Page 28 of Getting the Grinder
And if nothing else, this year’s holiday season will at least be memorable.
Chapter Ten
Mara
* * *
“This is the saddest excuse for a lunch I’ve ever seen,” Jayden mutters to me.
We’re standing in the staff lounge for our office, and if I wasn’t so hungry, the scene before me would be funny. For the holiday potluck, one person brought in a pan of cheesy potatoes, which are gone. Everyone else picked up trays of cookies from the store.
I pick up a hard chocolate chip cookie and take a small bite. “Well, we brought in cookies, so I guess we can’t complain.”
“I’m still complaining. After the morning I had, I think I’m entitled.”
He did have a shitty morning. Someone bumped into him in the elevator and spilled coffee all over his dress shirt, and he didn’t have an extra in his office, so he had to go to court in the wet one. The judge dressed him down for showing up looking like that, and then another judge dismissed the charges in a DUI case because the defendant’s blood sample was mishandled.
It was a criminal case, so another attorney from our office was handling it, but we did some of the legwork on it. The defendant has served jail time for DUIs in the past, so it’s likely he’ll be out reoffending soon.
Bruce walks into the lounge and surveys the spread, shaking his head. “This is why we need a sign-up sheet.”
“What did you bring?” I ask him.
He looks at me, his nostrils flaring. “Are you ready for our meeting?”
I nod, fighting my urge to smile. I work through lunch often, but the men in the office turn into hangry beasts when they don’t get lunch.
Once we’re in his office, Bruce opens a desk drawer and pulls out a bag of pretzels, then sits down in his squeaky chair. “Okay, did you review those cases?”
I sit down in a chair across from his desk. “Yes.”
“What are your thoughts on the one that went down at Home Depot?”
“No deal. Plenty of witnesses and a victim willing to testify.”
He nods. “What about People v. McCoy?”
“Is that the one where they both got arrested?”
“Yep.”
“Plead it. He’s remorseful and willing to go to rehab.”
“Do you want to sit in on my meeting with his counsel?”
I stand up and walk to the corner of the room, ditching the rest of my cookie. “Yes. Just check my schedule and add it as long as I’m not in court.”
“Will do. And People v. Hadsell is a bust because the victim won’t testify.”
“What?” I pull my brows together, my heart kicking up speed. “But he beat her unconscious.”
Bruce shrugs. “I can’t get a conviction without her testimony.”
I close my eyes, the photos of the woman’s injuries the police took at the hospital still fresh in my mind. Statistically, her abuser will keep hurting her, and it could be even worse next time.
“This is part of the job, Torres,” Bruce says. “You can’t win ’em all.”
“Can I talk to her?”
