The Second Chair

6

Am I interrupting?" Wu asked.

Hardy looked up from the billing and utilization numbers report, one of several similar management tools that Norma gave him every week for his review and comments- good enough numbers, but numbers nevertheless. He jumped at the opportunity to leave them, closing the folder, motioning with his hand. "I was hoping you'd make it back today."

"Actually, I've been back awhile, hunkered down in my office." Wu motioned behind her. "I waited until Attila abandoned her post out there."

"Probably a good idea." He pushed his chair back from his desk, stood up and stretched, moved toward the bar counter. "You want some coffee, a beer, water, a rare old Bordeaux?"

"No, thanks. I'm fine."

"Just as well," Hardy said. "I don't have any rare old Bordeaux. David did, though. About this time of day, I'd often come down and he'd be halfway through a bottle of something outrageous."

"You miss him a lot, don't you?"

Hardy opened the refrigerator, then straightened up. He turned to her and nodded. "Yeah, I do." Then, shrugging with some awkwardness, he reached down and grabbed a bottled water, turned back again. "So how'd it go?"

Wu lowered herself onto the couch. "Not perfectly, I'm afraid. The judge- Johnson- detained him."

"No surprise there. It was murder. They always detain."

"I know, but I thought maybe with his age and no previous record, plus Hal North's money if they asked him to pay for a private security guard for Andrew… Anyway, it doesn't matter- I never even got the chance to argue that." She paused again. "Jason Brandt- the prosecutor?- he came out swinging and got all histrionic. I guess it worked."

"How'd the clients take it? They fire you?"

She broke a bare smile. "Not yet, but every call I got this afternoon when I got back here, I thought I'd throw up."

"Thanks for sharing." But he grinned, softening it. "So what's the status now?"

"Well," she said, "if there's any silver lining, it's a loud wake-up call for Andrew. The continued detention blew him away. He thought North would somehow take care of it like he always has. But when Andrew realized that wasn't happening, it gave me the chance to acquaint him with a few hard truths."

"Like?"

"Like the evidence." Suddenly animated, Wu came forward on the couch. "It might have been the first time he actually realized why they arrested him. So I went through what little discovery I'd seen, which was a good start, since it placed him at the murder scene with the weapon, for example."

"He didn't already know that?"

She shook her head. "He thought he'd gotten rid of the gun without having mentioned it to anybody. Which in fact he did. But- bad luck- a witness saw it first. I surprised him with what he must have done, and sure enough, he admitted it. And this is to say nothing of five or six other evasions and outright lies, or the ID."

"He didn't know he'd been ID'd?"

"Not the specifics. Though by the time I left him I believe he was getting a clue."

Hardy sat back in his chair. "And how, again, is this a silver lining?"

"Well, it is," she said. "It really is."

"I want to believe you, but traditionally it's not good news for the client when the DA's got you nailed."

"It is this time."

"And why is that?"

"Because Andrew finally sees that they can put him away for life."

"And that's good news? Maybe it's semantics," Hardy said. "The meaning of 'good.' "

"It is good. It means Andrew's on his way to admitting."

"I would hope so, given the fact that you've already made a deal to that effect with Mr. Boscacci, haven't you? I didn't imagine that whole thing, did I? Boscacci filing juvie? All of that?" Hardy chewed on the inside of his cheek, added ruminatively, "Although I still can't imagine why Boscacci went for it."

Wu curled a leg under herself on the couch. "Because it's all about numbers. The public understands convictions. Jackman's gearing up for reelection. If Andrew admits, Jackman gets not one, but two murder convictions on the books, instead of a long messy trial with a sympathetic teenage defendant and a wealthy stepfather with ties to the media. You would have done the same thing."

"Maybe, but that's me. And I'm notoriously softhearted."

"Right. Anyway, I reminded Allan how hard it is to get convictions, San Francisco juries, blah, blah, blah. I told him it was possible North might even be monetarily grateful at some time in the future for saving his son the extra fifty years in the slammer, perhaps a slight exaggeration on my part."

"I hope slight," Hardy said.

Wu shrugged that away. "I don't think Allan bought it anyway. But he did buy the fact that this was a young man's crime of passion. By the time Andrew's twenty-five, he'll be a different person, rehabilitated by the juvenile system instead of hardened by the hard time. And so on."

"In other words, you snowed him."

"Maybe I did pile it on a little. But this is such a classically good move. It's actually got some moral underpinnings."

"Alway a plus." Hardy drank from his bottled water. He put the bottle down on his desk, took a deep breath, let it out. A longer silence settled in the space. The plantation shutters over the office windows weren't drawn, and outside the shafts of early evening sun suddenly seemed glaringly bright in contrast to the muted office lighting. Finally Hardy spoke. "I bet you can guess what's going through my mind."

Her face tight with tension, Wu nodded, but answered confidently enough. "I'll be seeing Andrew first thing again tomorrow morning and tie it up tight. Believe me, he definitely got it by the time I left today. He sees it."

"He'll admit?"

"I'm sure he will."

"You're sure he will. But Allan Boscacci thinks he already has? Is that right?"

"No. Not that he already has. Just that he will."

"But Boscacci's acted on that. And he'll expect you to do what you promised in return?"

"And I will. Andrew will. He'll see there's no other real option. He already sees it, I'm sure."

"You're sure." Hardy cast his eyes at his ceiling, brought them down and ran a hand over his cheek. Now he looked over at his young associate. He knew that she was still suffering over the loss of her father, laboring under who knew what other pressures. The last thing Hardy wanted to do was kill her initiative or micromanage her cases to death, but for a moment he was tempted to have her call Boscacci right there from his office. Clear the air with the DA's office, at least. Let the chief assistant know that the deal might not be as solid as he'd been led to believe. Later, privately, Hardy could even plead Wu's pain and suffering to Boscacci, and this might somehow mitigate the consequences if things went wrong, which according to Murphy's Law they must, since they could.

On the other hand, he didn't want to send a no-confidence message to one of his bright young lights. He himself had carved his own niche in San Francisco's legal world by being somewhat of a loose cannon, taking risks beyond those which, he knew, any responsible boss would have approved. He strongly believed in the advice of Admiral Nelson, "Always go right at 'em." Ask permission later. That's what victorious sea captains- and winners in general- always did.

Didn't they?

Hardy gave his associate a last, ambiguous look that mingled worry and hope, and she responded with a quick bob of her head. "Don't worry, sir. It'll happen."

"I tell you what, Wu," he said. "I'm sure hoping you're right."

Hardy parked on Bryant Street across from the Hall of Justice. Traffic was light and curb space, so precious during the workday, was everywhere. Behind him, the sun was going down with a gaudy splash. The usual sunset gale had started up off the Bay and it whistled by the windows of his car, throwing pages of newspapers, candy wrappers, random grit and other debris through the long shadows in front of him.