Because of staff shortages, the men are essentially in a Supermax facility, allowed out briefly once a day, often going weeks without getting to use the exercise yard. Their starchy meals are slapped through the bars at them. I guessed that’s why Johnny agreed so readily to let me be part of his legal team. Even if the state wouldn’t let him use a gym or a library, they had to let him see his lawyer.

I’d been in the meeting room more than an hour before the locks scraped back. A guard came in with Johnny in cuffs and seated him at the scarred table. He left us alone for a minute, then returned with two Styrofoam cups of coffee. Johnny clearly had clout! The guard stepped to the corner of the room, supposedly out of earshot.

“So, little white girl lawyer couldn’t take the heat at Twenty-sixth and California.” Johnny gave me an evil grin. “Had to jump to the pig side of the fence, huh?”

“Good to see you again, too, after all this time, Mr. Merton.” I sat down across from him.

Actually, seeing Johnny was a shock. He was almost bald, and what remained of his close-cropped hair was white. He had once been lean and lithe, as supple as his anaconda namesake, but the loss of exercise and increase of heavy food had weighed him down. Only the anger behind the tearing in his bloodshot eyes was familiar. That, and the coiled snakes tattooed on his arms.

“And what brilliant new insights are you bringing to my legal team, little white girl?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “The pleasure of knowing I don’t have to try to make you look good to a judge again.”

That silenced him. I hoped he was remembering the time I represented him all those years back. In our meetings, after showering me with the barrage of insults that had become his second skin, he had raged against the rampant racism of the courts, the cops, the economy. I somehow persuaded him to tone it down, to speak civilly to the judge and opposing counsel, and, in the end, we got an aggravated assault charge reduced to a sentence for battery.

“I read through your file over the weekend. I expect the cops could have got you anytime they wanted you for the rackets, but they were waiting for you to make a big mistake and do it in front of a guy with a wire.”

He smacked the table with his palm. “You think I’m admitting to anything in front of you, bitch, you are so wrong!”

I pulled Suite Française from my briefcase and started to read. After watching me in mounting fury, Johnny suddenly gave a bark of a laugh. “Right. Ms. Detective, I should have said.”