Chapter Forty-Eight
“Tall double latte with soy milk!”
Sarah moves to the Starbucks counter to pick up her order in response to the page. She prepares her cup to go and walks out the door. Looking at her watch, she realizes she still has a little time left before court reconvenes at two, and since she’s only a few minutes’ walk away, she decides to stay and sit at one of the outside tables and relax a little before heading back to the courthouse.
It had been a long and emotional trial, and she secretly wishes it was over. But on the other hand, she is curious about what Crawley will say this afternoon and whether he would go against his opening statement and actually mount a defense. If he doesn’t, she can’t imagine the jury coming back with any other decision than finding the defendants responsible for the tragic and wrongful deaths of 300,000 young American men and women from AIDS.
Out of the corner of her eye she sees two people she thinks she recognizes meeting in front of the café across the street. It is…it’s them! She watches as Baker and Crawley shake hands, exchange a few words that she can’t hear above the noise of the traffic, and then show each other into the café where they take a seat in the front window.
Sarah gets up from her table and crosses the street, moving as close to the café as she dares without being seen. She finds a street lamp to partially hide behind, where she can still see both men from the chest up.
Crawley seems to be doing all the talking while Baker listens intently. Sarah takes out her cell phone and dials a familiar number.
“Sam?” she whispers into the phone. “I can’t talk any louder, Sam, just listen carefully…. What's the latest deadline for the evening edition?… No, not the morning edition tomorrow; tonight’s edition….” Sarah looks at her watch when Sam answers. “It’s almost two now. Can you give me a few more minutes?… Sam, you wanted a scoop. I might have a scoop…. How would you like to be the first to report a settlement in the AIDS trial?… Well, that's the only thing I can figure out. I'm watching Baker and Crawley sitting and talking in a café down the street from the courthouse right now. What else would they be doing?… No, there's no guarantee that they’re talking settlement, and no guarantee that Baker will take it even if they are. But, Sam, it’s worth the wait to be the first to break the story, if it is a story…. I don’t know. Just wait for me. I'll let you know in ten minutes.”
Sarah hangs up and continues to watch as Crawley finishes talking. Both men sit quietly for a while. Then Baker says something, asks a question or offers some kind of rebuttal, Sarah can’t tell which, and Crawley answers. Baker then stares at Crawley, who nods his head. Neither man speaks or moves for the longest time. Then Baker reaches across the table and shakes Crawley’s hand.
Sarah dials her cell phone again. “Sam? Clear the front page!”
“It is bad enough that people are dying of AIDS,
but no one should die of ignorance.”
~ Elizabeth Taylor
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is
for good men to do nothing.”
~ Edmund Burke
Wrongful Death: The AIDS Trial Page 59
