It Should Be a Crime (27 page)

“Actually, I might be merely burning out.” She waved him in. “What in the world are you doing here so late on a Friday night?”

“Ruining my reputation as a Casanova, apparently.” He grinned. “I had no idea anyone else was here. I could lie to you and say I ran by here after a hot date, but frankly I was on a geeky exam-writing roll and didn’t want to risk losing the evil genius mindset. Then I saw Yolanda leaving your office and was overcome with curiosity as to what she would be doing here so late on a Friday night. So I came over to see if you have any juicy gossip you’d care to share. It is your turn, you know.”

Morgan stared at his eager expression and pondered an appropriate lie. She decided her efforts to dissemble weren’t worth the energy and she plunged in before she could change her mind. “I have a hypothetical question for you.”

“Go ahead.”

“Suppose a professor had an affair with one of her, or his, students.” She stopped to gauge his initial reaction. He nodded, encouraging her to continue. “Is there any way to resolve the situation without sending the world crashing down around them?”

“Pretty broad question, Professor,” Jim said, pointedly. “I assume both parties are legally adults?” He waited for her nod. “And the student is currently enrolled in the professor’s class?”

Morgan nodded again and added, “The affair started before they ever even knew they would have a teacher-student relationship.”

Jim rubbed his chin. “Interesting. So they started seeing each other when there was no professional benefit to be gained by either party.”

“Right.”

“And they kept seeing each other after they entered into the professional relationship?”

Morgan squirmed a little at the word “seeing,” certain Jim assigned more to its meaning than the casual sex she’d experienced so far with Parker. She almost corrected him, but held back. Though she kept referring to her encounters with Parker as casual, they were anything but. Casual sex by definition wouldn’t have left her filled with such raw and open need for more.

“And I assume part of the problem stems from the fact neither wants to end the personal part of the relationship.”

She had no idea how Parker felt about their relationship or even if Parker thought what they had constituted a relationship. As for herself, she was no closer to an answer about what she wanted. She decided since the question was supposed to be hypothetical, she may as well go out on a limb. “Yes, they want a chance to see where the relationship goes.”

“Pass/Fail.”

“Excuse me?”

“Pass/Fail. If both parties agree, then she, the student, can get a pass/fail grade, thereby eliminating any suspicion her loving professor gave her a good grade in class because she gets good grades outside the classroom, if you know what I mean. It’s more of a big deal for the student, since if she was on track for an excellent grade, her transcript will suffer, but it’s better than having to take the whole class over or have no credit for the class at all.”

Morgan rolled the thought over in her head. “Interesting solution.”

“Sure it is. Of course, my advice is worth what it cost you.”

“Then I better pay you something to make it golden. I went to dinner already, but I didn’t feel like eating. Are you hungry?”

“Always.”

“Lead the way.” As she turned off the light to her office, Morgan wondered how Parker would feel about Jim’s solution. Even as she had the thought she felt silly. Parker had a lot at stake. She was on track to graduate at the top of her class with an impeccable transcript full of high marks. What in the world was she thinking to consider asking Parker to take a simple “Pass” for six hours of grueling coursework in her chosen field, all because Morgan wanted to see if they had a chance at a relationship? Hell, she didn’t have a clue if Parker wanted anything more than what they had already shared. Considering she wasn’t sure herself, she had no business asking Parker to join her in disclosing a relationship, especially in light of Parker’s past. Parker had already suffered enormous loss as a result of telling the truth. Morgan wasn’t going to ask her to risk a similar sacrifice. Doubt crawled in and chilled her warm thoughts of happily ever after.
No, better to finish the trial and bow quietly out of this politically charged teaching gig.
There would still be enough time left in the semester for someone else to take over and assign a real grade to the star student.

“We’ve talked to most of her friends and we keep hearing the same thing. ‘Camille was a wonderful person, a kind and gentle friend. We can’t imagine anyone who would want to hurt her.’” Dex pushed aside his notes and rubbed his red eyes. None of them had gotten much sleep in the last week and Parker and Dex, still carrying a full class schedule, were both feeling the pain. They were gathered in a conference room at the law school on Friday afternoon to begin a weekend’s worth of last-ditch trial preparation.

“We have one more name: Leslie Hammond. She’s out of the country, but she gets back Tuesday. I’ll hang out near her apartment and try and catch her when she gets in from the airport,” Jake volunteered, seemingly undaunted by the schedule they had all been keeping the last week.

“Okay, but I don’t think she’ll have anything to add. Even Camille’s acquaintances can’t imagine she would have any enemies.” Parker looked toward the door of their makeshift war room, wondering when Morgan and Ford would join them. The team had worked on separate assignments during the past week, so she hadn’t seen much of Morgan and when she had they had been in the company of others, which meant they hadn’t spoken about the “incident.” Parker was ambivalent. She wanted to square things with Morgan, but she wasn’t sure what “square” meant in these circumstances. She was horribly embarrassed that she had run like a chicken at the sight of Morgan with another woman. Hell, they’d only been talking. For all she knew there was nothing going on between them. Even as she finished the thought, she knew she was deluding herself. The blonde had been drooling. And who wouldn’t? Morgan was a supreme catch. She was brilliant, tough, sharp, and witty. As if those attributes weren’t enough to attract hordes of admirers, she was beautiful as well. Parker resigned herself to the fact she was only one of many admirers and even though she felt like there was more of a connection, Morgan’s actions since the other night put a chill on any such thoughts. Morgan had been polite but cool. No more subtle touches and grabbed chances to be close. No more glances held beyond the bounds of professional courtesy. All weekend long, Morgan had directed more questions at Dex and Gerald and rarely met Parker’s eyes. She seemed to be making a point to keep both a physical and emotional boundary erected between them. It was as if she had decided to adhere to her original resolution, shared on the park bench the first day of classes, to keep their relationship completely compartmentalized.
Fine,
Parker thought,
I can compartmentalize too. The only chinks in the boundary are a few rounds of sex and me spilling my guts after too much alcohol. Consider it forgotten.
But it wasn’t, and she knew in a place deep inside that she had been more intimate with Morgan than with any other person in her life.

*

“Sorry we’re late.” Morgan and Ford entered the room, and the group launched into a discussion of what was left to do to prepare for trial. Stealing a glance at Parker, Morgan fought to put her discussion with Yolanda out of her head and concentrate on trial prep.

The one thing Morgan knew she couldn’t teach was the most important thing of all. Flexibility. She remembered her first trial. Though she was the lead attorney, a partner at the firm had sat second chair. She wasn’t sure at the time if his presence was to provide assistance or to take over when she got so nervous she threw up. She didn’t throw up, but she did learn the limited value of the many nights she spent carefully planning the clever cross-examination questions she would ask and the insightful objections she would raise.

Months later, during her fifth trial, she reflected there was only so much preparation you could do for the real thing. Though good defense attorneys hired investigators and researched every angle before the big day, there was no way to prepare for the stories witnesses concocted, often for the first time, while they were on the stand—this after having taken an oath, hand raised high, to tell the truth, nothing but the truth, so help me God. She was often tempted to ask the judge to make the witness show his other hand so she could make sure fingers weren’t crossed. After years of trying cases, she had come to the conclusion most witnesses made shit up, and the shit they made up was so necessary to preserving their view of the ways things should have happened or must have happened that they would have gambled their lives on the truth of their testimony.

She’d once tried a murder case where six witnesses testified, consistently, the dead man was really and truly dead when they had come upon him. But the victim’s father was the seventh witness and, not privy to what the other witnesses revealed about the condition of his son during their testimony, no sooner did he take his oath than he blurted out a revelation: his son had made a dying declaration. With his last breath, the poor boy confided to his father that Morgan’s client shot him, point blank. Hell, even the prosecutor almost fell out of his chair at the revelation. But he recovered nicely and asked the necessary follow-up questions to ensure the grieving father’s revelation would be admissible into evidence. Morgan would never know for certain whether the prosecutor’s surprise at this astounding piece of evidence was feigned. There was no doubt, however, of the effect it had on the jury. They hung on the grieving father’s every word and attributed not a whit of importance to the fact he had been interviewed by the police four times and hadn’t mentioned the fact his son named his killer with his last breath to either them or a single other soul before he offered it up in open court. No amount of preparation could have equipped Morgan to deal with his lies, and only years of experience enabled her to continue the trial without letting anyone see she wanted to throw up in the middle of the courtroom. Remembering the nauseated feeling as if it were yesterday, Morgan knew her students would have to suffer plenty of nausea on their own if they were going to develop into good litigators.

As she glanced around the room, her gaze settled on Parker and she realized she was spending more time thinking about her than she was the facts of this case. Of all of her students, Parker was the one in whose abilities she was most confident. She had already perfected the art of questioning witnesses, although her experiences had taken place in less sterile environments than the courtroom. Equally impressive was the fact she had testified in dozens of complicated cases over the years. Though she had a lot to learn about lawyering, Parker came equipped with the skills to learn fast and well. Once she graduated, she would make a fantastic addition to whatever practice she chose to join. Morgan vowed not to do anything to jeopardize Parker’s chances at success.

They went around the room and offered their reports. Morgan would pick the jury with Dex and Gerald taking notes. She added Gerald to this task only after her talk with Yolanda and because she felt she needed to throw her a bone. Ford and Morgan would split the witnesses. Morgan reserved Detective Keaton for herself, ignoring Parker’s raised eyebrows at this pronouncement. Dex and Parker would be responsible for working with Jake to run down any new issues likely to crop up during trial, as well as handling witnesses for the defense. This last was a lean task since Luis had only one sister who lived in the States and no one else had been convinced to step forward to speak on his behalf. Jake was still working to convince at least some of the other Burke family employees to vouch for the good character of the handyman or tell what they might know about what he was actually doing in the house that night, but the Burke influence easily extended its reach to curb the willingness of their staff to speak in favor of the man who allegedly brutalized their only daughter.

After they settled on their respective assignments, Morgan asked if anyone had anything to report. Jake reported he had one more friend of Camille’s to talk to and he was going to get in contact with her when she returned to the United States, but he didn’t hold out much hope the interview would yield any helpful evidence. Morgan was about to adjourn the meeting when Parker cleared her throat. She had avoided direct eye contact with her up until this point and barely broke the barrier now. Waving a hand in Parker’s direction, she indicated she should speak.

“I’ve been looking over the autopsy report and the crime scene photos with a doctor friend of mine.” Parker hesitated. She had a theory but nothing concrete to support it. And even if her theory was spot on, she didn’t have a clue what it meant. Here they were, the weekend before trial. Was this the time to be throwing a wrench in the works? Ignoring the internal questions, she spat out her conclusion before she could censor it to death. “I think Camille Burke was poisoned.”

Gerald smirked and Ford coughed away a snort of laughter. Dex, steadfastly loyal, maintained a neutral expression. But the reaction Parker focused on was Morgan’s raised eyebrows and she met her eyes straight on.

“You do, do you?” Morgan’s tone conveyed her disbelief.

Parker resisted the urge to bristle. Logic told her even the members of her team would think her crazy poison theory didn’t have legs to stand on. There wasn’t much to it anyway. She surmised Camille Burke had been poisoned before she was shot in the face, but her theory stopped there. She had no idea how or why and had not a clue as to how this piece of the puzzle fit into their mission of defending Luis Chavez. If Luis shot Camille, did it even matter whether or not she had been poisoned? Was she already dead when she was shot? Parker realized her theory raised more questions than answers, but there was value in the uncertainty. The jury would be instructed to acquit Luis if they had a reasonable doubt about his guilt. Any reasonable doubt. Parker knew her theory that Camille Burke was poisoned did little to answer the question of who killed her, but it certainly raised some reasonable doubt. Why would a handyman with a gun take the time to poison Camille before shooting her?