John Lundgren loves the challenge of defending his clients. As a public defender in the great city of Chicago, he defends them all: the guilty, the not-so-guilty, and the bug-eyed crazy. But when he gets assigned Richard Palmer, a highly intelligent man accused of an impossible arson and horrific mass murder, he soon discovers this case will challenge him like no other—just not in any way he ever expected. First published in Crime Spells, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Loren L. Coleman, Daw Books, February 2009.