Page 22 of Resurrection Walk

“That won’t be necessary,” Silver said. “Since we’re partnering on it.”

“Excuse me?”

“Partners. You and me. Whatever happens, wherever you take it, we’re partners.”

“Uh, no, we’re not. Lucinda Sanz has engaged me on this. Not you. Not us. And there’s no money. I’m not charging her a dime. It’s a pro bono case.”

“It’s pro bononow.But if you get her out, the sky’s the limit on a false-imprisonment claim.”

“Look, if you want me to, I’ll have my investigator email a copy of her letter asking me to take her case. She’s entitled to her file and if you refuse to give it up, that’s an ethics violation. You’ll have to deal with a bar complaint that’ll stick on your record for five years.”

Silver smiled and shook his head dismissively.

“I’m not worried about a bar grievance,” he said. “Last I heard, they’re still working off a COVID backlog over there at the California Bar. So you go ahead and file your complaint and I’m sure they’ll jump right on it — in maybe three years.”

He had me. I was silent, trying to work out a countermove. I was unprepared for an unethical lawyer trying to extort me and his former client.

“Look, I’m not trying to be an asshole, okay?” Silver said. “But I know what this is. I know what you’re doing.”

“Really?” I said. “What am I doing?”

“You’re paying for all those billboards out there, right? The bus wraps, the benches, all of it. That case you had last year where you sprung the guy on the murder rap? How much you get on the wrongful-conviction lawsuit that followed? The city must have cut you a nice juicy check on that one. I’m guessing high six figures.”

“Wrong. There’s been no settlement in that case.”

“Doesn’t matter. The case is a rainmaker and you and I know it. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But now you come here and want to make the money rain withmycase andmywork, and fair is fair.”

“Your work? You walked her into prison. How much work was that?”

“I got her manslaughter for killing a deputy. That was a fucking miracle.”

“Sure.”

“I want my piece.”

“What you’re talking about is a long shot in a dark night. She pleaded nolo — you remember that, right? You can’t do a whole lot on a wrongful-conviction suit when the client went nolo. The State’s defense will be that sheconsentedto go to prison and that was onyouradvice.”

“But you’re the Lincoln Lawyer. They see you coming, they get out the checkbook. They run scared from you.”

His sincerity was as real as the lawbooks on the wall behind him.

“I don’t want you anywhere near this case,” I said. “So what’s it going to take to get you to go away?”

Silver nodded, pleased that he had won. I immediately regretted that I had faltered and given him the opening.

“Partners, right?” he asked. “I want half.”

“No way,” I said. “I’d rather walk away from it. I’ll give you ten points, that’s it.”

I stood up, ready to go.

“Twenty-five,” he said.

I headed toward the doorway.

“Come on,” Silver said. “A twenty-five/seventy-five split is a major payday for you. I invested a lot in that case and got nothing out of it. I deserve this.”

I stopped at the door and looked back at him.

---