Page 37 of Precise Justice

“Where is everybody?” Marc quietly asked.

“They’re in their offices with the doors locked,” Sandy whispered. “Jeff and Carolyn left early leaving me alone with him.”

“With who?” Marc asked.

“Him!” Sandy replied as quietly and emphatically as she could while pointing toward Marc’s client. “He creeps everybody out,” Sandy said still whispering.

“We had the offices sound proofed,” Marc said in his normal voice.

Still agitated Sandy said, “I don’t care. Why is he here?”

“To see me. I’m his lawyer. Remember? We’re a law office.”

“He creeps me out. He’s been sitting there for an hour. Did you get my text?”

“Maybe. I didn’t check.”

“He stares at me,” Sandy said still whispering.

“So do I when you’re not looking,” Marc said.

“Really? You, I wouldn’t mind,” she replied.

“I thought you had a boyfriend?”

“I do. So?”

“I gotta see my client. Go.”

“Have a seat Ken,” Marc said.

Kenneth James was Marc’s most recent murder case. He claimed he hit his wife with a metal vase in self-defense after she had stabbed him three times. The medical examiner’s report of the stab wounds made it clear the M.E. was not buying it. The M.E. would testify they were self-inflicted.

Marc had a retired pathologist who would dispute that. He was certain the wounds were deep enough. Who would the jury believe? There was another problem. These two had a history of domestic assault by both of them.

“Did you call the monitoring service and let them know you were coming here?”

Ken was out on bail and wore an ankle monitoring device. He could visit his lawyer after letting them know he was going to.

“Of course,” Ken answered.

“What’s up?”

“We still on for trial next week,” Ken asked.

“Haven’t heard anything different. Why?” Marc answered.

There was a long silence between them. Marc, believing he knew what was coming, stared at Ken. Ken averted his eyes while trying to decide how to tell Marc what was on his mind.

“Spit it out, Ken,” Marc said.

“Do you, could you, we I guess, still make the deal for second degree manslaughter?”

“I think so. They may want first degree manslaughter. Even so, you’re going to have to allocute to it in open court. Admit you did it,” Marc told him.

Following a long pause, Ken finally said, “I did do it. I mean well, I didn’t mean to kill her. She was seeing someone else, cheating and we got into it. She said it was my fault, screaming at me. The vase was there and I hit her with it.

“I’m sorry. I am so sorry. I can’t live with the guilt. My kids know. My son told me to be a man and admit what I did. It’s been eating at me ever since.”