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I SPEND THE REST of the afternoon session questioning a couple of forensic experts I’ve used in the past.

I know I can’t make the DNA belonging to Rob Jacobson disappear completely, as much of a magician as I consider myself.

But I continue to throw as much shade on it as humanly possible, the way I did with the photograph of Rob Jacobson in the Carsons’ neighborhood that night.

If I haven’t made the time stamp on that baby disappear, I’ve caused it to fade enough so as to be nearly invisible to the naked eye.

That’s the way I see it, anyway.

Then as soon as Judge Horton announces we’re adjourned, I’m back in the conference room with everybody on the team—except Jimmy, who has a meeting with Danny Esposito—to discuss the decision to put Rob Jacobson on the stand.

When everybody’s seated, I say to Rob Jacobson, “I’ve had all afternoon to think about it, and I’ve changed my mind. I’m not putting you on the stand.”

“Sorry, but it’s not your call,” he says. “It’s mine, honey. And I don’t need your permission to do it.”

Honey.

“As long as I’m your lawyer you do need my permission, actually,” I say.

“Am I allowed to ask what made you change your mind?” he asks.

I take a deep, calming breath, knowing it’s probably a waste of time. But I give it a shot.

“It’s my job to give you the best goddamn defense I can,” I say.

My voice is rising and I don’t care if they can hear me in the goddamn hall.

“I did it once, and against all possible odds might be about to do it again, unless you try to blow yourself up, which is what you’ll be doing if you get on the stand.

So, yeah, Rob, I changed my mind. What can I tell you? I’m a girl.”

“You know, I wonder about that sometimes,” he says.

Norma Banks leans over and says, “Are you looking to get slapped, sonny?”

“You’ve got it all wrong, grandma,” Jacobson says. “Some of the women I screw like it rough. Not me.” He gives me a quick look and says, “You can ask Janie’s sister.”

I’m the one who wants to slap him now. But before I can, Norma gets up and walks around the table and heads for the door. As she passes Rob she raises her hand just enough to make him flinch.

“You really are a bitch,” she says to him.

The room is silent for a moment after she’s gone.

Finally, McGoey says, “You don’t want to do this, Rob.”

“Listen, I know how risky it is,” Rob Jacobson says. “But I’ve always been a risk taker.”

“You mean other than with underaged girls?” I ask.

Jacobson’s eyes narrow to slits as he turns to face me. The room has now officially turned into a hockey fight.

“You can follow grandma right out the door if you want,” he says. “I’m not taking any shit from you either, Thomas.”

“Listen to Jane,” McGoey says.

“No, you listen to me,” Jacobson snaps at McGoey. “Janie here wouldn’t even have considered this if she didn’t think our case is going into the shitter.”

He turns back to me. “You’re not saying anything because you know I’m right.”

“It had to happen eventually,” I say.

McGoey extends his hands toward both of us, as if stopping traffic. “We need to take the temperature down,” he says.

“Listen, if either of you is worried about me handling that bitch DA, don’t,” he says.

I stare down at my hands, as if I’m addressing them. Or am just trying to keep them where they are.

“She will eat you alive,” I say.

“Why?” Jacobson says. “Because she’s another woman who thinks she’s smarter than me?”

“Well, for starters, yeah,” I say.

I am still managing to keep myself under control. But barely. I can feel the heat rising in me, ready to explode. Mount Saint Jane.

“Just listen to me for once,” Jacobson says.

“So maybe I might not be able to charm the pants off the esteemed Ms. Welsh. I’ll concede that.

But I sure as hell can do it with the women on that jury.

” The smirk is back, just like that, not that it’s ever very far away.

“And maybe a few of the guys, too. You might not believe this, but dudes dig me, too.”

My father made me learn the Serenity Prayer after he finally stopped drinking and joined AA. I can hear him reciting it to me inside my head now, from what feels like a hundred years ago.

Give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change …

Jacobson lays his palms flat on the table, making me think he’s finished his dumb-assed presentation.

“So are we done here?” I ask.

“Not quite,” he says, then adds, “I’ve been saving the best for last.”

He pauses, but only briefly.

“You’re not going to be the one questioning me, Janie,” he says. “Thomas is. And I’ll tell you why before you even ask: Knowing Thomas, it won’t bother him nearly as much as it would bother you when I get up there and lie my ass off.”

I sit there in a kind of stunned silence. I thought I was beyond being surprised by him. Wrong again.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?”

“Just this one thing you’ve heard before,” I say, my voice still sounding relatively calm, but knowing that the explosion is here. “But something about which I am now as serious as cancer.”

I get up now and walk around the table and get so close to him our noses are nearly touching, and my voice explodes out of me, nearly knocking him back over in his chair.

“I fucking quit.”