“Yeah, she finally called. She said she got a better offer. She’s going to be Bruce Carlin’s secretary now.”

I nodded. That seemed to make a certain amount of sense.

“Now, before you go into lockdown, we need to go over some things,” Lorna said.

“That’s what I said when I came in. What’ve you got?”

Lorna sat down in one of the chairs in front of the desk. Cisco stayed standing, more like pacing, behind her.

“All right,” Lorna said. “Couple things while you were in court. First, you must’ve touched a nerve with that motion you filed on the evidence in Patrick’s case.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“The prosecutor’s called three times today, wanting to talk about a dispo.”

I smiled. The motion to examine the evidence had been a long shot but it looked like it might come through and I would be able to help Patrick.

“What’s going on with that?” Lorna asked. “You didn’t tell me you filed motions.”

“From the car yesterday. And what’s going on is that I think Dr. Vogler gave his wife phony diamonds for her birthday. Now, to make sure she never knows it, they’re going to float a deal to Patrick if I withdraw my request to examine the evidence.”

“Good. I think I like Patrick.”

“I hope he gets the break. What’s next?”

Lorna looked at the notes on her steno pad. I knew she didn’t like to be rushed but I was rushing her.

“You’re still getting a lot of calls from the local media. About Jerry Vincent or Walter Elliot or both. You want to go over them?”

“No. I don’t have the time for any media calls.”

“Well, that’s what I’ve been telling them but it’s not making them happy. Especially that guy from the Times. He’s being an asshole.”

“So what if they’re not happy? I don’t care.”

“Well, you better be careful, Mickey. Hell hath no fury like the media scorned.”

It was a good point. The media can love you one day and bury you the next. My father had spent twenty years as a media darling. But toward the end of his professional life, he had become a pariah because the reporters had grown weary of him getting guilty men off. He became the embodiment of a justice system that had different rules for well-heeled defendants with powerful attorneys.

“I’ll try to be more accommodating,” I said. “Just not now.”

“Fine.”

“Anything else to report?”

“I think that’s — I told you about Wren, so that’s all I have. You’ll call the prosecutor on Patrick’s case?”

“Yes, I will call him.”

I looked over Lorna’s shoulder at Cisco, who was still standing.

“Okay, Cisco, your turn. What’ve you got?”

“Still working on Elliot. Mostly in regard to Rilz and some hand-holding with our witnesses.”