The Things We Cherished Read Online Free Page A

missing, what Dykmans isn’t telling us.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “He won’t talk to us.”
    “You mean he won’t cooperate in his own defense?” Brian nodded. “So he admits to doing it?”
    “No, he just won’t say that he didn’t, or help us find any evidence to prove that.”
    Because he doesn’t want to incriminate himself, Charlotte thought. She started to ask whether Brian thought Dykmans was innocent. Then, her defender’s instincts returning, she decided against it.
    “Why do you care so much anyway?” she asked instead, raising her hand as Brian opened his mouth. “And don’t give me another truth-and-justice speech. I want the real story.”
    An indignant look crossed his face and she expected him to protest that this was all for the greater good. Then his expression seemed to crumble. She had always been able to break through his veneer in a way that no one else (not even his wife, she suspected) could. “It’s about the partnership,” he said finally in a low voice.
    Of course, she thought, as the pieces of the puzzle began to fallinto place. Brian was almost nine years into practice, right about the time when he would be considered for partner. “Dykmans is a major client,” he continued. “I’ve basically been told that if I can get him acquitted, I’ll make it. And if not …”
    He did not have to finish the sentence. Associates who did not make partner at the big firms had a limited shelf life of a year, maybe two. Then they were expected to go in-house to a company or find something else to do, all less promising options that were surely unthinkable to Brian.
    She scooped up some of the pad thai with her chopsticks and popped it in her mouth, chewing as she considered. The whole scenario was utterly surreal. Brian needed her help defending a Nazi collaborator. Accused Nazi collaborator. Not that there was anything personal or particularly flattering about it. He had come to her because she was, quite simply, the person who had what he needed, like a plumber when the toilet was stopped up or a mechanic for a broken-down car.
    But the real question still lay unasked and unanswered. Why should she do it? Brian had broken her heart, taken everything from her. She owed him nothing.
    Yet even as she prepared to deny his request, something in her stirred. She remembered her days in the dusty European archives, trying to piece together what had happened, bring some justice to those who could no longer speak for themselves. She’d loved the subject matter, but had been frustrated by its remote, abstract nature. Working on the Dykmans matter might finally be the chance to bring together her international and legal interests, in the way she’d hoped a decade earlier. Her interest was piqued. “I have some vacation coming up,” she said finally. “I can schedule it next month and then—”
    “That won’t work,” he interjected, cutting her off in a mannerjust short of rude. “Roger’s trial is in four weeks. We need to find the evidence to clear him and we need to do it now.”
    Her chopsticks clattered to the plate. “Four weeks?” Four weeks out they should be polishing their witnesses, practicing arguments in a mock trial—not searching for evidence.
    “I know. It’s far from ideal.” She watched him, waiting for an explanation as to the last-minute nature of his request, but he looked back, unblinking and silent.
    So he expected her to drop everything in her life and come running. “I can’t.”
    “Dykmans is a wealthy man. You can name your price.”
    Charlotte hesitated. It had not occurred to her to ask for money. “I want Kate Dolgenos.”
    “Excuse me?” It was clearly not the response he’d anticipated.
    “She’s the best criminal defense attorney in your firm, right?” And in the country, she thought, as Brian nodded. “I want her to come down and handle the preliminary hearing for one of my clients next week. It’s a juvenile felony case.” It