Attorney Charles Barnett thought it was all over for him and his heart. In the three years since his partner died, he hasn't felt so much as a spark of attraction to another man. That suddenly changes when Charles is assigned a new case and meets his new client.<br><br>Recent widower Philip d'Autremont has been traveling in all the same circles as Charles, but somehow they've never managed to meet. Now that they have, both men find themselves falling hard and fast.<br><br>But there's more than one hurdle to Charles and Philip beginning a love affair, much less maintaining it: Philip is on trial for murder, a politically ambitious and homophobic district attorney is determined to convict him, and Charles is responsible for Philip's defense.

Trial

“Yes, please. It isn’t very long.”


I carried the cassette over to the stereo system, inserted it in the tape deck, and turned the system on. We listened in silence to a five-minute telephone conversation between two men. When the tape had ended, I retrieved it from the machine, returned to the sofa, and said, “Jesus H. Christ.”


“Just so. Understand this, Mr. Barnett, the bureau was reluctant to release this tape. You can use it, and you can even leak it to the media if you like, although we would ask that you not divulge the location from which the call was made. Our indictments are secure and won’t be affected. What you cannot do, however, is put any of our people on the stand. As an attorney, you surely understand that we can’t risk being asked the wrong questions under oath. We don’t want any of the wrong testimony to become a matter of record until the Bergonzi trial begins.”


Chapter 96