Bull

Hi, sorry to bother you, Lance. It's just, um, uh...

Dasha, she hasn't come down to the car yet.

And that's my problem because...?

Well, we'll be late to the match?

Clara, this is your job.

Or can you not handle the simple act of picking up a client?

I-I called her, I pounded on the door.

She's-she's not answering.

Then use your Ivy League brain

and figure out how to get inside her room and wake her up.

You mean, break in?

I don't care how you do it.

Bribe the front desk for a room key.

Charm a bellboy.

Do whatever it takes or you're fired.

Merry Christmas!

Whoa. Sorry.

It's okay. No problem.

Dasha? Are you up?

Hey, Jade.

Have you seen Dasha?

She's not answering her phone.

Not since last night. Sorry.

Yeah. She probably overslept.

I've got to run.

First match back since my surgery.

Hope my hip holds up for a three-setter.

Yep. Good luck out there.

Dasha?

Dasha, it's morning.

Let's get moving.

If you shower fast, we can still make it on time.

Come on, Dasha. It's an important tournament.

Dasha, wake up.

Dasha?

Oh, my God. Please, no.

Please, please, please, no.

Help. I need help. She's not breathing!

Thank you, Pastor.

Mr. Palmer, a word?

Uh-oh.

Never good when the pastor calls you Mister

and says they need a word.

There's a congregant, Clara Williams,

a good girl.

Works the soup kitchen every Saturday,

She's in trouble.

Okay. What kind of trouble?

Did you hear about Dasha Markovic's overdose?

Oh, yeah, yeah. It was tragic.

Clara is being charged with her death.

She gave her the drugs that killed her.

So... big trouble.

She needs a lawyer. Can you help her?

Pastor, I would, I would love to,

but TAC's shutting down for the holidays, and...

It'd be a true gesture of Christian goodwill.

A way to give back

this season of giving.

I hear you, Pastor, but...

TAC charges some pretty hefty fees.

We have money.

You got any more excuses?

You got guilt-tripped by your pastor.

It's like every sin I ever committed

was tattooed to my forehead.

Well, I respect the church's passion,

but this is about a quarter of our fee.

Do you want to argue dollars and cents with Pastor Reynolds?

No. That's why I don't go to church.

I spent so much time with Dasha over the last two years.

I know she was a client, but...

it kind of felt like we were friends.

And the fact that I gave her something

that killed her...

I don't know how I'm gonna live with that.

The police report said that the cocaine

that you gave Dasha was laced with fentanyl.

It's a powerful opiate.

Look, I know that I never should have gotten

the cocaine for Dasha in the first place,

but I never would've given it to her

if I knew that there was fentanyl in it.

Well, unfortunately the prosecutor

doesn't care what you knew.

Tons of street drugs are getting cut with fentanyl every day.

It's leading to a massive amount of ODs.

So the D.A.'s office is taking a hardline

on anyone who is involved in distributing these drugs.

I don't sell drugs.

I don't even do drugs.Right.

Why don't we start at the beginning.

Tell us what happened.

Dasha's agent is my boss.

And as his assistant, it is my job to service her.

I schedule her meetings.

I make sure that she gets there on time.

Basically, anything that she needs, I make sure that she has.

Even when it's cocaine?

My boss made it very clear that

if I didn't give Dasha exactly what she wanted, he'd fire me.

So, your boss knew that Dasha had asked you for drugs?

He told me which dealer to go to.

Told you verbally, no paper trail?

Lance Thomas's motto is, "Don't write anything down

unless you want to see it on social."

Wait. Your boss is Lance Thomas?

Yes.

Okay. So, your boss is a jerk.

He threatens to fire you unless you break the law.

Why don't you quit?

Look, I know it sounds ridiculous.

It is ridiculous. I just...

Being an athlete has been my entire life.

I ran track growing up, and my family,

we didn't have any money, but because I was fast,

I got to go to college.

I was training for the Olympics my junior year,

and I got a stress fracture in my foot.

I did everything that the doctor said,

but it didn't heal.

So... that was it.

My running career was over.

And so, being an agent was the next best thing?

It's better in a lot of ways, actually.

A lot of athletes grow up poor,

like I did,

and they get taken advantage of.

So, I thought...

if I could make it as an agent, that I could advocate for them.

But first you had to survive Lance Thomas.

I've had tough coaches my whole life,

and some of them have been downright bullies.

But I never let them break me.

And I wasn't about to let Lance break me.

That's why I stayed.

That's why I did whatever he told me to do.

I thought I was being strong.

But now I just wish

that I had been strong enough to walk away.

Then maybe Dasha would still be alive.

She's guilty.

Never a great way to start a defense.

I know.

But I feel for Clara.

She just got caught up in the machine, Bull.

Is that an affirmative defense I'm not aware of?

No, I'm just saying, she's young.

She's working in a high-pressure environment.

It's easy to lose perspective.

Hell, it was like that for me. When I got to New York

and started working at Vogue, it was the exact same thing.

Fashion, sports...

Lot of people dream of working in those industries.

Exactly.

You put up with a lot just to keep your job.

It starts out, you're picking your boss's kid up from school,

and then you're picking your boss's dog's poop up.

So, by the time they tell you to go buy drugs,

you're programmed just to do it.

You're like a frog in a boiling pot of water.

You don't realize that you're in trouble until it's too late.

Well...

Lance Thomas got Clara in a world of trouble.

What if we try to shift the blame

so Lance looks like the bad guy?

Maybe.

It might not be enough.

You remember how the pastor used the Christmas spirit

to get you to meet Clara?

Yeah.

Well, juries are also more inclined

to be generous around the holidays.

Less likely to convict.

Christmas is at the end of next week.

There's no way we can squeeze this

onto the docket before then.

Chunk, my daughter got kidnapped this year.

We got her back.

I got charged with bribing a juror.

We got me off.

So, sue me if I'm feeling a little bullish.

Who says the holiday season isn't filled

with magic and wonder?

You got Clara's case on the docket?

Dave from the clerk's office gave us

the last slot of the season.

Told you helping him with

those Friday crosswords would pay off.

I stand corrected and amazed.

Now, I hate to be a downer...

Then don't.

Do you really think that we can finish

a manslaughter case this fast?

Speed is our friend here. Round up the team.

We need to move faster than Santa's sleigh.

You're really going all in on the Christmas thing, aren't you?

Oh, you know-ho-ho it.

We are full speed ahead on the Clara Williams case.

Trial starts on Monday.