do. Thanks so much, see you soon. Good-bye, now.” Mary pressed End Call, troubled. “Tell you something interesting.”
“What?”
“The cell number that he gave us for Allegra is different from the one she gave me yesterday. Hold on, let me see if I’m right.” Mary scrolled to her address book to double-check, and confirmed what she remembered. “I am. So Allegra has two cell phones.”
“She’s baller, for a middle-schooler.” Judy set down her coffee. “Let’s go. I’ll get my notes on the file. I made some when I copied it.”
“Good idea. We’ll take my car. It’s cleaner.”
“You got that right.”
Half an hour later, Mary had called Allegra but hadn’t been able to reach her, so she’d left a message, picked up the car, and hopped on the expressway heading west, speeding out of the city in Mary’s blue BMW 325, which replaced Mike’s ancient green BMW 2002. She stopped driving the green one only after it turned 100,000 miles, and even so, she couldn’t junk it, but left it parked on the street, moving it occasionally so the Parking Authority didn’t tag it as abandoned. Sometimes she found notes on the car windshield, offering to buy it, but she never responded. Mike had loved that car, and she couldn’t bring herself to sell it. She wasn’t the most insightful woman on the planet, but even she knew Mike’s old BMW was all bollixed up with Anthony, the proposal, and the meatball ring.
“Okay, I’ll brief you on the way, since you’re a partner now.”
“Sounds good,” Mary told her, coming out of her reverie. The expressway was clear and sunny, the sky a bold blue over the Schuylkill River to their right, and on its far bank stood a line of brightly-painted Victorian boathouses, flying bright pennants that flapped in the gusts. Crews rowed past in sculls as long and skinny as toothpicks, and Mary couldn’t understand why Bennie loved to row, when you could so easily drown.
“I’ll take you through the trial, it’s cut short by the guilty plea, when the jury was dismissed. Prosecution calls nine witnesses, defense calls two.”
Mary hit the gas. “Who was Stall’s lawyer? Was he a public defender?”
“No, a private lawyer. I never heard of him. Bob Brandt.”
“Never heard of him either. Was he court-appointed?”
“No.”
“So they went out of the system. Too bad.” Mary knew that Philadelphia had a fairly decent system for representing indigent murder defendants, in that 80 percent would get a well-qualified lawyer appointed by the court, and the remainder went to the Public Defender’s Office, which was staffed with experienced and committed criminal defense lawyers.
“His firm is the Law Offices of Bob Brandt.” Judy slid her iPhone from her purse and hit a few keys on the touch screen. “Here’s Brandt’s website. It doesn’t say he practices criminal law except DUI.” She pinched the screen to enlarge it. “He looks young, even now. Five years ago, he must have been very young. Went to Temple Law and Penn State. Okay, so he graduated law school three years before he tried Stall’s case. Wanna bet it was practically his first murder case?”
Mary was already thinking they could attack the conviction based on ineffective assistance of counsel. It was a tough argument to win, but the law was that if trial counsel was incompetent and his incompetence made the difference between conviction and acquittal, Stall could get a new trial. Mary asked, “Who was in for the D.A.?”
“The district attorney himself. Mean Mel Bount.”
“For real?” Mary looked over.
“Of course. It’s so high-profile, a résumé case. I read that Mel’s about to run for governor. Bet it helps to have a check from the Gardner clan. Okay, here we go.” Judy scanned the legal pad on her lap. “Day one of the trial. The Commonwealth’s opening is that Stall was seen by three witnesses running from the building and was caught by the guests with blood on his shirt and
“What?”
“The cell number that he gave us for Allegra is different from the one she gave me yesterday. Hold on, let me see if I’m right.” Mary scrolled to her address book to double-check, and confirmed what she remembered. “I am. So Allegra has two cell phones.”
“She’s baller, for a middle-schooler.” Judy set down her coffee. “Let’s go. I’ll get my notes on the file. I made some when I copied it.”
“Good idea. We’ll take my car. It’s cleaner.”
“You got that right.”
Half an hour later, Mary had called Allegra but hadn’t been able to reach her, so she’d left a message, picked up the car, and hopped on the expressway heading west, speeding out of the city in Mary’s blue BMW 325, which replaced Mike’s ancient green BMW 2002. She stopped driving the green one only after it turned 100,000 miles, and even so, she couldn’t junk it, but left it parked on the street, moving it occasionally so the Parking Authority didn’t tag it as abandoned. Sometimes she found notes on the car windshield, offering to buy it, but she never responded. Mike had loved that car, and she couldn’t bring herself to sell it. She wasn’t the most insightful woman on the planet, but even she knew Mike’s old BMW was all bollixed up with Anthony, the proposal, and the meatball ring.
“Okay, I’ll brief you on the way, since you’re a partner now.”
“Sounds good,” Mary told her, coming out of her reverie. The expressway was clear and sunny, the sky a bold blue over the Schuylkill River to their right, and on its far bank stood a line of brightly-painted Victorian boathouses, flying bright pennants that flapped in the gusts. Crews rowed past in sculls as long and skinny as toothpicks, and Mary couldn’t understand why Bennie loved to row, when you could so easily drown.
“I’ll take you through the trial, it’s cut short by the guilty plea, when the jury was dismissed. Prosecution calls nine witnesses, defense calls two.”
Mary hit the gas. “Who was Stall’s lawyer? Was he a public defender?”
“No, a private lawyer. I never heard of him. Bob Brandt.”
“Never heard of him either. Was he court-appointed?”
“No.”
“So they went out of the system. Too bad.” Mary knew that Philadelphia had a fairly decent system for representing indigent murder defendants, in that 80 percent would get a well-qualified lawyer appointed by the court, and the remainder went to the Public Defender’s Office, which was staffed with experienced and committed criminal defense lawyers.
“His firm is the Law Offices of Bob Brandt.” Judy slid her iPhone from her purse and hit a few keys on the touch screen. “Here’s Brandt’s website. It doesn’t say he practices criminal law except DUI.” She pinched the screen to enlarge it. “He looks young, even now. Five years ago, he must have been very young. Went to Temple Law and Penn State. Okay, so he graduated law school three years before he tried Stall’s case. Wanna bet it was practically his first murder case?”
Mary was already thinking they could attack the conviction based on ineffective assistance of counsel. It was a tough argument to win, but the law was that if trial counsel was incompetent and his incompetence made the difference between conviction and acquittal, Stall could get a new trial. Mary asked, “Who was in for the D.A.?”
“The district attorney himself. Mean Mel Bount.”
“For real?” Mary looked over.
“Of course. It’s so high-profile, a résumé case. I read that Mel’s about to run for governor. Bet it helps to have a check from the Gardner clan. Okay, here we go.” Judy scanned the legal pad on her lap. “Day one of the trial. The Commonwealth’s opening is that Stall was seen by three witnesses running from the building and was caught by the guests with blood on his shirt and
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