Jones’s voice seemed particularly strained.

“I’m on my way to City Hall,” he said. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

Jones hesitated a moment, then cleared her throat. “I’ll be taking your place in court with Judge Brey,” she said. “Barnett wants to see you right away. He didn’t get into details. He doesn’t have to because he owns the firm. All he did is ask me to fill in for you and make this call. That’s what I’m doing.”

She hung up. Teddy couldn’t believe it but she did.

He closed the phone, returning to his place at the counter and wondering what had happened. He waved at the waitress for his check. While she wrote it up, he worked on his sandwich, finishing it in three quick bites. Someone had turned on the TV mounted on the wall, probably a result of his cell phone conversation. Teddy didn’t blame them. He hated people who used cell phones in public places, too.

He glanced at the TV. The local stations had interrupted their program schedule with a special report, confirming the rumors Teddy had been hearing all morning long. William S. Nash and his legal workshop at Penn Law had substantiated that someone District Attorney Alan Andrews prosecuted for murder and later died by lethal injection was actually innocent. Nash had the DNA results, the evidence of Andrews’s blunder as indisputable as science. But just in case anyone still had doubts, Nash also presented DNA results and a confession from the man who really did commit the murder, a career criminal facing rape charges and a second murder rap now awaiting trial in a city jail. In spite of this, the district attorney’s first response was to attack Nash and the students participating in the workshop. DA Andrews wasn’t known for his mistakes, but for his high percentage of prosecutions. Teddy knew Andrews had career plans and watched the man sweating it out before the cameras. Alan Andrews was in line to become the city’s next mayor. The election wouldn’t be held for another year, but everyone knew Andrews was the frontrunner. Even if he’d just skidded on the ice and slammed headfirst into a brick wall.

The waitress walked over with the check and handed it to him with a smile. Teddy left a tip nicer than he could afford, grabbed his briefcase and stepped over to the cash register. Andrews could scream at the cameras all he wanted, but it would never work. William S. Nash had a national reputation for being one of the finest attorneys to ever step into a courtroom. He’d retired a half decade ago and begun teaching at Penn Law.