I held his gaze for a moment before answering.

“Well, you understand that I don’t know what will come up between now and then and that I can’t guarantee anything… but, yes, based on what I see now, I can win this case. I’m confident of that.”

I nodded to Roulet and I think I saw a look of hope enter his eyes. He saw the glimmer.

“There is a third option,” Dobbs said.

I looked from Roulet to Dobbs, wondering what wrench he was about to throw into the franchise machine.

“And what’s that?” I asked.

“We investigate the hell out of her and this case. Maybe help Mr. Levin out with some of our people. We investigate six ways from Sunday and establish our own credible theory and evidence and present it to the DA. We head this off before it ever gets to trial. We show this greenhorn prosecutor where he will definitely lose the case and get him to drop all charges before he suffers that professional embarrassment. Added to this, I am sure this man works for a man who runs that office and is susceptible, shall we say, to political pressures. We apply it until things turn our way.”

I felt like kicking Dobbs under the table. Not only did his plan involve cutting my biggest fee ever by more than half, not only did it see the lion’s share of client money going to the investigators, including his own, but it could only have come from a lawyer who had never defended a criminal case in his entire career.

“That’s an idea but it is very risky,” I said calmly. “If you can blow their case out of the water and you go in before trial to show them how, you are also giving them a blueprint for what to do and what to avoid in trial. I don’t like to do that.”

Roulet nodded his agreement and Dobbs looked a bit taken aback. I decided to leave it at that and to address Dobbs further on it when I could do it without the client present.

“What about the media?” Levin asked, thankfully changing the subject.

“That’s right,” Dobbs said, anxious to change it himself now. “My secretary says I have messages from two newspapers and two television stations.”

“I probably do as well,” I said.

What I didn’t mention was that the messages left with Dobbs were left by Lorna Taylor at my direction. The case had not attracted the media yet, other than the freelance videographer who showed up at the first appearance. But I wanted Dobbs and Roulet and his mother to believe they all could be splashed across the papers at any moment.

“We don’t want publicity on this,” Dobbs said. “This is the worst kind of publicity to get.”

He seemed to be adept at stating the obvious.

“All media should be directed to me,” I said. “I will handle the media and the best way to do that is to ignore it.”

“But we have to say something to defend him,” Dobbs said.

“No, we don’t have to say anything. Talking about the case legitimizes it. If you get into a game of talking to the media, you keep the story alive. Information is oxygen. Without it they die. As far as I am concerned, let ’ em die. Or at least wait until there is no avoiding them. If that happens, only one person speaks for Louis. That’s me.”

Dobbs reluctantly nodded his agreement. I pointed a finger at Roulet.

“Under no circumstances do you talk to a reporter, even to deny the charges. If they contact you, you send them to me. Got it?”

“I got it.”

“Good.”

I decided that we had said enough for a first meeting. I stood up.

“Louis, I’ll take you home now.”

But Dobbs wasn’t going to release his grasp on his client so quickly.

“Actually, I’ve been invited to dinner by Louis’s mother,” he said. “I could take him, since I am going there.”

I nodded my approval. The criminal defense attorney never seemed to get invited to dinner.

“Fine,” I said. “But we’ll meet you there. I want Raul to see his place and Louis needs to give me that check we spoke about earlier.”

If they thought I had forgotten about the money, they had a lot to learn about me. Dobbs looked at Roulet and got an approving nod. Dobbs then nodded to me.

“Sounds like a plan,” he said. “We’ll meet again there.”

Fifteen minutes later I was riding in the back of the Lincoln with Levin. We were following a silver Mercedes carrying Dobbs and Roulet. I was checking with Lorna on the phone. The only message of importance had come from Gloria Dayton’s prosecutor, Leslie Faire. The message was we had a deal.

“So,” Levin said when I closed the phone. “What do you really think?”

“I think there is a lot of money to be made on this case and we’re about to go get the first installment. Sorry I’m dragging you over there. I didn’t want it to seem like it was all about the check.”

Levin nodded but didn’t say anything. After a few moments I continued.

“I’m not sure what to think yet,” I said. “Whatever happened in that apartment happened quick. That’s a break for us. No actual rape, no DNA. That gives us a glimmer of hope.”

“It sort of reminds me of Jesus Menendez, only without DNA. Remember him?”

“Yeah, but I don’t want to.”

I tried not to think about clients who were in prison without appellate hopes or anything else left but years of time in front of them to nut out. I do what I can with each case but sometimes there is nothing that can be done. Jesus Menendez’s case was one of those.

“How’s your time on this?” I asked, putting us back on course.

“I’ve got a few things but I can move them around.”

“You are going to have to work nights on this. I need you to go into those bars. I want to know everything about him and everything about her. This case looks simple at this point. We knock her down and we knock the case down.”

Levin nodded. He had his briefcase on his lap.

“You got your camera in there?”

“Always.”

“When we get to the house take some pictures of Roulet. I don’t want you showing his mug shot in the bars. It’ll taint things. Can you get a picture of the woman without her face being all messed up?”

“I got her driver’s license photo. It’s recent.”

“Good. Run them down. If we find a witness who saw her come over to him at the bar in Morgan’s last night, then we’re gold.”

“That’s where I was thinking I’d start. Give me a week or so. I’ll come back to you before the arraignment.”

I nodded. We drove in silence for a few minutes, thinking about the case. We were moving through the flats of Beverly Hills, heading up into the neighborhoods where the real money was hidden and waiting.

“And you know what else I think?” I said. “Money and everything aside, I think there’s a chance he isn’t lying. His story is just quirky enough to be true.”

Levin whistled softly between his teeth.

“You think you might have found the innocent man?” he said.

“That would be a first,” I said. “If I had only known it this morning, I would have charged him the innocent man premium. If you’re innocent you pay more because you’re a hell of a lot more trouble to defend.”

“Ain’t that the truth.”

I thought about the idea of having an innocent client and the dangers involved.

“You know what my father said about innocent clients?”

“I thought your father died when you were like six years old.”

“Five, actually. They didn’t even take me to the funeral.”

“And he was talking to you about innocent clients when you were five?”

“No, I read it in a book long after he was gone. He said the scariest client a lawyer will ever have is an innocent client. Because if you fuck up and he goes to prison, it’ll scar you for life.”

“He said it like that?”

“Words to that effect. He said there is no in-between with an innocent client. No negotiation, no plea bargaining, no middle ground. There’s only one verdict. You have to put an NG up on the scoreboard. There’s no other verdict but not guilty.”

Levin nodded thoughtfully.