by Debora Ryan
Leah listened as Will answered the prosecutor’s questions about his research. Mr. Antonio carefully asked questions that led to factual responses. By the time he rested, Leah shoulders slumped in defeat. The case against her was strong. Leah knew she hadn’t taken six million dollars, but even she couldn’t find the holes in the evidence that might point a jury toward reasonable doubt, much less exoneration.
Dani hesitated slightly, checking and rechecking her notes before getting up. She smiled at the jury, then at Will. “Do you mind if I call you Will?”
“Not at all.” There was a hint of amusement in Will’s voice that got Leah’s attention.
“We should point out for the sake of transparency that we’ve known each other for fifteen years. Would you stipulate to that?”
Will smiled at Dani. “Yes.” The jury ate him up. They hung on every word. Leah knew she was sunk.
“Will, your father testified that he hired you to find out who was taking money from his company. Is this true?”
“It is. I have successfully investigated cases of fraud and embezzlement in more than thirty firms, and I’ve recovered more than thirty billion dollars.”
Dani looked suitably impressed. “You have quite a reputation in this field.”
She walked slowly toward the jury, directing her question over her shoulder at Will. “Your father testified that he found the report you just explained to us in your desk. I think the biggest question we all have is why you didn’t turn your report over to your father? Was it because of your relationship with Ms. Keenan?”
“No. I found the evidence against Ms. Keenan within a week of joining her department.”
“Yet you withheld it?”
“Something didn’t seem right. It was too easy to find, and the trail was too clean. You can clearly see where her transactions happened, and you can clearly link each one to a specific overdue bill she paid. As I got to know Leah, I knew she couldn’t have taken that much money. Greed isn’t in her nature. My father took my report before my investigation was complete.”
“How do we know it wasn’t finished?”
“Well, besides the fact that I said it wasn’t finished, you have my notes in evidence. I never share my notes.”
“Would these be your notes?” Dani asked holding up a notebook.
Will glanced nervously toward Leah. “They are.”
Dani flipped it open and handed the notebook to the jury. “How are notes different from a report?”
“For starters, I don’t draw in the margins of my reports. I also don’t hand write them or speculate in any way. My reports are factual and analytical, not speculative. My conclusions are solid. Not one of my reports has been disproven.”
Leah watched as the notebook made its way through the jury. Many of them leafed through it, looked at Leah shocked or inquisitively, then passed it on.
While the jury was busy with the notebook, Dani continued questioning. “Are you and Ms. Keenan currently involved with each other?”
Will’s answer was nearly a whisper, though it carried through the room on the waves of his clear baritone. “No.”
“The cause of your breakup?” Dani’s question seemed nonchalant.
“Like my father, I have the tendency to be a complete ass. I don’t blame Leah if she wants nothing more to do with the Dannaker family. She’s been used and mistreated by both of us.”
“You beat her?”
Leah’s eyes snapped to Dani. What was she doing? Leah never said anything of the sort to Dani.
Shame colored his words. “That would have been kinder.”
“You were in a position to cover up the evidence of the tiny sum Ms. Keenan had taken, weren’t you?”
“I was.”
“Yet you didn’t. Why not?”
Will paused, gathering his words. “I have never in my life covered up something someone else has done, no matter how much I like them, or in this case, how much I love Leah. I had no plans to hide what she had done. I knew that when I caught the person who was setting her up, I would have to turn her in. But I was reasonably certain that she could either cut a deal by testifying against the real embezzler or she could offer restitution to avoid prosecution. Plus, I didn’t want to take the chance the real thief would discover that we knew they were not related transactions.”
“You were willing to take that risk with your beloved’s life? What if your father had decided to prosecute both embezzlers?”
Will searched the courtroom until his gaze lit on his father. “I planned to marry her. I hoped my father wouldn’t try to send my wife to prison. I would create an irreparable rift in the family.”
Leah’s heart ached with hope and shame. She hadn’t trusted him. He testified that he loved her. Did she dare to hope he told the truth?
“In fact, you and your father have already argued over this, have you not?”
Flexing his jaw in anger, Will shifted in his seat, leaning slightly forward. The jury reacted as if he was about to dish celebrity dirt. They leaned forward and cocked their heads to hear better. “He prematurely tipped our hand. The real thief has no doubt gone into hiding, if she hasn’t outright fled the country. I would look in the employee logs to see who has recently quit or stopped coming to work, and I would investigate them. However, I think apprehending the culprit now would be nearly impossible, and I think recovering any of the money now is highly improbable.”
“And why have you not done this? It’s been nearly a month between the time Ms. Keenan was arrested and this trial. Surely you’ve had the time. You could have found the evidence to exonerate the woman you profess to love.”
“My access to the records has been severely restricted. I shared my suspicions with my father, but he disregarded what I said.” The muscle in his jaw twitched and flexed, reflecting the light in such a way that it accented the sharp planes of his heart-shaped face. The women in the jury were already in love with him and now the men had reason to empathize with him as well.
“Why?”
“My father and I had a fight. He said derogatory things about Leah. I warned him, but he just kept doing it. Nobody talks about her like that in front of me and gets away with it. I punched him. Now security won’t let me in the building.”
“You were defending her honor?”
Will looked directly at Leah. Her heart beat faster, and her mouth was suddenly dry. “There is no one in this world like Leah. She is kind and generous and strong. She has a wicked sense of humor. She’s confident and brave and sometimes outspoken. She’s the kind of person who makes you want to work to please her. She’s faced things in her life that would destroy most people’s faith in the world, and she’s shouldered responsibilities that would cripple a lesser person. She’s made mistakes, but haven’t we all? It only proves that she’s human. I wish I had this all to do over again because, while I wouldn’t change a thing about the way I’ve conducted this investigation, I would change everything about the way I’ve conducted myself with her.”
Leah didn’t hear the rest of his testimony. She was in shock. She struggled to keep her breathing even. All feeling had left her legs and she shook with suppressed emotion. She couldn’t peel her eyes from him. When he was excused, she watched him as he walked toward her. He stopped briefly next to her table and searched her eyes before exiting through the low gate that the bailiff held open for him.
Leah turned so that she could see him better. Instead of sitting next to his parents, he sat on her side of the courtroom behind Cecelia, clearly stating whose side of the dispute he was on.
Mr. Antonio called his next witness, an expert in embezzlement, to corroborate the parts of Will’s testimony that were the most damaging to Leah and to disagree with the parts of the testimony Will gave under cross-examination. Leah could tell Gerald Antonio was unhappy, that he hadn’t expected things to go the way they did, and that he was scrambling to account for the holes in the case.
Her lawyer cross-examined this last wi
tness, drawing attention to the fact that he also could only account for forty thousand going to Leah. Will had given Dani plenty of reasonable doubt to use in her closing arguments. She rested without calling a single witness.
Judge Drew called a recess until the following afternoon, when she would hear closing arguments. Dani turned to Leah and smiled.
“That went well.”
Leah couldn’t make her smile quite reach her eyes. “I’ll reserve my optimism for after the verdict.”
Dani laughed. “Don’t spend all night worrying about tomorrow. Go out to eat, have a few too many drinks, and take a cab home.” Dani gathered her papers and placed them neatly in her briefcase.
“Dani?”
Dani looked up at Leah, who had at least four inches over the petite lawyer.
“Thank you for not bringing up the other things about my relationship with Will.”
With a sigh, Dani peered into her briefcase and rearranged a few things. She glanced around the room, and her voice was conspiratorially low when she spoke. “I’ve known Will for a long, long time. I’ve dated most of his friends, including his brother, and I was married briefly to his friend, Trevor. I never would have thought him capable of what he’s done to you. I needed the jury to see the man I know he is, not the jerk he’s been around you. I would only have used that information if I needed to destroy his credibility. As it so happened, he was our best witness. He singlehandedly eviscerated the prosecution’s case. You’d think Tom would stop underestimating him at some point.”
Leah sighed. “I’ve seen the two of them argue, and it’s not pretty. The sad thing is that I’ve always liked Mr. Dannaker.”
“I have, too,” Dani agreed. “But Will and his father have always butted heads. Tommy was the peacemaker for a long, long time. I think that’s why he didn’t leave until Will moved to New York.”
There was something Leah was burning to know. “Did you date Will?”
“We went out a couple of times.” Dani leveled an honest gaze at Leah. “They were the single worst two dates I’ve ever had. I’m sure Will feels the same way. We’ve been friends ever since.”
“And is Will paying you to represent me?”
Dani grabbed her briefcase and gestured to Leah to precede her out of the courtroom. “I told you I was representing you pro bono. I wouldn’t lie to you.”
“But Will asked you to do it.”
“We are friends, after all,” Dani said. “Friends do favors for each other.”
Cecelia had disappeared by the time Leah emerged from the courtroom. Dani parted company with her, explaining that she needed to do some more work before leaving the courthouse.
Anne waited near the elevators. As always, she looked amazing. Leah wondered how many of the jurors she thought had been sneaking peeks at her were actually looking past her to Anne. “Cece had to go. She said her ride was waiting for her.”
Leah assumed she convinced Marian to bring her. “Is she expecting us tonight?”
Anne shook her head. “She’s tired. She said she was going to take a muscle relaxer and go to sleep. If she wakes up before ten, she’ll call you on your cell.”
Leah nodded. She was still unfamiliar with the toll Cecelia’s pain extracted from her. The doctors were working on that now, but they were having limited success.
“Is she coming tomorrow?”
The elevator doors slid open, and Anne linked her arm through Leah’s. “She’s planning on it.”
Anne had the same idea as Dani. “Let’s eat at that little Italian restaurant that my dad used to take me to when he showed up for his semi-annual visits. The food was always good, even if he was only there for show. As if taking me out somewhere nice could replace all the visits he skipped.”
“And curiously, you date men who are exactly like your dad,” Leah pointed out as they drove to the restaurant. “I don’t think I’ve liked one of your exes. Maybe you should let me pick the next one for you.”
The thought sobered Anne. “Maybe I should. You haven’t done too badly for yourself.”
Leah rolled her eyes. “I’m single, if you’ll recall, and on trial for embezzling six million dollars from your boss.”
It wasn’t until dinner was served that Anne ventured into dangerous territory. “You should call Will,” she said casually between bites of baked ziti.
Leah had been toying with the same idea. Each time, she discarded it. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“What do you have to lose?”
Leah stared at her pasta. “Nothing. I’ve already lost everything.”
“You’re such a nihilist. You have not lost everything. You have me and Cecelia. If you want him, you could have Will, too.”
Leah slid pieces of broccoli from one side of her plate to the other, making patterns of lines in the leftover sauce from her stuffed shells. “I wouldn’t know what to say.”
“How about something along the lines of picking things up where you left off?”
Leah shook her head. “We left off in a bad place. I never told you he blackmailed me into going out with him.”
Anne put down her fork. “I don’t think I heard you correctly.”
“Remember when he said he learned early on that I had taken the money?”
Anne nodded. A lock of blonde hair fell from her barrette. She pushed it behind her ear.
“He used that information to make me go out with him.”
Color leached from Anne’s face. “That explains why you threw out the flowers he sent you and why you didn’t tell anyone you were seeing each other. And why you weren’t very enthusiastic about staying with him. Oh my goodness!” She covered her mouth with her hand. “You wanted to stay with me, and I shot you down. What a horrible friend I am! Why didn’t you tell me? Did you tell Dani?”
“I asked her not to bring it up at the trial.” Leah tore apart a breadstick and stuck part of it in her mouth to put an end to the discussion.
Anne let Leah change the subject for a little while. It wasn’t until they were walking off their heavy meal that Anne brought it up again. “Something doesn’t seem right to me. I’ve watched you nurse a broken heart for three weeks. I saw the anger and the worry and the pain in Will’s face when he found out you had been arrested. The two of you may have started badly, but you’re both in love with each other. You have to ask yourself if what he did to you was a deal-breaker or if you can get past it. Maybe you need to talk to him.”
Anne stopped and grabbed Leah’s shoulders. “I saw the way you looked at him in the courtroom, and I saw the way he looked at you. We all did. Are you going to let that go?” Anne gestured to the building across the street, and Leah noticed for the first time that Anne had steered them down Will’s street. She had been too caught up in her thoughts to notice her surroundings. “Are you going to call him or not?”
Leah looked up and found the windows of Will’s condo on the fifteenth floor. Light poured from them. Without taking her eyes from them, Leah admitted her doubt. “What if he doesn’t want to see me? What if it was all for show?”
Anne dropped her hands from Leah’s shoulders. “The least you can do is thank him for his testimony today. When they read that ‘Not Guilty’ verdict tomorrow, it’s going to be because of his testimony.”
“Closing arguments are tomorrow. There’s only a fifty-fifty chance of hearing a verdict.”
“You’re stalling.”
Leah looked at her friend. “Are you coming up with me?”
“No, but I will wait fifteen minutes. Consider it a birthday gift.”
“Fifteen?” Leah was worried.
“Fifteen.” Anne repeated. “That way you can’t hesitate too long and make yourself so nervous you get sick. Fifteen minutes and then I’m going over to the parking garage, getting my car out, and going home.”
“You’d leave me here?” A note of panic crept into Leah’s question.
“Fourteen minutes. You’d better go.”
&nbs
p; Leah took a deep breath and crossed the street. The street resembled a parking lot as the commuter traffic moved from the freeways to the city streets, where red lights called a halt at the corner of every block.
The door man recognized Leah. “Good evening, Ms. Keenan,” he said as he opened the door for her. Will must not have removed her from the list of people who didn’t need to call first. As if it had been expecting her, the elevator opened at her approach. Her courage failed somewhere around the eighth floor, but the unrelenting elevator had no other stops to make.
It opened to the fifteenth floor lobby with an echoing ding. The lobby was deserted. Leah stood outside his door for far too long. She looked at her watch. Anne would be gone before she could make it to the street. Leah bit her lip and knocked.
* * * *
Will wasn’t expecting company. When he’d arrived home that afternoon, he’d slipped into a T-shirt and a pair of comfortable old sweats, the kind with the draw-string waist. Chinese take-out containers littered the table and counters. He had been too restless to sit down and eat. A one-way ticket to LaGuardiaAirport with a Sunday time stamp lay on the counter. The television was on, tuned to a satellite radio station that played songs for the broken-hearted. He was in the midst of packing his things. There really wasn’t much to pack. Except for his personal effects, everything belonged to Tommy. Still, he wanted to leave everything as he found it.
He had just twisted the cap from a domestic beer when he heard the knock. His eyes narrowed, and his nose wrinkled. Ever since his fight with his father, his mother had been visiting nightly to beg him to reconsider his decision to have nothing more to do with the man.
When he opened the door, he immediately regretted his clothing choice. Except for tomorrow in court, he hadn’t dared to harbor the hope of ever seeing Leah again. As he packed, he had been rehearsing things he might say to her when she was acquitted, apologies and entreaties, anything that might make her hate him a little less. He had every faith in Dani’s ability. It was why he had entrusted Leah’s future to her.