Walters finished reviewing the file and gave Williams a stare that chilled even the most casual observer in the courtroom.
“I hope the commonwealth has an appropriate response to this, Mr. Williams, although I’m at a loss as to what it could possibly be.”
Williams rose from his chair. As he tried to speak, he suddenly discovered that his voice, along with his hubris, had deserted him.
“Well?” Judge Walters said expectantly. “Please say something or I’ve a mind to grant Mr. Fiske’s motion for sanctions before I’ve even heard it.”
When Fiske glanced over at Williams, his expression softened somewhat. You never knew when you might need a favor. “Your Honor, I’m certain the factual and legal errors in the commonwealth’s motion are due to the overworked lawyers there rather than anything intentional. I’ll even cut my settlement offer to five hundred dollars, but I’d like a personal apology from the commonwealth on the record. I really could’ve used some sleep last night.” That last comment brought laughter from around the courtroom.
Suddenly a voice boomed out from the back of the courtroom. “Judge Walters, if I may intercede, the commonwealth will accept that offer.”
Everyone looked at the source of the announcement, a short, almost bald, thick-bodied man dressed in a seersucker suit, his hairy neck pinched by his starchy collar. “We’ll take the offer,” the man said again in a gravelly voice laced with both the pleasing drawl of a lifelong Virginian and the rasp of a lifelong smoker. “And we do apologize to the court for taking up its valuable time.”
“I’m glad you happened by when you did, Mr. Graham,” Judge Walters said.
Bobby Graham, commonwealth attorney for the city of Richmond, nodded curtly before leaving through the double glass doors. He had offered no apology to Fiske; however, the defense lawyer chose not to push it. In a court of law, you rarely got everything you asked for.
Judge Walters said, “Commonwealth’s motion is dismissed with prejudice.” He looked at Williams. “Mr. Williams, I think you should go have that beer with Mr. Fiske, only I think you should be the one doing the buying, son.”
As the next motion was called, Fiske snapped shut his briefcase and walked out of the courtroom, Williams right next to him.
“Should’ve taken my first offer, Paulie.”
“I won’t forget this, Fiske,” Williams said angrily.
“Don’t.”
“We’re still going to put Jerome Hicks away,” Williams sneered. “Don’t think we’re not.”
For Paulie Williams and most of the other assistant commonwealth attorneys Fiske faced, Fiske knew his clients were like their personal, lifelong enemies, undeserving of anything other than the harshest of punishments. In some cases, Fiske knew, they were right. But not in all.
“You know what I’m thinking?” Fiske asked Williams. “I’m thinking how fast ten thousand years can go by.”
As Fiske left the third-floor courtroom, he passed police officers he had worked with when he was a Richmond cop. One of them smiled, nodded a hello, but the others refused to look at him. To them he was a traitor to the ranks, suit and briefcase traded for badge and gun. Mouthpiece for the other side. Rot in hell, Brother Fiske.
Fiske looked at one group of young black men, crewcuts so severe they looked bald, pants pushed down to the crotch, boxers showing, puffy gang jackets, bulky tennies with no laces. Their open defiance of the criminal justice system was clear; they were imperiously sulky in their sameness.
These young men crowded around their attorney, a white guy, office-chunky, sweaty, expensive pinstripe soiled at the cuffs, slick-skinned loafers on his feet, horn-rim glasses twisting a little as he hammered home a point to his scout troop. He banged his fist into his meaty palm as the young black men, abdominals racked under their silk drug-trove shirts, listened intently, the only time they figured they would need this man, would bother to even look at him other than with contempt, or through a gun sight. Until the next time they needed him. And they would. In this building, he was magic. Here Michael Jordan could not touch this white man. They were Lewis and Clark. He was their Sacajewea. Shout the mystical words, Sac. Don’t let them do us.