“Old lady Patterson is a real tightwad.” Raising his voice so it would carry, the man continued, “If she stuck a lump of coal up her ass, within a week she’d shit out a diamond.”

“Inside every lump of coal there's a diamond waiting to get out.”

“Shawna smiles demurely at the attendant, her lips barely moving as she speaks to me. "If you had a piece of coal, we could hold her down, shove it up her ass and come collect a big fat diamond in a few days.""I'm pretty sure it takes longer than a few days for coal to turn into a diamond, Shawna.""Not in that tight ass, it wouldn't.”

“A diamond is a piece of coal that stuck to the job.”

“If you had a piece of coal, we could hold her down, shove it up her ass, and come collect a big, fat diamond in a few days.”

“AS IT TURNED out, Rylann wasn’t quite as good as she’d thought she was.Over the last five years she’d prosecuted cases, she’d become quite skilled at reading defendants and their lawyers at the initial courtappearance. Given Quinn’s obvious nervousness, she’d originally predicted that his lawyer would be calling her within two weeks to negotiate aplea agreement.Instead, it took him two weeks and three days to make that call.”