"WILHELM, KATE - JUSTICE FOR SOME" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilhelm Kate)

and I should be here today, and today he said I should stand up and say
guilty."

"I see. Please be seated, Mr. Mancero." She waited until he was in his
chair, stiff, wary and frightened.

"Mr. Bartles, Ms. Betts, please," Sarah said then, and stood up.

"We will be in recess for twenty minutes." in her office she watched
Bartles and Betts as they entered, and he started to sit in a chair
close to her desk.

"Don't bother to make yourself comfortable," she snapped. "I will file a
formal complaint, Mr. Bartles, charging you with malfeasance.

I am removing you from Mr. Mancero's defense and will have a continuance
until he can arrange for other counsel. If he can't afford counsel, this
court will appoint a defender. And you are ordered to return the hundred
dollars you accepted from him."

"Good Christ," he muttered in disbelief. "Sarah, that kid's as guilty as
hell and you know it!" "I'll add contempt if you push me," she said
fiercely.

"I am Judge Drexler in these chambers and in that courtroom, and don't
forget it!"

"Yes, ma'am, Your Honor," he said with heavy sarcasm.

"I want that check made out to Steven Mancero, that's Man-cer-o, by
five. Now you may leave."

He shrugged and went to the door. Carol Betts followed him. She paused
at the open door and gave Sarah a long searching look that revealed
nothing, and then she left.

Sarah sank down into her chair and drew in a long breath, curiously weak
now. That sarcasm, that eloquent shrug, she knew exactly what he had
meant: what possible difference could it make if she filed a complaint,
since she was only a fill-in judge serving out her dead husband's term?

And she wondered what in the world she was doing here. She didn't look
like a judge, didn't think like a judge, didn't talk like a judge.

She could not think of this bare little room as a judge's chambers.

Blaine, she thought then, oh, Blaine, damn you. Damn you. She trailed a
finger over the desk that had been Blaine's, and would be hers for a few
more months.