.

Even Luthor seemed to understand this. For three months, Luthor was silent.