Condemned Read Online Free Page B

side.
    â€œRejoin us, Mr. Engler,” the Judge smiled, “we shall find this document of which you speak, for you.”
    Engler’s eyes darted to Marty Adams. Adams, doodling on a yellow pad, didn’t look up. Then to Hardie. Hardie continued to look at the Judge. Engler sat.
    The Judge turned her gaze toward Hardie again. “Mr. Luca is such a fine trial lawyer, Mr. Hardie,” said the Judge, “I am sure, if it becomes necessary, that we can supply him with the trial transcript and he could be prepared overnight.”
    â€œI really need Mr. Leppard, Ma’am.”
    â€œPerhaps you’re right, Mr. Hardie. You should not be saying anything without Mr. Luca or Mr. Leppard being present.”
    â€œMr. Leppard, Your Honor.”
    â€œMister Hardie, you’re going to have your lawyer, one or both of them, this very afternoon. One way or another, whether I bring Mr. Leppard here in a hospital bed or Mr. Luca, one way or another, as I say, there will be no mistrial here.” The Judge smiled, shaking her head. “No, no, Mr. Hardie. No mistrial, no severance, no delay, nothing except a trial. I have been to town before, Mr. Hardie.”
    The rear door of Judge Ellis’s courtroom opened suddenly. A man dressed in green hospital scrubs backed into the courtroom, pulling an ambulance gurney. Another man in a white doctors’ jacket pushed from the rear. On the rolling gurney, in a business suit and tie—the knot pulled down several inches, his brief case balanced on his stomach, was Thomas Leppard, Esq. From nose to chin, he was covered with gauze. The hospital people rolled the gurney to the rail of the courtroom.
    All eyes in the room stared at the man lying on the wheeled contraption. A loud din of amazement and confusion issued from the spectators.
    The Judge began to slam her palm on the top of her bench to quiet the noise from the audience. The sound merely added to the din.
    â€œSilence. Silence,” Claire Trainor shouted through cupped hands as she stood in place. “Silence in the courtroom!”
    The Judge took a wooden gavel from a drawer under her desktop and began to pound the top of the bench. After a while, the sounds of the Judge and Trainor began to be distinguished over the cacophony of the courtroom.
    â€œSit down! Sit down!” the Judge demanded.
    The room began to quiet. The jurors sat back in their seats.
    â€œWho are you?” the Judge said to the first man in the white jacket. He had a black mustache and slick black hair.
    I’m Doctor Angelo J. Acquista,” the man responded somewhat stridently.
    â€œAnd you’ve been treating Mr. Leppard for a nose bleed? Is that it?”
    â€œThis patient has had a massive hemorrhage due to critically high blood pressure. It took more than three hours at the hospital to stop his bleeding.…”
    â€œI’m not asking you for a speech, Doctor.”
    â€œI’m not giving you a speech, Your Honor. I merely want you to know that this man’s condition is far more serious than what you consider a mere nosebleed. Your demand that he be brought here was certainly contraindicated, and was certainly severely detrimental to his medical condition.”
    â€œI’ll be the judge of that.”
    â€œI hope you’re also prepared to be medically responsible for any untoward events in his health. I will not be, nor will Lenox Hill Hospital be, and I want that on the record, if that’s what you say around here.…”
    â€œDon’t you dare talk to me like that, young man,” the Judge snapped, rising.
    â€œ Doctor , Your Honor. Doctor Angelo J. Acquista. I may be young, but I am a medical doctor. I don’t intend to be rude. I am merely stating to you that this patient’s medical condition is such that to have brought him down here was a serious and detrimental decision which was due solely to your direct order and over my serious professional