“You’re saying I should absent myself from the trial? Leave my husband alone under house arrest over there at the inn?”

“Every hour you’re not in DC, there’s a chance that things will start slipping. Phone calls and video conferences are one thing, but this project requires a lot of hand-holding. That means you. In person. One-on-one. We’ve come too far to let a distraction sink us.”

“You call supporting my husband a distraction?”

Pearce shakes his head. “No, no, of course not. You made a strong statement on the courthouse steps today. I think the country saw that as a wife defending the man she loves. Totally appropriate. But you know as well as I do that you can’t appear to be putting your thumb on the scale here.”

“And you think my presence creates that impression?”

“You’re here. In the courthouse. And the press knows it. And every day you attend the trial, they’re going to be shouting questions about the testimony, trying to get a rise out of you, maybe get you to say something that will be grounds for a mistrial. Meanwhile, the Grand Bargain is in a holding pattern, and a lot of people would love to shoot it down.”

“Enough, Burton. You’ve made your point.”

Pearce leans back in his chair, hands raised in surrender. “Okay, Madam President, it’s your decision.”

The court recess is over. Maddy turns up the sound again. “Damn right it is.”

CHAPTER
90

Judge Dow raps his gavel to quiet the room. “All right, we’re in session.”

I’m staring at the back of Tess Hardy’s perfect blond head. She’s up next.

The judge shuffles some papers, then looks her way. “Ms. Hardy, we’re ready for the defense’s opening statement.”

Hardy nods, but for a few seconds, she doesn’t move.

Just when the judge seems about to give her a verbal nudge, she stands up slowly and deliberately, head held high and empty-handed. No notes. Heels clicking on the floor, she walks past the lectern and stops in front of the jury box.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tess Hardy. I’m here to disprove all the so-called evidence Mr. Bastinelli talked about and show you that the man at that table”—she turns and points at Cole Wright—“is here because of who he is and not because of anything he’s done.” She turns back, giving the jurors a warm smile.

“But first, I’d like to extend my thanks to the good people of New Hampshire for welcoming a lawyer ‘from away,’ as the New England expression goes.”

I see some of the jurors smiling back. Some even angle toward her.

She’s good.