A Gambler's Jury

by Victor Methos

  “She’s old-school. Don’t hate her for that.”

  I inhaled deeply. “You take care of yourself, Stefan.”

  “You, too.”

  I turned and he said, “Hey.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Don’t be a stranger.”

  63

  I was sitting by myself when Michelle came in to the Lizard. It was evening and I guessed that Stefan and Peyton were well on their way to their honeymoon in the Bahamas. They had opted to take Jack and I didn’t object. I was sure he’d have a blast.

  Michelle sat on the bar stool next to me and said, “Beer?”

  “This Sprite’s fine, thanks.”

  “Really? Is Dani Rollins trying to cut back on her drinking?”

  “About time, I figure. I missed you at the wedding. I’m sure Stefan invited you.”

  She shook her head. “Couldn’t care less. You’re my compadre, and anyone that hurts you hurts me.”

  I chuckled. “You are a loyal compadre.”

  She held up her hand to signal the bartender. “So, what now?”

  I took a sip of my drink. “Kelly thinks I’m in love with Will.”

  “Are you?”

  “I don’t know . . . I think so. But I’m terrified. If I’m ever bored, how do I know I won’t get self-destructive again and cheat?”

  “I think you cheated on Stefan because you didn’t want to be married to him anymore and you were looking for a way out.”

  “Then why do I miss him so much?”

  She guzzled half her beer in one gulp. “You remember Robert Pierce? That kid with the goofy haircut who was on the chess team?”

  I grinned. “Oh yeah. Robert. He would follow me around in the halls and try to find some way to talk to me.”

  “He was obsessed with you and you never even noticed him. Not until Laney Peterson began dating him. Then, suddenly, you noticed him and started following him around. You’re one of those people that wants what they can’t have.” She finished the rest of her beer and belched. “You’re not in love with Stefan. That shit ended a long time ago. Go be a Jim Morrison, take that son of a bitch Will in your arms, and give him the wettest, longest kiss he’s ever had.”

  And that’s exactly what I did.

  EPILOGUE

  I don’t think I had ever felt so sick in my life. I couldn’t catch my breath. Jack gripped my hand tighter. The sun beat down on us and warmed my face, and I tried to focus on that sensation and push all the other thoughts out of my head.

  “We don’t have to do this, Mom.”

  “Yes we do.”

  “We can come back and try it another time.”

  I shook my head. “No, we’re here. We’ve paid, and I don’t know if I can get here again. It’s gotta be now.”

  He looked at the front entrance and back to me. “You sure?”

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  Will held my other hand. Since I’d moved into his condo, he seemed to always have this boyish grin on his face. Like he was exactly where he wanted to be.

  He looked from Jack to me and said, “The kid’s right. This isn’t necessary.”

  “It’s necessary,” I said, my eyes never leaving the entrance.

  They both gripped my hands tighter. Teddy stood next to us licking an ice cream cone and said, “It’ll be fun, Danielle.”

  “Okay. Let’s do it, lady,” Will said.

  Slowly, Will and Jack led me forward, Teddy walking in front of us, almost skipping. Mickey Mouse sat over the entranceway, and we handed over our tickets. I looked down at my son, my boy who had stuck with his mother when she thought no one in the world gave a crap about her. I leaned down and kissed him on the head. And then we pushed through the turnstile, and into the one place in the world I dreaded more than any other.

  “Mom?” he said, as we walked casually inside.

  “Yeah?”

  “Thanks for bringing me here.”

  I put my arm around his shoulders. “I’ll always be here for you, Jacky. Always. Your mom’s not going anywhere.”

  “I know.” He looked around. “So you wanna go on a ride first?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. The teacups. I’ve always wanted to do the teacups.”

  He put his arm around my waist, and we headed there together, the four of us, and I knew that I was wrong when I’d thought that the best moments in my life were with Stefan. This moment, right now, was the best it had ever been, and I looked forward with wonder to what else would be coming my way.

  I smiled, and decided Disneyland wasn’t so bad.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  The most surprising thing about writing legal novels is the amount of email I get from fans saying they loved the books, but that would never happen in real life. “The legal system doesn’t work that way,” they’ll say.

  I’ve been a criminal attorney for over a decade, first as a prosecutor and then a defense attorney, and you know what I’ve learned over those years? Reality doesn’t have to make sense.

  Every legal novel I’ve written is based on a case I actually had. Sure, I’ve changed names, locations, dates, details of the case, defendants’ genders and ages; I’ve sped up or slowed down the procedure that actually took place, or left out legal details for convenience of the reader. But the core stories are the same: the weak and the helpless against a system set up to crush them. We don’t like to face those facts—facing injustice is hard—but there they are for everyone to see in all their horror.

  Our system is the best in the world, but there’s a long way to go before we find true justice. When a judge tells me in private, “You’re right about the law, but I don’t care about the law—I’m going to do what I think is right,” or when a police chief tells me, “You follow a black person around until they commit a traffic violation and pull them over, nine times out of ten they’re gonna have drugs,” I lose hope. And then every once in a while I get a case where the innocent really are vindicated, where juries and judges really do their jobs and weigh the evidence without letting their prejudice get in the way, and I think that our system still has hope.

  It’s only truly hopeless if good people see injustice and do nothing.

  VM, Bear Lake, Idaho, 2016

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Victor Methos has been fighting for the rights of individuals against the government as a criminal-defense and civil-rights lawyer for more than a decade. He has conducted more than one hundred trials and has been named one of the most reputable attorneys in the Mountain West by Utah Business magazine. He is the author of more than forty novels, including the Neon Lawyer series and the Jon Stanton mysteries.

  He currently splits his time between Las Vegas and Utah, and is on a quest to climb the Seven Summits.