Defender of the Innocent: The Casebook of Martin Ehrengraf Read Online Free PDF Page A

doubt. Will you take a glass of water?”
    “No, I don’t think so.” Gort lit a cigarette, inhaled deeply. “I’m fine,” he said. “I feel good about everything. You know, not only am I in the clear but ultimately I don’t think your fee will cost me anything.”
    “Oh?”
    “Not if that rotter really and truly killed her. Lattimore can’t profit from a murder he committed. And while she may have intended to make Grace her beneficiary, her unfulfilled intent has no legal weight. So her estate becomes the beneficiary of the insurance policy, and she never did get around to changing her will, so that means the money will wind up in my hands. Amazing, isn’t it?”
    “Amazing.” The little lawyer rubbed his hands together briskly. “But you do know what they say about unhatched chickens, Mr. Gort. Mr. Lattimore hasn’t been convicted of anything yet.”
    “You think he’s got a chance of getting off?”
    “That would depend,” said Martin Ehrengraf, “on his choice of attorney.”
     
    T his time Ehrengraf’s suit was navy blue with a barely perceptible stripe in a lighter blue. His shirt, as usual, was white. His shoes were black loafers—no tassels or braid—and his tie had a half-inch stripe of royal blue flanked by two narrower stripes, one of gold and the other of a rather bright green, all on a navy field. The necktie was that of the Caedmon Society of Oxford University, an organization of which Mr. Ehrengraf was not a member. The tie was a souvenir of another case and the lawyer wore it now and then on especially auspicious occasions.
    Such as this visit to the cell of Barry Pierce Lattimore.
    “I’m innocent,” Lattimore said. “But it’s gotten to the point where I don’t expect anyone to believe me. There’s so much evidence against me.”
    “Circumstantial evidence.”
    “Yes, but that’s often enough to hang a man, isn’t it?” Lattimore winced at the thought. “I loved Ginnie. I wanted to marry her. I never even thought of killing her.”
    “I believe you.”
    “You do?”
    Ehrengraf nodded solemnly. “Indeed I do,” he said. “Otherwise I wouldn’t be here. I only collect fees when I get results, Mr. Lattimore. If I can’t get you acquitted of all charges, then I won’t take a penny for my trouble.”
    “That’s unusual, isn’t it?”
    “It is.”
    “My own lawyer thinks I’m crazy to hire you. He had several criminal lawyers he was prepared to recommend. But I know a little about you. I know you get results. And since I
am
innocent, I feel I want to be represented by someone with a vested interest in getting me free.”
    “Of course my fees are high, Mr. Lattimore.”
    “Well, there’s a problem. I’m not a rich man.”
    “You’re the beneficiary of a hundred-thousand-dollar insurance policy.”
    “But I can’t collect that money.”
    “You can if you’re found innocent.”
    “Oh,” Lattimore said. “Oh.”
    “And otherwise you’ll owe me nothing.”
    “Then I can’t lose, can I?”
    “So it would seem,” Ehrengraf said. “Now shall we begin? It’s quite clear you were framed, Mr. Lattimore. That blazer and those trousers did not find their way to your closet of their own accord. Those shoes did not walk in by themselves. The two letters to Mrs. Gort’s sister, one mailed and one unmailed, must have part of the scheme. Someone constructed an elaborate frame-up, Mr. Lattimore, with the object of implicating first Mr. Gort and then yourself. Now let’s determine who would have a motive.”
    “Gort,” said Lattimore.
    “I think not.”
    “Who else? He had a reason to kill her. And he hated me, so who would have more reason to—”
    “Mr. Lattimore, I’m afraid that’s not a possibility. You see, Mr. Gort was a client of mine.”
    “Oh. Yes, I forgot.”
    “And I’m personally convinced of his innocence.”
    “I see.”
    “Just as I’m convinced of yours.”
    “I see.”
    “Now who else would have a motive? Was Mrs. Gort