A Cure for Night by Justin Peacock Page B

believe he's innocent?" Melanie said.
    "I'm pretty much sure of it."
    "Why'd he get convicted then?" Ted asked.
    "Because the police got him to confess."
    "He confessed to a murder that he didn't commit?" Ted said skeptically.
    "It happens more often than you'd think," I said. "Fourteen hours
in the box with homicide cops isn't exactly a Socratic dialogue. Actually it
sort of is a Socratic dialogue, only with threats taking the place of dialectic
and prison taking the place of enlightenment."
    "That's horrible," Melanie said. "Do you think you're going to be
able to get him out?"
    "You never know."
    "So, Joel," Paul interjected, "aren't you just amazed by my
apartment?" "You want to give me the tour?"
    "You can see pretty much all of it from where you're standing," Paul said.
"But sure."
    Paul walked me over to the far wall, which featured a large window looking out toward Manhattan. Much of the view was blocked by another building, but I could see a sliver of the East River and a random section of Lower Manhattan skyscrapers.
    "I should've known that fighting for justice was a pussy magnet," Paul said.
    "Owning a loft in Dumbo is a pussy magnet," I said. "Barely
getting by pleading people out on misdemeanors, not so much."
    "Melanie's totally into you," Paul said.
    "Did she come here with Ted?" I asked.
    Paul shook his head. "Ted's been skulking around her tonight, but
I don't think he's much in your way. A librarian would find Ted boring. You, on
the other hand, she thinks, have soul."
    "I played along because I didn't see any other way to play it," I protested.
"But it's not like I could actually fool anyone into thinking I'm an idealist.
Maybe for an hour or so."
    "How long do you need to seal the deal?" Paul asked.
    "With Melanie?" I said. "Presumably more than an hour."
    "She's not that kind of girl, sure, or at least she isn't going to
admit she is by leaving a party filled with work people with some guy she just
met. But ten will get you twenty that you can get her phone number before you
leave here tonight."
    "Ten will get me twenty, huh? Deal," I said as I looked around Paul's spacious apartment.
"So this is what five-plus years of being a corporate whore buys you."
    "I've never denied that I could be bought," Paul said. "The best
you could ever say about me was that I don't come particularly cheap."
    IT TOOK me about an hour to catch Melanie alone, by which time I'd had the opportunity to fortify myself with a couple of bracingly strong vodka tonics. I noticed her coming out of Paul's bathroom and walked over quickly to intercept her.
    I told myself that I'd know in the first second Melanie saw me coming whether or not this was a good idea. To my relief, the smile she gave me seemed genuine.
"So tell the truth," I said. "Are you actually surviving at Walker? I promise
not to tell."
    "It's been totally fine for what it is," Melanie said. "But I do
hope one day to make the leap like you did. I mean, for me it wouldn't be a
public defender gig, but something like that. You know, something that matters."
    My guess was that I was only a year or two older than Melanie, but she was making me feel cynical and old. Her idealizing of the grubby, thankless work that I did seemed profoundly naive to me, although I remembered the way young lawyers at corporate law firms romanticized any other way of practicing law.
"It's safe to say that it doesn't always feel like what I do matters," I replied.
    "I probably shouldn't ask—" Melanie said, before cutting herself off.
    I had no idea what she'd been about to say, but I figured whatever it was, I wanted her to ask it.
"What?" I said, tilting my head, doing everything I could to appear welcoming.
    "I was just thinking—I feel bad that this is even where my mind
would go—but I was just wondering, what's it like to give the money up?"
    I shrugged off a flash of disappointment; I'd expected something more personal.
"It totally fucking sucks to give the money