Chapter 28: Enough Rope

The following day, Michael called together the team working on the Phillips case.  Maggie, John, and Ellen met at the conference table in his office.  Joining them was Stan Hodges. 

“I wanted fresh eyes to look over everything,” Michael explained as he welcomed Stan.  They spent a good hour and a half going over witnesses and the order in which they would be called, evidence that would be introduced, and predicting the prosecution’s strategies.

“Now, John looked over some documents for me.  What did you find?” Michael asked.

John slid him the folder.  “I eliminated a lot of unnecessary stuff, Michael.”  He glanced at Maggie.  “Sometimes it’s hard to determine what’s really important.  With a little experience, you learn to weed out the extraneous, focus on the vital.”

Michael flipped through the folder which was considerably thinner than when he’d given it to John the previous day.  He looked up at Maggie and saw her lips pressed together, a pink flush creeping up her neck.