The Lincoln Lawyer

rare ability to convince yourself of almost anything, but we still-no, make that I-still need to convince the jury.”
    He took the rebuke like I was blowing bubbles in his face and moved on.
    “Well, what did she say?”
    “She said she isn’t going to allow me a lot of freedom in cross-examination. She reminded me that Regina Campo is a victim.”
    “I’m counting on you to rip her to shreds, to borrow a quote from you on the day we met.”
    “Yeah, well, things are a lot different than on the day we met, aren’t they? And your little scheme with my gun is about to blow up in my face. And I’m telling you right now, I’m not going down for it. If I have to drive people to the airport the rest of my life, I will do that and do it gladly if it’s my only way out from this. You understand, Louis?”
    “I understand, Mick,” he said glibly. “I’m sure you’ll figure something out. You’re a smart man.”
    I turned and looked at him. Luckily, I didn’t have to say anything further. The bailiff called the court to order and Judge Fullbright took the bench.
    Minton’s first witness of the day was LAPD Detective Martin Booker. He was a solid witness for the prosecution. A rock. His answers were clear and concise and given without hesitation. Booker introduced the key piece of evidence, the knife with my client’s initials on it, and under Minton’s questioning he took the jury through his entire investigation of the attack on Regina Campo.
    He testified that on the night of March 6 he had been working night duty out of Valley Bureau in Van Nuys. He was called to Regina Campo’s apartment by the West Valley Division watch commander, who believed, after being briefed by his patrol officers, that the attack on Campo merited immediate attention from an investigator. Booker explained that the six detective bureaus in the Valley were only staffed during daytime hours. He said the night-duty detective was a quick-response position and often assigned cases of a pressing nature.
    “What made this case of pressing nature, Detective?” Minton asked.
    “The injuries to the victim, the arrest of a suspect and the belief that a greater crime had probably been averted,” Booker answered.
    “That greater crime being what?”
    “Murder. It sounded like the guy was planning to kill her.”
    I could have objected but I planned to exploit the exchange on cross-examination, so I let it go.
    Minton walked Booker through the investigative steps he took at the crime scene and later while interviewing Campo as she was being treated at a hospital.
    “Before you got to the hospital you had been briefed by Officers Maxwell and Santos on what the victim had reported had happened, correct?”
    “Yes, they gave me an overview.”
    “Did they tell you that the victim was engaged in selling sex to men for a living?”
    “No, they didn’t.”
    “When did you find that out?”
    “Well, I was getting a pretty good sense of it when I was in her apartment and I saw some of the property she had there.”
    “What property?”
    “Things I would describe as sex aids, and in one of the bedrooms, there was a closet that only had negligees and clothing of a sexually provocative nature in it. There was also a television in that room and a collection of pornographic tapes in the drawers beneath it. I had been told that she did not have a roommate but it looked to me like both bedrooms were in active use. I started to think that one room was hers, like it was the one she slept in when she was alone, and the other was for her professional activities.”
    “A trick pad?”
    “You could call it that.”
    “Did it change your opinion of her as a victim of this attack?”
    “No, it didn’t.”
    “And why not?”
    “Because anybody can be a victim. Prostitute or pope, doesn’t matter. A victim is a victim.”
    Spoken just as rehearsed, I thought. Minton made a check mark on his pad and moved on.
    “Now, when you got to the hospital, did you ask the victim about your theory in regard to her bedrooms and what she did for a living?”
    “Yes, I did.”
    “What did she tell you?”
    “She flat out said she was a working girl. She didn’t try to hide it.”
    “Did anything she said to you differ from the accounts of the attack you had already gathered at the crime scene?”
    “No, not at all. She told me she opened the door to the defendant and he immediately punched her in the face and drove her backwards into the apartment. He