It was a big room with twelve black leather chairs around the polished oval table. There was an overhead projector and a long box on the far wall containing the drop-down screen. The other walls were hung with framed posters of the movies that had been made on the lot. I assumed that these were the films that had made the studio money.

I took a seat and pulled the case files out of my bag. Twenty-five minutes later I was looking through the state’s discovery documents when the door opened and Elliot finally walked in. I didn’t bother to get up or extend my hand. I tried to look annoyed as I pointed him to a chair across the table from me.

Nina trailed him into the room to see what she could get us for refreshment.

“Nothing, Nina,” I said before Elliot could respond. “We’re going to be fine and we need to get started. We’ll let you know if we need anything.”

She seemed momentarily taken aback by the issuance of orders from someone other than Elliot. She looked to him for clarification and he simply nodded. She left, closing the double doors behind her. Elliot sat down in the chair I had pointed him to.

I looked across the table at my client for a long moment before speaking.

“I can’t figure you out, Walter.”

“What do you mean? What’s to figure out?”

“Well, for starters, you spend a lot of time protesting your innocence. But I don’t think you are taking this that seriously.”

“You’re wrong about that.”

“Am I? You understand that if you lose this trial, you are going to prison? And there won’t be any bail on a double-murder conviction while you appeal. You get a bad verdict and they’ll cuff you in the courtroom and take you away.”

Elliot leaned a few inches toward me before responding again.

“I understand exactly the position I am in. So don’t dare tell me I am not taking it seriously.”

“Okay, then, when we set a meeting, let’s be on time for it. There is a lot of ground to cover and not a lot of time to cover it. I know you have a studio to run but that is no longer the priority. For the next two weeks you have one priority. This case.”

Now he looked at me for a long moment before responding. It may have been the first time in his life he had been chided for being late and then told what to do. Finally, he nodded.

“Fair enough,” he said.

I nodded back. Our positions were now understood. We were in his boardroom and on his studio lot, but I was the alpha dog now. His future depended on me.

“Good,” I said. “Now, the first thing I need to ask is whether we are speaking privately in here.”

“Of course we are.”

“Well, we weren’t yesterday. It was pretty clear that Nina’s got your office wired. That may be fine for your movie meetings but it’s not fine when we’re discussing your case. I’m your lawyer, and no one should hear our discussion. No one. Nina has no privilege. She could be subpoenaed to testify against you. In fact, it won’t surprise me if she ends up on the prosecution’s witness list.”

Elliot leaned back in his padded chair and raised his face toward the ceiling.

“Nina,” he said. “Mute the feed. If I need anything I will call you on the line.”

He looked at me and opened his hands. I nodded that I was satisfied.

“Thank you, Walter. Now let’s get to work.”

“I have a question first.”

“Sure.”

“Is this the meeting where I tell you I didn’t do it and then you tell me that it doesn’t matter to you whether I did it or not?”

I nodded.

“Whether you did it or not is irrelevant, Walter. It’s what the state can prove beyond a-”

“No!”

He slammed an open palm down on the table. It sounded like a shot. I was startled but hoped I didn’t show it.

“I am tired of that legal bullshit! That it doesn’t matter whether I did it, only what can be proved. It does matter! Don’t you see? It does matter. I need to be believed, goddamnit! I need you to believe me. I don’t care what the evidence is against me. I did NOT do this. Do you understand me? Do you believe me? If my own lawyer doesn’t believe me or care, then I don’t have a chance.”

I was sure Nina was going to come charging in to see if everything was all right. I leaned back in my padded chair and waited for her and to make sure Elliot was finished.

As expected, one of the doors opened and Nina was about to step in. But Elliot dismissed her with a wave of his hand and a harsh command not to bother us. The door closed again and he locked eyes with me. I held my hand up to stop him from speaking. It was my turn.

“Walter, there are two things I have to concern myself with,” I said calmly. “Whether I understand the state’s case and whether I can knock it down.”

I tapped a finger on the discovery file as I spoke.

“At the moment I do understand the state’s case. It’s straightforward prosecution one-oh-one. The state believes that they have motive and opportunity in spades.

“Let’s go with motive first. Your wife was having an affair and that made you angry. Not only that, but the prenuptial agreement she signed twelve years before had vested and the only way you could get rid of her without splitting everything up was to kill her. Next is opportunity. They have the time your car left through the gate at Archway that morning. They’ve made the run and timed it again and again and say you could’ve easily been at the Malibu house at the time of the killings. That is opportunity.

“And what the state is counting on is motive and opportunity being enough to sway the jury and win the day, while the actual evidence against you is quite thin and very circumstantial. So my job is to figure out a way of making the jury understand that there is a lot of smoke here but no real fire. If I do that, then you walk away.”

“I still want to know if you believe I am innocent.”

I smiled and shook my head.

“Walter, I’m telling you, it doesn’t matter.”

“It does to me. One way or the other, I need to know.”

I relented and held my hands up in surrender.

“All right, then, I’ll tell you what I think, Walter. I have studied the file forwards and backwards. I’ve read everything in here at least twice and most of it three times. I have now been out to the beach house where this unfortunate event happened and studied the geography of these murders. I have done all of that and I can see the very real possibility that you are innocent of these charges. Does that mean that I believe that you are an innocent man? No, Walter, it doesn’t. I’m sorry but I have been doing this too long, and the reality is, I haven’t seen too many innocent clients. So the best I can tell you is that I don’t know. If that’s not good enough for you, then I am sure you will have no trouble finding a lawyer who will tell you exactly what you want to hear, whether he believes it or not.”

I rocked back in my chair while awaiting his response. He clasped his hands together on the table in front of him while he chewed on my words and then he finally nodded.

“Then, I guess that is the best I can ask for,” he said.

I tried to let out my breath without his noticing. I still had the case. For the moment.

“But you know what I do believe, Walter?”

“What do you believe?”

“That you’re holding out on me.”

“Holding out? What are you talking about?”

“There’s something I don’t know about this case and you are holding back on it with me.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“You are too confident, Walter. It’s like you know you are going to walk.”

“I am going to walk. I’m innocent.”

“Being innocent is not enough. Innocent men sometimes get convicted and deep down everybody knows it. That’s why I’ve never met a truly innocent man who wasn’t scared. Scared that the system won’t work right, that it’s built to find guilty people guilty and not innocent people innocent. That’s what you’re missing, Walter. You’re not scared.”