The Lawyer's Lawyer

CHAPTER Fifty-Three



The rain was still coming down when Tom reached Jack’s condo. He rang the bell and Jack answered right away. Both men were dressed casually in jeans and tee shirts although Tom’s clothes were a little wet from the race from the parking lot to the condo.

“Hi, Tom. How are you? It’s been a long time.”

“Yes, it has, Jack. I was a young man last time we talked.”

“That makes two of us.”

“You’re still a young man, Jack. You’ve got a lot of years ahead of you, and I’m here to make sure they’re good years.”

“Thanks, Tom. Let me get you a towel so you can dry off.”

The two men had not spent a lot of time together in the past but enough to have developed a friendship of sorts. About ten years before, the Florida Bar had given Jack a professionalism award and Tom, the previous year’s recipient, had made the presentation. They’d had a few that night and commiserated over the state of the profession.

“The professionals are losing, I think,” Tom had said. “Now it’s all about advertising and the money.”

“You’ve got that right,” Jack had replied. They were in a little beach bar in Daytona Beach across the street from the hotel where the awards ceremony had taken place. “The day the US Supreme Court allowed lawyers to advertise is the day this profession started to turn south.”

Tom had a son who was a lawyer in Miami, and Jack knew him as well, although the son, Kevin, never mentioned his father. Jack had learned through another lawyer that Kevin was Tom’s son. He verified it that night in Daytona, but Tom wasn’t very forthcoming about the relationship.

“I’ve met your son, Kevin, a few times. He seems like a nice young man.”

“Except that he works for Bernie Stang. My son and I don’t talk.”

The way he’d said the words at the time assured Jack that he didn’t want to discuss the whys and wherefores of why they didn’t talk. Bernie Stang was a prominent criminal lawyer in Miami who represented drug dealers almost exclusively. His name didn’t come up too often when people were discussing professionalism. Tom’s remark told Jack that the man was disappointed that his son was working for Bernie.

They’d met a few times since then at bar functions and always set aside a little time to reconnect. There were phone calls as well over the years, usually to refer cases, or to ask about judges and the like. Even on those occasions, they took a few minutes to touch base with each other.



“So you already had the bond hearing, is that right?” Tom asked when he had dried off and they were seated at the dining room table.

“Yeah. The state wanted me held without bond but the judge did me a favor and let me out for a million.”

“Some favor. Who is the judge and will he be doing the trial?”

“I believe so. His name is Holbrook. He’s a retired judge from the northern part of the county and he handled the evidentiary hearing for a new trial in Felton’s case. He’s a special appointment, probably because he’s familiar with all the underlying facts.”

“Is that a positive or a negative for us?” Tom asked.

“I think he’s probably a good trial judge, but he’s susceptible to public opinion. He should have granted us a new trial in Felton’s case but he didn’t. I had to go to the supreme court, although, in retrospect, he made the right decision.”

“Should we try and get him off the case?”

“We don’t have any grounds. Last time I checked, having a judge rule against you wasn’t sufficient grounds to have him kicked off your future cases.”

“Wouldn’t it be a beautiful world if that were so? Okay, we’re stuck with Judge Holbrook. Why don’t you tell me about the case.”

“You probably know the basic stuff, Tom. I got a serial killer, Thomas Felton, released from death row, and he started killing again. The first person he killed was the daughter of the police chief, Sam Jeffries. He’d already killed the man’s wife ten years earlier.

“I came upon Felton in the woods behind another cop’s house, a female named Danni Jansen. I told him to stop. He turned toward me and I thought he had a gun in his hand and that he was going to shoot me, so I fired my gun and killed him.

“You don’t know for sure whether he had a gun?” Tom asked.

“I can’t say for sure and I didn’t check the body after I fired my gun. Felton was coming from the vicinity of Danni’s house. After I shot him and saw him go down, I immediately went to check on her. She was fine. When we got back to the scene, Sam Jeffries was already there. Danni and I told him the story, which, in retrospect, was probably not a wise decision, and everything happened from there.”

“The amateur detective in me tells me there’s more to the story between you and this Danni woman.”

Jack smiled. “There is. We met two years before I took Felton’s case, and we had a brief romantic relationship at that time. She wanted to shoot me when I took Felton’s case, but right now we’re back to being friends. At least, I think we are.”

“You’ll probably find out for sure sometime during this trial. What happened to Felton’s gun?”

“They never found it. I told you I thought he had a gun. I wasn’t a hundred percent positive but it was daylight and I’m pretty sure that’s what I saw.”

“If that’s the case, somebody picked up the gun. It didn’t just disappear into thin air.”

“Nope.”

“Whether there was a gun or not, it sounds like Sam Jeffries is the guy who’s driving this train.”

“He is, and that’s something we need to discuss if you are going to be my lawyer, Tom. You and I both know that our best defense might be to go after Sam Jeffries. I mean, he’s got motive to be angry at me and we can make a lot of hay with that, but I don’t want to do it unless we have concrete evidence.”

“Why?”

“The guy has been through hell. His daughter’s murder is at least partially my responsibility. I’ve ruined his life enough. I just don’t want to go after him and possibly ruin his reputation unless I’m absolutely sure.”

“If he was the only one at the scene and he took the gun, you might not get concrete evidence, Jack. And he sounds like your best defense at this point.”

“I know.”

“It could mean your life. If it’s tried here, these folks might execute you.”

“I know.”

“Any other conditions you want to tell me about?”

“I want to testify.”

“That’s not a problem. It sounds like this is now purely a self-defense case. You’re going to have to testify.”

“Good. There’s nothing else.”

“Okay. Now let’s talk about the details for a minute. How are they ever going to prove premeditation for a first-degree-murder conviction?”

Jack reached for some papers behind him on the floor. He picked them up and set them on the table.

“It’s all here in the grand jury indictment,” he said.

“I’ll read that eventually, Jack. Why don’t you paraphrase it for me.”

“They found two documents on Felton’s body. One was a claims bill that I had intended to file with the legislature asking for twenty million dollars for his wrongful incarceration for ten years. The other one is a contingency fee agreement whereby Felton agreed to pay me one-third of whatever we recovered from the legislature.

“They also have Felton’s phone showing two calls from me, one of them two days before he was killed and one minutes before he was killed. Lastly, they have the testimony of two police officers who said I threatened to kill Felton when I was drunk. You add it all up and the theory is that I was really representing Felton for money. Felton caused me to lose almost seven million dollars when he killed Kathleen Jeffries, so I killed him and set it up to look like I was protecting Danni Jansen.”

Tom didn’t react to Jack’s very succinct summary right away. He was digesting Jack’s words, rolling them around in his mind to see if all the parts fit. It took several minutes.

“It’s a very persuasive argument, Jack, and it fits, except for the gun. If you were setting this up, you definitely would have planted the gun for the police to find. Jeffries didn’t think that part through when he took Felton’s gun.”

“Probably not, and I’ve been thinking about that since I got this indictment. If that’s their theory, they have to come up with a plausible explanation for no planted gun.”

“And have you come up with anything?”

“I have. Sam Jeffries was in the woods when I shot Felton. That’s why he was the first person who found the body. I think they’re going to argue that I intended to plant the gun on Felton but I couldn’t because I heard Jeffries coming. That’s when I went to Plan B, running to Danni’s house to see if she was okay.”

Tom thought about that statement for a few more minutes.

“That’ll work,” he said finally. “There may be some flaws when we get into the minutiae, but it’s a plausible theory and in this town that may be all they need. Have you formulated a defense to counteract their argument?”

“Somewhat. I haven’t fleshed it out completely yet.”

“Well, let’s hear what you’ve got.”

“I have never taken a death penalty case for money. Henry can testify to that. He got three million from the legislature. I didn’t take a dime. Felton inquired about the claims bill and I told him we could do it. He wanted to do it right away, and he offered me the one-third fee. I told him to give it to Exoneration. He refused, so I let him sign a contingency fee agreement with me, and I planned to give the money to Exoneration.”

“The only problem with this theme so far, Jack, is that it depends entirely on the jury’s believing you. In this town that will be a difficult sell.”

“Then we’ve got to change the venue.”

“We can try but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Continue.”

“I was in the woods behind Danni’s house because I believed he would come after Danni next. The easiest access to her house was through the woods. By the way, Danni also believed he would come for her through the woods, as did Sam Jeffries. That’s why he was there.”

“That part is good but what about the phone calls between you and Felton?”

“He called me after he murdered Kathleen Jeffries. He said he wanted me to forget about the claims bill. I asked him why and he said he couldn’t wait. I didn’t understand what he meant at first, but when I found out about Jeffries’s daughter, I got it. That’s when I knew he was going to kill again, and it was going to be either Danni or her daughter, Hannah. Danni put Hannah in Henry’s care so she could come back here and wait for Felton. That’s how sure she was that Felton was coming after her.”

“Let’s stay focused on the phone calls.”

“Okay. Two days before Felton’s death, I remembered I had his phone number so I called it. Somebody answered but wouldn’t speak. I figured it was him so when I saw a man in the woods and couldn’t recognize him because he was so far away, I called the number. He didn’t answer it, but I saw him check his phone. That’s when I knew it was Felton. I went after him and told him to stop. When he turned to shoot me, I fired my gun. I hit him and he fell backward.”

Tom was sitting at the table with his head down, listening intently. When Jack finished speaking, he didn’t move for the longest time. Jack knew he was processing everything in his mind and evaluating it because it was exactly what he would have done.

“The phone calls have the same problem as the agreement, Jack. All the evidence is from you.”

“I know.”

“So we at least agree that we have to try and get a change of venue because the people in this town are not going to be sympathetic toward you.”

“I’m with you totally on that, Tom. Does that mean you’re considering taking the case?”

“Do you want me to?”

It was Jack’s turn to hesitate before answering. “Are you okay with my conditions?”

“I wouldn’t say I’m okay with them, especially the Sam Jeffries thing, but I understand why you feel the way you do. I’ll honor your wishes on that issue, and you will testify, I assure you. Right now you are our entire case. I want you to know, though, that I will revisit the Sam Jeffries thing with you if we find more evidence, but I will follow your lead no matter what. It’s your neck and you’re entitled to stretch it out there for whatever reason you want.”

“Thanks, Tom. Yes, I want you to represent me. You and I think alike and we’ll be a formidable team. Besides, you’re probably the only lawyer who would take my case on the conditions I just laid out.”

“I disagree with you there, Jack. Money moves mountains.”

“Maybe you’re right, but I don’t think Dez Calderon or guys like him would have gone along with my conditions. He would have wanted total control. Speaking of money, we need to talk about that issue now as well.”

“Okay, how much do you want to pay me?” Tom asked.

Jack laughed. “I don’t think it works that way. You’re supposed to quote me a fee and I’m supposed to accept it or reject it or bargain with you.”

“Okay. What’s the going rate for a first-degree-murder case these days?”

“Somebody like Calderon would probably charge five hundred an hour and demand a retainer of two hundred grand or more.”

“Well, I’m not Calderon, Jack. What are the middle-of-the-road guys charging on a flat-fee basis for a run-of-the-mill murder case?”

“In this town, probably around seventy-five grand.”

“I’ll do it for forty-five plus expenses.”

“What are you doing, Tom? I’ve got the money.”

“I know. I just don’t want it to be about the money. I’d do it for nothing but I can’t afford to. I see retirement looming in the near future, although I will hate to stop doing what I love.”

At that moment, Jack knew that this man possessed what he had been striving for all his life, especially these past few years. Jack now took cases for nothing but only because he didn’t need money anymore. Tom Wylie had taken cases for nothing all his life, even when he didn’t have any money to speak of. Thus began one of the strangest negotiations ever between a lawyer and his client.

“I’ll pay you seventy,” Jack said.

“Fifty plus expenses, and that’s my final offer—take it or leave it,” Tom replied.

Jack laughed. “I guess I’m going to have to take it, Tom. You drive a hard bargain.”

Tom laughed with him. “I do, indeed. Now let’s call Henry and your friend the bar owner and start mapping out a strategy.”