The Second Chair

Andrew threw his mother a last look of despair, then turned and started walking with the bailiffs, back toward the lockup.

5

Wu had been an attorney for five years. During that time, she'd mostly done litigation work for Freeman's firm, mixed with a steady if unexceptional flow of criminal cases that she picked up in the usual way, the so-called conflicts cases. She was on the list for court appointments, and once a month she would appear in court while a succession of criminal cases were called and doled out mostly to the Public Defender's Office. Every few cases, though, there would be more than one defendant- accomplices in robberies or drug deals.

In these cases, the Public Defender's Office could not take on more than one of the defendants; it would be a conflict of interest. And so the court would appoint one of the on-hand lawyers sitting in the courtroom on conflicts day to represent the other defendants. In this way, Wu had represented a wide variety of clients and gotten what she had thought (until today) was a well-grounded schooling in the nuts and bolts and even some of the intricacies of criminal law.

But she'd never been assigned to a murder case. Never before had she confronted such a serious charge. In fact, until this weekend no criminal client had ever paid her directly- her fees in the conflicts cases were paid by the court. She was standing on new ground now, and finding that it shook perilously under her feet. She'd blown her first skirmish badly. Ill-prepared and overconfident, she'd foolishly failed to prepare her clients for the worst, in part because she didn't believe that the worst was going to transpire. In her experience thus far, deals were always a possibility.

Now, out in the hallway with the Norths, Wu spoke up right away, a stab at damage control. "I've got those bailiffs' names and badge numbers and I want to assure you both that I'm going to file a complaint before I leave this building."

North spoke up. "I wouldn't waste my time. Andrew admitted he was off-balance. The guy was just doing his job. My question is what the hell just happened? You told us you'd get him out."

"I said I thought it was possible."

"It never seemed to get close to possible in there. There wasn't any real discussion at all." North wore ru

"Hal." Linda put a hand on her husband's arm.

He kept his eyes on Wu. "So where does this leave us?"

"I'm going to talk to the DA," Wu said. "Appeal the detention."

"I would hope so," North said. "I don't care what it costs."

"I don't think the money's the point, sir."

"Well, if it isn't, that would be a first. Maybe I'll go have a word with the man myself."

In an odd reversal, Wu looked to the wife for support, but Linda's eyes never left the door to the courtroom. It was almost as though she still expected her son to walk out any minute. Wu came back to North. "That really wouldn't be a good idea, sir. Look," she said, "whatever the judge said in there, the truth is that minors get out on serious charges all the time."

"Not this time," he said.

"No. I know that."

Linda spoke up. "So what do we do now?"

Before the fiasco in the courtroom, Wu had been hoping to get a chance to sit with Andrew and his parents in the relatively comfortable environment of their home. There, she would show all of them the evidence she'd already assembled from the discovery documents she'd received that so clearly- in her opinion- would damn Andrew if he went to trial as an adult. With Hal North in her corner, and Linda presumably already on board, it would be the three of them "against" the son, and Wu would be able to orchestrate the talk that would result in Andrew's understanding that he needed to admit.

Now, with Hal in a slow-boiling fury at her failure to get the detention lifted, with Linda still woefully ignorant of the strategy Wu had already put in motion, and with Andrew back in his cell, Wu realized that she had to change her plan on the wing. If they all sat down together right now- in Andrew's cell or anywhere else- the three-to-one odds in her favor would be closer to three-to-one against, with Hal quite possibly unwilling to argue with his characteristic force for the need to admit, and Linda and Andrew dead set against.

The dynamic had become completely skewed. Her best bet now- as the most committed to her position- was to take on Andrew one on one. Win him over as she'd won his stepfather the day before. Andrew didn't need to hear Linda's arguments why he should consider the feasibility of an adult trial on the really very unlikely chance that he would get acquitted. He didn't need that kind of support. He needed to be frightened, and convinced.

Linda repeated her question. "So what do we do now?"

"Now," Wu said, "I think it's critical that I spend some time alone with Andrew. He needs to understand what he's up against, that he's here for the long haul. He's got to see the evidence they've got. Mostly, he's got to realize that he's in the system, and that he needs his lawyer more than he needs his parents right now."

"You don't think we should see him?" Linda clearly didn't like the decision. "I mean, while we're already here? This is a good time for us."

"You can visit him anytime, Mrs. North, anytime you want. But right now he's going to be pretty upset with me, as I realize that both of you are. I need to try to make that right with Andrew, though, as soon as I can, so we can begin to cooperate and work together." She looked from Hal to Linda. "Look, I don't blame either of you for being frustrated, but in a sense the hearing in there didn't change anything. Andrew still needs to be clear on what he needs to do." She threw what she hoped was a meaningful glance at Hal. "That hasn't changed. I really think both of you need to talk, so the next time you're with him, you present a united front. So we're all saying the same thing."

She waited, holding her breath. From Linda's perspective, she knew that her words were probably close to indecipherable. But she hoped that Hal would understand her allusion and step in. And he did. "She's right, hon," he said. "You held his hand all weekend. He doesn't need any more of that now. He needs some solid advice, legal advice. And Amy here is right. We need to talk, too, you and me."

"About what?"

"This whole plea business." At the mention of the topic again, Linda's eyes went wide with surprise, perhaps with anger. But Hal cut off her reply. "I just said it needs to be discussed. It's complicated."

"I don't even like the sound of it," Linda said.

Wu stepped in. "That's why I think it's important that both of you talk. Meanwhile, this is when I need to go up and see Andrew."

Linda stood still for a moment, then nodded, turned and, without another word, walked off. Hal hung back another second. "Don't fuck this one up, too," he told her, then whirled and jogged after his wife.

But before she went up to see Andrew, Wu knocked at the door to Johnson's chambers and was told to enter. He was out of his robes now, standing at the side of the room, a golf club in his hand. "Ah, Ms. Wu. Just one second." A black plastic contraption with a little blue flag in it popped a golf ball back across the rug, right to his feet, and he stopped it with his putter.

What was it, Wu thought, with men and these games in their offices?

She got right to her point. "Your honor, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but you'll want to know what happened in the courtroom just after you left the bench."