by Noel Obiora
Judge Barney seemed unhappy with the court of appeals’ ruling, but Kenneth and Cassandra were ecstatic. They managed to maintain their decorum until the judge left the courtroom, then heaved sighs of relief.
•••
On returning to court after the afternoon recess, Amy tried only briefly to rehabilitate Conrad Wetstone, but he seemed tired and prone to making more mistakes than correct the ones he had made. Afraid that Kenneth and Cassandra would seize upon such rehabilitation to bring him back on Monday, at which time they would have had the weekend to prepare more questions for him, she rounded up her examination on him and handed him over for recross-examination by Kenneth, which was thankfully short.
37
Show Business
After Conrad Wetstone, Amy contemplated calling Officer Tse or Didi Pare, depending on their availability. Officer Tse with Officer Fritz was immediately available and had been waiting in the DA’s office since the morning recess. Didi Pare arrived later but went to the courtroom instead of going to the district attorney’s office. In the hallway, Paul’s father and six of his followers were standing to one side with Paul’s mother and sisters. Big sat on a bench by himself, and Helen sat farther away with one of Amy’s paralegals. Didi went to sit next to Big.
“Hey, Big,” Didi said.
“Mr. Pare,” Big replied, shifting away even though Didi had enough room to sit near him.
“Damn, I wish I could smoke in here,” Didi said.
“You testifying?” Big asked.
“That’s what they tell me.”
“You sound like they making you.”
“I’m a big boy, too, Big.”
“Are you big enough to tell truth to power?”
“You know what they say about taking a donkey to water?” Didi said with a smile.
Their conversation proceeded in hushed tones, and Big stole glances at the bench in the hallway where Helen Silberberg sat with Amy’s paralegal. Perhaps because of Big’s uncomfortable glances, Amy’s paralegal suspected that Didi was the other witness her colleague was waiting for at the office and stood up to approach them. Big saw her coming and spoke hurriedly.
“You guys got all you need to make Footsie another hit?”
“We ain’t got much. Nice ditties but no pizzazz.”
“Want me to see what I can do for pizzazz?”
“Got something?”
“I always got something,” Big smiled.
“Got her other masters, too?”
The paralegal was almost upon them.
“You working or clubbing tonight?” Big asked.
“It’s show biz, Big. What’s the difference?”
“Excuse me, Mr. Pare?” the paralegal said.
“Yes,” Didi answered.
“I’m Ms. Wilson’s paralegal. We were waiting for you in our office across the street. May I take you over there?”
“Can I smoke there?”
“Yes, sir.”
“When am I up to testify?”
“We’re just finishing up the lunch recess right now, but Ms. Wilson will have to tell you whether you go up first after lunch or later.”
“I prefer later.”
“I’ll tell Ms. Wilson.”
“I’m working tonight, Big,” Didi said, as he pushed himself up from the bench. Big nodded. “Good luck to you,” Didi added.
“Much thanks, you conniving piece of sh--,” Big muttered, making the last five words largely inaudible.
•••
“Something’s not right,” Amy said to Officer Gonzalez.
Amy was particularly angry that Conrad had neglected to tell her that Goldie had given him permission to use her apartment, as long as he stayed away from the master bedroom, during his preparation. This made his decision to go into Goldie’s bedroom suspicious. Amy was also disappointed with herself that she had not covered the question about whether the door to the bedroom was open or closed when she was preparing Conrad for his examination.
If someone left a listening device in the bedroom, it was plausible that they found out that Goldie was dead and called the apartment management and Conrad to tell them. Amy had never asked Conrad that question, and she was furious that neither she nor the police knew the answer. Conrad’s difficulty with the defense’s cross-examination suggested to Amy that he knew who called the management company. However, she was happy it was Friday afternoon, which gave her two days to go through the entire case file and get back on the right track.
Amy asked Didi into a conference room where Officer Gonzalez and Fritz were waiting for her with two paralegals and asked them to give her the room for a minute.
“Is there a chance I won’t be needed?” Didi asked. Amy shook her head slowly. Something in the way Didi smiled at her riled Amy.
“Give me just one minute,” Amy said, and stepped outside, closing the door behind her, and then returned a few minutes later. “Mr. Pare, don’t take this the wrong way, but we have your DNA information from semen found in Goldie’s room.”
“DNA evidence?” Didi asked, his face wrinkled as he squinted, trying to focus on Amy. He had seemed carefree and unconcerned by the whole trial. “I did not sleep with her.”
Amy folded her arms across her chest and stood staring at Didi, taken aback by what she already knew, yet unsure what to say to him.
“You may not have slept with her, but with someone else…on her bed.”
Didi sat down slowly, cursing under his breath.
“I need to speak with my lawyer,” Didi said.
“Be my guest,” Amy said and turned to leave.
“What else did she tell you?” Didi asked.
“What else did who tell me?” Amy asked. Didi turned to her and grinned. Amy left the room and told the paralegal waiting outside to get rid of him.
Officer Gonzalez, Fritz, Alvarez, and Tse were waiting in the conference room with Kate when Amy returned. Amy had decided that Officer Alvarez would not take the stand on the off chance that the defense knew he asked Rachel out while investigating the case. Alvarez vehemently denied the accusation, but what else was he supposed to say.
“One of the semen samples taken from the bed belonged to Mr. Pare,” Amy said as she walked in and sat down.
“He told you that?” Kate asked.
“No, I suspected that about Rachel and just confirmed it from his reaction.”
“You’ll still put him on the stand though, right?”
“Yes, but we have to know if the other side has this information.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Alvarez said.
A clearer picture of the entire case had emerged for Amy from the first week of trial. She realized that Rachel Johnson, not Conrad Wetstone, was her most important witness. Rachel was the one witness with a nexus to everyone and the only one who knew anything about what really took place on Goldie’s bed. Reviewing the daily transcripts of the trial and making notes of issues for further examination or formulating additional question to strengthen the weak aspects of excused witnesses, Amy drew up a flow chart of the connections to Rachel Johnson.
Amy thought Rachel would have made a good witness, especially because she was an actress, but Kate warned her to be careful with Rachel. Amy said she would use the weekend to prepare for her.
Alana had gone home at the lunch recess and did not return to the courtroom the rest of the day. Kenneth bullying Conrad Wetstone was more than she could take, she said when Amy called her during the recess.
“It wasn’t bullying. I thought he was effective.”
“You lawyers can call it what you want; it sounded like bullying to me.”
“When this is over, I’ll tell him you said that –”
“You mean you’ll still remain friends after this is over?”
“I may not have a ch
oice…” Amy said smiling to herself.
“Then I think you should tell Thomas.”
“Tell him what?”
“The truth…that you may not have a choice…like you say. Tell him whatever you feel. He wants to come and watch the trial. He said he will be out of the way. Let him come.”
“You know he is not coming to watch me, right.”
“I know,” Alana said after a brief silence.
“He probably already has Court TV making a special tape for him.”
“They say it won’t be ready for a while. I am trying to get tapes for your dad as well. Remain friends with Thomas as well.”
“I will. Tell him to make time for me if he does come.”
•••
Nancy assembled Mallam Jackson, Sister Ramatu, and the rest of Paul’s clan at a suite in the Intercontinental Hotel after the trial on Friday. The suite had a sitting area and a small dining section next to it. Six of the twelve men Mallam Jackson had brought to court stood in the dining section, with Big just at the entrance to it. Two doors opened from the sitting area into adjourning rooms. Mallam Jackson sat in the armchair with two of his men standing behind him. Sister Ramatu and Mr. Jones sat on the couch. Jo sat on a dining chair next to her mother. Nancy had ordered tea from room service for Mallam Jackson, Omar, and Sister Ramatu and bottled water for everyone else as they had requested.
On the drive back to the hotel, Sister Ramatu and Jo had been effusive with praise about Kenneth’s performance to Nancy. How could they have missed him, by going to Omar in the first place, they wondered. Even Omar was full of praise for him, they told Nancy, but Nancy tried to warn them as Kenneth had warned her about getting their hopes up too soon. “In every trial, there will be days you want to remember and days you want to forget. Soon enough, the other side will get their days to remember,” Nancy told them.
Kenneth and Cassandra joined them at the suite after taking their leave from Anthony, Jed, and Tiffany. They had invited the three to join them, but it was obvious to Kenneth that they did not want anything to do with Mallam Jackson’s entourage. Kenneth avoided Mallam Jackson’s eyes when he entered the suite and did not go to him or shake his hand, as he was expected to do. Nancy gave him a look of disapproval. He stood in front of Sister Ramatu to place himself more centrally in the room and speak to the gathering.
“Hi, everyone. Thank you, Mr. Jones for joining us. We wanted to get you guys together to tell you of some new developments we have in the case. Also, since the case began, we haven’t had a chance to really brief you except for some conversations in the hallway and during recesses. As soon as the day is over, we are rushing to get ready for the next day. So maybe we make this a weekly event for the trial, where we tell you what we think is going on and answer questions you may have for us.”
Mallam Jackson raised his hand, much to everyone’s surprise. “Yes, sir,” Kenneth said.
“No need to make a weekly event, you just call us when you have something to tell us, and we’ll come to hear it,” Mallam Jackson said.
“Thank you, sir,” Kenneth said.
“Hear, hear,” Big said.
“Allahu Akbar,” the men in the dining section said and repeated after themselves.
“You have earned the Mallam’s trust, Kenneth Brown, that is no small feat from where you started,” Omar said and let out a laugh.
“You tell him, Mr. Jones. You tell him,” the men in the dining section said. Mallam Jackson raised both hands and the room was quiet again.
“Before we go to the new development that Professor Cassandra Rayburn will tell us about, is there any question or concern we can answer?” Kenneth asked.
Jo raised her hand, and Kenneth wanted to tell her that there was no need to raise hands, but having failed to tell Mallam Jackson the same, remained silent and pointed to Jo.
“That letter they said Paul wrote, did Paul write it?” Jo asked.
“I haven’t asked Paul yet,” Kenneth said. Not everyone knew about the letter. Thus, Kenneth explained the contents of the letter and told everyone that Judge Barney had ruled that it wouldn’t be used unless Paul took the stand and at this time, they were not planning to put Paul on the stand. He left out the part of the judge’s ruling about the exceptions to the hearsay rules.
“Are you going to ask him?” Jo asked.
“No,” Kenneth said and raised a hand to keep Jo from speaking further on the subject.
“If there are no other questions, I would like you to hear what Professor Rayburn did for Paul and won in the court of appeals,” Kenneth said.
The suite got quiet. Cassandra stood up to speak. She told them about the sexual items that were found in Goldie’s room and that none of the semen matched Paul, and none of the blood samples matched Goldie’s blood type, but the blood belonged to a female. She told them that she asked the court of appeals to reverse the judge’s decision to reconsider the evidence when they try to introduce it in the case. “The court of appeals directed the judge to allow the evidence or show cause why the evidence should not be allowed.” Applause erupted in the room, and those in the dining section came into the sitting area as they clapped standing behind the couch.
“This doesn’t prove anything,” Cassandra shouted over the applause.
“Like hell it doesn’t,” Big said, and cast a side glance at Mallam Jackson.
“Really, it doesn’t,” Cassandra repeated before she turned to Kenneth and then Nancy, who began to laugh. After Mallam Jackson raised both hands again to quiet the room, Cassandra told them there would be a hearing on Monday to determine how the items would be introduced.
Mallam Jackson walked up to Kenneth after the meeting and shook his hand, before heading out. Omar Jones was going to leave with the Mallam but asked to see Kenneth privately.
“I’ll have a check in your office by Monday,” Kenneth said to Omar, who smiled.
Sister Ramatu left with Jo, who insisted that Kenneth see them out.
“Don’t let their attorneys plant an evil seed in you against Omar, you hear?” Sister Ramatu said.
“Oh, no, it’s not like that,” Kenneth said.
“Oh, yes, it is. This will be a good time to poison the enemy you can’t beat,” Sister Ramatu said, and to Kenneth’s befuddled expression she added. “That’s what I’d do.”
Jo laughed. They bade Kenneth goodbye and good luck and drove off.
•••
Reverend Brown did not return to court after leaving with headaches. Nancy explained that he had not refilled his blood pressure medication before he traveled. He had gone to the pharmacy to pick up his doctor’s order and planned to return to Georgia briefly today.
After everyone left the hotel, Nancy told Kenneth to go and thank his father for coming and staying for the trial. She had convinced Reverend Brown to stay at Kenneth’s house during the trial since both she and Kenneth were staying at the hotel. The drive from Los Angeles to Long Beach, which Kenneth had done on countless occasions, suddenly felt long as he went to see his father.
When the older man opened the door, the resemblance between the two men appeared to have increased during this visit, and each took a moment to consider the other. Kenneth wondered whether any of the children his father lived with and raised shared such resemblance with him as well. As they shook hands, Kenneth shifted his eyes to the carpet to keep his emotions from getting the better of him. Then Reverend Brown asked for a hug and held on, and it was clear to Kenneth that the older man was not doing any better managing his own emotions either. Reverend Brown seemed uncertain what to say or do. Kenneth commiserated with him about his headache, and he waived it away.
“Make sure you get checked regularly when you go for a physical,” he told him. “We have it in the family.” Kenneth offered to take him to the airport and he accepted.
Their ride to the airpor
t was silent, interspersed with curious examination.
“Have you been to LA before?” Kenneth asked.
“Conferences,” his father said, and the litigator in Kenneth knew to ask no more along those lines because the answer was too precise, as though it had been rehearsed to keep from saying he had visited since Kenneth moved there.
“Do you plan to have kids?” his father asked.
“Eventually,” Kenneth answered, “if I can find the right woman.”
“Follow your heart. Don’t let fear or anyone tell you otherwise,” Reverend Brown said.
After another long silence, now closer to the airport, Kenneth said, “Thanks for coming.” The older man’s voice cracked with emotion when he tried to respond. He nodded instead.
38
Of Jurors And Puritans
Early Saturday morning, Big waited outside the Intercontinental Hotel. Had Kenneth answered the phone after Big left Didi’s office on Friday night, Big would have driven straight to Long Beach to see him. At precisely eight o’clock, Big knocked on the door to the suite. Nancy had insisted on going back to Long Beach and Kenneth was alone. When he opened the door and saw Big, the expression on his face betrayed his displeasure.
“Shoot Big, what time is it?”
“Like eight-thirty,” Big said. “I figured you got used to waking up early to go to the trial by now.”
“No, man, it’s Saturday. I wanna sleep for a change,” Kenneth said, and returned to the bedroom to change out of his pajamas.
Big handed an envelope to Kenneth and watched intently as he opened it and took out a sheet of paper and two pictures of Rachel Johnson from it.
“Can you use it?” Big asked.
“Where did you get this?”