Thirteen

Defense attorney Eddie Flynn is in court representing Jean Marie, a former sex worker charged with drug possession. The prosecutor is Norman Folkes and the judge is Cleveland Parks. Believing the arresting officer, Detective Mike Granger, is lying about the circumstances of the arrest, Eddie uses a trick from his past as a con artist. He ensures Norm has no way to notify his witness in time, then erases the correct courtroom number from the courthouse whiteboard and substitutes a wrong one—causing Granger to arrive late, irritating the judge. During his brief cross-examination, Eddie proves that the soda straw Granger claimed to have seen “sticking out of the top of her bag” would have been impossible to see (14), as the bag was too deep. The judge dismisses the charges. After the hearing, a prominent celebrity lawyer, Rudy Carp, who was observing the proceedings, approaches Eddie and offers him the chance to “take second chair in the biggest murder trial this city has ever seen” (15).

Joshua Kane confronts a man in his apartment. Kane has meticulously altered his own appearance—clothing, hair, glasses, and even a bleach stain on his pants—to be an exact double of the man. Exploiting the man’s confusion, Kane forces him into the bathroom and has him read a phonetic pangram aloud into a digital recorder to capture his speech patterns. Once the recording is complete, Kane reveals his true intention and murders the man with a silenced pistol. He then retrieves a gym bag and a bucket of lye from a storeroom across the hall, preparing to dissolve the body.

Rudy Carp takes Eddie Flynn to an expensive French restaurant for lunch. He formally offers Eddie second chair in the upcoming murder trial of his client, famous movie star Robert “Bobby” Solomon. He offers a fee of $200,000, noting that the exposure would be immense. Eddie, believing from media reports that Solomon is guilty of murdering his wife and head of security, refuses the offer. He tells Rudy that he does not represent guilty clients, explaining that doing so in the past cost him more than money can repay. Carp, however, believes Bobby is innocent and he hopes Eddie can help him prove this.

Back in the murdered man’s apartment, Kane studies photographs of his victim to perfect his impersonation, practicing the man’s posture and voice. He recalls discovering his gift for mimicry in school, which helped him fit in as his mother frequently moved them from town to town. To more closely match his victim’s appearance, Kane deliberately breaks his own nose in a two-step process: first slamming the door edge into the bridge of his nose, then gripping both sides and twisting to reposition the bone. He eats a large, fatty dinner to bring his weight closer to that of the murdered man.

At the restaurant, Rudy Carp insists that Bobby Solomon was framed by the NYPD. To recruit Eddie, he increases his offer to $250,000. Still unconvinced, Eddie prepares to leave. On the way to drop Eddie off, Rudy shows him a massive billboard for Solomon’s new movie, co-starring his murdered wife, Ariella Bloom. He explains that the studio, which is footing the legal bills, stands to lose millions if Solomon is convicted. Eddie realizes Rudy wants to hire him as an “expendable” asset to aggressively pursue the police-frame-up defense. 

After being dropped off, Eddie discovers his car is being towed, and a bag full of straws has been left on his windshield with a note reading, “You’re LATE” (32), suggesting that the police are targeting him for drawing attention to their failures in the Jean Marie case. Furious, Eddie calls Rudy and accepts the case on one condition: If he reviews the files and still believes Solomon is guilty, he walks away.

Eddie arrives at the lavish offices of Carp Law in Times Square. While waiting in the lobby, he receives an unusual call from his estranged wife, Christine, who invites him for dinner with their daughter, Amy. An assistant leads Eddie to a “war room” where lawyers are running a mock trial for the Solomon case. Rudy Carp explains the firm’s strict security protocols and gives Eddie a secure, offline laptop containing all the case files. Bobby Solomon arrives at the office with his security detail. To Eddie, he seems smaller and more vulnerable than his on-screen persona. Due to his past as a conman, Eddie is skilled at reading people. He observes Bobby closely for tells. Despite his initial skepticism, he sees a look of genuine, burning injustice in Bobby’s eyes, a look he has come to associate with falsely accused, innocent clients. After Eddie signs a retainer agreement, Bobby shares his life story.

Sitting with Bobby, Eddie listens to the actor’s life story, from his humble upbringing to his rise in Hollywood and his love for his murdered wife, Ariella. He passionately insists on his innocence. Bobby insists that he does not want any secrets between himself and his legal team. Before Eddie or Rudy can stop him, he prepares to tell them “everything” (42).

From a station wagon in a parking garage across the street, Joshua Kane watches the meeting in Rudy Carp’s office through binoculars. He is also listening via a bug planted inside a fake “World Lawyer Of The Year” trophy he had sent to the firm (43). Kane has been monitoring the defense team’s preparations, including their mock trials and jury-selection strategy. The arrival of a new lawyer, Flynn, is an unexpected complication. Kane resolves to investigate him but is soon distracted when he overhears Solomon preparing to reveal a secret. He also makes a phone call to an accomplice, instructing him to monitor police communications that night.

Bobby Solomon confesses to Eddie and Rudy that he and his wife, Ariella, had a loud argument on the night of her murder. The fight was about his refusal to sign on for a second season of their reality show. He explains that this is why he left the house to get drunk. Bobby becomes emotional, and Eddie observes that he looks guilty, though he is unclear whether this is with regard to the argument or the murders. After Bobby leaves with his bodyguards, Rudy admits he already knew about the fight. Eddie realizes Rudy orchestrated the meeting to manipulate him into trusting Bobby. Eddie is given a secure laptop to review the case files. The laptop comes with its own security guard, a burly man named Holten, who will accompany Eddie until the laptop is returned to the law office.

After hearing Bobby’s confession, Joshua Kane ends his surveillance for the night. He gets into a different car and prepares to follow Eddie and the security guard. He intends to ambush them and steal the aluminum briefcase containing the laptop with the Solomon case files. As a black SUV used by Carp Law pulls up to the building, Kane follows it into the slow-moving Manhattan traffic, armed with a pistol. He exits the car and follows Eddie and Holten to the building.

Eddie and Holten arrive at Eddie’s office building. As they get out of the SUV, Eddie’s mentor, Judge Harry Ford, pulls up and calls out to him. At the same time, they see a man in a ball cap—Kane—approaching with his hand in his coat as if reaching for a gun. Holten draws his own weapon, Eddie drops to his knees. However, the man simply asks Judge Ford for directions and the threat dissolves. Inside, Holten insists on guarding the laptop from the hallway all night. Harry expresses concern about the intense security situation as he and Eddie share a drink. Eddie explains how he was recruited to the Bobby Soloman case by Carp. On hearing the names involved, Ford prepares to leave. Following the withdrawal of another judge, he has taken over the case, so cannot discuss it with Eddie.

Judge Harry Ford is furious with Eddie because having Eddie on the defense team means their friendship must be put on hold for the duration of the trial. Feeling used, Eddie immediately calls Rudy, who admits to the strategic hire, hoping that Eddie’s friendship with Ford could lend sympathy to Bobby’s case, but he insists Eddie’s legal skills are also essential. Eddie leverages the situation, demanding a two-year senior associate contract leading to a junior partnership at Carp Law in addition to his fee, hoping that a stable job with regular clients might win back his estranged wife. Rudy agrees. Eddie then opens the laptop to begin reviewing the case.

Eddie spends two hours reviewing the prosecution’s case against Bobby Solomon. The evidence seems overwhelming: A neighbor’s testimony and security footage place Bobby at his house at nine o’clock at night, contradicting his alibi that he returned at midnight; his fingerprints are on the baseball bat used to kill Carl Tozer; and his DNA is on a $1 bill folded into a butterfly that was found in Tozer’s mouth.

After his failed attempt to steal the laptop, Joshua Kane aborts the mission for the night. He drives to Brooklyn, reflecting on his rare genetic condition, congenital analgesia, which prevents him from feeling any physical pain. He recalls discovering this as a child and his mother’s mixed reaction of relief and fear. He arrives at the home of Wally Cook, a man he knows from his surveillance is the defense team’s number-one choice for the jury. Kane cannot rely on the prosecution objecting to Wally, and Wally is also taking up a slot that would allow Kane to be among the defense picks—so Kane plans to eliminate him, thus increasing his chances of being on the jury.

Eddie calls Rudy, declaring that Bobby is “screwed” (74). Rudy reveals the core of their defense: The DNA evidence was planted. He explains that forensic analysis of the dollar bill found a second DNA profile belonging to Richard Pena, a serial killer who was executed in 2001, 12 years before the 2013-series bill was printed. This proves that the $1 bill was contaminated in the lab, Rudy says, and so undermines the entire forensic case. Convinced there is a real chance of proving a frame-up, Eddie decides to hire his own investigator and calls Harper, a former FBI agent.

Kane first slashes the tire on Wally Cook’s van as he passes, then rings the doorbell to report the flat, luring Wally outside. He then abducts Wally at gunpoint, threatening his wife and baby. In Kane’s car, Wally, a private investigator, manages to stab Kane in the thigh with a hidden switchblade. Unaffected by the wound due to his condition, Kane easily subdues and kills Wally. He drives to an abandoned industrial lot, where he switches the license plates, then burns the body and Wally’s phone to delay identification. Kane then returns to the parking garage across from Carp Law. In the darkness, he performs surgery on himself, removing the knife, cauterizing the wound with the car’s cigarette lighter, and stitching it closed. After changing into fresh clothes, he goes back to the apartment where he is hiding out.