Teddy reassured him, “You’ll have a job.”
“I’m ready to proceed,” Nina told him. “But I wouldn’t blame you for taking this offer. Other than that, I have no advice. I’m going to leave you three to talk it over. Whatever decision you make will be the right one.” She rose, resting her hand briefly on my father’s arm, and walked out.
There was a pause after she’d gone. Then Dot said, “It’s the deal you wanted, Lawrence. All except the nonprosecution. We could walk out of here right now and be done with Caroline forever. I’m ready to say good-bye. Aren’t you?”
He didn’t respond, but gripped her hand.
Teddy said, “You can’t think about the other case. Divide and conquer. This one, they’ve heard Shanahan testify about the confession. We have to cut our losses.”
“Leo doesn’t want me to take the deal,” Lawrence said, reading it in my face. “Teddy does.”
I hadn’t intended to take a side, but Teddy didn’t seem to see the danger of accepting this offer, only the immediate benefit of ending the trial. “You have to remember your plea in this case would be admissible in the next one. It would be evidence of your motive for killing Bell. All you’d have accomplished is punting to the next trial, while providing the DA with an admission of guilt to beat you over the head with. I feel good about this jury. I don’t want you to admit to anything. You’ve been fighting for twenty-one years. Don’t give in so close to the end.”
My father’s eyes were bright. “You don’t want me to admit to something I didn’t do.”
“Pleading guilty doesn’t mean admitting to anything,” Teddy said, his voice tight. “You just stipulate to a factual basis.”
“That’s what it means to a lawyer,” I told Teddy. “But I’m not a lawyer on this case. I’m sorry. I can’t help it.” Dot’s eyes were hard, and she nodded to me. I turned to Lawrence again. “If you were my client I’d tell you to take the deal. But, speaking as your son, it makes me want to throw up, the thought of you giving them anything after all we’ve come through.”
“You believe I’m innocent,” Lawrence said. “You really believe it.”
I couldn’t answer, but I gave a nod. My encounter with Lucy last night had essentially confirmed all that my father had reported in his surprise testimony about his conversation with Bell. Bell had surprised Lucy and raped her, then faked her death and used that to blackmail Gainer, and either Jackson Gainer or Lucy had killed him for it.
“Teddy believes I’m innocent, and still he wants me to take the plea. So does Dot.”
“Do what you have to do,” she told him. “It’s going to break my heart if they put you back in, that’s all. And I don’t care about you having a record, but Leo has a good point. They may just be setting you up, and I don’t want to go through this again. I’m ready to walk back out there and testify for you. I’ve never been readier. Just promise me one thing. If you get off, we go straight down to city hall and get married.”
He looked her in the face and nodded to her. She kissed him.
“I don’t want you going back to prison for something you didn’t do,” Teddy said. “You’ll have a conviction on your record, but who gives a shit? At least you’ll be out here rather than in there. You lose this trial, then you’ll have a conviction, and you’ll be back inside for life, too.”
“It’s good advice he’s giving you,” I said. “It’s the smart move. But remember, if they try you for Bell, the jurors will hear about this prosecution. Even if you win here, the DA can still argue that you only got off because you had Bell killed.”
“But you all believe in me,” my father said. Again I nodded. “Then I’ll turn it down. Let’s go back in there. Let’s keep fighting.”
“Leo,” Teddy said. For an instant he resembled his old self. “Let me talk to Dad and Dot alone for a minute.”
I could see that our father didn’t want me to leave. His hand still gripped Dot’s. I didn’t get up. “You should probably listen to Teddy and take his advice,” I told him, knowing he wouldn’t. “He’s been fighting for you longer than I have. I’m late to the party. I won’t hold it against you if you take the deal. In your shoes, I’d probably take it.”
“If you all believe in me, then let’s go back in there,” Lawrence said. “Let’s go on fighting. You’re right. Jesus. Twenty-one years. I’m not going to stop now. I’m not going to let those bastards beat me right before the end.”
“This could turn out badly,” Teddy said, looking at us with dismay. The one thing he no longer was was a gambler.
“He’s told the truth,” I told Teddy. “Every word of his testimony, it was the truth, and I know it now for a fact.” I’d learned that much from my encounter with Lucy last night, that it was true Russell had had her again, as our father had testified. “I think we can make the jury see that you were trying to do what was right.”
“I don’t think you should listen to him,” Teddy said. He looked both sad and grim.
“I hear everything you’re saying, Teddy, and I know you’re right, but I can’t give in. Leo’s right; they’ll just use it against me in the next trial if I plead guilty here. I can do the time if that’s what I have to do. It’ll be different after this. You won’t abandon me if the judge puts me back in?” Lawrence now asked me.
“No,” I managed to say. “I’ll visit you. Even if they convict you, this won’t be the end. That confession should never have come into evidence.”
“I’m going to turn down the deal,” Lawrence said to Teddy. “You boys have carried me this far. But whatever happens now, it’s on me.”
With this decision, we went back out into the courtroom. Sitting at the defense table, Nina looked up questioningly. I caught her gaze and held my clenched fist before me. Nina gave a satisfied nod, her eyes half closing, then she looked down at her pad.
~ ~ ~
Shanahan came in the doors at the back and resumed his seat at the DA’s table. Resigned and unyielding, he gazed across the courtroom at my father, seemingly trying to catch Lawrence’s eye. When Lawrence looked up, Shanahan just nodded as if to say that it wasn’t over between them, no matter what happened.
Judge Liu came onto the bench. “Anything we need to take up?” No doubt he’d already been informed that my father had rejected the DA’s offer.
“Nothing from the defense, Your Honor,” Nina said.
“Then let’s bring the jury back in.”
Once the jury was reseated, Nina said, “The defense calls Dorothy Cooper.”
Dot took the stand and was sworn in. She sat very straight, her face all attention and nerves. Her hair was brushed back and she’d put on makeup during the break. She’d never testified in court before, and she’d told me in the hall that she wanted to puke, but when she returned Nina’s greeting her voice was clear and strong.
Nina moved into the meat of the examination, asking Dot if she recalled the morning of Bell’s death. In response, Dot described how she and Lawrence had decided on the spur of the moment to take a motorcycle ride down the coast. “Whose idea was it to make that ride?” Nina asked, establishing the important fact that the trip hadn’t been preplanned, as it would’ve had to be under the prosecution’s theory that the ride was a sham cooked up by Lawrence to provide himself with an alibi while a hired gun made the hit.
“It was mine,” Dot answered firmly. “Lawrence didn’t feel confident enough on the bike for such a long trip. But he was ready, and I told him so. We left at seven that morning. We wanted to get an early start so that we could be home in the early afternoon.”
Nina had her retrace her route in detail, Dot narrating from the map in her head. She described the grocery store where they’d stopped to buy sandwiches, and told of eating them on the beach at Half Moon Bay. “It was nice,” she said. “A moment of peace, away from our troubles.”
They’d returned b
y two, and been surprised by a loud knock on the door shortly thereafter. She’d answered it and found a phalanx of police officers, dressed as if for combat. Bearing a warrant for Lawrence’s arrest, they’d stormed in, made him lie on the carpet, and handcuffed him. She teared up, her voice swelling with righteous indignation as she described the scene.
“How long have you been engaged to be married to Lawrence Maxwell?” Nina asked.
“Nearly ten years. We’ll be married the instant this is no longer hanging over his head,” Dot told her. “One way or the other.”
“Have you ever known him to be jealous?”
“Never. In the beginning, I was seeing other men, and I made sure Lawrence knew about it. He was patient, and he never pushed the issue.”
At last Nina sat down, and Crowder rose. I felt myself beginning to sweat. I’d warned Nina that the alibi was shaky, but she’d had no choice but to proceed. Now we’d find out just how shaky it was. If Crowder had proof Dot was lying, the case could be lost in an instant.
“Tell me, what is your yearly salary?”
Nina objected, but Crowder was ready with her response: that she must be allowed to explore the witness’s potential financial motive for giving testimony in this case. Liu ordered the lawyers to approach the bench, and the argument continued out of the jury’s hearing, Nina no doubt emphasizing that of course Dot wasn’t being paid anything. I knew the point Crowder was about to make, however, and I also knew she’d win.
For Liu, it was payback time for Nina’s earlier transgressions.
The lawyers returned to their places, Nina with a smirk on her face as if Crowder had played a cheap trick that had no chance of working. Liu ordered the question read back to the witness, and Dot provided the answer: a relatively modest sixty-five thousand dollars.
“The morning you say you drove halfway across the state with no witnesses, what motorcycle was your fiancé riding?”
“A Harley,” Dot said. “A current-model Softail. Chrome.”
“And who paid for this spectacular and beautiful machine?”
“I did,” Dot said, with an apologetic glance at Lawrence.
“Where did the money to pay for the bike come from? Savings?”
“I financed it. A five-year note. The rate was reasonable.”
“Do you expect to come into some more money anytime soon, Ms. Cooper?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
Crowder circled. “Didn’t you just testify that Maxwell promised to marry you if he’s acquitted here?”
“We’ve promised to marry each other after it’s over. Whichever way the trial turns out.”
“Wonderful. And if he’s acquitted, and if he manages to extract a substantial settlement from the city, then maybe, just maybe, the two of you can buy a house with a garage to park those bikes in. And if you’re really lucky, you can retire and tour the world. Is that the plan?”
Nina objected that this question was prejudicial, argumentative, and bullying, but it clearly had an effect on the jurors, who seemed to be looking at Dot in a different light. Nina’s protests only seemed to underscore the damaging import of the things Crowder was saying, but she had little choice but to object if she wanted to preserve the issue for appeal.
Liu’s only response was to instruct the jurors that comments from the lawyers weren’t evidence.
Crowder put her cards on the table. “Isn’t it true, Ms. Cooper, that Maxwell has made clear to you that if he’s acquitted in this trial, his lawyers will sue and are likely to obtain for him a substantial sum of money, in the form of a settlement for his alleged wrongful conviction, and that if you help him, you can expect to share in it?”
“We don’t talk about financial matters.”
“Does Mr. Maxwell earn any money?”
“Not much. He works in the law office a few hours a week.”
“So you’re willing to support him financially after your marriage?”
“Yes,” Dot told Crowder. “If that’s what it takes, I’m willing to do just that.”
“If that really is your plan, shouldn’t you be saving money rather than spending it?”
“I wasn’t aware that my financial responsibility was on trial here,” Dot said, at last fighting back. “Lawrence was in prison for twenty-one years, and you’re trying to put him back in. He deserves his freedom, Ms. Crowder. My hope was that he would ride with me and feel free, for however long we could make the feeling last. No, I don’t regret spending that money.”
Seeming to realize that she’d pushed the issue as far as she could, Crowder moved on and began probing the details of the alibi with calculated skepticism. Dot gave her little material to work with, other than the undeniable fact that there were no other witnesses to their excursion.
Crowder closed with an unexpectedly gentle coup de grace, a series of questions that established Dot’s deep belief in Lawrence’s innocence, and also her freely admitted desire, apart from any financial motive, to see Lawrence freed so that they could spend their life together as a married couple, rather than separated by prison walls. A desire, Crowder suggested, that would in her mind justify lying for this man whom Dot believed in her heart to be innocent.
At last Crowder sat down, and I felt my shoulders drop in relief.
~ ~ ~
After lunch, Nina renewed her motion to exclude the confession and dismiss the case.
“Unless you’ve got something new, I’m not inclined to revisit my earlier rulings,” Judge Liu told her. “But if you think you need to make a record, fire away.”
“The state has produced no evidence that Mr. Maxwell was involved in the murder of Russell Bell. Mr. Maxwell’s alibi stands unrebutted. The jury should therefore be instructed to disregard Bell’s statement. Without the statement, there’s no evidence that he murdered Caroline Maxwell. With Bell’s statement excluded, the case should be dismissed.”
Crowder stood. “The defense agreed that the confession could come in. Simple as that.”
“Well, I’ve already granted relief from that agreement. The question is, without the confession, can the state still meet its burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt? For instance, do you plan to introduce any rebuttal evidence to the alibi?”
“No, Your Honor. As we’ve said, the state’s position has never been that Maxwell pulled the trigger himself. The issue of Mr. Maxwell’s possible involvement in Bell’s death should be submitted to the jury.”
“But I worry that puts us right back where we started, with little evidence other than Mr. Maxwell’s obvious motive for wanting Bell dead.”
Crowder shot a questioning glance over her shoulder at Shanahan, then turned to the judge again. “On rebuttal, the state plans to introduce additional evidence of Mr. Maxwell’s involvement.”
“Has this additional evidence been disclosed to the defense?”
“No, Your Honor. This information was just brought to our attention this morning.”
Eric Gainer. It had to be. Nina was on the edge of her seat, but Judge Liu held out a hand. “We’ve already had more surprises than I care for in a murder trial.”
“The witness in question was unwilling to cooperate with investigators until now. His lawyers contacted my office ten minutes before I was to be in court. I might as well say now that the witness is Supervisor Eric Gainer, and he intends to testify that Russell Bell told him that Mr. Maxwell threatened his life shortly after the preliminary hearing in this matter. If there’s more, you’ll hear it when I do.”
Crowder was grim faced. I didn’t envy her the position she’d been put in, forced to call a witness whom she hadn’t interviewed, a witness Nina had already suggested had a motive to lie. Now I understood why she’d offered that plea: not because Jackson or anyone else had put pressure on her to keep Eric from testifying, but because Eric Gainer had showed up h
ere at the hall this morning all but demanding to take the stand.
Liu went on more pointedly. “Assuming for the sake of argument that this witness’s testimony is insufficient to make the confession admissible, can the state carry its burden without it?”
“We can. As we’ve been arguing all along, the evidence that was hidden from the defense in the first trial actually reinforces Mr. Maxwell’s guilt. What the investigators didn’t have the first time around was motive. Now the missing piece of the puzzle has been supplied in the form of the pictures that the defendant filed with his habeas petition, the one showing Caroline and her lover. The defendant’s fingerprints are on the murder weapon. He has no alibi, and a strong motive of jealousy. It’s a very straightforward case, and we intend to argue it as such.”
“Ms. Schuyler?”
“We’ve heard no evidence that my client even knew of his wife’s affair. Even if Your Honor isn’t inclined to grant our motion to dismiss, he’s entitled to a mistrial. You can instruct the jury to forget what they’ve heard, but they won’t forget the accusation that Mr. Maxwell was involved in Russell Bell’s death, and they won’t forget the confession. Those genies won’t go back in the bottle.”
“But the defense is the side that uncorked them,” Liu interrupted. “You’re the one who first broke the agreement regarding the confession, and you’re the one who introduced the fact of Russell Bell’s murder. You can’t complain about these things when you’re the party responsible.
“I think Ms. Crowder is right,” he went on. “I think we have to leave it up to the jury. I’ll instruct the jurors to disregard the confession if they don’t think there’s sufficient evidence that Maxwell was involved in Russell Bell’s death. But I’m not going to grant a mistrial, and I’m not going to dismiss the case. The court of appeals may feel differently, but you’ll have to take that up with them. Ms. Crowder, let’s get your witness in here.”
Chapter 23
Eric Gainer had missed a patch of stubble under his jaw. His suit coat was wrinkled, his tie askew. At Nina’s request, Liu had sent the jurors into the hall. Only if he concluded that Eric’s testimony was sufficient to allow them to find that my father had murdered Russell Bell would they be allowed to hear it. The point of bringing Eric in was to shore up the idea my father had Bell murdered to keep him from testifying, which laid additional groundwork for the confession to come in. What Eric’s point was in presenting himself here, I couldn’t be sure.
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