Thompkins smiled. “That’s easy. If step one is successful, step two is practically automatic. Here’s how you do it….”
In a moment, the business was concluded. Gardner had his answers, and it was time to leave. He stood up. “As always, Judge, thank you.”
Thompkins gave him a firm handshake. “It’s going to be very disorienting at first. I hope you realize that. You’ll have to change your way of thinking, your whole approach to the law.”
“I understand.”
“I hope so. Good luck. And keep me posted.”
“I will.” Gardner waved and ran to his car. The rain had increased, and it beat on the roof like a drumroll. A decision had finally been made. One chapter of his life was now over. And another was about to begin.
Part Three
DECISION
fifteen
An urgent meeting had been called in the temporary chambers of Judge Ransome. It was late afternoon on the same rainy day as the bond hearing. Gardner and Kent King sat in front of the judge.
“All right, we’re here,” Ransome said impatiently. “What’s going on?”
“We need to talk about the representation of Joe Brown,” Gardner said.
“We?” King asked.
“Kent”— Rollie looked at his former associate—“I’ll handle this. What do we need to discuss?”
“Brown’s counsel is incompetent.”
King laughed, and Rollie scolded him with his eyes.
“This is not my concern, it’s yours.” Gardner handed a stack of papers across the desk. “Here is a list of recent rulings concerning incompetence of counsel. If an attorney handles a complex matter he has no prior experience with, it’s tantamount to malpractice.”
King began to speak, but Ransome silenced him with another look.
“You have seen Mr. Stanton in action, and it doesn’t take a genius to realize that he’s in way over his head.”
The judge nodded. “He’s a bit slow on the uptake.”
“Slow is hardly the word,” Gardner continued. “Stopped is more like it.”
King couldn’t keep silent. “Rollie, don’t listen to this crap.”
The judge turned to Gardner. “Where are you going with this, Lawson?”
“If you proceed with trial and convict Sergeant Brown, the case will be overturned on appeal. This is not supposition, it is fact. The man is incompetent and you both know it.”
The judge and special prosecutor fell silent. What Gardner was saying was true. A post-trial attack on Willie Stanton’s competence would probably be successful.
Gardner looked at King. “You want a conviction, one that will stand up on appeal, one that’s locked in and can’t be taken away. And you”—he looked at Ransome—“you do not want to be subjected to criticism that you allowed a miscarriage of justice to occur. If you let Stanton proceed with this case, the court of appeals will chop off your head.”
“So what’s your answer?” the judge finally asked.
“Dismiss Stanton and appoint new counsel in his place.”
Ransome frowned. “Do I have the authority to do that?”
“Yes, you do.” Gardner handed another paper across the desk. “Here are the citations permitting the ruling. It is within your discretion.”
“Ask him who you should appoint in Stanton’s place,” King suggested.
Ransome turned to Gardner again. “And who should that be?”
Gardner didn’t hesitate. “Me.”
“You can’t defend a criminal case. You’re still a prosecutor,” the judge said.
“Not anymore.” Gardner passed another paper across the desk. “Here’s my resignation, effective immediately.”
Ransome looked at King. “What’s your position?”
“I strongly object.”
Ransome studied the papers Gardner had handed him. “It appears I do have the power to make the switch.…”
“Don’t do it,” King warned.
“And Stanton is definitely not up to the task.”
“Rollie!”
“And having you two in the case would make it a hell of a lot more interesting.… Motion is granted. Stanton is out and Lawson is in.”
Gardner looked at King. “I warned you….”
King remained cool. “You haven’t got a chance. Brown is still dead meat.”
“Not anymore.”
King stood up. “Oh, I’m shaking now.” He laughed and made a trembling motion with his hands. “Mr. Defense Attorney gonna beat me up.”
Gardner faced him. “It isn’t a joke, Kent. I will beat you.”
King’s smile vanished. “Not this time.”
“Gentlemen!” Ransome interjected. “Thanks for the preview, but the bell hasn’t even rung yet. Save it for the courtroom!”
Brownie hurried to the warden’s office to meet his visitor. “Gard. What’s going on?”
Gardner pushed out a chair by the warden’s desk and directed Brownie to sit. He eased into the seat as Gardner slid a copy of Judge Ransome’s order across the table. “I’m your new lawyer,” he said.
Brownie picked up the paper and read it slowly. Gardner’s resignation as prosecutor was attached to the flip side of the page. He put the documents down and looked across the table. “What the hell is this?”
“Just what it says: an order dismissing Stanton and appointing me in his place. I’m not going to let King take a free shot at you.”
“You’ve got to withdraw it.”
“I can’t. It’s final.”
“But your career…”
“It was time for a change.”
Brownie slowly shook his head. “You made a mistake, man.”
“Don’t argue with me. The deed is done, and we’ve got work to do.” Gardner was surprised at the negative response. He’d expected more enthusiasm, more support. Brownie almost seemed sorry it had happened.
Brownie glanced at the paper again. “What about Stanton? He was paid to represent me.”
“He’ll have to refund the money. He’s not competent, and they were aware of that when they hired him. You know Willie’s no match for King. He proved that at the bond hearing. I couldn’t sit by and watch.”
“You think you can do better?”
“I know I can.”
“You never defended anyone in your life.”
“I’ll learn on the job. Don’t fight me, for chrissakes.”
“I didn’t ask for this.”
“I know. It was my decision. We have work to do now, and I need your help. You have to tell me the truth, from the beginning. Every nasty detail.”
Brownie clasped his hands and shifted his position uncomfortably.
“You have to tell me everything, Brownie. Everything.”
“I told you I didn’t do it.”
“I know that, but I think you might have an idea who did. “
Brownie laughed. “If I knew, I wouldn’t be here.”
“You’ve been working this case from day one. You had to have some leads the cops know nothing about.”
“I wish.”
“You were secretly collecting evidence. What were you looking for?”
“I’m a detective. Detecting is what I do.”
“You were ordered off the case. What were you after? And why all the secrecy? Why wouldn’t you tell me?”
“Don’t push it, Gard. I told you before. What I was doin’ had a reason.”
“I can’t protect you unless I know everything. You know how it works, damn it. Now cut the bullshit and tell me the truth. This is serious. That fight the other day was just the beginning. The animals in here are out to kill you. We’ve got to put a case together, and we’ve got to get you out of this place.”
Brownie closed his eyes. “I can take care of myself.”
“Fine. We’ll do it another way. Let’s start over… from the beginning. I’ll ask questions; you give answers.”
Brownie opened his eyes and nodded.
�
��Good,” Gardner said. “Let’s go back, before the day of the crime…. Tell me what you had on Ruth, and his contact with your father.”
“I thought Ruth might have necklaced him with a snake. Already told you that.”
“Because of the unauthorized print test you ordered.”
“Right. Daddy was terrified of snakes. If one got on him, I know it could cause a heart attack.”
“And Ruth was aware of this?”
“I thought so.”
“Thought, as in past tense.”
“At the time.”
“So you decided to confront Ruth about your suspicions.”
“Yes. I told you that, too.”
“I wasn’t your lawyer before,” Gardner said. “How many confrontations did you have with him?”
“One. The day he died.”
Gardner looked at his friend. There was still a secret lurking. “How did you know where to find him?”
“I had Frank Davis’s surveillance reports. Ruth took a drive out Mountain Road almost every afternoon. I tried to get him out there, but then got the info he’d gone to town. That’s when I set up a trap on Dunlop.”
“What were you intending to do?”
Brownie stared into space. “I don’t know.”
“Did you want to kill him?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you plan to kill him?”
“No. I did not.”
“Well, what was your plan, then?”
“Didn’t have one.”
Gardner frowned. “You always have a plan, Brownie.”
“Not this time. I was playing it by ear, improvising. “
“So why did you put your spare cuffs on him? Why didn’t you use your regulation cuffs? You knew in advance you were going to roust him, so you brought your spares. What were you planning to do with him? Were you planning to take him out to the power station?”
“No!”
Gardner rubbed his eyes. This didn’t make sense. Brownie was the most meticulous person he knew. Behind every move there was a reason. Brownie had to be lying about his intentions with Ruth. And that was going to make his job as defense attorney even harder.
* * *
“What’s the matter with you?” Lin Song asked. “You had to anticipate that Lawson would enter the case in some fashion.”
Kent King moved a file to the side of his desk. “Never thought he’d actually turn in his badge. He’s always been a one-tune asshole.”
“So now you can have another macho duel at the O.K. Corral,” Lin said. “You can gun him down at high noon.”
King opened the case file. “Are you through?”
“No. I want you to tell me about Lawson. Why do you dislike him so much?”
King picked up a report from the file folder. “We need to dispose of this.”
“You won’t answer me?” Lin sounded irritated.
King looked over the paper. “What?”
“What’s with you and Lawson? The famous feud.”
“We don’t get along.”
“Are you jealous of him? His blue blood, his girlfriend?…”
King’s face reddened. He was a notorious loner, a one-night-stand champ.
“I heard you bonked his ex-wife. Is that the secret?”
King put down the report and glared at his colleague. Years ago he’d made a move on Carole Lawson while her divorce was pending. He’d done it to rankle Gardner, but there had been an unexpected twist. He’d actually fallen for her. She was cultured, elegant, the kind of untouchable woman he’d always craved. But his plan had backfired. After a brief fling, she rejected him. She, it turned out, had been using him. He’d let Lawson know the first part: that they’d been together. But the rejection was something he wanted to forget. “Mind your own business,” he told Lin.
“This is my business.” Lin faced him across the desk. “I need to understand the dynamics here. It’s my case, too, and I want to know if your war with Lawson is going to affect it.”
King’s eyes narrowed. “Lawson is not going to affect anything. He’s irrelevant. We’re going to nail Brown’s hide to his living room wall.”
“He really gets to you, doesn’t he?”
“No psychology, please. We have a case to prepare. You worry about law,and I’ll deal with Lawson. Now, are we ready to move on?”
Lin nodded.
“Good. Now tell me what we should do about the exculpatory shit.”
Lin opened her file. “I’ve reviewed all the items that could conceivably be classified as exculpatory. They fall into two categories: impeachment information and unfollowed leads.”
“The law only requires us to turn over information that specifically exculpates the defendant,” King said. “We are not required to follow a lead that might incriminate someone else. Once we have our man, we can quit. Is that your reading?”
“Right. If we have evidence that the defendant did not commit the crime, we must give it to the defense, but we do not have to keep investigating after his arrest. If we had a lead on a suspect we didn’t follow up, it’s okay. We’re under no obligation to keep going in that direction.”
“Good.” King reached across the table. “What’s on your impeachment list?”
Lin handed him a piece of paper. “Five witness contradictions, three unconfirmed suspects, and a missing piece of physical evidence.”
King scanned to the last entry. “Ruth’s hands?”
“They were removed at autopsy and misplaced in the morgue.”
“Did they ever turn up?”
“No. The pathology people think a medical student might have pilfered them. An inventory revealed a string of missing parts, and there’s a history of this sort of prank at the med school. The fact is, they’re gone.”
King glanced at Lin’s notes. “So what? We have the autopsy report establishing the cause of death. How can missing hands impeach anything?”
“They could prove there was a struggle. The cuffs would have cut the wrists as he pulled away from the grid.”
King drummed his fingers on the table. “Of course he struggled. He was being zapped like a bug!”
“The evidence doesn’t show it,” Lin replied, withdrawing the autopsy report. “’Hands removed for further testing’ is all it says about the hand and wrist area.”
“So what? It’s a minor detail.”
Lin disagreed. “Minor now, maybe…”
“But?”
“What if they decide to raise a particular defense?”
“Such as?”
Lin passed a photo of Ruth’s blackened face across to her boss.
“Such as Ruth didn’t struggle because he was the only one there.”
“What are you implying?”
“Maybe this wasn’t a murder after all….Maybe he killed himself.”
“This is a murder case, Lin. Murder with a capital M.” “But the evidence—”
“Don’t say it again,” King warned. “Ruth was murdered. And that’s all there is to it.”
Indian summer had come to the valley. After weeks of heavy frost, rising temperatures had killed the autumn chill. Gardner and Jennifer strolled arm-in-arm outside the courthouse. The air was alive with bees and the smell of burning leaves.
“I am being supportive,” Jennifer declared.
“That’s what you say,” Gardner replied, “but I know you’re upset.”
They stopped by a park bench and sat down. Above, brown maple leaves jiggled in the soft wind.
“I’m not upset,” Jennifer said. “It’s just…”
Gardner rested his arms on his knees.
“You left me in limbo,” Jennifer continued.
Gardner kicked back against the bench. “You starting on that again?”
“No. I’m not on that.” She stopped talking.
“What is it?”
“I don’t understand you. Some things come really hard, and others seem so easy.”
“What do you mean?”
“Brownie is my best friend, Jen. He saved my life. He needs me.”
“He’s not the only one in your life who needs you.”
“Don’t start, please.”
“Explain it to me.”
“Explain what?”
“How can you make such a decision so suddenly? You said you’d find another way to help. That you wouldn’t quit…”
“It was the only thing I could do.”
“So you closed your eyes and jumped.”
Gardner nodded. “Yes, I did.”
“You ended a twenty-year career in a heartbeat.”
Gardner nodded again.
Jennifer looked down. “I see.…You can jump for Brownie, but you can’t jump for me.”
Gardner tried to raise her chin, but she resisted. “It’s not the same, Jen. This is different from our situation. There are more considerations we have to deal with, a lot more complications.”
Jennifer’s eyes slowly came up. “Different?”
“Yes. Apples and oranges.”
“It’s not different. It’s about commitment. You can make it for one person, but not another. That’s what I don’t understand.”
“Let’s discuss it later, Jen. Please. We have a case to prepare.”
“But not now,” Jennifer said under her breath.
“When this is over, we’ll hash it all out. I swear. Just give me a break for now.“
“So what am I supposed to do in the meantime?” Jennifer finally asked. “Stand by my man, or go my own way? Prosecution was my career, too.”
“You do not have to quit; I told you that. We can do an Adam’s Rib routine. I’ll play Tracy and you he Hepburn.”
A child suddenly raced past, laughing. Jennifer watched him turn the corner.
“You do not have to follow your man,” Gardner continued. “I want you to do what you want, not what I want.”
Jennifer adjusted her glasses. The bright rays turned the auburn highlights in her hair a deep red. “So you say.”
“What’s the problem now?”
“You need me on the case. You haven’t said it, but I know.”
Gardner hesitated. “I can do this on my own. I’m capable.”
Raising Cain Page 19