Lawyer Man

[Inside an office. Seated at the desk, reading a document, is a well-dressed, well-coiffured middle-aged man, CONRAD CLAY, Attorney at Law. Ushered in by Clay's SECRETARY is a man in his mid twenties, carrying a briefcase, PETER DRAKE, Clay purposely allows a moment to pass before acknowledging Drake's presence, his studied disinterest telling Drake that he's a very important man. At length, he gestures to Drake to take a seat on the chair across his desk.]

CLAY: Well, Mr. Drake, how may help you? My secretary tells me you are a self-employed handyman looking for a lawyer to defend you, against a homeowner who is pressing criminal charges against you.

DRAKE: Yes, Sir, he is accusing me of cheating him by not finishing a job he paid me to do.

CLAY: And what else is he accusing you of?

DRAKE: Telling him that I was a licensed contractor.

CLAY: And are you? A licensed contractor?

DRAKE: No, Sir, not yet. But I plan to get my license eventually. Besides, for the kind of job he hired me to do, I really don't
need a license.

CLAY: I see.

[Clay writes something on a notepad and gazes up at Drake.]

CLAY: Mr. Drake, I'm sure that my secretary informed you that I charge $100 up front just to meet with you, even if I decided not to take your case.

DRAKE: Yes, Sir, she did. I left the money with her.

CLAY: Cash?

DRAKE: Yes, $100.

CLAY: Good. So now we can proceed. But before we do, please tell me, why did you choose me and not another attorney to represent you? Did someone refer you to me?

DRAKE: Well, Sir, the reason I chose you is that I saw you in action eight years ago.

CLAY: Really? In which trial?

DRAKE: In the one where an unlicensed out-of-state contractor was accused by a couple who had hired him to remodel their house of lying about his credentials and bilking them out of their life savings. A felony offense.

CLAY: The Matt Gangi trial?

DRAKE: Yes, Sir, that one. A Mr. and Mrs. John Eldridge were the couple who pressed charges and the main state witnesses.

CLAY: Ah, yes. I remember. Most defense lawyers in town refused to take the case because the evidence against Gangi was so overwhelming.

DRAKE: Yet you managed to convince the jury that that he wasn't guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. So the guy was acquitted. Very clever defense.

CLAY: [Nodding smugly] Yes, if I may say so myself.

DRAKE: And it helped, I suppose, that the jurors you selected, were the least knowledgeable of home-remodeling issues.

CLAY: Yes, that too. All but one had ever owned their own homes. The rest were renters.

DRAKE: Incidentally, Sir, what's that called, the formal term for selecting easy-to-sway jurors?

CLAY: The peremptory challenge. Though, technically speaking, it's not a selection of friendly jurors, but the elimination of those who might prove to be troublesome.

DRAKE: Is this peremptory challenge covered in the U.S. Constitution?

CLAY: Actually, no. It's a time-tested practice rooted in English Common Law.

DRAKE: I've heard that in other English Common Law countries that attorneys have to give the court good reason for selecting or, as you put it, rejecting jurors, but not here in America.

CLAY: Yes, fortunately. Here in America attorneys aren't required to explain why they reject certain jurors and accept others. Otherwise we defense lawyers would lose half our cases.

DRAKE: I gather, then, that were it not for that peremptory most lawyers like would be out a job.

CLAY: Well, yes, I suppose so. [Then casting Drake a serious look] But tell me, Mr. Drake, why are you asking me all these questions about the law? Remember, if I accept to defend you, I will need to charge you up front for every minute I spend talking to you. So, I suggest that we start focusing on your particular case.

DRAKE: Well, Sir, the reason why I'm so curious about the Law and wouldn't mind paying a little extra to hear you talk about it, is that eventually I plan to become a trial lawyer myself.

CLAY: Really? You want to become a trial lawyer like me? [In a mocking tone] I suppose I should feel flattered.

DRAKE: That was why I went to watch you in action at the Gangi trial. Sat in the last row of the courtroom the whole three days, taking note.

CLAY: And what, exactly, did you learn from your note-taking?

DRAKE: Well, for one thing, that as far as our legal system is concerned, there doesn't appear to be a distinction between right and wrong, good or evil. Ultimately, it's the party who can afford the cleverest lawyer the one who wins the case.

CLAY: You're not altogether wrong. The Law is impartial. Its express mandate is to assure justice, not make moral judgments.

DRAKE: True. In the Gangi trial you outsmarted the prosecutor, and your client walked, even though it was obvious that he was guilty as hell. The guy, in fact, was a career criminal, and you must have known it.

CLAY: It was my job was to defend him, not to question his background.

DRAKE: Yes, and you made sure that no hint of his background came up during the trial. The Eldridge couple, I later learned, had evidence that Gangi had a long arrest record, everything from forgery to sexual assault, yet every time the Eldridges alluded to it on the witness stand, you objected.

CLAY: Of course, I did. The defendant was being tried solely on the charges brought against him, not on what he'd done in the past.

DRAKE: Yet you took great pains to dredge up the past history of the Eldridges and the other state witnesses, to cast doubt on their credibility.

CLAY: All perfectly legitimate. Bear in mind that as defense attorney it my duty to do all I can to prove to the jury that my client is not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

DRAKE: And there's no doubt that you guys are very good at it. That's why I'd feel safe in your hands. If the stats that I read are true, that 85% of criminals in this country are acquitted, then you should have no trouble defending me for embellishing my credentials a bit.

CLAY: Yes, in your case that should be easy enough.

DRAKE: Like you say, right and wrong, good and evil, are irrelevant. Having the better lawyer on your side is all that matters.

CLAY: Well, that part of right and wrong being irrelevant is not altogether true. The law is not totally amoral.

DRAKE: Really? How so?.

CLAY: For example, that comment you made about so many criminals going free. In the case of a capital punishment offense, Isn't it more civilized, morally speaking, to acquit 100 guilty men than to execute one innocent one.

DRAKE: Actually, it would seem that the opposite is true. Yes, executing an innocent man would be a tragic mistake. But turning 100 murderers loose on society would greatly compound the body count of innocent people.

CLAY: There is, I allow, an element of logic in your argument, though I assure you that it's largely flawed.

DRAKE: And, as you well know, the various ways those 100 murderers turned loose dispatch their victims are not nearly as humane as administering a lethal injection.

CLAY: Two wrongs do not make one right. Murder, however and for whatever reason committed, is never justified.

DRAKE: By the way, Mr. Clay, what became of the Eldridges? Did they get any of their money back?

CLAY: The state prosecutors advised them to file a civil suit against Gangi. They did, after all, have a very strong case. The reasonable doubt principle would not have applied in a civil case. But they chose not to sue.

DRAKE: Can't say that I blame them. Crooks like Gangi know how to hide their ill-gotten money legally, so no one can touch it.

CLAY: Yes, I'm sure he was well-advised in that regard.

DRAKE: There are plenty of lawyers, I suppose, who specialize in showing crooks how to shelter their loot. Look what happened in the wrongful death lawsuit of the Ron Goldman family against O.J. Simpson. They won a 8.5 million dollar judgment against Simpson, but to this day haven't seen a penny of it.

CLAY: The legal profession does have many facets.

DRAKE: So, by suing in a civil court the Eldridges would have gotten fleeced twice. First by the crook and then by their lawyer.

CLAY: Yes, if suppose so, if you put it that way.

[Clay gets up from behind his desks, walks about the room, as if stretching his legs and gazing at Drake suspiciously. Drake's eyes follow him. Clay at length returns to his desk and sits back down.]

CLAY: [Leaning forward on his desk] O.K, enough of this theoretical talk about the Law. You're here because you've got a legal problem, so let's get back to it, if you want me to take your case.

DRAKE: [Smirking] You disappoint me, Drake. You're not as perceptive as I thought.

CLAY: Disappoint you? What do you mean?

DRAKE: I mean, you should've realized from the start that I'm not here seeking your legal services.

CLAY: So what, then, is it that you want? Who are you?

DRAKE: Remember the Eldridge couple?

CLAY: Yes, he ones who pressed charges against Gangi.

DRAKE: Well, I am their son. The surname I go by now, Drake, is my mother's maiden name.

CLAY: You . . . You are their son?

DRAKE: Yes, the kid in the back row taking notes. My parents, they had planned to remodel our home, sell it at profit, and use the proceeds to pay for my college education. But that crook you acquitted ruined their plans. Six weeks later both were killed in a street mugging.

CLAY: O.K., I'm sorry about that. But what does any of that have to do with me? I was only doing my job. If you have a grudge, take it up with Gangi, not me.

DRAKE: I already did.

CLAY: You did? How? When?

DRAKE: Two years ago. Gangi fled to California under an assumed to avoid an arrest warrant for sexual assault, but I tracked there. If you need to contact him, his permanent address now is a shallow grave in the Mojave Desert.

CLAY: [Drawing back in shock] You . . . You killed the man?

DRAKE: Yes, though his was a special case. Usually I don't kill for personal reasons.

CLAY: You’ve killed other people?

DRAKE: Assassinate would be the correct word for it.

CLAY: You're a hit man? Is that what you're telling me?

DRAKE: Yes, that's what I am, a professional assassin, and one of the best in the trade. Killing Gangi, as I said, was a special case, and act of vengeance. That, you can call murder. All my other hits were strictly business.

CLAY: [Voice quavering] A professional hit man! You're the first one I've met.

DRAKE: Really? I'm surprised that someone like you hasn't met a hit man before.

CLAY: [Trying to regain his composure] But tell me, Mr. Drake, I'm curious. How did a clean-cut young man like you come to choose that line of work?

DRAKE: Well, when my hopes of attending college were dashed, I joined the Army, qualified for Special Forces, and served four years in Iraq. I had planned to study civil engineering, by the way, a productive profession, not law, like I said.

CLAY: So it was there, in the war, that you got your on-the-job training?

DRAKE: Yes. Back home from Iraq I found that the skills I acquired whacking people were more in demand and better remunerated than most occupations, Never been unemployed since.

CLAY: But killing people for money? Isn't that, well, how shall I phrase it, rather unusual?

DRAKE: If you are suggesting that I'm a cold-blooded sociopath, you're mistaken. Actually, what you lawyers do for a living, legal though it may be, is morally a lot worse. Your victims are innocent people, like my parents. Me, I only do scumbags that need killing, the kind you defend in court.

CLAY: Interesting concept. But tell me, Mr. Clay, why are you . . . ?

DRAKE: [Chuckling] You amuse me, Mr. Drake. You're afraid that I've come here to kill you, like I did Gangi, and hope that by asking me questions and engaging me in an argument I might calm down and change my mind. Your lawyerly way of saving your amoral ass.

[From his briefcase Drake draws a pistol with a silencer attached and calmly sets it on the desk. Drake recoils in fear]

CLAY: O.K., O.K. Don't get me wrong. I didn't mean to trick you.

DRAKE: Oh, yes, you did, Lawyer Man. But, hey! that doesn't bother me, because, you see, I have the upper-hand. Like I said, I'm very good at what I do. If you check the latch on your window you'll find it broken. Last night I stole into your office to prepare for our meeting.

CLAY: [Eying the weapon apprehensively.]You set this up?

DRAKE: Yes, of course. There's a lot more to the fine art of assassination than meets the eye. Once you overcome your inhibitions, the killing part is easy. You'd be surprised by how many different ways it can be done. The tracking and planning, that's where the skill comes in.

CLAY: So you broke in here last night, and did what?
DRAKE: Well, for starters, I disabled the alarm button under your desk and unloaded that little .32 revolver you keep in the top drawer. Not that I needed to, of course. I would have broken your arm the instant you reached for it. I'm very good at that too.

[Drake reaches into his jacket pocket pulls out the five shells he had taken from Clay's revolver and, mockingly holding them aloft, drops them one a time on the floor. He then reaches across the desk and pulls out the wires of the desk phone and intercom speaker.]

DRAKE: Now hand me your cell phone.

[Clay does as told. Drake slips the phone into his jacket pocket.]
DRAKE: Last night I also rifled though your file cabinet and checked out the number of criminals you got acquitted in the past five years, to confirm that you are, indeed, the rotten S.O.B. that my research of your background revealed.

CLAY: [Starting to sob] I was only doing my job, I told you!

DRAKE: [Smirking] Why you don't keep your files electronically is beyond me. I guess you're too old-fashioned, or technologically disadvantaged. But enough talk. Now for the moment of truth.

[Clay calmly picks up his pistol and points it at Drake's face.]

CLAY: Please don't shoot me! I'm a wealthy man. You say you only work for money. Well, I'll pay you whatever you ask to spare my life.

DRAKE: I don't want your money, Lawyer Man. Killing for me is strictly business, true, but there are times when settling scores for personal reasons, as I did with Gangi, is worth more to me than all the money in the world.

CLAY: Please, I beg you!

DRAKE: [Lowering the gun] But you needn't worry, Lawyer Man, not for now, anyway. Were you the only one affected, I would have blown your brains out already. But you have a wife and two teen-aged kids. Not that they are particular fond of you, no one is, but they do depend on you to foot the bills and pay the mortgage.

CLAY: Seems you've researched my personal life as well.

DRAKE: Of course, I'm very thorough and, as I said, but not inclined to harm innocent people if I can help it.

CLAY: So, I'm spared?

DRAKE: Not exactly,

CLAY: No? Then, what do you plan to do to me?

DRAKE: [Again picking up the pistol and aiming it Drake] I'm going to give you a chance to save you ass, by making a career change.

CLAY: A career change? How would I do that?

DRAKE: By giving up this defense attorney scam of yours.

CLAY: But what else would I do for a living? How could I support my family?

DRAKE: I'm sure you'll think of something. Another branch of the law, or a different line of business, maybe. A real job for a change. Your family will just have to adjust. Otherwise, you're a dead man.

CLAY: But. . .

DRAKE: And don't think you can get me arrested or have me killed. I know how to play this kind game better than anyone around. So Be warned that I will be monitoring your every step. [Then glaring at Drake for a long moment] My revenge for what you did to my parents, Mr. Drake.

[Drake puts the pistol back in his briefcase, then calmly gets up to leave.]

DRAKE: Your secretary, by the way, is out of the office. I planned our meeting during her lunch hour. She left after giving me a receipt for my $100. And on my way out I'll disconnect her phone, too. So don't expect her to come to your aid or think you can alert security before I leave the building. Have a nice day, Lawyer Man.

[Drake watches Drake exit and, like a puppet suddenly unstrung, slumps down in his chair.]

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