This was the last chance I’d have to do anything for my daughter.
2
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I cleared my throat. “Do I have the right to ask a few questions, Your Honor?”
“You have the same rights in this court as your daughter, Colonel Carey,” the judge answered. “You have the right to counsel, the right to summon and question witnesses on matters pertinent to this hearing.”
“Thank you, Judge,” I said. “I have a question to ask Miss Spicer.”
“You may ask the question.”
I turned to the probation officer. “Miss Spicer, do you believe my daughter is capable of murder?”
Gordon was on his feet. “Objection, Your Honor!” he said angrily. “Colonel Carey is asking a question that could be prejudicial to my client.”
The judge looked at him. “Mr. Gordon,” he said in a faintly annoyed voice, “I thought we had already explained to you that all objections on behalf of the minor are automatically made.” He turned to Miss Spicer. “You may answer the question.”
The probation officer hesitated. “I don’t know.”
“You told me the other day that you found it hard to believe that a child like Dani could commit murder,” I said. “That you’d feel better if you were able to establish a sound psychological reason for her actions. Why did you feel like that?”
She looked up at the judge. “Neither Miss Jennings nor myself has been able to establish close enough contact with Danielle to determine what she really is capable of. We feel that she exhibits an extraordinary amount of self-control in one so young.”
“You were in court and heard the testimony presented to the coroner’s jury. Did you agree with their verdict?” I asked.
She looked at me. “I accepted their verdict.”
“That’s not what I asked, Miss Spicer. From what you now know about my daughter, do you think she could have killed a man, as was stated in that court?”
She hesitated again. “I think it’s possible.”
“But you still have doubts?”
She nodded. “There are always doubts, Colonel. But we must deal with the facts we have, we can’t let our own personal feelings overrule them. The facts we have bear out the conclusion of that court. We must therefore act upon it.”
“Thank you, Miss Spicer.”
I turned back to the judge. He was leaning across the desk watching me. He seemed curious about what I would do next.
Gordon got to his feet again. “I must protest, Your Honor,” he said. “I can’t see what Colonel Carey hopes to accomplish by asking these questions. This whole form of procedure seems highly irregular to me.”
The judge turned to me. “I must admit to my own puzzlement, Colonel Carey. Exactly what do you hope to accomplish?”
“I don’t know exactly, Your Honor, but several things disturb me.”
“What are they, Colonel Carey?”
“If my daughter had not been a minor, but an adult, and the verdict had been ‘justifiable homicide,’ in all probability she’d know be free to resume her normal life. Isn’t that true?’
The judge nodded.
“But since she is a minor, she is still subject to punishment, and that is why she is not in this court?”
“That is not true, Colonel,” the judge said. “Your daughter is not on trial here for murder. This is a custodial hearing held primarily for her own welfare and benefit.”
“Forgive me for being dense, Your Honor. I am not a lawyer. To me the mere fact that she is threatened with confinement is punishment. Whatever the reason—the crime with which she has been charged or some other reason given by the state—it still seems to me to amount to the same thing.”
“You can be assured, Colonel, that punitive measures are the furthest thing from the mind of this court,” the judge said formally.
“Thank you, Judge. But there is one other thing that troubles me.”
“And what is that?”
“If I were charged with a crime by the coroner’s jury, I would then be bound over to trial in court. There I would have the right to defend myself against such charges, to definitely, once and for all, establish my innocence or guilt.”
Again the judge nodded.
“But in my daughter’s case that wasn’t considered necessary. From the very first moment of my arrival here, it was carefully explained to me that there was no need to concern ourselves about punishment, because Dani was a minor. Our only concern would be in regard to her custody. It wasn’t until today that I realized one very important thing was missing.”
I was very thirsty and poured myself a glass of water. The judge looked at me curiously as I began to speak again.
“Nowhere in this entire procedure have I seen anything resembling a defense being made for my daughter. Surely she is entitled to an opportunity to defend herself.”
“She has not been denied any of her rights, Colonel,” the judge said rather testily. “It seems to me that you and her mother have employed a most capable counsel to act in her behalf. Mr. Gordon here has been present at all hearings. If you have any questions regarding the conduct of his defense, surely this is not the place to make them.”
I was beginning to feel entangled in a maze of legalities. It was stupid of me to have thought I’d be able to pierce the web of obscurities that the law had woven around her. “Your Honor,” I said desperately, “what I’m trying to ask in simple words is … What can I do to get the truth about my daughter into this court?”
The judge looked at me for a long moment. Then he leaned back in his chair. “If that is all you desire, Colonel,” he said slowly, “go ahead in any manner you feel will be helpful. This court is as anxious for the truth as you are.”
Gordon got to his feet again. “This is highly irregular, Your Honor,” he protested. “All Colonel Carey can do is prolong this matter unnecessarily. The coroner’s jury has already rendered its verdict. I can’t see what purpose it will serve to rehash the matter. We all realize this is a custodial hearing, and I object to its being turned into anything else.”
“In any other court my daughter would have the right to appeal, Judge,” I said. “Couldn’t this court in effect be the same thing for her?”
The judge looked down at us. “It is not within the province of this court to review the decisions of any other court. However, it is the intent of this court to listen to anything that might aid its judgment in regard to any matter before it. It is the duty of this court to make certain that a minor is protected, in any manner whatsoever, even from his or her own actions. Since these hearings are conducted more or less informally, I cannot see that it would do any harm to hear the Colonel out.”
“Thank you, Your Honor.”
Gordon shot a curious look at me as he sat down. I turned back to the judge. “May I call a witness?”
The judge nodded.
I walked to the back of the courtroom and opened the door to the waiting room. Anna was sitting in the far corner, near the glass windows. I beckoned to her and she came into the court.
“Your Honor,” I said, “this is Anna Stradella.”
Nora’s face was white with anger. I saw her whisper something to Gordon. The old lady’s face was calm, Dani’s merely curious.
“Please sit down, Miss Stradella,” the judge said. He indicated a chair near his bench. Anna sat down and the clerk stepped forward with a Bible in his hand. Quickly he administered the oath to her and then sat down again.
“You may proceed, Colonel,” the judge said. His eyes were alive behind his glasses now. An interest had come into his face that had not been there before.
Anna was dressed in black, but the darkness of her clothing could not conceal the lushness of her body. She sat quietly, her hands folded across her purse.
“Would you tell the court how we met, Anna?” I asked.
“I met Colonel Carey when he came to the funeral parlor to talk to the family of Tony Riccio.”
“Tony had been my fiancé,” she answered quietly. “We had been engaged to be married.”
“For how long?”
“Nine years.”
“That is a long engagement for these times, is it not?”
“I suppose so,” she said. “But Tony wanted to wait until he struck it rich.”
“I see. You knew of his employment by Miss Hayden, did you not?”
She nodded.
“Did you ever discuss that job with Tony?”
She shook her head. “No, I never did. But Tony often spoke about Miss Hayden.”
“What did he have to say about her?”
Gordon erupted from his seat. “I must object to this line of questioning most strongly. Your Honor. This entire subject is completely irrelevant and immaterial to the matters before this court.”
“Overruled,” the judge said almost negligently. I could see he was curious about what I was doing. “Continue, Colonel Carey.”
“He said she was a rich middle-aged lady and someday he would get a bundle from her.”
I stole a glance at Nora. Her face was white and angry. I turned back to Anna. “Did he have anything to say about his relationships in his employer’s household?”
“Yes,” she almost whispered. “He said that between the kid and her mother, he didn’t know which was going to break his back first.”
“By that I assume he meant that he was having sexual relations with both?”
“Yes.”
“During that time did he also have relations with you?”
Anna looked down at the floor. “Yes,” she whispered.
“You didn’t object to his behavior with Miss Hayden and her daughter?”
“What good would it have done if I had?” she asked in a dull voice. “He told me he had to do it. It was part of the job.”
“That’s a lie!” Dani shouted suddenly. “It’s a dirty lie!”
The judge rapped his gavel sharply. “Be quiet, Danielle,” he admonished her. “Or I’ll have to send you out of the courtroom.”
Dani’s face froze and she glared at me. Now I knew how Judas felt when he looked into the face of Christ. I turned back to Anna.
“When was the last time you saw your fiancé alive?” I asked.
“About two weeks before he died.”
“What did he say to you at that time?”
“He gave me a large manila envelope and asked me to keep it for him,” she said. “He said it contained letters from Miss Hayden and her daughter and that before long the letters would be worth a lot of money to us. Enough for us to get married on.”
“Did you read those letters?”
“No,” she said. “The manila envelope was sealed.”
“What did you do with them then?”
“I put them away,” she said. “Then one night my brother told me that Tony wanted them back and I gave the manila envelope to him. It wasn’t until my brother had left that I found out that Tony was already dead.”
“What did your brother do with those letters?”
“He sold them.”
“To whom?”
“To Miss Hayden.”
“But Miss Hayden didn’t get all the letters, did she?” I asked.
“No. My brother held out two of them.”
“And what did he do with them?”
She looked into my face. “He sold them to you for one hundred dollars.”
This time it was Nora who came out of her seat. “The dirty little thief!”
Gordon pulled her back down and I could see that he was as surprised as anyone else. He probably hadn’t even known that the letters existed.
I took them from my pocket. “Are these the letters that your brother gave you to deliver to me?” I asked.
She looked at them. “They are.”
“That’s all, Anna. Thank you.”
She got up from the chair and started out. She stopped in the open door and looked back for a moment, then the door closed behind her.
“I would like to read an excerpt from one of these letters,” I said, then read the last paragraph from Nora’s letter without waiting for permission from the judge.
“You didn’t tell me you were going to marry him, Mother!” Dani said. She looked down the table accusingly. “You didn’t tell me!”
“Be quiet, Dani!” The probation officer put her hand on Dani’s arm.
Gordon was on his feet again. “I move that the entire testimony of that woman and the excerpt from the letter be stricken from the record as irrelevant and immaterial!”
“Sustained,” the judge said casually. “It is so ordered.” He looked at me. “Have you any further surprises, Colonel Carey?”
“I have, Your Honor. I’d like to question Miss Hayden.” Gordon was on his feet again. “I object, Your Honor.”
“Overruled.”
“I request a short recess to confer with my client,” Gordon said.
The judge leaned forward on the bench and looked down. “You seem to have a plethora of clients in this court, Mr. Gordon. Which client are you referring to?”
Gordon’s face flushed. “Miss Hayden, Your Honor.”
The judge nodded. He rapped the desk with his gavel. “The court declares a fifteen-minute recess.”
We all stood up as he left the courtroom. Miss Spicer took Dani out into the girls’ waiting room. The moment the door closed behind her, Gordon turned to me.
His voice was gruff and angry. “What the hell are you trying to do, Luke?”
3
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“Your job, Counselor,” I retorted. “Defend my daughter!”
“You’re being a fool, Luke. You’ll only make it worse for her!”
“How much worse can it be? The judge is ready to send her away.”
“You don’t know that,” he said. “He hasn’t handed down his decision yet. And if he did go against us we’d petition to reopen tomorrow. We have that right.”
“What good would it do?” I asked. “Dani would still be locked up. Why should you be so afraid that I might dig up the truth? Or are you in on it, too?”
“In on what?”
I could see that he was genuinely puzzled. “Nora was afraid I might stumble onto the truth of what really happened that night. That’s why she had Coriano frame me when I went to pick up the letters.”
“Frame you?”
I took the pictures from my pocket, showed them to him, and explained what had happened. His face paled as I put them back in my pocket. “She warned me to keep out of it or she’d send them to my wife.”
“I should never have given them back to you!” Nora said angrily. “I must have been out of my mind!”
Gordon was angry too. He grabbed her arm, almost roughly, and pulled her away.
I watched them walk to the rear of the courtroom. The sibilants of their whispers reached back to me but I couldn’t get what they were saying. I sat down and reached for a glass of water. I wanted a cigarette but I didn’t know if I was allowed to smoke in the courtroom.
“Your daughter is being very upset by this, Colonel,” Dr. Weidman said.
I looked up. There seemed to be genuine sympathy in his eyes. I drank the water. “I’d rather upset her a little now, Doctor, than try to repair the damage done by three years in a reform school.”
Weidman didn’t speak. I reached for a cigarette and lit it. The hell with the regulations. I could feel my hand shaking.
The old lady reached out and put her hand over mine. Her voice was as soft and as kind as her touch. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Luke.”
I looked at her. She seemed the only one of us to have kept her sanity. I returned the pressure on my fingers. “I hope so,” I said.
Suddenly I wished Elizabeth were here. She would know what I ought to do;
she would be able to calm the sudden fears and doubts that began to well up inside me. Maybe Gordon was right. Maybe I would do more harm than good. I didn’t know. I couldn’t remember ever feeling so much alone.
The door to his chamber opened and the judge came back into court. We stood up until his gavel signaled for us to be seated. Gordon and Nora had come back to the table. I could see Gordon’s face still flushed and angry.
“Let the bailiff summon the child,” the judge said.
The deputy sheriff walked over to the girls’ waiting room and knocked on the door. In a moment Dani and the probation officer came back into the room.
The blue circles seemed deeper under Dani’s eyes. I could see that she had been crying again. She didn’t look at me as she slipped into her seat.
“You may resume, Colonel Carey,” the judge said.
Gordon was on his feet before me. “I must again protest this procedure, Your Honor. It is highly irregular and, if permitted to continue, could lead to charges of bias and prejudice on the part of this court.”
Judge Murphy’s eyes were suddenly cold and frosty. “Are you threatening this court, Counselor?”
“No, Your Honor. I’m merely voicing a considered legal opinion.”
“The court respects the opinion of the learned counselor,” the judge said, his voice still cold. “It appreciates his concern. But the court wishes to point out that if it is accused of bias and prejudice in favor of the minor appearing before it, it is only fulfilling its function. This court’s avowed purpose, according to law, is to protect fully the minors appearing before it.”
Gordon sat down silently. The judge looked at me. His voice was mild. “You may resume, Colonel.”
I rose from my chair. “I would like to question Miss Hayden, please.”
“Miss Hayden, will you take this seat near the bench?” the judge asked, indicating the chair that Anna had occupied.
Nora looked at Gordon for a moment. He nodded and she got up and walked to the chair. The clerk came forward to administer the oath.
Nora sat down and looked at me. Her face was calm and impassive, almost as if it had been carved from one of the slabs in her studio.
Where Love Has Gone (1962) Page 33