Page 152 of The Lincoln Lawyer

I laughed and shook my head.

“No, I don’t want a mistrial. All that will do is give the prosecution time to clean up its mess, get it all right and then come back at us.”

“Then what do you want?” she asked.

“What do I want? A directed verdict would be nice. Something with no comebacks from the state. Other than that, we’ll ride it out.”

The judge nodded and clasped her hands together on the desk.

“A directed verdict would be ridiculous, Your Honor,” Minton said, finally finding his voice. “We’re at the end of trial, anyway. We might as well take it to a verdict. The jury deserves it. Just because one mistake was made by the state, there is no reason to subvert the whole process.”

“Don’t be stupid, Mr. Minton,” the judge said dismissively. “It’s not about what the jury deserves. And as far as I am concerned, one mistake like you have made is enough. I don’t want this kicked back at me by the Second and that is surely what they will do. Then I am holding the bag for your miscon—”

“I didn’t know Corliss’s background!” Minton said forcefully. “I swear to God I didn’t know.”

The intensity of his words brought a momentary silence to the chambers. But soon I slipped into the void.

“Just like you didn’t know about the knife, Ted?”

Fullbright looked from Minton to me and then back at Minton.

“What knife?” she asked.

Minton said nothing.

“Tell her,” I said.

Minton shook his head.

“I don’t know what he’s talking about,” he said.

“Then you tell me,” the judge said to me.

“Judge, if you wait on discovery from the DA, you might as well hang it up at the start,” I said. “Witnesses disappear, stories change, you can lose a case just sitting around waiting.”

“All right, so what about the knife?”

“I needed to move on this case. So I had my investigator go through the back door and get reports. It’s fair game. But they were waiting for him and they phonied up a report on the knife so I wouldn’t know about the initials. I didn’t know until I got the formal discovery packet.”

The judge formed a hard line with her lips.

“That was the police, not the DA’s office,” Minton said quickly.

“Thirty seconds ago you said you didn’t know what he was talking about,” Fullbright said. “Now suddenly you do. I don’t care who did it. Are you telling me that this did in fact occur?”

Minton reluctantly nodded.

“Yes, Your Honor. But I swear, I didn’t—”

“You know what this tells me?” the judge said, cutting him off. “It tells me that from start to finish the state has not played fair in this case. It doesn’t matter who did what or that Mr. Haller’s investigator may have been acting improperly. The state must be above that. And as evidenced today in my courtroom it has been anything but that.”

“Your Honor, that’s not—”

“No more, Mr. Minton. I think I’ve heard enough. I want you both to leave now. In half an hour I’ll take the bench and announce what we’ll do about this. I am not sure yet what that will be but no matter what I do, you aren’t going to like what I have to say, Mr. Minton. And I am directing you to have your boss, Mr. Smithson, in the courtroom with you to hear it.”

I stood up. Minton didn’t move. He still seemed frozen to the seat.

“I said you can go!” the judge barked.