Page 106 of The 1 Lawyer

She stepped back from the counter. “That guy from the Avengers movie.”

His eyes came up and focused on hers. “Which one?”

Hell, she didn’t know. “I get the titles mixed up. But you remind me of him so much.”

“Thor? Or Iron Man?”

Which answer was the right one? she wondered. She took a stab at it. “Thor.”

“Chris Hemsworth?” A blush turned his complexion bright red. “You’re kidding.”

“I’m not! I know what I’m talking about. I noticed it when I came in here. Something about the way you carry yourself. And your eyes! You have that same look, that appeal.” Jenny gave him the megawatt smile she saved for occasions like this. Seemed like her mother’s tip was working. She could see him warming up to her.

“The first of his movies was the best. A classic,” he said.

“Agree. One hundred percent.” She leaned in close. “So I’m going to tell you why I came in here. Because I get the feeling that you can do anything. Like you’ve got tech superpowers.”

He gave her a shy smile. “Yeah, maybe.”

She went up on tiptoe and whispered in his ear, “Malware.”

He looked intrigued. “What do you want?”

“I want a tutorial. I want you to teach me how to plant malware and spyware on someone’s computer.”

He glanced around, though no one was there to overhear. He said, his voice low, “You’ll need a discrete computer.”

“How do I find that?”

“I have one. Built it myself.”

Jenny sighed like she was starstruck. “Raymond, you’re a dream come true. Will you show me?”

He straightened, tugged at the hem of his superhero T-shirt. “Yeah. I can do that.”

CHAPTER 84

A NEW day, Tuesday. A new State’s witness testified on the stand, a forensic expert from the crime lab. He was talking about trace evidence collected at the scene of the crime.

Specifically, he was discussing three human hairs found on the pillow and sheets of the bed where Iris Caro’s body was discovered.

The witness wasn’t a DNA expert. The hair collected at the crime scene didn’t have the roots attached to it, and roots of the hair are necessary to extract DNA. He was testifying about old-school hair comparison, the kind you did under a microscope.

Gordon-James said, “Mr. Stein, did you perform a microscopic examination of these hairs?”

Before he could answer, I called out from my counsel table, “Since he’s an expert and I’m the one on trial, can he explain what my head was supposedly doing on Iris Caro’s pillow? I’ve never been inside that house!”

Gordon-James turned to the judge. “Your Honor—”

I jumped in again. “Judge, I was at my office that day. Is a State’s witness ready and willing to testify to that?”

Judge Ostrov-Ronai was fed up. “One more outburst and I’ll instruct the bailiff to escort you to jail. You can participate in the remainder of your trial virtually.”

The threat shook me up. If they removed me from the courtroom, I wouldn’t have a prayer. Besides, I had a decent legal basis on which to attack the hair evidence. “I understand, Your Honor.”

The DA repeated his question. Mr. Stein stated that he had performed a microscopic examination of the hair taken from the scene.

“And thereafter, did you conduct a comparison of the human hair from the pillow and sheets of Iris Caro’s bedroom to hair samples taken from the defendant, Stafford Lee Penney?”

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