The Simple Truth Read Online Free

across Ramsey’s face.
“In the published opinions of this Court over the last fifty years. All I ask is that you accord the Court’s precedents the respect they deserve.”
    “You’ll find no one who holds this institution in higher regard than I do.”
    “Very happy to hear that.”
    “And I’ll be delighted to entertain your thoughts further on the
Chance
case after we hear oral argument.”
    Ramsey looked at her dully.
“It will be a very short discussion, considering that it doesn’t take long to say yes or no. Bluntly speaking, at the end of the day, I’ll have at least five votes and you won’t.”
    “Well, I convinced three other justices to vote to hear the case.”
    Ramsey looked as though he might laugh.
“You’ll quickly learn that the difference between votes to hear a case and votes to decide it is enormous. Rest assured, I will have the majority.”
    Knight smiled pleasantly.
“Your confidence is inspiring. That I
can
learn from.”
    Ramsey rose to leave.
“Then consider this other lesson: Small mistakes tend to lead to large ones. Ours is a lifetime appointment, and all you have is your reputation. Once it’s gone, it doesn’t come back.”
Ramsey went to the door.
“I wish you a productive day, Beth,”
he said before leaving her.
     

CHAPTER THREE
    Rufus?”
Samuel Rider cautiously pressed the phone to his ear.
“How did you track me down?”
    “Ain’t many lawyers up these parts, Samuel,”
Rufus Harms said.
    “I’m not in the JAG anymore.”
    “Being on the outside pays good, I guess.”
    “Some days I miss the uniform,”
Rider lied. He had been a terrified draftee, fortunately with a law degree in hand, and had chosen a safe role in the Judge Advocate General’s Office — or JAG — over toting a gun through the jungles of Vietnam as a pudgy, fear-soaked GI, a sure beacon for enemy fire.
    “I need to see you. Don’t want to say why over the phone.”
    “Everything okay up at Fort Jackson? I heard you were transferred there.”
    “Sure. Prison’s just fine.”
    “I didn’t mean that, Rufus. I was just wondering why you looked me up after all this time.”
    “You’re still my lawyer, ain’t you? Only time I ever needed one.”
    “My schedule’s kind of tight, and I don’t usually travel over that way.”
Rider’s hand tightened on the phone with Harms’s next words.
    “I really need to see you tomorrow, Samuel. You think you owe me that?”
    “I did all I could for you back then.”
    “You took the deal. Quick and easy.”
    “No,”
Rider countered,
“we did the pretrial agreement with the convening authority, and the trial counsel signed off on it, and that was the smart thing to do.”
    “You didn’t really try to beat it none on the sentencing. Most try to do that.”
    “Who told you that?”
    “Learn a lot in prison.”
    “Well, you can’t waive the sentencing phase. We put on our case to the members, you know that.”
    “But you didn’t call no witnesses, didn’t really do much that I could see.”
    Rider now got very defensive.
“I did the best I could. Remember something, Rufus, they could’ve executed you. A little white girl and all. They would’ve gone for first degree, they told me that. At least you got to live.”
    “Tomorrow, Samuel. I put you on my visitors’ list. Around about nine A.M. Thank you. Thank you kindly. Oh, bring a little radio with you.”
Before Rider could ask him why he should bring such a device, or why he should even come to see him, Harms had hung up the phone.
    Rider eased back in his very comfortable chair and looked around his spacious, wood-paneled office. He practiced law in a small rural town some distance from Blacksburg, Virginia. He made a fine living: nice house, new Buick every three years, vacations twice annually. He had put the past behind him, particularly the most horrible case he had ever handled in his brief career as a military lawyer. The kind of case that had the same effect on your