'About a year and a half ago, when I was still prosecuting, we had a guy named Ellis Alves. Charged with the murder of a Pemberton College student named Melissa Henderson.'
'I remember,' I said. 'You got a conviction.'
'Yeah, what a challenge. He's black, had two priors for sexual assault. She's white, honor student at Pemberton. Father owns eight banks. Her grandfather was once Secretary of Commerce.'
'And?'
'And I did what I was employed to do. I prosecuted. I won. Ellis is now at Cedar Junction. Forever.'
'Way to go, Rita.'
'Yeah. It was easy. He had a public defender one year out of law school, Yale, I think. Kid named Marcy Vance. Serious. Talbots suits. Just a little lipstick. Knew more law probably than I'll ever know. Knew nothing at all about criminal defense. I could convict Santa Claus if she was defending.'
She finished her coffee and put the cup aside.
'You're not smoking anymore,' I said.
'The patch worked for me. I been off three and a half years.'
'Good,' I said.
'What do you care,' Rita said. 'You're in love with Susan.'
'This is true,' I said. 'But it's not monomania.'
'Nice to know,' Rita said. 'Anyway. I didn't like the case, but it was there to be cleared and I cleared it. While I was clearing it, I was interviewing here, and a couple weeks after I cleared Ellis right over to Cedar Junction, I came to work here and started drinking coffee out of china cups.'
'So?'
'So last spring who shows up here, wearing more makeup, but still dressing Talbots? My old adversary, Marcy Vance. And as soon as we get reintroduced she starts in on me about Ellis Alves. He was framed. She was too green to conduct a proper defense. He was the victim of racial discrimination.'
'You believe her?'
'I believe Alves had a lousy defense. I believe it is easy to get a conviction on a black man whose victim is a rich white woman.'
'You believe he was innocent?'
'Most of the people I've convicted aren't.'
'True,' I said.
'But Marcy says he didn't do it. She admits freely that he's a bad man and probably a career criminal and probably guilty of a lot of other things. But she says he did not have anything to do with the Henderson kid.'
'If she's right it means somebody else did. And got away with it.'
'Yeah.'
We were quiet for a moment. The power boat was out of sight now, out in the bay somewhere. The gray sky seemed to have lowered, and the panorama had closed in considerably as we talked.
'You think she's right?' I said finally.
'I'm not sure she's wrong.'
'Ah ha,' I said. 'So there's more to this than just the chance to flash your legs at me and remind me of what I missed.'
'Well, that's the primary purpose, but the firm is also prepared to employ you to look into the matter of Ellis Alves at our expense.'
'And if I find out he didn't do it?'
'Then we would be very happy to have you ascertain who did.'
'Probably would have to anyway,' I said. 'It's a sure way to prove he didn't do it.'
'Let's be clear on this,' Rita said. 'The firm's not hiring you to clear this guy. The firm's hiring you to establish the truth.'
'And you a lawyer,' I said.
Rita smiled.
'I know, I'm not comfortable with the idea either,' she said. 'But there it is.'
'Well, okay, if that's the way you feel,' I said.
Rita took a thick cardboard envelope off her desk and handed it to me.
'Trial transcript,' she said.
'I'll read it,' I said. 'Though not happily. And I probably ought to talk with Marcy, and then I ought to talk with Ellis. How's Ellis feel about white people?'
'He feels that some of them put him away for life.'
I nodded.
