A Matter of Life and Death

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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Amanda Jaffe didn’t have the willowy figure of a runway model, but she still attracted male attention when she entered a room. She had long black hair, clear blue eyes, and an athletic physique, the product of years of competitive swimming that had brought her to the brink of a spot on an Olympic team.
Amanda was a partner in Jaffe, Katz, Lehane, and Brindisi, a firm founded by her father, the noted criminal defense attorney Frank Jaffe. The firm’s offices took up the eighth floor of the Stockman Building, a fourteen-story edifice that had stood in the heart of downtown Portland since 1915 and featured an ornate stone façade decorated with happy cherubs and fierce gargoyles.
When Amanda returned to the firm from an arraignment in a federal bank robbery case, she found Robin Lockwood waiting in the reception area. The women had bonded because of their athletic accomplishments while representing codefendants in a three-week federal drug conspiracy case. Amanda smiled and crossed the room.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” she said.
“I’ve got a favor to ask. Do you have time to talk?”
“Sure. Let’s go back to my office.”
Amanda had a corner office with a view of the West Hills. The walls were decorated with diplomas, certificates attesting to her admission to state and federal bars, two abstract paintings she’d purchased from an art gallery near her condo in the Pearl District, and a photograph of downtown Portland in the years just before World War I.
“So, what’s this favor?” Amanda asked when they were seated with the door closed.
“You know Tony Carasco’s wife was murdered?”
“Sure. It’s all over the news.”
“I was just appointed to represent the guy they’ve arrested for it. The Standards of Practice require me to have cocounsel in a death case. Are you interested?”
“Maybe, but I should tell you up front that even though none of my death cases have ended up with a client on death row, I would personally have executed some of them, if I’d been asked.”
“You’re in favor of the death penalty?” Robin asked, surprised.
“No, but not because I don’t think it’s appropriate in some cases. You’ve only been in Portland for a few years, so you probably don’t know that I almost died at the hands of a serial killer and a paid assassin.”
“I didn’t know that,” Robin answered, shocked by the revelation.
“Those people were animals who needed to be put down. I suffered PTSD because of one of the incidents. So, I don’t have any sympathy for killers, and the only reason I’m opposed to the death penalty is because death is an uncorrectable sentence, and there have been too many innocent people sent to death row.”
“Then you’ll want to second-chair this case, because I think Joe Lattimore is innocent.”
Robin told Amanda about the illegal fight, Lattimore’s assertion that he was blackmailed into burglarizing Carasco’s house, and the aftermath of finding the body.
“That’s some story,” Amanda said. “And you believe it?”
“I can be fooled, but he sounds like he’s telling the truth.”
“You realize this case could be a bear?”
“That’s why I need you on my side. Judge Carasco might end up being the prime suspect, and I need someone who won’t be scared to go after a powerful circuit court judge. So, are you interested?”
“There might be a problem.”
“Oh?”
“You know Mike Greene?”
When they cocounseled the federal case, Amanda had been dating the best trial lawyer in the Multnomah County district attorney’s capital case unit.
“Are you and Mike still an item?”
Amanda laughed. “I guess you can say that. We’re living together, and we’re engaged. Joe Lattimore’s case is going to be front-page news, and that’s the type of capital case Mike usually prosecutes. Let me give him a call to see if I have a conflict.”
Amanda hit speed dial on her cell phone. Robin waited while Amanda and her fiancé carried on a brief conversation. When Amanda disconnected, she wasn’t smiling.
“I’m in. We don’t have to worry. Mike doesn’t have the case.”
“Then who does?”


CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Vanessa Cole was a slender black woman in her midfifties, with sharp features and fierce brown eyes. She had grown up in a wealthy family and had a law degree from Stanford. After joining the Multnomah County district attorney’s office, her high ethical standards and brilliant courtroom performances had earned her swift promotions. When Paul Getty, the Multnomah County district attorney, was forced to retire because of health problems, the governor followed Getty’s recommendation and appointed Vanessa to head the office, but the next election was approaching. Vanessa detested politics, but she loved being the Multnomah County district attorney. Getting her name in front of voters was imperative if she wanted to defeat her challengers, and prosecuting a high-profile, sure-winner death penalty case was one way to do that.
Leading the prosecution team in the Lattimore case gave Vanessa a terrific chance to grab headlines, but she was conflicted about using this particular case to further her career. Vanessa knew that it was a mistake for a lawyer to take a case if she had a close relationship with the victim or someone close to the victim, because it interfered with her ability to make emotionally detached decisions. Vanessa knew Betsy and Tony Carasco, so she had given a lot of thought to handing the prosecution of Joseph Lattimore to another DA. In the end, she’d decided that her connection to the Carascos wasn’t close enough to affect her objectivity.
Vanessa did not like Tony Carasco, who’d had a questionable reputation when he worked in the district attorney’s office. Rumors had made the rounds about his ties to motorcycle gangs and drug dealers, who occasionally benefited from evidence and witnesses that went missing when Carasco was involved in a case. Vanessa had her own suspicions based on a case they had worked together, but she was never able to support her suspicions with proof. After much thought, Vanessa decided that the fact that she didn’t like the victim’s husband would have