Lawyers In Love: In His Own Defense Read Online Free

crimes, the extent of which she could only surmise. The thoughtful looks on the jurors’ faces when she concluded her remarks gave her a fresh burst of confidence.
    Then she sat down and listened to him. Damn. Landry talked to the jurors as if they were his friends. His voice was deep, mellow, like orange blossom honey spilling slowly from its jar. She detected just a trace of back-country southern accent that could peg him as having grown up anywhere from rural Hillsborough County to the northernmost reaches of Georgia or Alabama.
    While his tone made Kristine think of darkened rooms and intimacies inappropriate to contemplate in a court of law, his words cut straight to the jugular. He zeroed in on the lack of hard evidence against Garcia that had cost her hours of sleep while she prepared the People’s case. Conceding that his client fit no one’s definition of a model citizen, Landry insisted all the while that this time the police had arrested Garcia for a crime he had not committed.
    Good strategy. Kristine couldn’t help admiring Landry’s skill, though she censured him for using it to benefit a despicable bastard like Garcia.
    “Be my guest,” he told the jury, his gaze steady as he motioned toward his client and curled his lips as if the sight filled him with disgust. “Hate Manny Garcia. I don’t like him a whole lot myself. Just remember while you’re hating him that he’s not on trial for the crimes he’s been accused of in the papers and on TV. He’s not on trial for anything except hiding a bag of cocaine in a crate of lettuce at his warehouse.
    “Unless Ms. Granger can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Manny Garcia was personally responsible for that coke being where it was when the police found it, you will have no choice but to vote for his acquittal.”
    Holding out both hands in a manner that made Kristine almost believe he hated having to adhere to the letter of the law and set a bad man free, Landry concluded his statement with a shrug and a smile that oozed sincerity.
    Kristine suppressed a groan. Each juror’s nod, every thoughtful look on a solemn face, sent her confidence plummeting.
    She should have told Andi she wasn’t ready to handle a case on her own. She should have ignored the state attorney’s wishes and let Garcia cop a plea. How could she survive this and come out looking like anything but the prize fool she felt like now?
    “Ms. Granger, you may call your first witness.”
    Shelving her momentary terror in the back of her mind, Kristine did what she had to do. She called Sergeant Gray, the vice detective who had found the drugs. Very carefully, she established what had happened May third, when the police had acted on an anonymous tip and found nearly two pounds of pure cocaine bagged up and stashed in a specially marked carton of lettuce said to have been grown in Texas.
    Landry shot her down on cross-examination, when he forced Gray to admit Manny Garcia hadn’t been on the premises when the coke was found.
    That didn’t daunt Kristine. She called her next witness, one of Garcia’s employees who had gotten immunity from prosecution for his testimony. “How did the cocaine get into that crate of lettuce?” she asked after asking a few questions to establish his identity.
    The witness shot Garcia a troubled look. “I don’t know how it got there, but I saw Mr. Garcia and the man who brought the crate to the warehouse check out what was inside and close it up again before they put it on the shelf with the other crates.”
    She gave the witness an encouraging smile. “Did you see what was inside?”
    “No, ma’am. I just saw them—Mr. Garcia and that other guy—open the crate and look inside. Like I said.”
    Kristine smiled. “Thank you, Mr. Smith. That will be all for now.”
    Slowly, as if he hadn’t a care, Landry unfolded his long, lean body from his chair behind the defense table and sauntered toward the witness box. “Mr. Smith,” he said, “you say