Chapter 1: The Favor

My mentor called me one evening, his voice as casual as if he were asking me to water his plants. "A friend’s son got into trouble. Can you look after him for a bit?" I stared at my cracked phone screen as the request sank in. In the background, I could hear the hum of a TV and the muffled clatter of silverware—just another evening in suburban Ohio. The air smelled like reheated pizza and last night’s rain. But nothing about this favor felt normal.

When I received the case file—good God—it was rape and murder. The victim, a young woman, had been beaten to death with a dumbbell.

My hands shook as I thumbed through the crime scene photos in my office. The fluorescent lights overhead hummed; somewhere in the hall, a cop poured himself a stale cup of coffee. How do you look a father in the eye after seeing something like this? How do you defend the indefensible? I couldn’t imagine the terror that girl must have felt. The horror of it twisted in my gut, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth that no amount of coffee could wash away.

A life for a life; surely this called for the death penalty. How could I possibly help with something like this?

A wave of guilt crashed over me. My heart thudded as I wondered what it would mean if I took this case. Even in this era—when death sentences are rare—it seemed unfathomable to imagine anything less for a crime so brutal. The thought of defending him made my stomach churn.

My mentor just laughed. “What’s so impossible about that? Just do as I say.”

The chuckle on the other end was breezy, dismissive, like he’d heard this complaint a hundred times. I could almost picture him leaning back in his office chair, a smirk on his lips. “Quit worrying, Jimmy. Just trust me, all right? You’ve got this.”