“Jill and I will be working together.”

I can’t resist a smile. Once the case hits the papers, he’ll be lucky if she sends him out to have a subpoena served.

“Must be a big case,” I say, feeling a pang on the right side of my mouth. At breakfast I crunched down on what felt like a rock in my cereal and spit it out. A part of a dingy silver-black molar lay on the table surrounded by mush. Second one this year. My mother’s teeth. If my dick begins to crumble the way my teeth are I ‘ll be down to two inches by Christmas.

A good grunt, Kerr doesn’t bite.

“It should be good experience.”

If it goes to trial. Yet Chapman doesn’t strike me as the type to want to cop a plea. I’ll find out soon enough. I head back over to the municipal court, leaving Kerr napping his gums about what a privilege it is to work in front of a jury.

A minute more and I would have gagged. Could Kerr be the father of Amy’s unborn child? Surely she has too much sense for that. The legal woods these days are full of Kerr Bowmans-showoffs with loud voices who are convinced a few jury trials make them bona fide lawyers. I’m not so sure. The most effective attorneys keep their clients out of court and failing that, if at all possible, away from a jury. I hope I don’t have to fight Chapman over a plea. Actually, what I’d love to do is take this case and try it and win. I’m going to need all the publicity I can get.

I sit in the back of the courtroom and wait for Bobba Stewart to finish up. The prosecutor could have filed Chapman’s case directly in circuit court and avoided a “probable cause” hearing-ordinarily no big deal, but under the circumstances, not a sure thing, since Darwin Bell, the municipal judge, is likely to be curious about a fellow African-American with a doctorate accused of recklessly killing a child he was trying to help. At the very least, I am counting on Darwin to set a quick bond hearing and perhaps set Chapman free on his own recognizance. The trial, a simple assault involving onetime friends, no more than a good slap in the face according to Judge Bell, who summarizes the case and then fines the defendant, a bookkeeper for a church, court costs, gives him time served (a day in jail), and then admonishes the complainant and the defendant to stay away from each other.