case, but right now we’re back to being friends. At least, I think we are.”
“You’ll probably find out for sure sometime during this trial. What happened to Felton’s gun?”
“They never found it. I told you I thought he had a gun. I wasn’t a hundred percent positive but it was daylight and I’m pretty sure that’s what I saw.”
“If that’s the case, somebody picked up the gun. It didn’t just disappear into thin air.”
“Nope.”
“Whether there was a gun or not, it sounds like Sam Jeffries is the guy who’s driving this train.”
“He is, and that’s something we need to discuss if you are going to be my lawyer, Tom. You and I both know that our best defense might be to go after Sam Jeffries. I mean, he’s got motive to be angry at me and we can make a lot of hay with that, but I don’t want to do it unless we have concrete evidence.”
“Why?”
“The guy has been through hell. His daughter’s murder is at least partially my responsibility. I’ve ruined his life enough. I just don’t want to go after him and possibly ruin his reputation unless I’m absolutely sure.”
“If he was the only one at the scene and he took the gun, you might not get concrete evidence, Jack. And he sounds like your best defense at this point.”
“I know.”
“It could mean your life. If it’s tried here, these folks might execute you.”
“I know.”
“Any other conditions you want to tell me about?”
“I want to testify.”
“That’s not a problem. It sounds like this is now purely a self-defense case. You’re going to have to testify.”
“Good. There’s nothing else.”
“Okay. Now let’s talk about the details for a minute. How are they ever going to prove premeditation for a first-degree-murder conviction?”
Jack reached for some papers behind him on the floor. He picked them up and set them on the table.
“It’s all here in the grand jury indictment,” he said.
“I’ll read that eventually, Jack. Why don’t you paraphrase it for me.”
“They found two documents on Felton’s body. One was a claims bill that I had intended to file with the legislature asking for twenty million dollars for his wrongful incarceration for ten years. The other one is a contingency fee agreement whereby Felton agreed to pay me one-third of whatever we recovered from the legislature.
“They also have Felton’s phone showing two calls from me, one of them two days before he was killed and one minutes before he was killed. Lastly, they have the testimony of two police officers who said I threatened to kill Felton when I was drunk. You add it all up and the theory is that I was really representing Felton for money. Felton caused me to lose almost seven million dollars when he killed Kathleen Jeffries, so I killed him and set it up to look like I was protecting Danni Jansen.”
Tom didn’t react to Jack’s very succinct summary right away. He was digesting Jack’s words, rolling them around in his mind to see if all the parts fit. It took several minutes.
“It’s a very persuasive argument, Jack, and it fits, except for the gun. If you were setting this up, you definitely would have planted the gun for the police to find. Jeffries didn’t think that part through when he took Felton’s gun.”
“Probably not, and I’ve been thinking about that since I got this indictment. If that’s their theory, they have to come up with a plausible explanation for no planted gun.”
“And have you come up with anything?”
“I have. Sam Jeffries was in the woods when I shot Felton. That’s why he was the first person who found the body. I think they’re going to argue that I intended to plant the gun on Felton but I couldn’t because I heard Jeffries coming. That’s when I went to Plan B, running to Danni’s house to see if she was okay.”
Tom thought about that statement for a few more minutes.
“That’ll work,” he said finally. “There may be some flaws when we get into the minutiae, but it’s a plausible theory and in this town that may be all they need. Have you formulated a defense to counteract their argument?”
“Somewhat. I haven’t fleshed it out completely yet.”
“Well, let’s hear what you’ve got.”
“I have never taken a death penalty case for money. Henry can testify to that. He got three million from the legislature. I didn’t take a dime. Felton inquired about the claims bill and I told him we could do it. He wanted to do