The Things We Cherished Read Online Free

history before turning to the law, though not exactly a secret, was not something she had shared with anyone in Philadelphia. She had spent three years in Eastern Europe on a Fulbright and other fellowships, researching the Holocaust. Her work, focusing on issues that had arisen after the war, like restitution of Jewish property and preservation of the concentration camps, was groundbreaking at the time, and she’d published some articles that had garnered a small amount of notoriety—not to mention a circle of valuable contacts. Originally, she had gone to law school planning to combine her interest in foreign affairs with a legal career, but then Winnie’s death and Brian’s betrayal came crashing down on her. So she’d applied for the position with the defender’s office in Philadelphia, omitting any mention of her Holocaust work because no one here would have cared, much less believed she was seriously interested in a low-paying, public-interest job with those credentials.
    “But it’s more than that really,” Brian hastened to add. “I mean, I’ve got the firm’s resources. I can hire the world’s top experts, get anyone I need on the phone. We have two former cabinet members who are of counsel, for Christ’s sake.” He lowered his head and laced his hands behind it, then leaned back. “But your forensic skills are so goddamned good, always were.”
    She had forgotten his propensity to swear nonstop when making a point. He thought it gave him a certain machismo, made himseem tough, one of the boys. But to her it always felt forced and indicative of a certain lack of creativity. “Remember the Dukovic case?” he asked.
    She nodded. Dukovic had been a Bosnian war criminal, accused of the murder of dozens of Croats. At the last minute, the lone witness against him, a twelve-year-old girl who had managed to survive months of imprisonment, torture, and rape, became too afraid to testify. It looked like Dukovic would walk for lack of evidence. But Charlotte had spent days poring over the documents, piecing together a way to link him to the atrocities through circumstantial evidence—and she finally persuaded the girl to testify. Dukovic was sentenced to a lifetime in prison.
    “And you care,” he added. “I mean, look where you are.” He gestured around the restaurant, but she knew he did not mean Buddakan literally. He was talking about the grittiness of her job, the fact that she was down in the trenches fighting for people who had little. “You care that people get a good defense, that innocents are not wrongfully convicted.”
    But Dykmans is nothing like my clients, she thought. He’s a wealthy man with resources. “Where’s he being held?”
    “Germany.”
    “I didn’t think the Germans were pursuing their war crimes cases.”
    “They weren’t, until about a year ago. But the Wiesenthal Center and the Department of Justice called them out on it until the pressure became too much.”
    “I wish I could help you—” she said, starting to demur.
    But Brian raised his hand, interrupting. “An old man is going to jail for the rest of his life,” he said, eyes wide. “He deserves a fair trial.”
    Charlotte’s exasperation bubbled over to anger. Did Brian thinkit was that easy, that if he played on her sense of justice she would simply capitulate to his will? It was as if he viewed her compassion as a weakness to be exploited. Brian’s words echoed back at her: a fair trial. I’ve got a dozen kids sitting in jail across town who won’t get that much, she wanted to say. But he wouldn’t understand.
    “What is it that you want me to do?” she asked instead. “I mean, I’m hardly qualified to try the case in Germany.”
    “Of course not. We’ve got the best firm in Europe handling that.” An expression that Charlotte could not decipher passed across Brian’s face, then disappeared. “No, what I’m looking for are your forensic skills. We need help figuring out what we’re