Reluctant Witness by Jessica Strong

Author:Jessica Strong [Strong, Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: amazon
Published: 2011-07-09T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Laura and Barney sat in one of the conference rooms with at least eight books on the table and several others on chairs around the office. Both of them had agreed that Mannie was, at best, an unreliable witness and, at worst, could sabotage their entire case. But Barney was still very unsure about going back on his deal with him.

“He lied, Barney! He lied to get his head out of the noose,” said Laura more than a little exasperated.

“What actually bothers you? The fact that he lied, the fact that he lied to you personally or that he said what he had to to get out of trouble?” asked Barney.

Laura looked away and thought for a moment before she mumbled, “Probably a bit of all three, but if we are to make deals in this office, we have to be seen as making tough deals, or we will spend most of our time trying to sort fact from fiction, not only in the courtroom, but in the deals we have made as well.”

Barney smothered a smile as Laura blushed for having said something so incredibly naïve. Barney said, “Well, hopefully the police will have produced some evidence for us to negotiate with. You should learn to play poker, Laura.” Laura didn’t answer but put her head down as she read one of the books. Barney sighed and said, “The older you get, the more gray creeps into your life, Laura. You don’t mean for it to happen. You may not even like it there. But Mannie did what every criminal who has ever made a deal has done. He was holding back a few cards and we didn’t know about them and for a while he was winning the game. He would’ve gotten away with who knows what on nothing more than obstruction. Well, we asked for another card and found out he’s been bluffing. That doesn’t mean you quit the game, we just up the stakes. That’s all. This office makes deals all the time and we have caught a lot of bad guys doing it. Do I think some of the big ones got away because of a bad deal we made? Sure. But we haven’t come away with nothing. Sometimes we have even learned a thing or two about the bad guys that we hadn’t known about before.”

Laura had sat doodling on her pad. She nodded and said, “I know that maybe that is the way things are. But it doesn’t mean I have to like it, condone it, or even participate in it if I can avoid it. I would like to see it change. Benjamin Ferencz said that he didn’t like the world the way it was, so there were two things he could do: He could commit suicide or he could try to change it, and he chose to try to change it. You know what, Barney, he has changed this world. And don’t tell me it’s my age and I will get over this ’cause Benjamin Ferencz was in his 70s when he said that.

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