His eyes were wide with bewilderment.“When do I have to come back? How many times?” Roberto asked.“Never,” Barbara said. “The judge dismissed the case. It’s over.”Roberto blinked, and spoke in rapid Spanish to his wife. She looked from him to Barbara, her eyes filled with tears. “It’s true? It’s over?” Her voice was little more than a whisper.Barbara assured them both that indeed it was over, they were free to go home.Their outpouring of gratitude made Barbara shift uncomfortably until, behind Roberto’s head, she spotted Hoggarth watching with an impatient expression. She excused herself, and escaped before Roberto could embrace her and his wife do something even more embarrassing, like kiss her hand.Hoggarth walked toward her as she extracted herself from her client. Drawing near, without preliminaries, he said, “I want a formal statement from your client on Wednesday morning. Ten. And let’s start at ten this time.” As if it were an afterthought, he handed her a thick manila envelope.
