Lie to me.
That's what she said and that's what he did.
He gave her the whole spiel about wanting to help people and for good measure he'd thrown in the 'women love a man in uniform' comment knowing full well that she'd accept the lie as fact and not dig any further.
The truth was something entirely different.
The truth was one of the reasons why almost every LAPD cop hated him.
The truth was, that he was better than them, had beaten many of them before he'd turned his entire life upside down.
Martin Deeks had graduated third in his class of 328 students. He'd passed the California bar exam on his first try and scored within the top 1 percent in the entire state. Three top law firms had sent him letters of inquirery.
Gerald Deeks had told everyone who would listen about how successful his son was, how Marty would end up a named partner within two years. And Gerald Deeks had been right.
Marty had accepted a position with Hume and Gartner, the most prestigious defense law firm in the tri-state area. Marty had been second chair on 18 cases his first year, successfully helping to defend his clients from jail time. They'd had to pay some pretty hefty fines but when you're some of the wealthiest people in the Western time zone, it was pocket change.
Martin Deeks was a terror in the courtroom; his cross was something dreaded by every witness, every police officer. Doctors, medical examiners even other lawyers feared to be on the receiving end of his questions. Martin Deeks was relentless, intelligent and quick to jump on the slightest inconsistency in testimony. He could get the meanest, most callous cop from the streets to stutter, blush and curse while on the stand.
At the end of his first year, Hume and Gartner became Hume, Gartner and Deeks. Martin Deeks was now first chair, representing some of the most famous and most wealthy people. He'd brought in 123 more clients to the firm, some from as far east as New York.
It was New York that would be his turning point.
Samuel Horton was a friend of one of Martin's other New York clients. Sam had been visiting Los Angeles when he'd had an altercation with a woman in his hotel room. The woman had filed assault and rape charges against Samuel.
Horton insisted that the woman had been willing, that things had only become ugly the following morning when Samuel told her he was leaving to go back to New York to his wife and family.
Sarah Holland had attacked him with broken champagne bottle, slashing Samuel's arm to the bone. He'd defended himself, knocking her unconscious with a sculpture from one of the bookshelves.
Martin had vigorously defended Horton; he'd dug up every bit of dirt from Sarah Holland's past and displayed it in the courtroom for the entire world to see.
Sarah had been in trouble with the law since the age of fifteen, arrested almost every year for drug and alcohol possession and prostitution. Holland had graduated to burglary to feed her habits and been in prison when she turned twenty-one.
Martin Deeks had not felt a twinge of conscious when the jury found Horton not guilty and Sarah Holland had broken down in noisy sobs.
Martin Deeks had not thought anything about it when Samuel Horton had muttered "Now the bitch is going to get what she deserves."
Martin Deeks had thought about it when Sarah Holland's body had been found the next morning in a dumpster off Warner Avenue. She'd been beaten so badly that she'd had to be identified by DNA. Her skull had been shattered, no teeth remained in her jaw, and her face looked like ground hamburger.
The coroner had reported that Holland had been beaten with a pipe or baseball bat and been stomped and kicked. Several of the blows had been savage enough to tear chunks of flesh from her body.
No one claimed Sarah Holland's body, no one grieved for her passing.
No one was ever charged with her brutal murder.
Martin Deeks resigned the following morning and by that afternoon had put in his application to the Police Academy.
Gerald Deeks never again had a kind word to say to or about his son when Marty Deeks graduated top of his class and became a Los Angeles police officer.
