Solomon's Bluff

As a teen prosecutor Ben Santos fathered a daughter out of wedlock. Hell-bent on a career in law he lost contact with her. A dozen years later his failure to embrace fatherhood is his one abiding regret.</p><p>Blood money claims the life of a pregnant woman. A jail snitch badgers her husband into implicating himself. Conviction seems a safe bet until the criminal lawyers go to work bending the rules of evidence so as to profit from the husband's cellblock confidences.</p><p>Santos is initially gun-shy about handling the case. His one previous murder trial ended in a hung jury. The rapist-killer released on bail pending retrial claimed the life of another victim.</p><p>At trial Santos parries the aggressive ploys of Vietnam Veteran-defense attorney Francisco Duran. Even so Duran backs him into a corner. At the eleventh hour Santos devises a strategy worthy of Solomon. Duran counters with a cynical plea-bargain proposal. Momentum turning Santos insists on submitting the case to the jurors despite risk of another hung jury.</p><p>On the home front Santos and his teacher wife are working on a baby of their own. As trial nears its climax Santos rushes Carmel to Delivery.