An Imperfect Process Read Online Free PDF Page A

best for your friend. But you know the odds are slim that I'll be able to do anything after all these years."
    "I know." Kendra's mouth twisted. The eleventh hour had struck, and midnight was approaching fast. "You'll have to start by persuading him to let you take on the case—last winter, he fired his lawyers, saying he was tired of fighting a losing battle. But you can charm a snake out of a hole, you're smart, and you know people all over town. You're Daniel's last chance, Val. You and God. I've been having a lot of conversations with Him lately. Maybe you can stir up enough doubts to get his sentence commuted to life."
    "Why didn't you tell me about Daniel earlier?"
    Kendra tried to imagine dropping that into a conversation. "This is such a white-bread, white-collar place that talking about murders and death row seemed out of place." She hesitated, realizing that in the last few minutes their relationship had changed. They had always been friendly, but they had never spoken so freely. "And to be honest, I didn't think you had the time or the interest to care about a condemned man."
    Val's nose wrinkled. "I've gotten too good at showing a detached lawyer face. Believe me, I have always cared about injustice. I only hope I can help."
    "You're offering a chance, and that's more than Daniel had before." And in return, Kendra would be the best damned legal assistant and office manager in Baltimore.
    Val got to her feet. "It's time to resign my partnership. I found a great potential office today—a remodeled former church out Old Harford Road, not far from where you live. A good omen if I get it, don't you think?"
    Kendra smiled a little as the other woman left the office. A remodeled church? Maybe God was listening after all,
    and this was a sign. With God, Val, and Kendra working together, they might beat death row after all.
    * * *
    Step firm, Val walked down to the corner suite occupied by Donald Crouse, senior partner of Crouse, Resnick. Strange how the decision she had wrestled with was now blindingly obvious. It was time to take her career in a new direction. To do good, not just well.
    She murmured a greeting to Carl Brown, the firm's biggest rainmaker, as he brushed past her with a brusque nod. Dear Carl, charming as always. The only one of the senior partners she disliked, he was hyper-competitive and had made no secret of the fact that he didn't think the firm should have female partners. Val wouldn't miss him.
    As Carl turned into his office, his assistant looked up, phone to her ear. "Mr. Brown, your daughter Jenny is on the line. Can you take the call?"
    "I haven't got time," he said curtly. "If she needs money, tell her to e-mail me."
    Val winced, seeing herself in the absent Jenny, who was a child of Carl's first or second marriage, not the current one. Law firms were full of people too busy to talk to their own children. Her father was like that, though at least he wasn't as bad-tempered as Carl. Yes, leaving was the right decision.
    Breezing into Donald Crouse's reception area, she asked, "Is The Man free?"
    "Go on in," his assistant said. "What did you do to your hair?"
    Ignoring the question, Val entered the inner sanctum. Donald glanced up from the document he was reading. Tall and saturnine with a dry sense of humor, he was Val's personal favorite of the senior members of the firm. He'd been her mentor and her champion even before he became her friend.
    "Donald, I'm leaving Crouse, Resnick," Val said bluntly. "I've finally lost the battle to be respectable, and it's time to go off on my own."
    He leaned back in his chair with a sigh. "I can't say that I'm surprised. You've always been a triangle in a round hole."
    Her mouth quirked up. "Not even a square peg?"
    "They're a dime a dozen. Triangles are rare." He peered over the top of his glasses. "I always wondered what you'd look like if you let your hair down. Remarkable."
    She smiled and settled into a chair. "I'm rather sorry to prove to the other