Mickey Haller 4 - The Fifth Witness

reaction. I kept going.
    “Cisco, I want you to focus on Louis Opparizio and his company. Get me everything that’s out there. History, known associates, everything. All the details of the merger. I want to know more about that deal and this guy than even he knows. By the end of next week I want to subpoena records from ALOFT. They’ll fight it but it ought to stir things up a bit.”
    Aronson shook her head.
    “But wait a minute,” she said. “Are you saying this is all bullshit? Just a defense gambit and this guy Opparizio didn’t really do it? What if we’re right about Opparizio and they’re wrong about Lisa Trammel? What if she’s innocent?”
    She looked at me with eyes full of naive hope. I smiled and looked at Cisco.
    “Tell her.”
    My investigator turned to face my young associate.
    “Kid, you’re new at this so you get a pass. But we never ask that question. It doesn’t matter if our clients are guilty or innocent. They all get the same bang for the buck.”
    “Yes, but…”
    “There are no buts,” I said. “We are talking about avenues of defense here. Ways to provide our client with the best defense possible. These are strategies we will follow regardless of guilt or innocence. You want to do criminal defense, this is what you have to understand. You never ask your client if he did it. Yes or no, the answer is only a distraction. So you don’t need to know.”
    She tightened her lips into a thin, straight line.
    “How are you on Tennyson?” I asked. “ ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’?”
    “What does—”
    “ ‘Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do or die.’ We’re the Light Brigade, Bullocks. We go up against an army that has more people, more weapons, more everything. Most of the time it amounts to little more than a suicide run. No chance of survival. No chance of winning. But sometimes you get a case where you have a shot. It might be a long shot, but it’s a shot nonetheless. So you take it. You charge… and you don’t ask questions like that.”
    “Actually, I think it’s ‘do and die.’ That was the point of the poem. They didn’t have the choice to do or die. They had to do and die.”
    “So you know your Tennyson. I like ‘do or die’ better. The point is, did Lisa Trammel kill Mitchell Bondurant? I really don’t know. She says she didn’t and that’s good enough for me. If it’s not good enough for you, then I’ll take you off this one and put you back on foreclosures full-time.”
    “No,” Aronson said quickly. “I want to stay. I’m in.”
    “That’s good. Not many lawyers get to sit second chair on a murder case ten months out of law school.”
    She looked at me, eyes wide.
    “Second chair?”
    I nodded.
    “You deserve it. You’ve done some really good work on this.”
    But the light quickly faded.
    “What?”
    “I just don’t know why you can’t have it both ways. You know, give unbridled effort in your defense but be conscientious about your work. Try for the best outcome.”
    “The best outcome for who? Your client? Society? Or for yourself? Your responsibility is to your client and the law, Bullocks. That’s it.”
    I gave her a long stare before continuing.
    “Don’t go growing a conscience on me,” I said. “I’ve been down that road. It doesn’t lead you to anything good.”

Ten
    After spending most of the day setting up the office I didn’t get home till almost eight. I found my ex-wife sitting on the steps leading up to the front deck. Our daughter wasn’t with her. In the past year there had been several encounters between us that did not include Hayley and I was thrilled by the prospect of another. I was dog-tired from the day’s mental and physical work but I could easily rally for Maggie McFierce.
    “Hey, Mags. You forget the key?”
    She got up, and just from her stiff posture and the way she dusted off the backside of her jeans all businesslike I knew something wasn’t right. When I got to the top step I moved in for a kiss—just on the cheek. But she immediately made an evasive maneuver and my suspicion was confirmed.
    “That’s where Hayley gets it,” I said. “The old duck and roll when I give her a kiss.”
    “Well, I’m not here for that, Haller. I didn’t use my key because I thought you might consider it some sort of conflict of interest if you found a prosecutor in your house.”
    Now I got it.
    “Yoga today? You saw Andrea Freeman?”
    “That’s right.”
    Suddenly, I