The Lincoln Lawyer

Back in the courtroom, the judge is 15 minutes late. Minton sits at the prosecution table with his boss, Jack Smithson. Minton looks guilty and upset. The courtroom is nearly empty of spectators, and no media has arrived. When the judge finally enters, Minton struggles to say, “the state moves to dismiss all charges against Louis Ross Roulet” (466).

The judge accepts the motion, but demands an explanation to the jury who have served and listened to multiple days of testimony. Smithson declares that “there were some irregularities in the investigation and subsequent prosecution. [For] the sanctity of our justice system […] it is better to dismiss a case than to see justice possibly compromised in any way” (468).

The judge finds Roulet free of all charges and releases the court. Roulet, Dobbs, and Mary thank and congratulate Mick. Mick only wants his gun back. 

Mick politely declines lunch with Dobbs, Mary, and Roulet, but before they can leave, Detectives Kurlen, Booker, and Lankford arrest Roulet for “the murder of Martha Renteria” (474). Roulet’s mother attempts to grab Roulet away from the police. They have to restrain her and threaten to arrest her as well. Dobbs exclaims that this can’t be right—everything Corliss said about Martha Renteria on the stand was a lie. But Corliss never said Martha’s name, so Detective Kurlen catches Dobbs in a lie: “how’d you know he was talking about Martha Renteria?” (474).

Before the detectives take Roulet, Mick tells him that he will not represent him any longer, and that he hopes Roulet gets the death sentence. Roulet is surprised and angry, so he threatens Mick and his family, implying he will come after them when he will be released the next morning. Mick is terrified.

Detective Sobel isn’t sure if she has enough evidence to hold Roulet. She reveals that they have one new critical piece of evidence—the same thing that Levin referred to in his last message to Mick as Jesus’s ticket out. Levin looked into Roulet’s unpaid parking tickets and discovered that his vehicle received a ticket while parked outside of Martha Renteria’s home on the night of her murder. This evidence may be enough to help Jesus, but not necessarily enough to hold Roulet more than 24 hours. Levin kept his files separate, so detectives didn’t connect the Reggie Campo case with the Renteria murder until they heard Corliss mention the snake dancer in court.

Sobel also believes Mick’s phone may be bugged, which would explain how Roulet always seemed to know where and what Mick was up to. Sobel tells Mick that as long as Jesus is still in prison and the ballistics report is pending, Mick could be arrested for Levin’s murder. Unless Mick gives her the information he has about Roulet, she cannot protect Mick. Sobel tells Mick to trust the detectives and let them take over from here. 

That evening, Mick receives numerous calls from other defense attorneys who assume that he will be defending Roulet in his new trial. When he explains that he is not, they ask for a referral so they can take the high-paying case. Mick eagerly awaits a call from Maggie, who tells Mick that the police are letting Roulet go. They interrogated him for nine hours, but he didn’t say a word. Mick decides to tell Maggie that Roulet is a threat to their daughter. She immediately agrees to take Hayley somewhere safe. Mick tells her to stay away from him because Roulet will probably come looking for Mick as well. Mick tells Maggie he loves her before getting off the phone to call Valenzuela.

Mick begs Valenzuela to help him, which is difficult considering how badly their last interaction went. Still, when Mick explains that Roulet is free and may be coming after his daughter, Valenzuela agrees to let Mick know if Roulet’s tracking bracelet shows him anywhere within ten blocks of Maggie and Hayley’s apartment.

Mick then calls the gang leader Teddy Vogel to provide men for protection. Vogel agrees to send a group of men to wait outside Maggie’s apartment and stop Roulet by force if he shows up. Vogel is eager to help because Mick will now owe the Road Saints a huge favor.

Maggie reaches home and starts packing. She tells Mick she will call when she gets to a safe place. Valenzuela calls: Roulet is moving, but it’s unclear where he’s going. The tracking bracelet alarm for the ten-block radius around Maggie’s apartment goes off. Mick calls Maggie and yells at her to get out immediately. Val lets Mick know that Roulet has parked his car about a block from Maggie’s. Mick asks Val to call Maggie and tell her to get out because his own cell phone is dead. Mick grabs his gun and rushes out of the house, only to find Mary Windsor, Roulet’s mother, standing at his door. He hardly has time to notice the gun she points at him before she fires. 

A bullet hits Mick him in the stomach and launches him backward into the kitchen wall. Mary points her gun at his face, shouting, “you tried to take my son from me!” (494) and suddenly Mick understands: Mary is the one who killed Levin. The symbol Levin made with his hand before dying wasn’t devil’s horns—it was the letter M. Mick realizes that Mary made up the rape story and killed Levin to protect Roulet.

Just as Mary prepares to shoot Mick again, he manages to get his hand on his gun inside his jacket and shoots Mary. Immediately afterward, Mick hears police yelling. The detectives radio for an ambulance and announce that Mary is dead. Sobel checks Mick’s gunshot wound, instructing him to press his hand on it to reduce the blood loss. She reveals that the police only released Roulet because they assumed he would go after his next victim. Police have been tailing him to catch him in the act, but they were as surprised as Mick is that Mary was actually a killer. Sobel confirms that Maggie is fine—Maggie was aware of the detectives’ plan all along, and only acted upset with Mick for putting them in danger in case Roulet was listening to Mick’s phone.

Mick feels faint from loss of blood. Lankford shows him the gun Mary used to shoot him: Mick’s missing Woodsmith. A small moment of understanding and appreciation passes between Lankford and Mick. Then Mick blacks out. 

Five months after being shot, Mick is recovering from three surgeries. Louis Roulet and Jesus Menendez have both sued him, and Mick has lost all of his money to both legal and medical fees. Roulet and his lawyers have not been able to figure out how Mick got Corliss to slip the information about Martha Renteria into trial because Gloria Dayton, the link between Mick and Corliss, took her $25,000 and relocated to Hawaii. Mick’s lawyer believes that the Roulet case will simply go away—Roulet can’t argue anything without further incriminating himself.

The case of Jesus Menendez, however, haunts Mick. Though Jesus was pardoned and released after Roulet was charged, Jesus had contracted HIV in prison, and Mick will never forgive himself for that. His only consolation is the fact that he “traded evil for innocence” (503) and that Roulet will never be released. The detectives linked Roulet to another rape and murder. Roulet’s lawyers are trying to get Roulet life in prison as opposed to the death sentence.

Mick and Maggie are slowly repairing their relationship and spending more time together with their daughter. The California Bar reviewed Mick’s actions and suspended him for 90 days. Mick was found innocent of killing Mary Windsor because she entered his home with a stolen weapon, shot first, and two witnesses saw Mick fire in self-defense. But the fact that he has now killed someone weighs heavily on Mick. In spite of it all, he looks forward to getting back to defending “the underdog” (505).