Jury of One by David Ellis

laughed, genuinely amused. “What I mean by that is, I wouldn’t expect to be on your referral list under ordinary circumstances. I assume that you must feel some compulsion if you’re calling me. You’re probably swallowing a lot right now.”
    “Would you like me to tell you why I’m here, or not?” she asked.
    He swept a hand. “The suspense is killing me.”
    Shelly sighed. Paul quickly touched her arm. “I’m sorry, Michelle. I’m operating under the impression that you don’t care for me much, so I had to play with you a little. I apologize. This is important to you, obviously. Please, tell me how I can help.”
    Okay, he had met her halfway. “Paul, I have a client who is charged with killing a police officer.”
    “Recently,” Paul said. “Day or two ago.”
    “Right.”
    “Sure.” Paul’s tongue ran against his cheek. Calculating.
    “His name is Alex Baniewicz. He’s a good kid—I mean, he has potential—” She swept back her hair, tucked it behind her ears. “He’s basically a good kid. He also sells drugs once in a while. Apparently, the officer was chasing him and Alex killed him in a shoot-out.”
    Paul fingered a cuff. He wore a thick, heavily starched white shirt with gleaming silver cuff links, a gorgeous orange-and-blue tie. The guy had
lawyer
written all over him. Shelly was suddenly conscious of her blue jeans and sweater.
    “You’ve talked to him?” Paul asked.
    “Yeah.”
    “What’s he say? Did he do it?”
    “He didn’t tell me. But I think so, yeah.”
    Paul nodded. “Has he talked to them?”
    “No. And I’ve told him not to.”
    “Great. Good. What do they have? Eyes? A weapon?”
    Eyes.
The same thing Detective Montes said. “Both of those,” she said. “They caught up with Alex about fifteen minutes later. They found the blood on his clothes. They have at least one eyewitness—another cop. I’m told they’re scouring the area for more witnesses. They have a weapon and drugs at the scene.”
    Paul shook his head with a purpose. He seemed to do everything with a purpose, though Shelly had to concede that he made it look casual. “How old?”
    “He’s sixteen,” she said. “So it’s death-eligible. In more ways than one.” Homicide of a police officer, by itself, made it a capital offense, not to mention that it was murder in the course of another felony, possession of narcotics. The United States Supreme Court had ruled that fifteen-year-olds were too young to be sentenced to death, but a child of sixteen could be executed. Which meant that Alex Baniewicz was eligible for the death penalty.
    “And Elliot will seek death,” Paul agreed. “For shooting a cop? No question.”
    Elliot Raycroft, he meant. The county attorney for the jurisdiction, which included the mammoth city and some of the surrounding suburbs.
    Shelly nodded.
    Paul touched her arm again. He was a very touchy sort. “Sorry, it sounds like you’re invested in this boy. But we need to know that going in.”
    “I understand. I want you to be blunt.”
    “Then I’ll be even more blunt, Michelle.”
    “Shelly,” she said.
    “Shelly?” He had spent the entire sexual harassment case calling her by her formal name.
    “Shelly.”
    Paul seemed to recognize that he’d been left out of the club. He could probably figure the criteria for admission. “Okay—Shelly. If your guy hasn’t told you whether he did it, do yourself a favor and don’t ask him again. Not yet. Find out what the police have first. You can even ask
him
what he thinks they have. But don’t ask him whether he did it.”
    “Sure.” She inhaled. Advice she didn’t need. “Paul, I was hoping you’d take this case.”
    He let out a small laugh, a chuckle, implying that this was a major hurdle. He grimaced, while his eyes hit the ceiling, blinking rapidly. “I’m pretty tight.” He looked at Shelly. “What is the financial situation?”
    “About as tight as your schedule.”
    Paul rubbed his hands together,