Brothers and Bones Read Online Free Page B

stepped in. “But as Andrew and I were discussing before you came in, you have a good amount of experience yourself, Charlie. We thought you’d be past this kind of—”
    Lippincott cut him off. “I expected more, Charlie. I expected…” I winced. I knew what was coming. Lippincott finished. “…personal perfection.” I think I caught Kidder out of the corner of my eye silently mouthing the words as Lippincott spoke them.
    It was his catchphrase, his personal mantra. He wanted “personal perfection” from everyone around him. He didn’t necessarily expect perfection in the results we achieved, but he expected it in our preparation, in the performance of our jobs. If we planned and performed with personal perfection, the results would take care of themselves.
    And Lippincott didn’t set a standard he didn’t hold himself to. He expected nothing less than perfection from himself and I doubted he was ever disappointed in that regard. He was never unprepared, never open to second-guessing. He made the right decisions, the right calls, every time, it seemed. And his quest for personal perfection didn’t end in his job performance. His office was so tidy it looked like he hired a team of people with raging cases of obsessive-compulsive disorder to clean it, though I knew that he kept it that way himself. His suits were always pressed. I think he trained his sweat glands not to secrete anything until he allowed them to, probably when he was alone, in his shower. Rumor had it that, several years ago, a few strands of his hair fell out of place, but that rumor was never confirmed.
    “You understand what I’m after,” he said, “don’t you, Charlie? You understand the perfection I expect?”
    I nodded.
    “You weren’t personally perfect this morning.”
    “Sounds to me like you were far from it,” Kidder said.
    “You’re right, sir,” I said to Lippincott. “I know it’s late in the game, but I assume you’ll want to appoint someone else lead counsel for the rest of the trial. I’d like to sit second chair, if I could, give as much assistance as I can. I’ll put in extra time. I’ll handle my own caseload and put in longer hours at night helping out on the trial. Just let me know to who I should send my working files.”
    “Whom.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “To whom you should send your files, not ‘to who.’ And that won’t be necessary. It’s still your trial, Charlie.”
    I might have been less surprised if he had said, “We’re turning the reins over to a talking ferret named Mr. Whiskers.” At first I didn’t think I’d heard him correctly. Sensing my doubt, he nodded with a very, very small smile. It was no more than a slight upward curvature of the corners of his mouth.
    “Michael here disagrees with my decision, Charlie.” I sensed Kidder nodding beside me. “To be honest,” Lippincott added, “I have my doubts. I might be making a mistake. I might be flirting with…imperfection.” He smiled a little again. Just a little. “You’re an excellent lawyer, Charlie. You’ve shown that time and again. And I believe you can be excellent, personally perfect , during this trial. But you need to remember how important it is to us. I think we may have weakened our chances of scaring Redekov into cutting a deal and rolling on other members of his family, but, to be honest, that was a long shot at best anyway, I think. Redekov is a real hard case. I never gave us good odds on that. But we still need to put this guy away. Send a message to organized crime in Massachusetts. No one, absolutely no one gets away once we’ve got you. Understand? We need to win this. You need to win it. You need to achieve personal perfection.” I noticed that, at some point, he’d holstered his finger gun. “I think you can do it.”
    Kidder stepped in again. “And despite my misgivings about this particular trial, Charlie, I think you’re a good attorney. If Andrew believes in you, then I will. Make us