Saving Somebody

23 December 2009. 0700
He stood, waiting outside as he heard her familiar sounds inside the house. She was rushing around so that she would be in time for work. Lydia always had the habit of waking at too late, so late that she would always have to attempt to straighten the knots in her hair while buttoning her blouse. Usually though, Lydia would squeeze in time to give him a peck on the cheek before leaving hurriedly.

She’d been thoughtful like that.

Trevor fingered the box in his hands, wondering if the gift inside would be enough to appease her. Sighing, he gave up on his complicated thoughts and lifted a finger to the doorbell.

It buzzed loudly and he heard Lydia curse inside the house. Smiling slightly, he remembered how she really wasn’t a morning person, even if she wasn’t in a rush to get ready for work.

He was still smiling until she opened the door.

23 December 2009. 0730
Trevor Lincolns was arrested by two officers on the charges of homicide. He put up no fight.

3 January 2010. 0830
“McLane, you’re the exact person I want to see today!”

I eyed Harris Foster with a little caution. It was never anything good when he greeted you with such enthusiasm because Foster didn’t do chirpiness. Anytime he did something so unusual, it usually meant that someone’s head was on the chopping block.

As far as I knew, however, I hadn’t done anything to endanger the firm (well, nothing reckless anyway) so I replied, cautiously, “Why?”

Foster’s smile’s wattage increased considerably. “We have a new case that you absolutely have to be involved.”

Raising my eyebrows, I waited for him to elaborate.

“The accused is Trevor Lincoln, age 25. He was found in the victim’s Lydia Blackthorn’s house, where she was found unconscious and was subsequently pronounced-”

“Is this a murder case?” My voice grew louder and more indignant. “My specialty is commercial law, Foster, you should know that. Negotiating and persuasive words with hidden dangers are what I do, not fighting a case in court!”

Gone was Foster’s benign smile, instead he was the firm partner of Foster & Williams that I knew. His eyes tiny silts of impatience, his lips pressed in a thin line. “McLane, I’m not asking you. I’m telling you. What you’ve mentioned may be true but those are also the reasons why we want you…because of your persuasiveness. You are going to be a part of this…but you are not going to be defending him in court, if that is what you are concerned about. Jared Hall would be representing Trevor Lincoln.” He smiled, chillingly. “What you would be doing is something else instead. It’s important but ah…how should I put this? It is highly delicate.”

In spite of myself, I was curious. “What will I be doing?”

He told me and I instantly regretted wanting to know.

3 Jan 2010. 1330
“So you’re the other lawyer.”

I glanced up and met Trevor Lincoln’s eyes. I hadn’t known what I had expected but Trevor was not the stereotypical murderer that I had imagined. With his black hair, cool gray eyes and built body, he looked like every other American. I’d shed my naiveté many years ago but even then, Trevor was close to my age and seemed…too normal to have killed someone. But he had, hadn’t he?

The authorities had found Lydia Blackthorn’s body in her house and Trevor’s fingerprints had been found on the knife that had driven through her heart. There was no question about it.

“Not exactly,” I said, in reply to Trevor’s distaste.

He gazed at me with renewed interest. “Then who are you?”

“I’m someone that can help you.” He didn’t appear to have the same amount of interest in this. Instead, his eyes dimmed and he gazed away from me as though suddenly uneasy. “I’m Allison McLane and I’m here to make you an offer.”

“What kind?” His eyes took in me and I knew that I didn’t cut an impressive figure. Sleek blonde hair, dark blue eyes and a completely ordinary figure were not exactly what you would seek in a lawyer, much less one that would help you. “I doubt you can do anything for me.”

“I can help you get off with a lesser charge.” I sat down and maintained eye contact with him. I may not have had experience with murders but I had with business clients. The trick was to look into their eyes and assure them that you had their best interests at heart and drive a hard bargain while you were at it. “You may have been charged with murder but it may be considered manslaughter.”

Something stirred in his eyes but I was uncertain what it was, so I pressed on. “Manslaughter is similar to murder, only that you may have been provoked and thus, you were not in the right state of mind. True, you may have had malicious intentions but you were not in full control of yourself and thus, you did not make a conscious decision to kill Lydia.”

Trevor flinched, a reaction I had not expected. He said, softly and with a trace of disgust, “Is that what the law is now? Telling people their own version of things? The point is, Miss McLane, I hadn’t intended to hurt her.”

“I don’t think you would be able to convince anyone of that. Trevor, you were found at her house, with the murder weapon in your hands. You’d brought that weapon to her house. She had been the one to call 911, 5 minutes before she was attacked, and inform them that her mentally unstable ex-boyfriend was at her house and that she was afraid for her safety. All of these are pretty concrete evidence that you’d planned and the only way that I, and every other lawyer here, can get you a lesser charge is manslaughter. Lydia Blackthorn had already mentioned that you were mentally unstable.” Here, I chose my words carefully, knowing that I was on shaky ground. “And I’m not saying that you were unstable at that point of time, but it may have clouded your judgment of the situation.”

Trevor Lincoln was quiet for so long that I had thought I had sold him on my theory and had completed my task when he said, “I want another lawyer.”

“What?”

“Since you guys are incapable of helping me do what I want, to prove that I hadn’t even wanted to hurt her… I think that I would be better off hiring someone else.”

Wringing my hands, I wondered why he was so persistent about this. All we were interested in was to keep our perfect record of no clients having to ever face the death penalty but here he was, insisting that he hadn’t intended to do it, which was basically what every single murderer would say.

If we managed to win doing it Trevor’s way, of course it would be a great accomplishment because that mean that Trevor would’ve committed homicide, a murder which had not even been planned and been carried out when the defendant was under duress. However, if we lost, Foster & Williams would be the laughingstock of the legal world, because we had actually listened to a client who could very well be off his rocker. I couldn’t believe I was even entertaining this thought; I knew that Jared Hall wouldn’t stand for this.

“Trevor, you’re not listening to me. Nobody would do things your way. Foster & Williams are your best chance. I think that you should go along with what Mr. Hall suggests, which is that you plead guilty to manslaughter but not murder.”

He glared at me and for the first time, I felt a shiver run down my spine. I had known that I was in the room with a murder, of course, but it was the only time that he had gazed at me with such intense dislike. Previously, Trevor had just been cold. Now he was terrifying.

8 March 2010. 1730
Storming into the room, I yelled, “What the hell were you doing back there, Trevor?”
Trevor looked up at me, not bothering to pretend that he didn’t know what I was talking about. Instead, his expression was smug. “I’d warned you before, Allison McLane.”

Yes, he had. But I had utterly dismissed it, taking his silence as agreement to follow through what we had discussed, that he would plead guilty to manslaughter. We had worked hard to build up Trevor’s case, that he had brought a gift for Lydia-the teddy bear found with bloodstains at the scene of the crime-but she had reacted strongly against him and made a 911 call. Then she waved her kitchen knife at him and he’d grabbed it away from her and used it against her before stabbing her in a moment of passion.

All Trevor Lincoln had to do was to agree with what we had said when we needed him to but he had not. This messed up everything, creating a large hole in our case and caused many of the jury to frown and whisper heatedly amongst themselves. I could tell that we had already lost a few of them thanks to today.

“Please don’t tell me that you’re still clinging onto the idea that they would find you not guilty just because you think that you haven’t done it intentionally?” Glancing at him, I studied his reaction. His head was bent, his eyes closed. It was not what I had expected. It was how you expected someone would behave when seeking penance. But I knew that he couldn’t possibly be feeling apologetic about the mess he created today. It had to be something else he was seeking atonement for…

“Trevor, what really happened that day?” I asked, in a tone sharper than I intended.
He looked up, surprise in his eyes and hesitated for a few moments before saying, “Do you know how it feels to love someone so much that you can’t let go?”

I shrugged. I hadn’t but he didn’t need to know that.

As if unsurprised, Trevor started his story. “Well, Lydia and I broke up 3 weeks before her…accident. She was the one who initiated the break up, said that things were moving too quickly for her and that she wasn’t ready for us to be so serious yet. But it was an excuse. Lydia had a few problems with alcohol and on some nights, I would find her completely wasted. She would always report for work late and with a hangover the next day but it was hard for me not to be nervous about her health. And when she suggested the break up, I…wasn’t able to accept it.”

I knew that just telling the court Trevor’s side of the story wouldn’t be concrete proof because it was all hearsay but I couldn’t help myself—I grabbed my pen and started scribbling Trevor’s words furiously.

As if encouraged by my interest, Trevor pressed on. “I went there on 23 December because I wanted for us to patch things up and to persuade her that she should stop drinking. She’d let me into the house because she’d assumed that I was ready to accept our break up. Lydia had even taken out the stupid bear and thanked me for it. But when I started telling her that she was only breaking us up because she was afraid of how close she’d allowed me to her and how she knew that I was right about her alcohol addiction and Lydia lost it. She grabbed her phone and started dialing 911 and told them that I was her mentally unstable ex-boyfriend.”

Staring at his fingers, he tried to calm their shaking. I stopped writing and looked at him, knowing that this would be the difficult part. The part which Trevor Lincoln would, in all likely likelihood, probably not want to speak of. Yet, here I was, insisting that he told me.

Blinking rapidly, Trevor forced a smile. “Then things got chaotic. Till now, I can’t say what really happened. All I know is that when she realized that I wasn’t going to leave even after she made that call, she ran to the kitchen and grabbed that knife, told me that I better leave or that she wouldn’t be responsible for causing me any harm. Lydia just wasn’t in the right state of mind, she was still hung over, but I have to admit that it hurt. But I didn’t leave, instead I tried to…I tried to grab it away from her and then…”

“And then I killed her.”

Trevor covered his face with his hands but I had seen the tears that had gathered in his eyes before he could do so.

14 March 2010. 0900
“Can’t we do anything for him?”

Jared Hall looked at me. “What is wrong with you lately, McLane? Lincoln spun a sad tale about how things happened and you eat it up like you’re a pupil to this firm instead of a fully fledged lawyer. Look at you, you’re an utter mess. Foster should never have put you on this case; you’ve become too emotionally involved.”

I swallowed, smoothing my frazzled hair. “But you have to admit, there is some proof that Trevor had been right. I mean, Lydia Blackthorn’s blood intoxication level was pretty high and her fingerprints had been found…”

But there was no point continuing for Jared had turned and walked away.

13 March 2010 2100
They had found Trevor Lincoln guilty.

Still reeling from the shock, I walked unsteadily to the room where I supposed to meet him. I couldn’t believe it. Even after I had convinced Jared to make major changes to our case, to go with Trevor’s story and use Lydia’s high intoxication level as proof, we still lost.

I opened the door and looked at the floor instead of Trevor. It wasn’t that I was afraid of what I might’ve seen in his eyes, be it disappointment or devastation, but I was completely lost. I didn’t know what to do anymore, since it was because of my incompetence that we hadn’t listened to him earlier.

“Hey, there’s no need to look so sad.” The words were calm, smoothening even. “You did your best. Even if I had a second chance, I would’ve done everything the same. I knew what I had been getting into when I first met Lydia. She’d been a sign marked ‘do not enter’ but I had forced my way in and now…”

“Now you’re going to die,” I said, tonelessly.

“No.” I glanced up and saw determination in his eyes. “We can do this over again, can’t we? Appeal to a higher court or something?”

I thought for a few moments. I had never felt so strongly about a case before since all the people I needed to interact with were greedy men. But now, I’d truly found something I felt I needed to do. I needed to save Trevor Lincoln, the same way he tried to save Lydia Blackthorn because of his love of her.

Even if Jared Hall and Harris Foster refused to let us appeal, I would find a way out.

I had to.

Smiling, I nodded.