Part 6 (1/2)
”Here's a big liberties case for you.” I ”You won it, didn't you?” she said.
”Surel he said sullenly.
”On perjured testimony.”
”What?” Her mouth flew open.
He remembered that she was a reporter as well as his friend.
”Off the record, of course,” he said quickly, raising his hand. She grimaced, conceding the point, and so he went on.
”My dear father arranged a key witness for me. The witness was pure fabrication.
Perjury all the way.” Seeing her incredulity, he added,
”I had no idea at the time. None at all” ”But afterward?”
”We were hardly back in the office when my father told me what he'd done. It was to serve a point' Thomas said, ”a point my father considered a crucial principle' of courtroom justice” Thomas' paused and recalled with acrimony,
”That will teach you two lessons, Tom,he said to me.
”Nothing, but nothing is black and white.
And never trust another attorney. Even me'” Thomas let his words sink in, waiting for her to speak next.
Her face was contorted into an inquisitive frown. Her mind was racing ahead, wondering if someday she could print the story.
”Is that what you wanted to tell me?” she asked with a certain degree of sympathy.
”No,” he said, ”that's only background. It explains why I'm a bit of a disappointment. I wasn't honest enough to come forward to tell the court the truth after the trial. I wasn't dishonest enough to do the same sort of thing again. It was as if the old man had been testing me, seeing how corrupt he could make me' ' ”A strange sort of challenge to throw down to an only son,” she said, hoping he'd keep talking. She almost felt like taking notes, but her memory would suffice.
”He was a strange man'” Thomas said.
”Sometimes I think I never really knew the man. He left me with that feeling. And the feeling that he must have been disappointed because I'm just plain nowhere near as good as he was. Similarly, I disappoint you.”
”What?”
”Which is why you and I will never make it on a permanent basis, and why you persist with your casual liaisons with other men.
Which, as you know, drive me insane.”
”Thomas-” she snapped.
He held up his hand, cutting her short.
”Please. My final point.”
She was silent.
”There is, however, someone I have not disappointed. That person burned me out. And that is why you're here. That is the beginning of the story I'm letting you in on. But it's also all I know.”