Knife Fight by Joel Goldman Read Free Book Online Page A

be.”
    She puts her hands on the table, gets in my face, her eyes on fire. “That’s right, Travis. I want to know how hard it’s going to be to save your life.”
    I put my chair down. Stand so she lookin’ up at me. “Like I tole you. Every day is a knife fight.”
     
    **
     
    I meet with Alex the night before the trial. She give me a hundred dollar suit to wear so I don’t look like I’m guilty wearin’ prison clothes.
    Then she say the first thing gonna happen tomorrow is the lawyers pick the jury. She say she gonna tell the jury she only want people who can be fair but she tell me she only wants jurors who don’t trust cops and will feel sorry for a brother that was abused when he was a kid and never caught a break. Most of all, she say, she want jurors who don’t like the death penalty.
    “So you gonna lie to the jury.”
    She wearin’ honey colored glasses half way down her nose, make her face soft. She take ‘em off. Her eyes are dark gray and she got bags under ‘em color of wet newspaper.
    “It’s not a lie,” she say. “It’s how I define fair.”
    I put my hands up. “You gotta lie, I can respect that.”
    She don’t argue, jus act like she don’t hear me.
    “The jury wants to know what happened,” she say. “If I can create reasonable doubt in the their mind about the D.A.’s version, you’ve got a chance.”
    “How you gonna do that?”
    “You say you were at your mother’s when Diego was killed. She backs you up. It’s a lousy alibi because everyone knows a mother will lie to save her child. But, if the jury likes your mother, they might buy it.”
    I think about what she say.
    “My momma a good woman even if she like her wine too much. Can’t nobody not like her.”
    “Well, then, I’ll have to talk with her and make certain she hasn’t been liking her wine too much when she testifies.”
     
    **
     
    Alex lean over to me after the judge swear in the jury, so close I can smell her. Soap. No perfume. She say the jury okay but she say it the way I say good evening officer, nice to see you . Seven women, five men. Four black, six white. Two Mexican. I look at them. They look away.
    Kevin Watts, the D.A., make his opening statement to the jury. Brother talks whiter than Jay Leno. Wears a suit cost ten times the one I’m wearin’. Calls me a drug dealer. Says I cut Diego on account he don’t pay me for some crack I sell him. Says I didn’t jus cut him. Says I tortured him, cut out his eyes and cut off his nuts. That’s why he say I deserve the needle. Makes me a bad motherfucker if I done it, that’s for damn sure. I ain’t sayin’ I did or I didn’t, but man don’t pay, man gets cut. Way it is.
    Alex, she tell the jury the D.A. got no proof I done nuthin. She say everything circumstantial and I got an alibi. My momma gonna testify I was watchin’ TV at her house when Diego got hisself murdered. She don’t talk as long as Watts and she don’t get worked up like he did neither. I was on the jury, I ain’t believing her. Girl sure as hell not perfect or the best.
    The Judge a white guy, no chin and no hair, tell the jury what the lawyers say ain’t evidence. Then why he let them tell the jury anything? Don’t make no sense.
    The courtroom’s cold. I rub my hands keep ‘em warm. Alex whisper at me to stop, say it make me look nervous. The judge say he keep it cold so nobody fall asleep. The jury laughs like it’d be funny they fall asleep tryin’ to decide if I get the needle. He tells them bring a sweater. I’m shiverin’ in my suit. I look at the jury. They see me shake. Alex puts her hand on my arm. I’m still cold but I quit shiverin’. That’s all that happens the first day. I go back to my cell but I don’t sleep.
     
    **
     
    Next day, Alex make me stand when the jury and the judge come in the courtroom. Them jurors tuggin’ on their sweaters makin’ sure the judge notice, all of them smilin’ and laughin’ like they havin’ a party.
    Alex say