“ Crime and legal stories, broadly speaking, are just where my interest happens to lie. ”
We move through time like a man in a rowboat, looking back even as we move forward.
~ William Landay
But sometimes you can't figure everything out because you can't ever really understand other people. You can't understand why they do what they do. You just have to accept a little mystery, Ben. People are mysterious, the world is mysterious. You can't know everything. You're not supposed to. This isn't a history book. It's just the world. It's a messy place.
So I got on with the business of lawyering away at the evidence. Minimizing it. Defending Jacob.
I did not speak. I have found in any Q&A, in court, in witness interviews, wherever, often the best thing you can do is wait, say nothing. The witness will want to fill the awkward silence. He will feel a vague compassion to keep talking, to prove he is not holding back, to prove he is smart and in the know, to earn your trust.