“Rule 3.7,” she said. “Your testimony would relate to an uncontested fact. You won’t be called as a witness, so check that off the list. And you just need a waiver and consent on any other conflicts of interest. I told you. Katy will sign it. We’re still a family. A messed up one, granted, but still.”
“You sound like your dad,” I said. “Fine, let’s assume you’re right about the rules. Just because Icando this doesn’t mean I should. Katy needs somebody who can look at her case objectively and counsel her without emotion.”
“You’re wrong,” Emma said. “That’s the complete opposite of what she needs. She needs a pit viper who knows how to fight mean when it’s necessary. Who knows her well enough to show people who she really is, not who she looks like on paper. That’s you.”
“Pit viper?” I said. “Thank you. I think?”
“She has a point,” Miranda said. “The jury is gonna know Katy cheated on your brother. But seeing you stand beside her anyway. That could carry some real emotional weight. You’d be a character witness by your sheer presence.”
Jeanie raised a brow. Her wheels were turning too. If I looked at it clinically, Miranda had a strong point. But that was the trouble; there was no way for me to look at it from an objective perspective. I knew Katy too well.
I knew Katy too well.
I understood Emma’s feelings because I shared them. I hadn’t gotten over my own anger at her betrayal of Joe and Emma. But they both still loved her. Deep down, so did I. That said, my brother had been utterly devastated by their break-up. Had she not thrown him over for Tom Loomis, we wouldn’t be sitting here having this conversation.
And yet, there was still a giant elephant in the room. “Okay,” I said.
“Okay?” Emma said, her face lighting up.
I put a hand up in a cautionary gesture. “Hold on a second. Not okay, I’ll do it. But okay, everyone’s right. Katy may well need the toughest defense team she can get. My instinct to help her is strong; I’ll admit that. If she were some random client who Ibelieved was innocent, that would be the end of the discussion. As long as the check cleared, I’d go in there and put the prosecution to its proofs. It’s just … wearen’tobjective. None of us. So somebody needs to ask the questions we’d all have if sheweresome random client.”
I got blank stares from all of them. I waited for a beat, then took a breath.
“Guys,” I said. “What if she’s not innocent? What if she actually killed Tom Loomis?”
Jeanie looked down at her shoes. Miranda looked at Emma. Emma stared straight through me.
“You can’t think …” Emma started.
“I can,” I said. “I don’t know Katy’s side of the story. And I can’t very well march over to the jail and demand she tell it to me unless I’ve already agreed to take her case. I told her that three days ago. If I’m not her lawyer, anything she tells me I can be compelled to testify about. So never mind whether the court or the Attorney Discipline Board has an issue with it, that’s my personal issue with it.”
Jeanie rose off the couch. She circled it, walked to my desk, then walked back.
“There’s a way,” she said. “You agree to represent Katy. You get her to sign all the waivers you need. Then we do this together. Co-counsel. If Katy tells you something incriminating, as her lawyer, it’s privileged. But if we’re at trial and something happens where you don’t feel you can ethically continue, then none of your issues would apply to me. I can take over.”
“That’s perfect,” Emma said. “And I’ll be walled off. I’ll stay a million miles away fromthis.”
Their logic was sound. But again, logic wasn’t the only problem.
“I suppose you’d want to do this pro bono.” Miranda sighed.
“She can’t afford us,” Emma said. “But she needs us. We can’t leave her to a public defender, Aunt Cass. Please. I’m begging you. Shamelessly. If you can’t do this for Katy, or my dad, then I’m asking you to do it for me.”
“You’re killing me,” I whispered. “All of you.”
Emma smiled. She came over to the other couch and wrapped her arms around me.
“I love you,” she said. “And I love Katy. Even when I hate her.”
“That right there is the true definition of a real mother/daughter relationship,” Miranda joked.
“Fine,” I said. “But all of it. Waivers. Walling Emma off. Jeanie as my backup. But Emma, when I mean walled off, I mean completely. I don’t even want you talking to your father about this case. Do you think you can do that?”
“Yes,” she said. “I promise.”
“I’m not saying yes,” I said. “Not yet. But I can represent Katy at her arraignment today. Then she and I will have a serious talk. If I don’t come away from it feeling good, it ends there. They still won’t be able to call me to testify against her, but I can remove myself from any further entanglement.”
“Perfect,” Emma said.
