Clifford Irving's Legal Novels - 02 - FINAL ARGUMENT - a Legal Thriller

by Clifford Irving

  Darryl laughed deep in his belly. “You a lawyer to the end, ain’t you. You gonna do that suit for me?”

  “No, my friend, I am not. But Gary Oliver will. He’ll make you rich.”

  He mulled that over. “Then I send that boy to school. His sisters too, if they wants to go. If they’s enough money.”

  I placed my hand on the meat of his shoulder. “Darryl, if Gary does it right, you can go over to the high school playground in the Blodgett Project, round up every kid in sight, and you can send them all to FSU and Grambling and Tuskegee Institute and even Princeton, to keep Tahaun and the girls company.”

  The next morning, in Judge Fleming’s court, Gary filed the motion for release, and the state attorney’s office nolle-prossed it, dropping all prosecution.

  At noon, Darryl was formally released from the county jail and the Florida state prison system. Gary, Tahaun, and I were waiting for him outside, in the mercy of the warm winter sunlight. His son approached Darryl with an outstretched hand. After thirteen years in a cage on death row, Darryl could fit his worldly possessions into a battered twelve-by-twelve cardboard carton, which he carried under his arm like a purse. His clothes, his two decks of worn playing cards, and his toothbrush were inside it. He sniffed the air as though it were honey.

  My eyes misted, but I said, “You want to go somewhere for a beer?”

  “Hey,” Darryl rumbled at me in The Jury Room, where he slowly sipped a Heineken, “you remember that day you come see me at Raiford? Day I put these round your neck?” Setting the beer bottle down, he raised those huge hands. “Remember what I try to do to you?”

  “Yes, I remember.”

  “Lucky for me you was such a tough little fucker.”

  That was as close as he ever came to thanking me. And I understood: he knew I had saved his life, but he knew too that it wouldn’t have needed saving if the world I lived in hadn’t first put him in chains, degraded it and imperiled him.

  Toba and I flew home to Sarasota.

  A storm howled in from the Gulf that evening. During the night the rain overflowed ditches and gushed down the fairways of Longboat Key. The leaves of banana trees bowed under the lash of water. At dawn the rain stopped; the planet still spun, therefore the sun appeared to rise. I looked out the window where our garden seemed to have soared three inches during the night. A stray cat fell out of a palm tree and cried for food. Birds rushed about the beach, a little crazed. The flying fish in the bay began to surge.

  With carnal intent I stroked the back of my slumbering wife. Later I scratched the stubble on my jaw. Should I let my beard grow? It might come out even grayer than my hair, but so what? Yes, I will. I will, therefore I can.

  I called Kenny Buckram’s office and asked him if he thought the public defender’s office in Sarasota would have a place for me, and if so, would he put in a good word?

  “Are you serious?”

  “Of course.”

  “I meant are you serious that you think you need a good word from me?”

  “Well, the Bar Association is still after my ass—last night I heard the hoofbeats of the posse—and Diaz over in Miami would like to string me up from a cottonwood tree.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Ted.”

  That’s what my mother said too. More important, Judge Ruth said it. I received copies of his letters: one to the Bar Association, one to the state attorney in Tallahassee. To the Bar Association he wrote: “This court would look unfavorably on further harassment of Mr. Jaffe for any—the court repeats, any—actions of his in this jurisdiction.” And to the state attorney, he said, in effect: “I personally will intervene with the governor if you don’t get that little fuck Diaz off my buddy’s back.”

  Within a month I was offered a job in the special defense division of the public defender’s office. I would be based in Sarasota County but would travel all over the state. The salary was not quite a third of what Royal, Kelly guaranteed me.

  “What do you think?” I asked Toba.

  “I think it would be crazy,” she said. “Cathy’s talking about graduate school. Alan’s out there in art school, and he may want to go on to college. What if we lose this lawsuit to the spider woman? We just can’t afford it.”

  “We won’t lose the lawsuit,” I said firmly. “And I can’t afford not to take the job. I want it. It will make me feel I’m a useful human being instead of a parasite.”

  She had seen that look in my eye before. But she didn’t back off or sulk. She hugged me and said, “Do it, Ted. We’ll work things out.”

  I took the job. Toba and I went to services at our local temple that Friday evening, and a line from the prayerbook struck me and stayed with me:

  There will we serve with awe as in the days of old.

  ***

  (Please continue ...)

  Dear Reader,

  If you enjoyed this book, please tell your friends about it. And if you have a few moments, you can post a review. Thoughtful and positive opinions encourage a writer.

  And of course they help sales. Writers have to live and eat (just like real human beings).

  Other good books by Clifford Irving are available. The titles follow, and they link to Kindle. Or you might want to visit the author's website at:

  cliffordirving.com

  TRIAL – A Legal Thriller

  “The courtroom scenes are breathtaking . . . gripping suspense . . . riveting!” — Publishers Weekly

  FINAL ARGUMENT – A Legal Thriller

  “A courtroom thriller, a mean streets thriller, a Florida cracker thriller, a gritty prison thriller, and an Everyman study of good and evil all rolled into one. And every part of it is terrific. What a wonderful piece of storytelling!”— Donald Westlake, The New York Times

  DADDY’S GIRL: A True Thriller of Texas Justice

  “Irving builds suspense with skill and makes the people come to life . . . a fine book.” — Houston Chronicle

  Clifford Irving’s PRISON JOURNAL (a/k/a JAILING)

  “A tale of intelligent triumph under remarkable stress. It has the ring of truth and is highly recommended.” — Times of London

  TOM MIX AND PANCHO VILLA – a Romance of Revolutionary Mexico and the 20th Century American West

  “Fabulous, big, rawboned wild-blooded adventure tale that gives the sights and sounds and smells of a turn-of-the-century world real enough to touch. Clifford Irving has written a novel to make any writer proud and many readers grateful.” — Los Angeles Herald Examiner

  Clifford Irving’s AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HOWARD HUGHES

  “It’s almost impossible to know where fact leaves off and fiction begins, if indeed that distinction should be made. This is a hypnotizing narrative, a brilliant study of money’s power to corrupt absolutely.” — Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times

  THE ANGEL OF ZIN – A Holocaust Mystery

  “Exciting, dynamic, and marvelously written.”— Publishers Weekly

  FAKE! – the Life of the Master Art Faker of the 20th Century

  “The wild, true story of three men who raped the art world . . . one of the most sophisticated suspense sagas of our time . . . fantastic.” — Chicago Tribune

  THE SPRING – A Legal Thriller

  “An extraordinarily entertaining and thoughtful combination of Lost Horizons and Presumed Innocent. Not only is it a mystery--on at least two levels--but it poses troubling questions concerning prolonged life and its ultimate value.”— Booklist

  STRANGER TO THE KINGDOM (formerly THE VALLEY) – a mythic novel of the Old West

  "A superb novel that grips the reader from start to thrilling finish. Its solidity is that of a Greek myth." — Times Literary Supplement

  PROJECT OCTAVIO – the Rise and Fall of the Howard Hughes Autobiography Hoax

  “Brilliant.” – Newsday “A masterpiece.” – CBS Radio

  THE DEATH FREAK – A CIA Thriller (an Eddie Mancuso and Vasily Borgneff novel)

  “A suavely persuasive, anti-Establishment th
riller with the bitter aftertaste of Campari and vodka. A clever, cynical, and compelling novel.” — Time Magazine

  THE SLEEPING SPY – A CIA Thriller (an Eddie Mancuso and Vasily Borgneff novel)

  "A dazzling combination of high suspense and hijinks, and some most unusual killings." — Los Angeles Times

  THE 38TH FLOOR – A Thriller of International Politics

  “Some smashing skullduggery, with shadowings, chases, and a marvelous climax.” — Sunday Telegraph

  THE LOSERS – A New York Thriller

  "A serious book built out of thriller elements." — London Sunday Times

  CLASH BY NIGHT (formerly ON A DARKLING PLAIN) – A first novel

  “A fine debut.” — New York Times

  THE BATTLE OF JERUSALEM – A Personal History of the Six-Day War, 1967

  “Clifford [Irving] was there, he saw what happened, and he tells it the way it happened.” – Irwin Shaw

  BOY ON TRIAL – A Legal Thriller

  not yet reviewed

  (continued ...)

  Author’s Bio:

  (at the request of some readers)

  Hello. I’m Clifford Irving, a man who’s had an eventful time on the planet. I was once on the cover of Time Magazine, and Hollywood made a movie about part of my life. Richard Gere played me.

  I traveled twice around the world before most people living in it today were born; I stood guard in an Israeli kibbutz, crewed on a 56' three-masted schooner that sailed the Atlantic from Mexico to France, smuggled whisky from Tangier to Spain, and one spring I lived on a houseboat on Dal Lake in Kashmir from where I rode horseback intoTibet.

  Growing up in Manhattan, I studied painting at the High School of Music & Art. At Cornell University I chased beautiful but unconquerable Ivy League coeds, rowed on the crew, and dreamed of becoming a great writer. I sailed to Europe, settled on the decadent Mediterranean island of Ibiza, and wrote my first novel. I sent it to a literary agent in New York. G. P. Putnam’s Sons published it.

  Was it really as easy and as quick as that? Of course not. I was lucky. And determined.

  I taught at UCLA graduate extension school, with Betsy Drake and Cary Grant among my pupils. I became a correspondent to the Middle East for NBC. And I kept writing books.

  In 1970, I created a writing event which became the Howard Hughes Autobiography Hoax. Many believe that the threat of the book’s publication, with its revelations of the Hughes-Nixon bribes, caused Nixon to approve the Watergate break-in.

  My reward in 1972 for these accusations (and lunacy) was 16 months in three federal prisons.

  Over time I wrote write 20 books that were published to varying degrees of success in the USA by Putnam, McGraw-Hill, and Simon & Schuster, as well as translated into many languages.

  All of my books are on Nook and Kindle at affordable prices: $2.99 to $5.99. That’s less expensive than a paperback and half the price of a movie. A good read is one of the amazing pleasures offered to us by civilization.

  “Move over, Butch and Sundance, it’s not that I love you both less, just that I’ve come to love Pancho and Tom more”– said the New York Times Book Review about Tom Mix and Pancho Villa, which I believe is my best book. Trial, followed by Daddy’s Girl, and Final Argument – all legal thrillers – are the top sellers.

  My manuscripts, notes, journals and correspondence are stored permanently at the Center for American History at the University of Texas (Austin), which acquired the archive in 2013.

  (continued ...)

  Further descriptions and reviews:

  TRIAL

  A Legal Thriller

  “Terrific! Don’t begin this book at bedtime or you’ll be up all night . . . Trial is like a birchbark canoe or a seven-layer cake. You can go crazy trying to figure out how it’s made, and it’s made by a master.” — Caroline See, Los Angeles Times

  “Riveting legal edge-of-the-seater, has Texas and American justice systems by the tail.” — Daily Telegraph (London)

  “Jet-propelled . . . colorful, down-and-dirty characters . . . most readers will want to read this at one sitting.” — Library Journal

  A thrilling adventure into the real world of criminal law, a powerful novel that deals with murder, the morality of justice and the perils of love, Clifford Irving’s book sets a new standard for courtroom fiction.

  A Texas lawyer, Warren Blackburn, defends two accused murderers in two separate cases. One of his clients is a former beauty queen and brazen owner of a topless nightclub, who shot her multimillionaire doctor lover – she claims – in self-defense; the other is a homeless illegal alien accused of killing a man for his wallet.

  Without warning, the two cases become one, and Warren’s entire life and career are threatened.

  William Safire in The New York Times called Trial “the novel of the year.”

  FINAL ARGUMENT

  A Legal Thriller

  “A courtroom thriller, a mean streets thriller, a Florida cracker thriller, a gritty prison thriller, and an Everyman study of good and evil all rolled into one. And every part of it is terrific. What a wonderful piece of storytelling!”— Donald Westlake, The New York Times

  “Only a handful of American authors have ever been able to transform murder and infidelity into poetry, and Irving is one of those writers . . . Not to be missed.”— Donald Porter, Mystery News

  “Two cliffhanger trials, a moral crisis, violence, love . , , it’s all here.” — Mail on Sunday (London)

  The startling story of a district attorney who, twelve years after sending a convicted murderer to Death Row, returns to the same courtroom to try to save that same man’s life. A masterly tale of murder, guilt, and infidelity, set in Florida and featuring that rarest of heroes – a lawyer with a conscience.

  Can a lawyer represent a murderer he once prosecuted? The legal establishment insists he can’t.

  Final Argument is the story of Ted Jaffe’s war – at the risk of his career, his marriage, his personal safety – to free a man he believes he has grievously wronged.

  The London Daily Express hailed it as “a spellbinding courtroom drama.”

  FAKE!

  The Life of the Greatest Art Forger of Our Time

  “The wild, true story of three men who raped the art world . , . one of the most sophisticated suspense sagas of our time . . . fantastic.” — Chicago Tribune

  “Fake! is a delightfully vicious book, a joy to read and contemplate.” — Pablo Picasso

  Elmyr de Hory was an elegant Jewish-Hungarian aristocrat whom World War II had stripped of everything but his genius at imitating Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani, Renoir, and other great painters of the 20th century.

  Fernand Legros was a ruthless Egyptian homosexual who decreed that museums, art galleries and millionaire collectors should finance his love of luxury and pretty boys. And Real Lessard was an Adonis-like Canadian youth who began as Fernand’s protege and in the end out-dueled even the master in cunning.

  Set in Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles, Texas, and the chic Mediterranean island of Ibiza, this is the tale of three rogues who bilked oil millionaires and movie stars, and turned the international art world upside down. It was the basis for filmmaker Orson Welles’ last major movie, “F For Fake,” which has become a cult classic.

  The St. Louis Globe-Democrat called Fake! “a story to remember and revel in.”

  TOM MIX AND PANCHO VILLA

  “Fabulous, big, rawboned wild-blooded adventure tale that gives the sights and sounds and smells of a turn-of-the-century world real enough to touch. Clifford Irving has written a novel to make any writer proud and many readers grateful.” — Los Angeles Herald Examiner

  “Move over, Butch and Sundance, it’s not that I love you both less, just that I’ve come to love Pancho and Tom more . . . a high-stepping, swashbuckling romance inspired by the unassailable historical fact that in his greenhorn youth, before he became a movie-star cowboy, Tom Mix rode in the company of the peasant revolutionary Pa
ncho Villa . . . Who among us has not wished he’d grown up as romantically as Mix does here?” — New York Times Book Review

  “Raucous, galloping fiction.” — San Francisco Chronicle

  “Intelligently conceived, rapidly paced, attitudinally wry, earthy – a well-written, cannily contemporary tale about the past.” —Dallas Times Herald

  It’s 1913, and Tom Mix, cowboy and future movie star, rides south of the border to fight for the charismatic Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary leader. Amid the violent beauty of war-torn Mexico a partnership is formed, and an epic is born.

  Caught up in this sumptuous and panoramic novel are some of the most dynamic characters ever to come to life on a page: Hannah, Tom’s voluptuous Jewish fiancée; Rosa, the beautiful Indian child widow who loves Tom; Elisa, the sophisticated German who becomes Tom’s mistress; Rudolfo Fierro, “the butcher,” who lives to kill his enemies; Lieutenant George S. Patton, Jr., ceaseless hunter of both Villa and Fierro; and above all, the tempestuous Pancho Villa, a man of vast, ungovernable emotions.

  Tom Mix and Pancho Villa is a story of romance and friendship, loyalty and revenge, politics and gold. Publishers Weekly called it “grand entertainment, full of wit, charm, and zest.” The Los Angeles Times wrote that “Irving spins a fantasy worthy of Mark Twain,” and the Houston Chronicle said, “Irving’s wonderful big new book is a rollicking, ribald tale.” The Chicago Tribune concluded that “[Tom Mix’s] exploits – on the battlefield, behind the lines, in bed – are told with riveting skill.”

  THE SPRING

  A Legal Thriller

  “A parable about aging and euthanasia that's spare of prose and thoroughly creepy; book discussion groups will love it. Recommended for all libraries.”— Library Journal