Free Aftershock by Andrew Vachss

or—”
    “Forget that.”
    “Well, that still leaves us with some options, but if you’re going to stand mute the way you did in the courtroom today, I can’t really present much of a … psychological defense. The DA’s Office would have the right to have one of their own experts examine you, and if you won’t talk to them, it makes a very bad impression.”
    “You don’t have to talk to anyone,” I said.
    Swift gave me a look like I was overstepping my bounds, but he dropped it quicker than he’d brought it up. I don’t think he was smart enough to figure out who he was dealing with—not yet, anyway. But one thing he did know—I was a paying customer.
    “The judge already put the not-guilty plea in for her, right?” I asked the lawyer, to let him save face.
    “Yes. But if we’re going to be using a … psychological defense, we have to give notice to the—”
    “You can stop talking like I’m not in the room,” MaryLou told him. “And I’m not telling anyone I’m crazy. Then or now.”
    “It’s not necessarily—” Swift cut himself off, seeing MaryLou’s face harden. She let it happen slowly, like plaster of Paris setting.
    “I’ll be back,” I told MaryLou.
    “I’ll be here,” she said, twisting her lips into something like a smile.
    “L ook, I understand you have some sort of prior friendship with the girl,” Swift said once we were back outside. “But when you hired me, it was to be her lawyer. What did you think you were buying?”
    “Time,” I told him. “As much of it as possible.”
    “Oh, I can do that for sure. A case like this, there’s no way the DA isn’t going to farm it out.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “It means they never try big cases down here. The DA’s Office, I’m talking about. Unless there’s going to be a plea, they’ll go crying to the AG’s Office, like they always do. That way, if there’s a guilty verdict, they can take credit for it. And if it goes the other way, they blame it on whoever comes in to actually try the case.”
    “How would that work? Bringing someone else in, I mean.”
    “They get someone from the AG. Or even from another office. What they call a ‘special prosecutor.’ ”
    “And that takes time?”
    “Sure. But that’s not the only way to stall this thing. I’ve got all kinds of discovery motions I can make. Nobody on their side is going to be in a hurry to try this one, that much I can practically guarantee. And that’s not even counting plea negotiations.”
    “Plea negotiations? What could they possibly offer MaryLou?”
    “They could take the death penalty off the table, for openers.”
    “They execute kids here?”
    “She’s eighteen. An adult. But you’re right—executing someone her age would be a political mistake.”
    “Political?”
    “Plenty of people in this part of the state are opposed to the death penalty, especially in this county. And not just people—people who vote. That scares the DA to death. He spends all his time pleasingpeople. That’s the only thing he knows how to do. Hell, they may not even farm this one out—the locals already feel too strongly about it, like it’s
their
case, not one for an outsider to handle.”
    “So what
could
they offer her?”
    “It depends on what excuse they could give.”
    “That’s why you mentioned the psychological stuff?”
    “Yes. The more we give them, the more they could live with a life sentence.”
    “If they’re not going to kill her anyway, how’s that such a great deal?”
    “This is a Measure Eleven case. The judge doesn’t have that much discretion. She’d have to go to prison, and, remember, it’s not just one murder charge, it’s a whole laundry list of felonies. Provided nobody else dies, that is. Under the best of circumstances, we could try for a manslaughter on top, with the rest to run concurrent. That would be the deal of the century. But, who knows, if it turns out she was an abused child or