North quickly cast his eyes around the room. "Okay, so what happens when he's an adult? Different, I mean."

Wu knew she had to deliver it straight and fast. If she was going to get North to agree with her strategy, she had to make it look as bad as she could for Andrew as quickly as possible. "A couple of major issues. First, most importantly, if he's an adult, life without parole is in play. If he's a juvenile, it's not. The worst he can get as a juvenile is up to age twenty-five in a juvie facility."

But North, not too surprisingly, was struck by the worst-case scenario. "Jesus Christ! Life without parole. You've got to be shitting me."

"No, sir. If he's convicted."

"Okay, then, he doesn't get convicted. Last time you got him off clean. It's not even on his record."

"Last time, sir, with all respect, he borrowed a car for half an hour. That's a long way from murder."

"Yeah, but I'm paying you to get him off. You can't do that, I'll find me somebody else who can."

Wu expected this- denial, anger, threats. She held her ground. "You might find somebody who'll say they can." She fixed him with a firm gaze. "They'd be blowing smoke up your ass."

"You're saying you can't do it?"

"No, sir, I'm not saying that. If that's your decision, I'll sure try. I might succeed, like I did before. Get him a reduced sentence, maybe even an acquittal. But nobody- and I mean nobody- can predict how a trial's going to come out. Anybody who says different is a liar. And the risks in this case, given just the evidence we've seen so far, are enormous." She reined herself in, took a deep breath. "What I can do, maybe, is avoid the adult disposition. If Andrew goes as a juvenile, the worst case is he's in custody at the youth farm- which is way better than state prison, believe me- until he turns twenty-five. Then he's free, with his whole life still in front of him."

"Okay, so how do you do that? Avoid the adult disposition?"