Twenty-Two
“IT’S THE BEST DEAL under the circumstances, Father Leonard,” Angela Jenkins says. “This way you won’t spend the rest of your life in prison.”
“Just the next twenty-five years,” I say. “You’ll be an old man by the time you get out.”
“He’ll be in his mid-fifties,” Angela retorts. “That’s not much older than you and I are. Besides, he’ll be eligible for parole way before then, and I think it's a pretty good bet that he’ll get out of prison after only a few years.”
“Yeah, years he shouldn’t have to spend, anyway.”
“Look, Father,” she says to me. “I don’t know what you want me to do.”
“I want you to defend an innocent man,” I exclaim. “It’s your job, isn’t it?”
“It’s my job to give my client the best defense possible, to represent his interest as well as I can,” she jabs the
