The Tenth Case
Page 24
MR. BURKE: And not of heart disease.
MS. THOMAS: Correct again.
MR. BURKE: Did there come a time when
Equitable learned of Mr. Tan
nenbaum's death?
MS. THOMAS: Yes.
MR. BURKE: Was that because a claim was
made under the policy?
MS. THOMAS: No, no claim has yet been made, so far as I can ascertain.
MR. BURKE: How long does one have to
make a claim?
MS. THOMAS: The policy says seven years. But
the courts seem to say a claim
can always be made.
MR. BURKE: So how did the folks at Equi
table learn of Mr. Tannen
baum's death?
MS. THOMAS: Like everyone else, I imagine. Someone at Equitable saw it on the news or read about it in the paper.
MR. BURKE: And did there come a time when either that someone or another someone at Equitable put two and two together and realized, "Hey, we've got a twenty-five-million-dollar policy on that guy"?
MS. THOMAS: Yes, something like that. Ac cording to our records, the issuing agent, a Mr. Gari baldi, realized that.
MR. BURKE: And what, if anything, did Mr.
Garibaldi do at that point?
MS. THOMAS: He informed his supervisor.
MR. BURKE: And what did his supervisor
do?
MS. THOMAS: He phoned your supervisor. He thought it looked pretty fish—
MR. JAYWALKER: Objection.
THE COURT: Sustained, as to anything after, "He phoned your supervisor." The rest is stricken, and the jury will disregard it.
But there it was, hanging in midair, just waiting for the
jurors to fill in the final syllable for themselves. No openbook exam, with the answers typed in bold at the end of each chapter, could ever have been easier.
Burke sat down, barely able to suppress a triumphant smirk. Jaywalker had labored hard and long to prepare the jury for just this testimony. He'd brought up the life insurance business as early as jury selection and hammered away at it repeatedly. He'd talked about it again in his opening state ment. He'd even tried to defuse it in his cross-examination of the previous witness, the accountant, Mr. Smythe. But none of those efforts had come close to preparing the jury for just how devastating the evidence would prove to Samara. Talk about motive? Here she'd bet twenty-seven thousand dollars of her own money, hoping to rake in a pot of twenty-five million on the possibility that within six months' time her husband would be dead. Not from cancer or heart disease, the things he was known to have had, and the things that just about everybody died from.What did that leave? Drag racing? Lightning? Snakebite? Spontaneous human combustion?
What it left was murder.
Still, Jaywalker couldn't very well leave Miranda Thomas alone. She'd hurt Samara far too much for that. He rose slowly from his seat, gathered his notes and worked his way over to the lectern, all the while giving the witness his most dangerous gunfighter squint, as though he knew he had something on her.
Though Lord knew he didn't.
MR. JAYWALKER: Ms. Thomas, you'd have us believe that policies such as this, where the payout is huge but so are the premiums, make no sense except for risk takers. Yet that's not quite true, is it?
MS. THOMAS: Excuse me?
MR. JAYWALKER: Isn't it true that there's an en tirely separate category of individuals who take out precisely this sort of life insurance with very little re gard to risky endeavors?
MS. THOMAS: I'm not sure what you're
getting at.
MR. JAYWALKER: By any chance, does the term
"estate taxes" help you re
member?
MS. THOMAS: I don't know.
MR. JAYWALKER: You do know what estate
taxes are, don't you?
MS. THOMAS: Yes.
MR. JAYWALKER: What are they?
MS. THOMAS: They're the percentage the
government takes out of an es
tate before it gets distributed.
MR. JAYWALKER: Do all estates get taxed?
MS. THOMAS: No.
MR. JAYWALKER: Only those up in the millions,
right?
MS. THOMAS: Right.
MR. JAYWALKER: Only those of the rich?
MS. THOMAS: Right.
MR. JAYWALKER: Was Barry Tannenbaum rich?
MS. THOMAS: I wouldn't know.
MR. JAYWALKER: Really?
MS. THOMAS: Really.
MR. JAYWALKER: Had you ever heard of him?
Before his death, I mean.
MS. THOMAS: Yes.
MR. JAYWALKER: What had you heard about
him?
MS. THOMAS: I don't know.
MR. JAYWALKER: Let me help you. Had you
MS. THOMAS: No.
MR. JAYWALKER: One of the tallest?
MS. THOMAS: No.
heard that he was one of the oldest men in the world?
MR. JAYWALKER: One of the best looking?
MS. THOMAS: No.
MR. JAYWALKER: What had you heard?
MS. THOMAS: That he was rich.
MR. JAYWALKER: One of the richest in the en
tire world?
MS. THOMAS: Supposedly.
MR. JAYWALKER: Ms. Thomas, isn't it a fact, a dirty little fact, that policies of this sort are frequently used by the very, very rich as a strategy to avoid pay ing estate taxes?
MS. THOMAS: I suppose that's possible.
MR. JAYWALKER: They can afford the huge pre miums, after all. And the payouts, when they're made, aren't counted as part of their estates. So they're distributed tax-free. Right?
MS. THOMAS: I guess.
MR. JAYWALKER: You guess? Or am I right?
MS. THOMAS: You're right.
MR. JAYWALKER: So really, companies like yours engage in this game. They collect these huge premiums, which are calculated by actuaries to more than cover the huge payouts. Everybody wins, don't they?
MS. THOMAS: You could say so.
MR. JAYWALKER: Except the government, which gets cheated out of its revenue. And who do you think gets taxed in order to make up that lost reve nue?
MS. THOMAS: I wouldn't know.
MR. JAYWALKER: Of course you would. You get taxed, and I get taxed, and Mr. Burke gets taxed. And Stanley Merkel here, and Leona Sturdivant, and Vito—
MR. BURKE: Objection!
THE COURT: Sustained.
MR. JAYWALKER: —Todesco, and Shirley John
son, and—
MR. BURKE: Objection! Objection!
THE COURT: The objection is sustained. Sit down, Mr. Jaywalker. (Mr. Jaywalker sits) Thank you. The jury is instructed to disregard the refer ences made to individual jurors. Mr. Jaywalker, do you have any further questions of the witness?
MR. JAYWALKER: No.
Burke did, though. He had Ms. Thomas insist that by writing such policies, her company was acting perfectly legally. The insurance industry was highly regulated, she explained, and couldn't get away with breaking the law. Furthermore, even with its tax advantages, the six-month premium continued to make the Tannenbaum policy highly unusual as an investment strategy, because of the exclu sion clause.
On recross, Jaywalker tried to get her to say that the six month term of the policy might represent nothing more sinister than a simple shortage of funds on the part of the premium payer. When she hedged, Jaywalker abruptly changed course, something he'd earned a well-deserved reputation for doing over the years.
MR. JAYWALKER: Personally, you don't see this as a tax-avoidance strategy at all, do you, Ms. Thomas?
MS. THOMAS: No, I don't.
MR. JAYWALKER: You see it as a transparent, high-stakes bet that Mr. Tannenbaum was going to be dead within six months, don't you?
MS. THOMAS: Exactly.
MR. JAYWALKER: And not dead from cancer or heart disease, right?
MS. THOMAS: Right.
MR. JAYWALKER: As you tried to say
earlier, before I so rudely interrupted you, the whole thing looks pretty damn fishy to you, doesn't it?
MS. THOMAS: (To the Court) Am I allowed
to answer that?
THE COURT: Yes.
MS. THOMAS: I'd say it looks more than fishy.
MR. JAYWALKER: What does it look like to you?
MS. THOMAS: (Looks at the Court)
THE COURT: Go ahead.
MS. THOMAS: You're not going to like this, but it looks to me like your client took out the pol icy because she planned on killing her husband.
There are courtrooms, and there are quiet courtrooms. Right then, that one was as quiet as any that Jaywalker had ever been in. It was as though the judge, the staff, the jurors and the spectators were witnessing the complete and utter self-destruction of a lawyer and his client, right before their very eyes. Talk about spontaneous human combustion. It was as though it wouldn't have surprised anyone if, at that very moment, Jaywalker had burst into flames, or vaporized. Instead, he plunged right on, as though totally oblivious.
MR. JAYWALKER: Now, you're not a detective,
are you, Ms. Thomas?
MS. THOMAS: No, of course not.
MR. JAYWALKER: Or a federal agent?
MS. THOMAS: No.
MR. JAYWALKER: If you don't mind my asking, how far did you go in school?
MS. THOMAS: I have a high school equiva
lency diploma.
MR. JAYWALKER: And yet you can see clear
through this little scheme of
Samara's, can't you?
MS. THOMAS: Yes, I can.
MR. JAYWALKER: It's that obvious, isn't it?
MS. THOMAS: I sure think so.
MR. JAYWALKER: Tell me, Ms. Thomas. Has it
ever occurred to you that's
it's a little bit too obvious?
MS. THOMAS: What do you mean by that?
And all Jaywalker—born a Jew, raised a Unitarian and long ago converted to atheism—could think was, Thank you, Jesus!
MR. JAYWALKER: What I mean is that it's so Goddamned obvious that it's got to be a frame! That no one in their right mind could possibly believe they could get away with—
His speech was drowned out by Tom Burke's shouts of objection, and by the repeated banging of the judge's gavel. When finally some semblance of quiet was restored, which took a minute, Jaywalker took advantage of it to say, "No more questions." And Burke, red-faced and livid, an nounced that The People's case had concluded.
23
TUNA FISH AND PROMISES
With the conclusion of The People's case, Judge Sobel sent the jurors home for the day, with his usual admoni tions. Then he denied Jaywalker's motion to dismiss the case. Next he offered Samara the option of leaving, ex plaining that he needed to confer with the lawyers. She took him up on it, explaining to Jaywalker that she needed to do some shopping. Ice, he decided, pure ice in her veins.
Only when the courtroom was completely empty of media and spectators did the judge return his attention to Jaywalker.
"I hereby find you in summary contempt for that speech of yours. It was improper, prejudicial and uncalled for."
"She asked—"
The judge silenced Jaywalker with his gavel. In an oth erwise quiet courtroom, it only took one bang this time.
"However, because I'm aware of your situation with the disciplinary committee, I'm not going to add to your troubles with jail time or a fine. This time. But please con sider this your one and only warning. Things could get a lot worse for you, believe me."
"I can't imagine how."
"Off the record," said the judge, signaling the court reporter to give her fingers a rest. "Come on," he told Jay walker, his voice softening now. "Three years may seem like a long time, but it isn't exactly the end of the world."
"Three years? Is that what you think I'm worried about? Listen, three years away from this business is going to feel like paradise. Chances are, I'll like it so much I'll re-up for another three. Believe me, it's not the three years that's turning me into a lunatic. It's the twenty-five to life you're going to end up giving my client for something I'm not at all sure she did."
"Why don't we leave that for the jury to decide?" the judge suggested.
"Who?" asked Jaywalker, gesturing to the empty jury box. "The MENSA Twelve? How can I blame them? Shit, I'd convict her on this record."
"So talk to Mr. Burke, work something out."
Jaywalker swung around to Burke, who'd been pack ing his notes and exhibits into his briefcase. "Want to give her an A.C.D.?" Jaywalker asked. "With two days com munity service?"
Burke laughed in spite of himself. The letters A.C.D. stood for an Adjournment in Contemplation of a Dismis sal. It was what they gave turnstile-hoppers or loiterers, people with no prior arrests who'd committed minor infrac tions and said they were sorry for what they'd done.
Murderers need not apply.
Despite her stated intent of going shopping, Samara was waiting for Jaywalker out on Centre Street, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, trying to ward off the cold.
"We have to talk," he told her.
"I'm not going to plead guilty."
For a bubble-brain, she made a pretty good mind reader.
"It's too cold to go shopping," she said. "Come to my place. I promise I won't rape you."
Jaywalker managed a thin smile. Rape was about the last thing on his mind. He was tired, tired and cold. Not eating breakfast or lunch while he was on trial kept him mentally sharp, but it also produced a throbbing headache by midafternoon and left him unable to fight off the early evening chill.
"Sure," he said. "Why not?"
Samara had promised not to rape Jaywalker, but she'd said nothing about not force-feeding him. She made him eat a tuna fish sandwich that she actually made herself, without a recipe, and drink two cups of sweet, hot tea with lemon. Gradually, he could feel the chill inside him begin to subside and the headache taper off to a more or less man ageable level.
They spent two solid hours going over her testimony one last time, but the truth was, they needn't have bothered. Either Jaywalker had already fully prepared her for all of his questions and the worst Burke could throw at her, or she was truly innocent. Somewhere along the way, it occurred to Jaywalker that he might never know. She might get con victed—hell, she was going to get convicted—and he might still never know. She would be one of those forgotten inmates who live out the rest of their lives with their noses stuck in law books, composing long letters and rambling writs of habeas corpus, protesting their innocence to any one still willing to listen, until death finally catches up to them at seventy, lying on a cot in some wretched prison in firmary, hooked up to a bunch of plastic tubes.