The Whole Truth Page #2

Her dad is also famous

for being late,

but never to court.

Are you kidding me?

Concerned women for America?

Don't even ask.

I was sitting in

the back the whole time.

You missed jury selection.

I know, I'm sorry.

I tried calling.

I'm on trial. I don't answer

my phone when I'm on trial.

Well...

We still got two blacks, two single

moms, and an unemployed white kid.

Sh*t.

That ain't no guarantee.

- Call you this afternoon.

- Keep on it.

You want a job or not?

Ramsey.

Five minutes.

Okay.

Legrand's your jury consultant?

Ran out of challenges,

and got stuck with

juror number three...

Heiress to oil money

with nothing to do

but worry about people

stealing from her.

She's the kind that thinks

the death penalty

isn't severe enough.

So besides being

Walter Brady's daughter,

tell me who you are.

I graduated Vanderbilt '07,

Columbia for law.

Won all my mock trials,

then came back home

to work at Morris and Duprey,

but the corporate grind wasn't

my thing, so I took a year off.

To do what?

Regroup.

In river oaks?

Thanks, dad.

They put you on meds?

No shame in it.

I spent 18 months on antidepressants.

You still on 'em?

A low dosage.

'Cause once

I introduce you in court,

you can't decide halfway through

that it's not your thing.

I'll be there.

Your dad says you've got a

world-class bullshit detector.

Who lied this morning?

On the stand, you mean?

They don't teach

this in law school.

Yes, all witnesses lie.

About what?

Keeping their jobs,

winning the case, money...

Most people skim... morality.

We all want to be good

little girls and boys.

Sex... just assume everyone's

screwing everyone else

unless proven otherwise.

And the big one,

avoiding humiliation.

You'd think folks would be scared

of prison or lethal injection.

Nope.

It's loss of face.

And this morning,

the flight attendant...

Angela Morley?

She seemed evasive

when you asked about

passenger manifests,

looked at her hands

after she answered.

I guess Lassiter

took women on his flights.

And she didn't want to lose her

next job admitting as much.

Next?

The limo driver...

Went out of his way to say he

drove straight to the airport.

So maybe they stopped

to pick up a woman?

And me?

What did I lie about?

You've been on a private plane?

And since we walked

in this room?

You've never taken an

antidepressant in your life.

Not unless bourbon counts.

As you heard,

my client isn't

speaking to anyone,

including me,

which means I have to defend him

without knowing all the facts,

which means I'm finding

out the facts on the fly.

So if your bullshit detector

goes off, you tell me.

Other than that,

you're window dressing.

A mixed-race woman at the table who

thinks your client is innocent.

That's the deal.

Your honor.

I wish to introduce my associate

Janelle Brady to the court.

Relation to Walter Brady?

Yes, your

honor, his daughter.

Fine lawyer.

I got a call at 4:42 P.M.

Domestic violence, possible 187.

And 187 is?

Homicide.

And this is late afternoon

on February 4th.

Yes, sir.

And you responded?

I was the closest car.

I didn't know whether

I should wait

for backup or go in,

but I was told the situation

was under control,

so I went in.

Please hurry.

It's my husband.

Who is that?

Michael, our son.

What did you do first?

I made sure the victim was dead.

He was.

Hello? Loretta?

I called our lawyer.

I'll go.

I should've done this

a long time ago.

What, if

anything, did Mike say?

"I should've done it

a long time ago."

Objection, your honor.

This is inconsistent

with the officer's

prior sworn statement.

Judge, I'm simply clarifying...

Officer steed's

police report states...

"Should've done this

a long time ago,"

not "I should've."

Without a pronoun, my

client might have meant,

"someone should've done

this a long time ago,"

suggesting that

someone else did.

Continue.

Well, which was it?

Hang on a second.

Yes, I'm sure.

He said, "I should've done it

a long time ago.

I should've done this

a long time ago.

How long did it take

the other officers to arrive?

Only a few minutes.

I told the lawyer, mister, um...

Mr. Ramsey.

Yes, sir, I told him,

I need the boy to step

away from the body.

Mike.

He needs to step back.

Honey?

We need to leave the room now

so the police can do

their work, okay?

Ma'am, I'm gonna need you

both to stay nearby.

Thank you.

No further questions,

your honor.

Mr. Ramsey?

You're excused.

We're in recess until

9:
00 A.M. in the morning.

You see, Mike? You see how

it sounds in open court?

"I should've done this

a long time ago."

To a cop? Really?

Unless you start talking

to me, we're going down.

All rise.

Why won't he talk to you?

That's the problem with

people who refuse to speak.

They never say why.

You're cocky for a kid

going to prison for life.

- Did he say anything to you?

- Loretta Lassiter,

Janelle Brady.

- Hi.

- Hi.

Is he talking?

- Loretta...

- Ramsey, I'm terrified!

You can't let him go to prison.

Relax, Loretta.

It's the first day.

He's a boy.

The papers make him

look like some monster.

I know.

I know that.

The way it sounds in there...

It always sounds bad

in the beginning.

I want to see him.

Can I see him?

Yeah, if you can get down there

before they put him in the Van.

What a horrible position

for her to be in.

Yeah, mother of the

accused is never easy.

Loretta's, actually,

compared to some...

She's pretty calm.

- Where's your car?

- Oh, around the corner.

They sent you to c lot?

Room 254 at the Marina hotel.

Our war room.

You don't have an office?

Yeah.

People there who expect me

to return phone calls

and answer emails

and god knows what.

Everything we need

is in room 254.

Witness statements, police

reports, coroner's report.

Are you coming?

Got it all up here, I hope.

Tomorrow, 9:
00, okay?

I doubted miss

Ivy league corporate law

would come back when she saw

what she was getting into.

But just sitting

there beside Mike,

she would help him look

less like a spoiled rich kid

or a sociopath,

maybe even get him to talk.

Funny thing

was, I second-seated

my first murder trial

with Boone.

It was a case where a teenage

mother suffocated her own infant,

put him in a garbage bag,

and threw him in the bayou.

The pictures alone

convicted her.

But Boone kept saying,

"if you can stand her,

so can the jury."

He had me talk to her,

put my hand on hers.

Every day I told her

she looked pretty.

Those little things counted.

Please, tell us,

how did you know the deceased?

He was my neighbor

for the last 15 years.

Your next-door neighbor?

Yes.

And were you friends?

I liked Boone.

My wife found him entertaining.

Do you do that down thing?

The down thing?

Our son Alexander

was a classmate with Mike

at Newman,

so we took down the fence

between the yards

so that the boys

could play together.

How would you describe

the relationship

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