“I’ll find another psychologist.”

“If you wish, but I can’t hold him here in the meantime. He wants to be released, and so we’re required to release him. The nurse will have the discharge paperwork for you.”

He went back into the other patient’s room, leaving me in the hallway. I began to pace. How was I going to convince Adam to stay here?

When I went into his room, he was already dressed and sitting on the bed, a cap pulled down over his head.

“’Bout damn time. I thought I was going to have to walk home.”

I stuck my hands in my pockets and said quietly, “You need to stay here.”

“I really don’t. That’s the great thing about America, I can do what I want.”

“Adam—”

“Don’t Adam me. You don’t get to tell me what to do. I’m your father. Now ya gonna drive me home or not?”

When I got to the office the next morning, Will and Jia were at a whiteboard brainstorming ideas about what Pritcher might have that made him want an expedited trial. Their list ran the gamut from surprise witness to dirt on the judge.

“I like the blackmail,” I said, walking in, “but I’ve known Judge Allred since I was a kid, and she’d rather die than take a bribe, I think.”

I took off my suit coat and leaned against Jia’s desk as I stared at the board. Will said, “So the best one we have so far is that he’s got, or knows how to get, some info on the potential jury. The jury gets called two weeks before a trial date in Allred’s court.”

I nodded. “And if he’s got a clerk on the payroll willing to tell him who’s in the pool, he can either research them or, more his style, outright bribe them. Okay, not bad. What else?”

Jia said, “Could be the escorting, but we don’t think that’s damaging enough to skip the prelim for. Plus, there’s no need to rush with that. The only other plausible thing is that his investigators have found some piece of evidence we haven’t.”

“That reminds me, file a reverse discovery request. If he does have something like that, he’ll be required to hand it over. I doubt it’ll help since he’s too smart for that. What he’ll do is ask to have it introduced, and when I throw a tantrum, he’ll say that he sent it the night before, which is when it mysteriously appeared on his desk from some anonymous source.”

“Will that work?” Jia asked.

“Why not? It’s worked for me several times.” I scanned the board again and said, “Well, whatever it is, we’ve got to hope what we have is better: I’m cutting a deal with Steven.”

“Seriously?” Will said.