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The phone rang and Violet tumbled back into my life. I wouldn't have answered if I'd known where it would lead me, that I would be forced beyond my role as an advocate, into the realms of justice, morality, and mercy; that I would agonize over the meaning of culpability, and over trying to understand what was truth and what was fact. Violet's cases, State v. Violeta Rosada in Criminal Court and In the Matter of the Minor Child T. R. in Family Court, took me for a ride to places I did not want to go. But I didn't know that when the phone rang.
* * * * *
The heat was on and testosterone filled the police station like ozone before a storm. As we walked down the hall I saw Eduardo Fortunato coming the other way. He is the best criminal defense attorney in the city, the one who takes the dirty cases--big-time drug dealers and major violent crimes. Everything I know about being a good lawyer I learned from him. "Ginger Rae!" He leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. "I thought you weren't doing this anymore," he said, the sweep of his gesture encompassing pea-soup walls, cracked vinyl floor, and Officer Decker and his duty belt which sagged with the weight of his Glock; two magazines, each holding fifteen rounds of 9-millimeter ammunition; radio; mace; sap; flashlight; and handcuffs.
"A former client in distress." I wanted to ask him to talk to Violet, to take her case, to let me go home and see if Tommy had something warm in the oven. "I might be calling you."
"Do that." He ignored Officer Decker's impatience. "I'll buy you lunch." He kissed me again, and continued on his way out of the police station. I turned and watched him stroll down the corridor, taking with him the light of his confidence, wit, and charisma. I wanted him to come back, to fix everything for me. I didn't want to be alone on a cold rainy night in a dirty hall with Officer Decker, on my way to see a client who might have hurt her child.
Defending Violet can be ordered from Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com
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