Children in the Morning by Anne Emery Page A

if they —”
    “It’s a scary world out there,” Beau interrupted, “but those of us who work in criminal law can’t go through life second-guessing every client we take on. We have a job to do.”
    “That brings us to another point. You have a job to do, defending people accused of terrible crimes. Sometimes it must be very difficult to do that job. Particularly when the crime was committed against a child. You defended a woman who, along with her boyfriend, engaged in prolonged abuse of a child and then killed him. They were convicted despite your best efforts on their behalf.”
    “Yes, they’ll be behind bars for a long time yet.”
    “A lot of people must wonder: how can you do it? How can you defend someone who has killed or abused a little child?”
    Beau leaned forward. “I don’t take any of these cases lightly, I’d like to assure everyone of that. These terrible cases mean sleepless nights for defence lawyers, just as I assume is the case for the police, the prosecutors, social workers, and anyone else whose lives are touched by such tragedies.”
    “It’s not all tragedy and violence, though,” the reporter assured us.
    “Tell us about your dog case, Beau.”
    “I had fun with that. My client was charged with letting his dog run loose in one of the communities outside Halifax, contrary to a village bylaw requiring dogs to be on a leash. The bylaw enforcement officer, the dog catcher, never caught my client, but he claimed to have recognized the dog. It was a German shepherd called Fang. I made an arrangement with the film production company that did my movie to round up a bunch of trained German shepherds, and bring them into the courtroom the day of the trial. The dog catcher was on the stand. I asked him to point out the offending dog. Looking out to the gallery, all he could see was a row of virtually identical German shepherds sitting with their trainers. The dog catcher couldn’t identify Fang, and the judge laughingly declared my client not guilty.”
    The story then returned to Beau’s kids, and their hopes and plans for the future. “Any budding lawyers here?” Three hands went up.
    Everyone laughed when one little girl shook her head and said: “Not me, no way. I’m going to work at the Chickenburger!”
    I switched the vcr off and looked at Brennan. He said: “That 61

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    child abuse case sounds dreadful.”
    “It was atrocious,” Maura said. “Normie may have picked up on that somehow, though I hope not.”
    “What are we going to do?” I asked. “The last thing we want is for her to learn the details of that incident. Believe me.”
    “I believe you,” Brennan said. “There’s also the case in which Delaney’s life was threatened because of the feelings running so high about his client. Could Normie have detected something about that?”
    “But the client, Adam Gower, got his comeuppance in the end. I think any threat to Delaney would have evaporated after that. The community would have experienced a kind of catharsis once the perpetrator was eliminated. Not that I recommend that form of therapy!
    But once it was done, I can’t see much danger for the man who did his job and defended the guy in court. I think people understand the lawyer’s role after they cool off. And Beau redeemed himself completely once he cleared the young girl’s brother of murdering Gower.
    I mean, the story even made it to the big screen, with the Jack of Hearts starring as Beau. Hartt lives in Los Angeles, and he invited Beau and the family down for a weekend a few years ago. They all went to some kind of Hollywood wingding. Cavorting with the stars.
    Too bad Normie can’t have visions of that instead!”
    “No such luck,” replied Brennan. “So we haven’t found the answers we’re looking for. No surprise there, I guess. Time for me to embark on phase two of our research.”
    “What’s that?” Maura asked.
    “I’m