The Bonfire of the Vanities

Kramer goes to the sixth floor of the Bronx County Building to the office he shares with the two other assistant district attorneys who work in the homicide department, Ray Andriutti and Jimmy Caughey. When Kramer arrives, Andriutti and Caughey give him a hard time for wearing running shoes and carrying his dress shoes in a plastic bag. Andriutti makes a remark that is both antisemitic and homophobic.

Kramer, Andriutti, and Caughey then talk about existing cases, including the case of a White man who apparently accidentally shot his mother-in-law. They had been eager to try the case because it doesn’t sit well with them—especially Kramer, who was raised as a staunch liberal—that almost all of the people they charge with crimes are Black or Latinx. Andriutti then gets a phone call. After he hangs up, he says it was someone from Lincoln Hospital, who said there’s a man there who’s likely to die. The person wants to talk to Bernie (the head of the district attorney's homicide department), and they’re not sure if the man fell or was hit by a Mercedes.

Kramer goes to the courtroom over which Judge Kovitsky presides. There’s general pandemonium, and Kovitsky seems upset, especially when the lawyer for the next case he’s supposed to see doesn’t show up on time. Eventually, the lawyer, Sonnenberg, arrives. Kovitsky asks him why he’s late but quickly moves on. Kovitsky, Sonnenberg, and the prosecutor, Torres, all talk about the case of the defendant Lockwood, who is charged with armed robbery. Kramer is struck by the image of three White men discussing the fate of Lockwood, who is Black.

Torres says that he’s prepared to give Lockwood two to six years in prison in a plea deal. Sonnenberg says Lockwood won’t agree to it because he would also have to serve another sentence he received as a youth, also for armed robbery. Kovitsky then calls Lockwood up to him to speak to him. He tells Lockwood that he should really consider the plea deal because if he doesn’t agree to it and is found guilty in a trial, then he might end up spending most of his life in prison. He says if Lockwood were innocent, it would be a different story, but they have a taped confession of Lockwood admitting to taking part in the crime. Lockwood still doesn’t agree to take the plea deal. Kovitsky says he’ll give Lockwood two weeks to think about it.

Kovitsky then calls up the case Kramer is prosecuting. The defendant is Herbert 92X, who’s charged with manslaughter. Kramer thinks the case is a study of stupidity. Herbert 92X was driving a delivery truck for a liquor company, and three men hijacked the truck at gunpoint and stuffed Herbert into a dumpster. When the three men brought the truck to the warehouse owned by their boss, someone told them the truck they hijacked was one of the boss’s trucks. They’d essentially just robbed themselves. The three men then went looking for Herbert to apologize and give him back the truck. They found him in a bar, but Herbert 92X, not knowing why they were there, pulled out a gun and fired. He missed the three men and instead hit another man, Nestor Cabrillo, who had five children. Herbert 92X refused to take a plea deal, so the case went to trial.

Herbert 92X enters the courtroom. He begins reading the Quran, and after a while, Kovitsky cuts him off. Herbert 92X complains that his religious freedom is being violated, and Kovitsky tells him to sit down. Kramer waits expectantly as the jury enters. Then he sees her, the woman with the brown lipstick, Shelly Thomas. Kramer is transfixed. He puts all his effort into the case, mostly to impress her. Herbert 92X’s lawyer, Teskowitz, doesn’t understand why Kramer is trying to make him look bad.

At lunch, Kramer returns to his office, where he eats with Andriutti and Caughey. Kramer gets a phone call. The person on the other end of the line says he’s Detective Martin and that he called earlier from Lincoln Hospital. He explains that it’s about someone named Henry Lamb. Lamb came into the hospital the day before, Martin explains, and was treated for a broken wrist before he went home. At the time, it seemed like he had had an accident. Then, this morning, his mother brought him back to the hospital because Lamb had a concussion and had fallen into a coma. His mother said he’d been hit by a Mercedes, and he had told her a partial license plate number. Martin asks Kramer to pass the info on to Bernie to see if Bernie wants to look into the case.