A Reason to Live (Marty Singer1) by Matthew Iden

out of the courtroom?"
    "That's what I said."
    "Gimme a break, counselor," I said. "Your first real client as a criminal defense attorney. A huge deal in the press. Maybe a landmark case against the MPDC, a bad cop goes on trial for murder one, and it gets screwed up on the way. And you're telling me you don't know anything about him?"
    "That's right."
    "You don't know where he lived, or ate, or what his forwarding address was?"
    "Singer, you probably know as much or more than I do. Up until the time I represented him, I hadn't even heard of Wheeler except in the papers. After I was brought on the case, he was in custody during the trial. I visited him a couple of times in lockup to get our strategy straight. After that, the only other time I saw him was when the bailiff marched him over to my table. And that's it."
    "And after the trial," I said, still digging. "Nothing? He walked out of the courtroom and out of your life ten minutes after the verdict?"
    "More like five, but yes, pretty much. We gave the obligatory statement to the press--it was big news, naturally--and then we shook hands and he took off."
    "No phone calls, no visits, nothing?"
    She smiled. "No matter how many different ways you ask, Singer, the answer's the same: I never saw Michael Wheeler after the trial."
    I tried a new angle. "Don Landis."
    The smile dropped off her face like a stone off a cliff. "What about him?'
    "No congratulatory handshake? No commiserations? No gloating?"
    "Don had just lost a high-profile, must-win case to a first-time criminal defense attorney. Because his own side had dropped the ball. Do I need to remind you? He wasn't going to pat me on the back. And I wasn't going to shove his nose in it. Don was a good lawyer and it could've easily been me, then or later. In fact, it should've been me, except--" She stopped herself.
    "Except what?"
    Her mouth was so pinched that it seemed as if there were sutures pulling her mouth inward. "The screw-up. I had a decent defense strategy, but I knew I wasn't going to get anything better than a reduced sentence. It didn't matter that your evidence against Wheeler was circumstantial; everyone was howling for a conviction. I told Wheeler to expect the worst, no matter how well I did. But thanks to your bungling, when the case got dumped, it all went away. The evidence, the bargaining, the trial. Everything."
    "You don't sound very happy about it."
    She re-focused on me, but took a second to answer. "It was bittersweet. I put a lot of work into that case. As you said, my first real client. An important, noteworthy case. Lots of press. I wanted to win it on my own merits. Instead, I got handed a turkey. One that worked for me, but a turkey anyway."
    I let the silence spool out. Then, "How did you feel about that?"
    "What the hell do you care?"
    "I've never gotten this close to a criminal defense attorney before. I'm curious."
    She laughed, a short bark that fell flat. "What do you think? It should've launched a career. But it was a lame duck, a gimme. Everyone assumed if I was lucky, I couldn't be good. I got passed over by all but the dumbest or most desperate schmucks you can imagine. No one recognized the work I did on Wheeler's case before you guys laid an egg. And, since I was getting lousy clients, my win rate spiraled downward, netting even worse clients than before. So, what do you think it did to me, Singer?"
    Despite my innate dislike of Atwater--and criminal defense attorneys in general--I'd never stopped to think how Wheeler's acquittal might've affected her. To me, a win is a win. If a bad guy happens to step off a curb and get hit by a truck instead of going to jail, well…it's harsh, maybe, but to me, justice is served. That's a cosmic balance I can live with. But if your life and livelihood is predicated on intentional hard work that others need to see and respond to and your first display of that calls into question, it could ruin you.
    I cast about for a silver lining. "It was