14th Deadly Sin: (Women’s Murder Club 14) by James Patterson

Author:James Patterson [Patterson, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, General
ISBN: 9781473505575
Google: 9LedBAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2015-02-26T05:00:00+00:00

PART TWO

CHAPTER 56

COURTROOM 5A WAS small, paneled in cherry-wood with matching cherry benches, tables, and chairs. The judge had turned to speak to his clerk. Behind him was the golden seal of the State of California flanked by two flags: the Stars and Stripes and the California state flag.

The room was full, but court was not yet in session. Yuki and her second chair, Natalie Futterman, sat behind their counsel table. Yuki skimmed the notes in front of her, rehearsing her opening lines in her mind like a mantra.

Beside her, Natalie whispered, “I can’t wait.”

Yuki said, “I can. I may be a pit bull, but he’s a lion, Nat. An angry one.”

Natalie said, “New thought for a new day.”

“Do not tweet that,” Yuki said.

Yuki wished she felt as excited as Natalie. Her eager second chair was a forty-six-year-old recent graduate of law school. Her kids were out of the house. Her husband had left her. And Natalie finally had the degree in law she’d put off twenty-five years ago. She was sharp, bookish, organized, had passed the bar on the first try, and was ready for prime time. Or as Natalie had put it, “You can only learn so much in a classroom.”

Natalie had nothing to lose but her novice status.

Yuki, on the other hand, had a pretty substantial reputation at stake, and if she lost this case, she would be known for it: Kordell v. City of San Francisco. Yuki Castellano. She sued the SFPD and they destroyed her.

Across the aisle, the defense looked as calm as still waters. Len Parisi, Red Dog himself, filled the chair on the aisle. Sitting next to him were two partners from Moorehouse and Rogers, one of whom was the legendary Collins Rappaport as second chair. Parisi, as co-counsel to the law firm, would be first chair, and he would be doing hand-to-hand combat with her.

Yuki had dressed in red today. It was a big color that required big action. You couldn’t equivocate in red. You had to go for the jugular, and that was her plan.

Strike first. Strike hard.

Natalie wore almost-matching black separates, a jacket and pants that had probably come from a consignment shop twenty years before. But that was OK. The two of them were representing the victims here. They were the lawyers for the poor and the unfairly persecuted, and Natalie looked the part.

Parisi’s suit was moss green and made him look like a heart attack ready to happen.

Yuki smiled to herself.

Whatever helped her through the fight.

She and Natalie had worked hard prepping for this trial and had spent two days just going over her opening statement. She knew what she had to do and what she had to say; if she rehearsed anymore, her impassioned true feelings for the Kordell family would sound overly rehearsed.

She didn’t want that.

Yuki was deep in her thoughts when she felt a touch on her shoulder. She turned to see Mrs. Kordell giving her a teary smile. Yuki squeezed her hand and smiled at the rest of the Kordell family seated behind her, about eleven people all told.

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