Sons of Fortune Read online

  “I don’t know, sir, what is my next question?”

  “What should I do if the verdict goes against me?” He paused. “An eventuality you must always prepare for.” Fletcher nodded. “Answer? You immediately ask the judge for leave to appeal.” The professor tore off one of the sheets of yellow paper and handed it across to his pupil. “I hope you will not consider it presumptuous of me, but I have jotted down a simple form of words for every eventuality.”

  “Including guilty?” said Fletcher.

  “No need to be that pessimistic yet. First we must consider the possibility of a hung jury. I observed in the center of the back row a juror who never once looked at our client while she was on the witness stand. But I noticed that you also spotted the lady on the far end of the front row who lowered her eyes when you held up the scorched palm of Mrs. Kirsten’s right hand.”

  “What do I do if it is a hung jury?”

  “Nothing. The judge, although not the brightest legal mind currently sitting on the appellate bench, is meticulous and fair when it comes to points of law, so he will ask the jury if they are able to return a majority verdict.”

  “Which in this state is ten to two.”

  “As it is in forty-three other states,” the professor reminded him.

  “But if they are unable to agree on a majority verdict?”

  “The judge is left with no choice but to dismiss the jury and ask the attorney general if he wishes to call for a retrial, and before you ask, I can’t second-guess how Mr. Stamp will react to that eventuality.”

  “You seem to have made a lot of notes,” Fletcher said, looking down at line after line of neatly written script.

  “Yes, I intend to refer to this case next term when I give my lecture on the legal difference between manslaughter and homicide. It will be for my third-year students, so you should not be too embarrassed.”

  “Should I have accepted the attorney general’s deal of manslaughter, and settled for three years?”

  “I suspect we will find out the answer to that question in the not-too-distant future.”

  “Did I make a lot of mistakes?” asked Fletcher.

  “A few,” said the professor turning the pages of his pad.

  “What was the biggest one?”

  “Your only glaring error, in my opinion, was not calling a doctor to describe in graphic detail—something doctors always enjoy doing—how the bruises on Mrs. Kirsten’s arms and legs might have been inflicted. Juries admire doctors. They assume that they are honest people, and in the main they are. But like every other group, if you ask them the right question—and it is after all the lawyers who select the questions—they are as prone to exaggeration as the rest of us.” Fletcher felt guilty that he had missed such an obvious gambit, and only wished he had taken Annie’s advice and sought the professor’s counsel earlier.

  “Don’t worry, the state still has one or two hurdles to cross, because the judge is certain to grant us a stay of execution.”

  “Us?” said Fletcher.

  “Yes,” said the professor quietly, “although I have not appeared in court for many years, and may well be a little rusty, I was hoping that you might allow me to assist you on this occasion.”

  “You would serve as my co-counsel?” said Fletcher in disbelief.

  “Yes, Davenport, I would,” said the professor, “because you did convince me of one thing. Your client should not be spending the rest of her life in jail.”

  “Jury’s coming back,” shouted a voice that echoed down the corridor.

  “Good luck, Davenport,” added the professor. “And may I say before I hear the result, that for a second-year student, your defense was a remarkable tour de force.”

  Nat could sense how nervous Su Ling was the closer they got to Cromwell. “Are you sure your mother will approve of the way I’m dressed?” she asked, pulling her skirt down even farther.

  Nat looked across to admire the simple yellow suit that Su Ling had selected, that just hinted how graceful her figure was. “My mother will approve, and my father won’t be able to take his eyes off you.”

  Su Ling squeezed his leg. “How will your father react when he finds not that I’m Korean?”

  “I shall remind him of your Irish father,” said Nat. “In any case, he’s spent his whole life dealing with figures, so it will take him only a few minutes to realize how bright you are.”

  “It’s not too late to turn back,” said Su Ling. “We could always visit them next Sunday.”

  “It is too late,” said Nat. “In any case, haven’t you considered how nervous my parents might be? After all, I have already told them that I’m desperately in love with you.”

  “Yes, but my mother adored you.”

  “And mine will adore you.” Su Ling remained silent until Nat told her that they were approaching the outskirts of Cromwell.

  “But I don’t know what to say.”

  “Su Ling, it’s not an examination that you have to pass.”

  “Yes, it is, that’s exactly what it is.”

  “This is the town where I was born,” said Nat, trying to relax her as they drove down the main street. “When I was a child, I thought it was a great metropolis. But to be fair, I also used to think Hartford was the capital of the world.”

  “How long before we get there?” she asked.

  Nat glanced out of the window. “I’d say about ten minutes. But please don’t expect anything too grand, we only live in a small house.”

  “My mother and I live above the shop,” said Su Ling.

  Nat laughed, “And so did Harry Truman.”

  “And look where that got him,” she replied.

  Nat turned the car into Cedar Avenue. “We’re the third house on the right.”

  “Could we drive around the block a few times?” said Su Ling, “I need to think about what I’m going to say.”

  “No,” said Nat firmly, “try to remember how the professor of statistics at Harvard reacted when he first met you.”

  “Yes, but I didn’t want to marry his son.”

  “I feel sure he would have agreed to that if he’d thought it might have convinced you to join his team.” Su Ling laughed for the first time in over an hour, just as Nat brought the car to a halt outside the house. He went quickly around to Su Ling’s side and opened the door for her. She stepped out and lost one of her shoes in the gutter.

  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she said as she slipped it back on. “I’m sorry.”

  Nat laughed and took her in his arms.

  “No, no,” said Su Ling, “your mother might see us.”

  “I hope she does,” said Nat. He smiled and took her by the hand as they walked up the short driveway.

  The door was opened long before they’d reached it, and Susan ran out to greet them. She immediately took Su Ling in her arms and said, “Nat didn’t exaggerate. You are quite beautiful.”

  Fletcher walked slowly back down the corridor toward the court room, surprised to find that the professor remained by his side. When they reached the swing doors, the young counselor assumed his mentor would return to his place a couple of rows behind Annie and Jimmy, but he continued walking toward the front of the court room and took the vacant seat next to Fletcher’s. Annie and Jimmy could barely conceal their surprise. The court usher announced, “All rise. His Honor Judge Abernathy presiding.”

  Once he was seated, the judge looked toward the attorney general and acknowledged him, then turned his attention to the defense team, and for the second time during the trial, surprise registered on his face.

  “I see you have acquired an assistant, Mr. Davenport. Is his name to be entered on the register before I recall the jury?”

  Fletcher turned to the professor, who rose from his place and said, “That would be my wish, your honor.”

  “Name?” asked the judge, as if he had never seen him before.

  “Karl Abrahams, your honor.”

  “Are you qualified to appear in my c