“Coming right up. Say, aren’t you the defense attorney in that big murder case?”

“You mean the Ticket Scalper Strangler? I’m the one.”

“That’s gotta be the biggest trial this year.”

“You’re telling me? I almost missed seeing Creed and Sting because of it.”

“Lot of prep work, eh?”

“Didn’t have time to prep. Deicide was in town.”

“Didn’t you have to interview witnesses? Take depositions?”

“Naw, he’s as guilty as they come. Why waste the time? Besides, I had to go to Chicago to see Peter Frampton and Warrant.”

“Doesn’t sound like you defended him very well. No wonder he was found guilty.”

“Hey, I’m the best defense lawyer in town. Can I help it if there were so many concerts during the past few weeks? I can defend murderers any time, but Deep Purple, Fu Manchu and Jeffrey Osborne don’t come to town every day, you know.”

“Alright, alright. Forget I said anything. Wasn’t he supposed to be sentenced today?”

“That’s right. Strangling ticket scalpers is a capital offense in this state, but I had a meeting scheduled with the judge this morning. The plan was to get it reduced to life in prison.”

“What happened?”

“Don’t know. While I was driving to the courthouse, I heard about Googoosh tickets going on sale.”

“You never made it to the meeting? Doesn’t the Bar Association frown on that type of thing?”

“Whaddya mean? I’ve got priorities. I did the right thing.”

“So you did make it to the meeting.”

“Naw, but I did get some great seats.”

“Sheesh. I guess that’s life in our overcrowded, overworked criminal justice system, eh?”

“Life for me, at least. My client? Hmm, not so good.”