Madness to Murder by Lenore Walker

Author:Lenore Walker [Walker, Lenore]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-07-14T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

Meeting with Attorneys

February 2013

Earlier that week I got a call from Lasky telling me that he was thinking about resigning from the public defender’s office. Obviously, the conversation Jessica overheard was correct. He was upset about a lot of things, but the worst was occurring with our case. Apparently he was never happy about his boss putting Reneeh and Jim on Earl’s case with him. He had been asking for another attorney for several months as all death penalty cases were required to have a second chair to help organize the penalty phase. But not two of them. Dealing with one was hard enough. He agreed that this was an important case; a double-murderer, gruesome killing and the state wanted death. The media was all over it. I acknowledged that I thought he was a bit grouchy when he first told me, and I responded that I knew both Reneeh and Jim and was excited to work with them.

“What’s the matter, Dr. Ariel? I’m not good enough?”

“Come on, Lasky. You know a death case is too much for one person. Are you going to get to drop all your other murder cases to just concentrate on Earl?”

“You’re right. In fact, I just got a new case assigned and have to go out-of-town to interview some witnesses with the investigator next week. Just a fair warning, you might get a call from Reneeh or Jim. Just a warning to be careful, while I’m away.

“What’s really going on, Laz? I noted you were not happy when we all met in my office last time?”

“I don’t know. Just keep your eyes open?”

“Of course. Call me when you get back.”

Sure enough, several days later, Reneeh’s secretary called the office and asked Ellie to schedule a meeting for me with her and Jim for the following week. I was curious why they wanted the meeting while Lasky was out of town but said nothing. Giselle said something about it at the staff meeting that week and she, Raphael and Joe decided the entire team should meet with them.

We arrived at their offices in the courthouse and marched down the long corridor together passing other attorneys going to and from their court cases. We were buzzed in they tried to seat us in a small conference room but we were too many, and walked us further down the hall to their larger one.

Reneeh met us in the hall. She 5’9” and wore her long dark curly hair pulled back into a bun which gave her a severe-look. Tiny glasses perched on her nose completed the picture. Her strong voice was very authoritative but tempered by a warm friendly smile.

“Thanks for coming in to meet with us, Dr. Lewis. So glad you brought some of your team with you.”

“Glad you were able to arrange it. Please call me, Ariel.”

“Okay, Ariel. I know we haven’t worked on a case together but Jim, here, says he loves working with you, so that’s good enough for me.”

I had worked on several other cases with James Reardon (Jim), a 6’2” African American man.

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