Sydney Weider breezed in a few seconds later. She was older— early forties— thin and tall, with efficient blond hair and wide pale eyes. Her tailored black suit and crocodile bag and big pearl earrings were beyond a P.D.’s salary. Maybe the rock on her finger explained that. Maybe that was a sexist assumption and she’d cleaned up in the stock market.

She sat down and twisted the ring so the diamond faced inward. Put on a pair of tiny little gold-plated reading glasses and said, “Well, here we are.” Her words came out crowded together. Big hurry to express herself.

Both of them had wanted individual meetings. I told them we’d start out together and see how it went.

It didn’t need to go further. They worked on me individually but their goals were identical: emphasizing the youth and criminal inexperience of their clients, pointing out the wretchedness of each boy’s upbringing, letting me know that anything other than a juvenile trial would be cruel and inhuman.

By the end of the hour, they were working as a team. From talking to Troy I sensed Weider would be laying everything on Rand, but it wasn’t my place to bring that up.

As she warmed up, she talked even faster, seemed to dominate Montez. Ending up with a long dissertation on the evils of video games and public housing, she snapped her Filofax shut, removed her glasses, and cross-examined me with her eyes.

“What’s your report going to say?” Machine-gun burst.

“I haven’t written it yet.”

“You must have come to some conclusions.”

“I’ll be reporting to Judge Laskin. He’ll send you copies.”

“So it’s going to be like that,” she said.

“Per Judge Laskin, that’s the way it has to be.”

She collected her papers and fiddled with her ring. “Think about this, Dr. Delaware: Psychology’s a mushy soft science and psychologists can be made to look pretty vulnerable on the stand.”

“I’m sure they can.”

“More than vulnerable,” she said. “Downright ludicrous.”

“I’m sure some of them deserve it.”

She sat up straighter, tried to stare me down, looked disgusted when she failed. “Doctor, you can’t seriously be considering these kids for an adult trial.”

“It won’t be up to me— ”

“Judge Laskin is relying on your expertise, so for all practical purposes it will be up to you, Doctor.”

“From what I’ve seen, Judge Laskin is a pretty independent guy.”

Montez said, “All we’re aiming for is basic justice, Doctor. Let’s give these kids a chance at rehabilitation.”

Weider said, “Doctor, we’ll be bringing in our own experts.”

I said, “Mr. Montez has already hired Professor Davidson from Stanford.”

Weider turned and eyed her colleague. He twirled a mustache and nodded. “It took awhile to get his fees authorized, but he’s on board.”