Clifford Irving's Legal Novels - 01 - TRIAL - a Legal Thriller Read Online Free Page A

Clifford Irving's Legal Novels - 01 - TRIAL - a Legal Thriller
Book: Clifford Irving's Legal Novels - 01 - TRIAL - a Legal Thriller Read Online Free
Author: Clifford Irving
Tags: Fiction, General, LEGAL, Thrillers, Crime, Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, Murder, Thrillers & Suspense
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a kindly manner at Bob Altschuler; they worked together nearly every day. "What's your contention, Mr. Prosecutor? Here today, gone tomorrow?"
    "The state's contention," Altschuler said, "is that the defendant can afford the $300,000 bail set by this court before Mr. Scoot Shepard came on the scene. Especially if the defendant can afford to hire Mr. Shepard."
    "Ah, but that's the point!" Scoot cried, taking a fencing step forward. "I don't come cheap! The amount of current bail might make it impossible for this lady to pay my fee! What if it comes down to a choice between me and bail? I know there are a lot of other good lawyers around town, and I'm not the spryest or the youngest, maybe not even the smartest." He spread his hands before the elderly judge. "But she wants me. What can we do about that, your honor?"
    "Well, that might be a pity," the judge said. "We might be deprived of a fine trial."
    Sitting on the bench in the rear, Warren smiled. He understood that Judge Bingham liked to perform for Scoot, or with him, especially with reporters sitting in his courtroom.
    The judge peered down now at the defendant, Johnnie Faye Boudreau, sitting alone at the defense table. "Ma'am, you claim you don't own that topless nightclub out on Richmond that everybody says you own. What's it called?" Adjusting the horn-rimmed bifocals on his fleshy nose, he rustled the papers set before him. "Ecstasy! What a provocative name. Is that right? Is that your contention?"
    Scoot walked back and bent to whisper to his client. Then he said to the court, "Your honor, Ms. Boudreau has a slight sore throat, and this is a mighty cavernous courtroom. I don't want her to have to shout and aggravate her condition. May we and Mr. Altschuler approach the bench for this discussion?"
    "Of course you may, Mr. Scoot," the judge said.
    Johnnie Faye Boudreau rose slowly from her chair. This May morning in the air-conditioned courtroom she wore a white linen suit with high heels to match, one strand of cultured pearls and an emerald ring. She had admitted she was forty years old but could have passed for thirty. Two decades ago she had been voted Miss Corpus Christi and then runner-up in the Miss Texas pageant. Now there was hardly a wrinkle on her face and her hands were as smooth as vellum. She had high breasts, flaring hips, and a remarkably narrow waist. Her most remarkable feature, however, was the color of her eyes. The left one was hazel, the right one a cool gray-blue. Few people noticed that at first. They just felt uncomfortable under her gaze.
    She took several steps toward the judicial bench, then turned and went back for her handbag. Zoologists would have described her walk as that of a tiger in estrus. Even Judge Bingham gazed at her swaying buttocks.
    As she reversed course and approached the judge a second time, Warren Blackburn watched too from his seat on the back bench. Look like a pair of boar shoats squirming around in a gunnysack, he thought.
    The courtroom grew still. Everyone strained to hear.
    "That's right, your honor," Johnnie Faye Boudreau said in a husky, relaxed voice. "I don't own Ecstasy. I just work there."
    Scoot took over: "She's on salary, your honor — $40,000 a year, paid monthly. She borrowed the money from her employers to put up that high bond. Borrowed it at twelve percent interest. Her only current assets are a bank account with under two thousand dollars, some jewelry, and a car."
    "Her car is a two-year-old Mercedes 450-SL," the judge pointed out.
    "She's got good taste," Scoot said. "And we wouldn't take that car away, would we? How would she get to work?"
    "Or to court, for her trial," Judge Bingham added.
    Bob Altschuler, scowling, leaned his weight toward the defendant. "Ms. Boudreau, are you telling the State of Texas and this court that you have no stocks, bonds, savings accounts, mutual funds, CDs, money market accounts, or any other negotiable assets?"
    Johnnie Faye Boudreau's wide mouth curved into a
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