are. That’s just the way it is. There’s nothing you can do about it. Nothing anyone can do about it.”
“We can send out for something.”
“It’s a blizzard, Jude.” Mary looked at her sideways and paused. “What do you think they’re doing now?”
“Who? Erect and our favorite millionaire? Enjoying the sexual tension. Call me crazy, but two months of foreplay would be enough for me.”
“I meant the jury.”
“They’re deliberating, of course. Trying to decide when the defendant will screw his lawyer. It’s a role reversal.”
“Judy, stop.”
“They’d be at it already if Steere hadn’t been in jail. It’s the only open question in this case. When will they fuck, and how? Is there a way they can
both
be on top?”
“Judy, the case.” Mary blushed. She could curse with any trial lawyer, but she was uncomfortable with Judy’s sex talk. To Mary, saying “fucking” had nothing to do with fucking.
“Oh, the case. The case is a winner. It’s a good jury and the D.A. didn’t prove their case. Steere gets aquitted.”
Mary allowed herself to believe it then, on faith. Judy had won every graduation prize at Stanford Law, had published legal articles, and had even been offered a clerkship at the Solicitor General’s office. Mary suspected Judy was the reason they got hired at Rosato & Associates. Judy had raw intelligence and legal talent, but Mary had to work hard to get results, and did. “Maybe we’ll get a bonus,” Mary said.
“From Rosato?
Bennie
Rosato?”
“It could happen.”
“She just started the firm a year ago. She’s not about to throw money around, even at Girls ‘’ Us.” Judy meant that Rosato & Associates was the first all-woman law firm in Philadelphia; five women litigators worked for the new firm. The fact that they were all women had attracted publicity, but whether it attracted clients remained to be seen. Steere was the firm’s first major case, which was undoubtedly why Bennie Rosato entered the conference room that minute.
“Hello, you two,” Bennie said, knocking on the doorjamb. She was on her way out, with an overcoat on her arm and a packed canvas briefcase slung over one shoulder. Benedetta “Bennie” Rosato’s reputation as a civil rights lawyer was larger than life, and at six feet tall she intimidated the shit out of Mary, whose head popped up from the correspondence.
“Uh, we were just … organizing the file,” Mary stammered.
“Right,” Judy said, with an easy smile. “We’re not exhausted or anything. We work constantly, even when the jury’s out.” Her blue eyes met Bennie’s with a grin, and Bennie smiled back in a way that was friendly if not warm.
“We gonna win, Carrier?”
“How could we lose, boss?”
“That’s the spirit.” Bennie smiled, satisfied. Loose sandy hair streamed to her shoulders, wavy and careless, and her un-made-up features were large and not unattractive. Bennie wore a pantsuit of black wool, selected without excessive attention to cut, fit, or style. Bennie Rosato looked every inch the sunny, no-nonsense jock who won the scholar-athlete award in high school, which was just what she was. An elite rower in college, she still sculled every day on the Schuylkill River, a narrow ribbon of blue that rippled through the city. “How’d the jury charge go in? Did you get what you wanted?”
“Yes. They looked like they even understood it.”
“A first. How was Marta’s closing? I wanted to hear it but I had a dep.”
“She nailed it, except when she started quoting Sun-Tzu. Their eyes glazed over.”
Bennie frowned. “Sun-Tzu, the philosopher? What did she quote him for?”
Judy rolled her eyes. “I have no idea. He’s Steere’s guru. If you spend any time with Elliot Steere, sooner or later he hauls out Sun-Tzu.”
Sitting at the table, Mary marveled at Judy’s ease with Bennie. From their start at the firm, Judy acted more like Bennie’s partner than an associate. Mary guessed it was