A Cure for Night by Justin Peacock

Author:Justin Peacock
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780385528443
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2008-09-07T16:00:00+00:00

21

I'D GONE looking for Myra as soon as Delaney had left, but she was over at the Appellate Division, arguing the Gibbons appeal. I finally tracked her down in her office first thing on Friday morning and related what Chris Delaney had told me about Seth Lipton. I'd expected some show of enthusiasm, congratulations, something, but Myra just looked at me.

"You should've been in touch with me the second this kid said Lipton's name," she said at last. "I'm the first chair on this case. No offense, Joel, but you're still a rookie at this. There're some potential conflict issues that need to be addressed."

"Meaning?"

"You're proposing that this Delaney testify about his knowledge of criminal activity, right?"

"Not his criminal activity, but yeah."

"And you found out about his knowledge of this activity while representing him, right?"

"Yes."

"Do you think you are in any position to objectively counsel Delaney about whether he should testify on matters where he may incriminate himself on behalf of another defendant who you represent?"

"He brought it up," I said. "I just wanted to find out what he knew."

"I get that," Myra said. "Which is why you should've found me right away."

"You weren't here," I said testily. "So I did the best I could in your absence. I'm sorry for not being you."

"Okay, so that wasn't fair on my part," Myra said after a moment. "Now can we move on?"

"Did you just apologize to me?"

"Don't get used to it."

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"First off is, we need to figure out whether we'd even really want to use his testimony. Assuming it's all true, what does the fact that Seth Lipton dealt drugs actually get us?"

"It makes the jury hate him, one," I said, leaning forward slightly in my chair. "And it makes him a more plausible target as the intended victim, two."

"Okay. So you'd want to put Delaney on?"

"I think so," I said, hesitant after her rebuke. "Wouldn't you?"

"Probably."

"So what do we do?"

"We'd better get Delaney a new lawyer. We'll have to 18-B him, to be on the safe side. I can walk you through that. Then it'll be up to his new lawyer whether Chris takes the Fifth on some things. He does too much of that, all his testimony is likely to be tossed, but you can't really unring the bell with the jury, so I think it's probably a chance worth taking."

"So," I said, still wanting some acknowledgment for this new evidence, even if it had just fallen into my lap, "how significant do you think this is?"

Myra shrugged. She was clearly still thinking it through, but I didn't get the sense of excitement from her that I'd been expecting. I wondered if it was because I was the source of the information. I didn't like the disconnect between how we talked away from the office and times like this, when she acted like my boss, but I decided not to say anything about it now. "It doesn't do anything to rebut Yo-Yo's testimony. But we do need to ask our client again what he knows about Lipton, given this new info.

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