Panther's Prey Read Online Free

after all. Or maybe I was more bothered than I wanted to admit that the real rapist would never be caught. In any event, I found myself drinking steadily but not saying much.
    Jordan had spent most of the evening talking with Rebecca, one of her friends from law school. I’d been playing pool but was sitting at the bar watching the Giants on TV when she slidonto the stool beside me. “You don’t look like a man who just won the big case.”
    No point mentioning to her what was bothering me. “I’m just tired. Trials take it out of me. When the work is done all I really want to do is go home.”
    â€œI know what you mean. After my last trial I wanted to sleep for a week.”
    â€œI heard one of the reporters ask you about Kairos.”
    â€œYeah, that was the trial I did at Baker before I came here,” she said. “He was asking me if that verdict had been as satisfying as this one. Obviously, I told him no.”
    â€œWhat was it about?”
    â€œMoney.” She sipped her beer. “And politics. The whole human spectrum of betrayal and deceit. But, mostly, it was about money. I can’t talk about it, and I wouldn’t want to if I could.”
    â€œMoney’s not so bad. There’s something to be said for a payday at the finish line.”
    She laughed. “No one never mistook
you
for a crusader.”
    â€œI’m a realist. I’m on the side I’m on because I don’t think convicting people and sending them to prison solves any of our society’s problems. At the same time, I can’t fool myself about a guy like Rodriguez. Is it a good thing he walks free? Who knows? I’m just trying to do a job, and hopefully pick up a little human interest along the way.”
    Hearing myself, I knew I must have been drunker than I realized. Quickly tallying pints in my head, I realized I was starting my fifth. It was time to guzzle water and start thinking about going home before I ended up sounding like even more of an ass.
    Jordan had a declaration. “Today’s verdict was the single biggest satisfaction of my professional life.”
    I glanced over to be sure she was serious. The verdict had been something like four million dollars in that case. An entire companyhad changed hands. “You probably didn’t get to do anything in the Kairos trial. Associate work.”
    â€œThat’s not it. It’s what’s at stake. The values. In public defense, regardless of whether the client’s innocent or guilty, we have these principles it’s our job to uphold. The right to counsel. The presumption of innocence. The requirement the state prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. These are things worth believing in. Civil work, on the other hand, it’s just about the score.”
    Now she was the one who sounded cynical. Six months ago, when I was recovering in the hospital in Fort Bragg from a gunshot wound, Jordan had been a senior associate at Baker Benton. The folks at Baker were still holding her place and expecting her return. This stint as a so-called volunteer attorney was no risk for her. While she gained trial experience, she continued to draw her annual two-hundred-thousand-dollar paycheck.
    â€œSo stay here at the PD’s office and try cases.” I tried to bring our conversation back to the celebration of our victory and Jordan’s part in it. “Tonight, because of you, an innocent man is free instead of spending the first night of the rest of his life in Corcoran.”
    â€œI’d like nothing more. Unfortunately, I can’t just walk away from Baker.”
    â€œWhy not?” If there was one thing I believed, it was that any of us ought to be free at any moment to turn our backs on a work situation, and walk out the door the minute it was no longer in our interest to remain. In fact, I intended to do just that as soon as I could afford to be my own boss again, or so I’d promised myself