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Authors: Lisa Scottoline

Legal Tender

BOOK: Legal Tender
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For my editor, Carolyn Marino,
who has always encouraged me to be tall.
And for Kiki and Peter.

Contents
 
1
I edged forward on my pew in the gallery so…
2
The goose egg made by the initial blow was tinged…
3
Inside, Philadelphia’s new Criminal Justice Center looks nothing like a…
4
I walked to clear my head, striding down Benjamin Franklin…
5
I opened the arched wooden door to R & B’s…
6
It’s over, Bennie,” Mark said.
7
I decided against crying when I got home. It never…
8
MOBILE CRIME DETECTION UNIT
, it said on the boxy white…
9
We stood in the two-car parking lot behind the office…
10
The press mobbed the sidewalk in a dense pack, overrunning…
11
An army of reporters swelled behind the police barricades outside…
12
They sat before paper cups of tap water, looking hungry.
13
I stopped by my mother’s apartment early the next morning…
14
Grady had me barricaded in my office with an amazingly…
15
A criminalist in a navy Mobile Crime jumpsuit crouched on…
16
By midmorning I ventured out of my office to see…
17
Marshall’s rowhouse was in a gentrified part of West Philly…
18
I kept an anxious eye out for squad cars, but…
19
I hit the road in the brightness just before dawn…
20
I got back in the bananamobile with my written directions…
21
Bill’s eyes were wide open in a face that looked…
22
It was 6:15, Friday morning. I had driven all night.
23
I spent the morning in Conference Room D, working and…
24
Out of the car, Miss,” the cop said.
25
I grabbed a late-night shower in the firm’s locker room…
26
I was still queasy and upset, but I had a…
27
Sam slumped in jeans and an undershirt on his brown…
28
Sunday morning dawned and I spent it taking care of…
29
I couldn’t turn around and leave. I couldn’t run. For…
30
He was shorter than I remembered, but his face was…
31
I got off the freight elevator on the lowest level…
32
Hide in plain sight. It was getting to be second…
33
The office building was on the other side of town…
34
Is that you?” he asked, shocked.
35
Ten minutes later I had my co-conspirator on her feet…
36
Renee Butler’s rowhouse was a typical Philadelphia trinity, so called…
37
We walked down the glistening white corridor of the law…
38
Run. Flee. Go! I turned around and sprinted out the…
39
Good morning,” I said into my cell phone. “This Leo…”
40
I woke up lazily the next morning, savoring the sensation…
41
Mahogany bookshelves stocked with Supreme Court reporters surrounded the huge…
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Lisa Scottoline
Acclaim and Praise
Copyright
About PerfectBound
1
 

I
edged forward on my pew in the gallery so I wouldn’t miss a single word. My ex-lover’s new girlfriend, Eve Eberlein, was about to be publicly humiliated by the Honorable Edward J. Thompson. I wanted to dance with joy right there in the courtroom. Hell hath no fury like a lawyer scorned.

“Let me remind you of something you have plainly forgotten, Ms. Eberlein,” Judge Thompson was saying between discreetly clenched teeth. A bald, gentlemanly judge, his legendary patience had been tested by Eve’s attack on the elderly witness. “This is a court of law. There are rules of conduct. Civility, manners. One doesn’t check common courtesy at the door of my courtroom.”

“Your Honor, this witness is not being candid with the court,” Eve said. Her spiky brunette cut bounced in defiance as she stood before the dais, in perfect makeup and a red knit suit that fit her curves like an Ace bandage. Not that I was jealous.

“Utter nonsense, Ms. Eberlein!” Judge Thompson scoffed, peering down through reading glasses that matched his robe. “I will not permit you to cast aspersions on the character of a witness. You have asked her the same question over and over, and she’s told you she doesn’t remember where the Cetor file is. She retired two years ago, if you recall. Move on to your next question, counsel.”

“With all due respect, Your Honor, Mrs. Debs was the records custodian at Wellroth Chemical and she remembers perfectly well where the Cetor file is. I tell you, the witness is lying to the Court!” Eve pointed like a manicured Zola at Mrs. Debs, whose powdered skin flushed a deep pink.

“My goodness!” she exclaimed, hand fluttering to the pearls at her chest. Mrs. Debs had a halo of fuzzy gray hair and a face as honest as Aunt Bea’s. “I would never, ever lie to a court!” she said, and anybody with any sense could see she was telling the truth. “Heavens, I swore on a Bible!”

“Ms. Eberlein!” Judge Thompson exploded. “You’re out of order!” He grabbed his gavel and pounded it hard.
Crak! Crak! Crak!

Meanwhile, Mark Biscardi, my ex-boyfriend and still-current law partner, was fake-reading exhibits at counsel table. He was downplaying the debacle for the jury’s benefit, but was undoubtedly listening to every syllable. I hoped he remembered my prediction that Eve would crash and burn today, so I could say I told you so.

“I object, Your Honor!” shouted plaintiffs counsel, Gerry McIllvaine. “Ms. Eberlein’s conduct toward this witness is an outrage! An outrage!” McIllvaine, a trial veteran, had been standing out of the crossfire, keeping his mouth shut until it was time to grandstand for the jury. All the courtroom’s a stage, and all the men and women in it merely lawyers.

Then, suddenly, I began to focus on the jury box. Most of the jurors in the front row were scowling at Eve as Judge Thompson continued his lecture. Two jurors in the back, retirees like Mrs. Debs, bore a prim smile at Eve’s comeuppance. Eve had alienated the lot, and it would taint their view of the defendant’s case. Unfortunately, this was a high-stakes trial and the defendant was a major client of my law firm, Rosato & Biscardi, alias R & B.

Damn. I sat up straighter and looked worriedly at Mark, but he was stuck playing with the trial exhibits. He and I had started R & B seven years ago and watched it grow into one of the most successful litigation boutiques in Philadelphia. I cared about the firm so much I couldn’t even enjoy watching Eve screw up something besides my love life. Something had to be done.

I stood up in the middle of the proceedings, calling attention to myself without a word because of my height, a full six feet. It’s a great height for a trial lawyer, but as a teenager I stood by so many punchbowls I got sick from the fumes. I grew up to be taller, blonder, and stronger, so that now I looked like an Amazon with a law degree.

“Ouch!” said the lawyer sitting next to me, as I trounced solidly on his wingtip.

“Oh, excuse me,” I yelped, almost as loudly as Judge Thompson, still scolding Eve, with the jury’s rapt attention.

“Shhh,” said another lawyer.

“Sorry, so sorry,” I chirped, struggling out of the crowded row like a boor going for Budweiser in the second inning. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that one of the jurors, the Hispanic man on the end, was being successfully distracted. “Oops! Sorry about that,” I practically shouted.

Once out of the row, I strode past the bar of the court to counsel table, where my ex-beloved was sweating armholes into his English pinstripes. As Mark turned to see what the commotion was, I leaned close to his dark, wavy hair and breathed in his expensive creme rinse. “You’re fucked, hombre,” I whispered, with some pleasure.

BOOK: Legal Tender
10.45Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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