Marc stood inside a phone booth on the thirteenth floor of the Criminal Courts Building. He had the phone receiver to his ear, listening to Marguerite read off the list of calls he had received in the office this morning. There was nothing urgent. Marc said he would be back in the office as soon as he finished with the Maricyk and Wainwright cases in Part 39. Justice Arthur Kahn was presiding in Part 39. Usually Justice Kahn sat in the civil term of the Supreme Court. But during the summer months, when the number of civil trials dwindled, judges who usually did not sit in criminal term were rotated there so they could gain experience in criminal matters. Judge Kahn was tall, and his grayed temples and gold half-glasses contrasted elegantly against black robes. He was the very picture of a man of judicious mien. Which was exactly what he was not. Judge Kahn was a favorite of criminal defense lawyers when pleading clients guilty; he was quite lenient on sentencing. But, Judge Kahn was the last judge sought or desired for trials or hearings; he was ignorant of the law, insecure, impatient, irascible, verging on the paranoid.
