conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the first five paragraphs for a book with the title 'Against the Law'?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Against the Law
  Except where actual historical events and characters are being described for the storyline of this novel, all situations in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to living persons is purely coincidental.
  Edward was enjoying watching dusk erase the buildings and thinking about getting another beer, when he faintly heard his phone ringing. He felt only a mild curiosity about who might be calling, but then the front door opened and Mike leaned out and tossed the phone at him.
  She hiccupped and her crying paused. In a tiny voice that reminded him of Amy as a child, she said, 'Murder?'
  They kept him waiting nearly half an hour, on the attorney's side of the visitor's booth of the Harris County Detention Center. He wasn't on Amy's visitors' list – she didn't have one yet – but he'd gotten in by showing his bar card, which felt very strange. Good thing he hadn't followed his first inclination after being disbarred, to cut it up into little pieces and throw it into Buffalo Bayou.
  She recovered herself a little, so it had worked. Her eyes skittering away from his, she said, 'Is this covered by attorney-client privilege? You know, when you're not actually – an attorney?'
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know three more paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Was the judge doing him any favors? He couldn't tell. For the most part she wouldn't look at him, but that might have been just to cover the fact that she was trying to help him out. Cynthia seemed to grow more remote as the day wore on. Even angry. But at whom he couldn't tell.
  So you had to ask a lot of futile questions. David Galindo wasn't doing that. This seemed to support what he'd told Edward, that he wasn't genuinely looking for a death sentence. Was David cutting him a break? Or laying some sort of trap? Edward couldn't decide and the doubt made him edgy and nervous. While Edward scrambled all over the field, working his ass off, the prosecutor just asked minimal questions, and said, 'The State accepts this juror, Your Honor.'
  By the end of the day, there were two jurors neither the state nor the defense challenged, a white man and an African-American woman. Edward hesitated, taking a long pause before accepting the woman. He thought the prosecution would try to pack the jury with minority members, who might resent the rich white defendant and therefore be more likely to find her guilty. Edward's hesitation wasn't racist. He liked the woman personally, a thirty-eight-year-old married mother of two, who worked as a loan officer in a bank. But racism and reverse racism were facts of life, and nobody ever answered questions about them honestly. In the end, he sighed and took her. The woman grimaced when learning of her selection, which made Edward feel easier. It indicated she didn't have an agenda of trying to get Amy.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the last three paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Edward turned and saw his family in the front row, all smiling at him. But Linda wasn't there. Scanning the crowd, he saw her just outside the side gate in the railing. She was beaming at him.
  Edward stood and felt Amy back at his shoulder, now free of handcuffs. He turned and they smiled at each other, the secret crooked smiles they'd always saved for each other.
  The courtroom action in this novel takes place in the Harris County Criminal Justice Center, which was inundated by Hurricane Harvey to the extent that at this writing it is inoperable and needing extensive repair. So this novel has become a slight period piece. But I prefer to think of it as set in the near future, when Houston will be back stronger than ever.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Edward turned and saw his family in the front row, all smiling at him. But Linda wasn't there. Scanning the crowd, he saw her just outside the side gate in the railing. She was beaming at him.
  Edward stood and felt Amy back at his shoulder, now free of handcuffs. He turned and they smiled at each other, the secret crooked smiles they'd always saved for each other.
  The courtroom action in this novel takes place in the Harris County Criminal Justice Center, which was inundated by Hurricane Harvey to the extent that at this writing it is inoperable and needing extensive repair. So this novel has become a slight period piece.