I stopped again and milked the silence even longer before continuing.
“But there is a lot they don’t have-evidence of break-in, DNA from the suspect, a motive or even a suspect with a past record of this or any sort of crime. There are a lot of reasons-legitimate reasons-for you to have been in that apartment. Plus…”
I looked past Roulet and Dobbs and out the window. The sun was dropping behind Anacapa and turning the sky pink and purple. It beat anything I ever saw from the windows of my office.
“Plus what?” Roulet asked, too anxious to wait on me.
“Plus you have me. I got Maggie McFierce off the case. The new prosecutor is good but he’s green and he’ll have never come up against someone like me before.”
“So what’s our next step?” Roulet asked.
“The next step is for Raul to keep doing his thing, finding out what he can about this alleged victim and why she lied about being alone. We need to find out who she is and who her mystery man is and to see how that plays into our case.”
“And what will you do?”
“I’ll be dealing with the prosecutor. I’ll set something up with him, try to see where he’s going and we’ll make our choice on which way to go. I have no doubt that I’ll be able to go to the DA and knock all of this down to something you can plea to and get behind you. But it will require a concession. You -”
“I told you. I will not -”
“I know what you said but you have to hear me out. I may be able to get a no-contest plea so that you don’t actually ever say the word ‘guilty,’ but I am not seeing the state completely dropping this. You will have to concede responsibility in some regard. It is possible to avoid jail time but you will likely have to perform community service of some sort. There, I’ve said it. That is the first recitation. There will be more. I am obligated as your attorney to tell you and make sure you understand your options. I know it’s not what you want or are willing to do but it is my duty to educate you on the choices. Okay?”
“Fine. Okay.”
“Of course, as you know, any concession on your part will pretty much make any civil action Ms. Campo takes against you a slam dunk. So, as you can guess, disposing of the criminal case quickly will probably end up costing you a lot more than my fee.”
Roulet shook his head. The plea bargain was already not an option.
“I understand my choices,” he said. “You have fulfilled your duty. But I’m not going to pay her a cent for something I didn’t do. I’m not going to plead guilty or no contest to something I didn’t do. If we go to trial, can you win?”
I held his gaze for a moment before answering.
“Well, you understand that I don’t know what will come up between now and then and that I can’t guarantee anything… but, yes, based on what I see now, I can win this case. I’m confident of that.”
I nodded to Roulet and I think I saw a look of hope enter his eyes. He saw the glimmer.
“There is a third option,” Dobbs said.
I looked from Roulet to Dobbs, wondering what wrench he was about to throw into the franchise machine.
“And what’s that?” I asked.
“We investigate the hell out of her and this case. Maybe help Mr. Levin out with some of our people. We investigate six ways from Sunday and establish our own credible theory and evidence and present it to the DA. We head this off before it ever gets to trial. We show this greenhorn prosecutor where he will definitely lose the case and get him to drop all charges before he suffers that professional embarrassment. Added to this, I am sure this man works for a man who runs that office and is susceptible, shall we say, to political pressures. We apply it until things turn our way.”
I felt like kicking Dobbs under the table. Not only did his plan involve cutting my biggest fee ever by more than half, not only did it see the lion’s share of client money going to the investigators, including his own, but it could only have come from a lawyer who had never defended a criminal case in his entire career.
“That’s an idea but it is very risky,” I said calmly. “If you can blow their case out of the water and you go in before trial to show them how, you are also giving them a blueprint for what to do and what to avoid in trial. I don’t like to do that.”
Roulet nodded his agreement and Dobbs looked a bit taken aback. I decided to leave it at that and to address Dobbs further on it when I could do it without the client present.
“What about the media?” Levin asked, thankfully changing the subject.
“That’s right,” Dobbs said, anxious to change it himself now. “My secretary says I have messages from two newspapers and two television stations.”
“I probably do as well,” I said.
What I didn’t mention was that the messages left with Dobbs were left by Lorna Taylor at my direction. The case had not attracted the media yet, other than the freelance videographer who showed up at the first appearance. But I wanted Dobbs and Roulet and his mother to believe they all could be splashed across the papers at any moment.
“We don’t want publicity on this,” Dobbs said. “This is the worst kind of publicity to get.”
He seemed to be adept at stating the obvious.
“All media should be directed to me,” I said. “I will handle the media and the best way to do that is to ignore it.”
“But we have to say something to defend him,” Dobbs said.
“No, we don’t have to say anything. Talking about the case legitimizes it. If you get into a game of talking to the media, you keep the story alive. Information is oxygen. Without it they die. As far as I am concerned, let ’ em die. Or at least wait until there is no avoiding them. If that happens, only one person speaks for Louis. That’s me.”
Dobbs reluctantly nodded his agreement. I pointed a finger at Roulet.
“Under no circumstances do you talk to a reporter, even to deny the charges. If they contact you, you send them to me. Got it?”
“I got it.”
“Good.”
I decided that we had said enough for a first meeting. I stood up.
“Louis, I’ll take you home now.”
But Dobbs wasn’t going to release his grasp on his client so quickly.
“Actually, I’ve been invited to dinner by Louis’s mother,” he said. “I could take him, since I am going there.”
I nodded my approval. The criminal defense attorney never seemed to get invited to dinner.
“Fine,” I said. “But we’ll meet you there. I want Raul to see his place and Louis needs to give me that check we spoke about earlier.”
If they thought I had forgotten about the money, they had a lot to learn about me. Dobbs looked at Roulet and got an approving nod. Dobbs then nodded to me.
“Sounds like a plan,” he said. “We’ll meet again there.”
Fifteen minutes later I was riding in the back of the Lincoln with Levin. We were following a silver Mercedes carrying Dobbs and Roulet. I was checking with Lorna on the phone. The only message of importance had come from Gloria Dayton’s prosecutor, Leslie Faire. The message was we had a deal.
“So,” Levin said when I closed the phone. “What do you really think?”
“I think there is a lot of money to be made on this case and we’re about to go get the first installment. Sorry I’m dragging you over there. I didn’t want it to seem like it was all about the check.”
Levin nodded but didn’t say anything. After a few moments I continued.
“I’m not sure what to think yet,” I said. “Whatever happened in that apartment happened quick. That’s a break for us. No actual rape, no DNA. That gives us a glimmer of hope.”
“It sort of reminds me of Jesus Menendez, only without DNA. Remember him?”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to.”
I tried not to think about clients who were in prison without appellate hopes or anything else left but years of time in front of them to nut out. I do what I can with each case but sometimes there is nothing that can be done. Jesus Menendez’s case was one of those.