Here Farrell shook his head. "I don't want to seem unsympathetic to your son's situation, but I can't do that. There's no bail in a special circumstances case."

"Ah." The muscles in Theresa's face couldn't get traction and-perhaps to compensate for the lack of expression-she held up her index finger. "But that's the whole point. It's not a special circumstances case. It's never been one."

Farrell showed his confusion. "I'm sorry?"

"It was Sharron Pratt's one concession to us. After all we'd done for her." Cliff obviously didn't harbor any warm feelings for the former DA who'd prosecuted their son.

Well practiced, possibly even rehearsed, Theresa picked up the thread. "The charges were rape and murder, not murder in the commission of rape."

Farrell noted the logical impossibility. If her son did it, the crime had to be rape/murder. But evidently this hadn't bothered Sharron Pratt. "So it wasn't special circumstances," Wes said.

In other words, it wasn't a no-bail case.

Theresa bared her teeth slightly. "Exactly. So he was eligible for bail, and will be again this time."

"And last time, was he in fact released on bail?"

"No," Cliff said. "That fascist Thomasino"-a highly respected superior court judge-"denied the bail anyway."

"He was prejudiced against Ro," Theresa added. "All through the trial, every decision he made, it was obvious to everybody."

"And so this time…?"

"This time," Cliff said, "since bail is legally permissible, we'd just like to make a personal appeal to you, Wes, to step in if you catch wind of any early sign of judicial activism. At the very least, keep it away from Thomasino. Or maybe even put the word out that you'll allow a reasonable bail before the matter even gets inside a courtroom."

"It wouldn't have to be a public statement," Theresa said. "The important thing is the result." And then, shifting into a less strident tone, she added, "Now that he's out of prison, Wes, we'd just love to have our boy back with us at home."