An Invisible Client by Victor Methos Read Free Book Online Page B

but the worst part is the muscle cramps. He gets really bad muscle cramps, and I’ll just stay and massage him for hours.”
    I put my hands in my pockets and glanced at Olivia. “He’s a good kid.”
    “The best a mother could ask for. It just doesn’t seem fair that we don’t get enough time together. But I thank the Lord every day that we get this time together, right now. Just me and him.”
    “Where’s his father?”
    “His father died in Iraq. He was a JAG officer. They hit his jeep with a rocket, and he died last year.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    She glanced at me. “The Lord sent you here, Mr. Byron. He sent you here to help us and make sure that no one else’s child has to go through this.”
    A dying boy, who’s as American as apple pie. What jury could resist him? Even if liability wasn’t clear, if I could get Joel into that courtroom and put him in front of that jury to talk about the pain he’d gone through . . . to tell the jury about the needles they had to stick into him four times a week and how he probably can’t sleep and has nightmares . . . The jury might give me whatever I asked for. Bob would understand that, too, and probably pay us to make it go away.
    “I don’t know anything about what the Lord wants,” I said, “but I’ll help you if there’s a case there.”
    “How are we going to get Joel to the court to testify?” Olivia asked while I drove us back to the firm. “I once read a case in law school where the judge and jury came to someone’s hospital room. Are we gonna do that?”
    I shook my head. “Nine out of ten cases don’t go anywhere near a jury. Pharma-K will probably settle to keep it away from one.”
    She was silent for a second, then said, “That’s why you might take this case, isn’t it? It’s not to help them.”
    “First rule of being a lawyer is that it’s always about the money, Olivia.”
    I stopped the car in front of our building to let her out.
    “I guess it will help them. Any money they win, I mean.” She opened the door and slid out. “Thank you,” she said. “I’m glad I came.”
    “Hey,” I said. She leaned back in through the open door. “You shouldn’t blurt things out at meetings. You tip your hand that way, rather than being able to use it later. But thanks, the tip about the pharmacy was good.”
    She smiled shyly. “You’re welcome. So I’ll see ya around the firm, I guess.”
    “Actually, I was thinking. Raimi doesn’t need another bankruptcy associate right away. But I need someone in PI if you want. You passed the Bar yet?”
    She grimaced, her nose scrunching and glasses rising above her brows. “Couple months. July. I’ve been studying eight hours a day. If you’re worried I won’t pass . . .”
    “Not worried. Think you can handle studying and the work I’ll throw at you?”
    “Yes. I mean, I would love to.”
    “Okay, nine a.m. tomorrow. I’m going to have a meeting with our investigator about this case. I want you there.” I grinned. “I know you can start right away.”

10
    I had set a meeting with our investigator for nine, but I was in the office at eight—the earliest I’d been there in years. Olivia arrived early, too. She was wearing a light blue suit, and she stood at my office door until I said, “You can come in.”
    “Oh, thanks.” She sat down across from me.
    “How’s your mom?” I asked.
    “Good. I told her I was hired here. I think she was happy. Didn’t really say much about it.”
    “Did she not want you to become a lawyer?” I thought of my own father; the only thing he ever said about lawyers was that he wished he could get a hunting license for them.
    “My grandfather was a chemist, and I think she thought I would go into the sciences. The thought of just being in a lab all day made me crazy, though. I want to be out, making big arguments to judges to change the law.”
    I chuckled. “The law is like a big rusty ship. You can’t change its course without nearly