Conflict of Interest

by Jae

  "Objection!" D'Aquino shouted. "Already asked and answered. My client already explained that he doesn't normally use violence."

  "Sustained," Linehan decided. "Ms. Matheson."

  Kade nodded. "I'll move on."

  Aiden knew that she could afford to let it go. Ballard's feeble attempts to make the jury believe that he hadn't known they were real cops were easy to see through. Proving rape beyond a reasonable doubt was the more difficult part.

  "Mr. Ballard, you do know what the word 'lesbian' means, don't you?" Kade asked in a condescending tone meant to provoke Ballard. She obviously wanted to have another go at the tactic they had used during the interrogation.

  "Yeah," Ballard spat out, but a warning glance from his lawyer prevented him from saying more.

  Kade fixed the defendant with her cross-exam stare. "Then you know that the scientific definition is not 'a woman who's never been fucked by a real man' like you told Ms. Riggs, Ms. Matthews, and Ms. Kinsley?"

  "Objection! Your Honor, she's badgering the witness," D'Aquino complained.

  "Counselor." Linehan didn't raise her voice – she didn't need to; the expression of her dark eyes was threat enough.

  Kade nodded, silently promising that she would tone it down. "A lesbian is a woman who is physically and emotionally attracted to women, and you are a man, aren't you?" She smiled down at Ballard, a grin that was anything but friendly.

  A vein pounded on Ballard's forehead. Aiden wanted to cheer Kade on and encourage her to further provoke Ballard, but at the same time, she was afraid that Kade would go too far and Ballard would attack her.

  This time, D'Aquino didn't even have to object. Linehan spoke before he could. "Drop this attitude right now! Another question like that and I'll hold you in contempt and let you enjoy the hospitality of my holding cell!"

  Kade raised a placating hand and took a half step back. "How do you explain that three women who identify as lesbians, not as bisexual, allegedly slept with you when they could have picked any of the attractive women from the club?" she asked, a little tamer now.

  "There's some things they still need a man for," Ballard told her arrogantly.

  "And that is...?" Kade asked as if she truly didn't know why any woman would need a man.

  Ballard glared at her, looking as if he would love to show her. "Making babies, for one thing."

  Kade tapped her finger against her leg. "You said it was the women's decision not to use a condom?"

  "That's right," Ballard readily agreed. "They told me they wanted a baby."

  Kade looked doubtfully at him. "All three of them?"

  "Yes."

  Aiden noticed with triumph that it sounded pretty unlikely. Unless the club put some hormones into the cocktails that activate the need to reproduce.

  "And all three of them chose you as the father?"

  Ballard grinned cockily. "Guess they wanted my good looks for their kids."

  "Did you know that according to scientific studies most lesbian couples who want to have a baby choose an anonymous donor from a sperm bank or a donor who is related to one of them?" Kade asked him.

  Aiden raised a brow. Seems like our Kade is full of information about lesbians, huh?

  "Not these three," Ballard insisted.

  "Tell me, Mr. Ballard, are you capable of fathering children?"

  Ballard's head jerked around, and he stared at Kade with eyes that were burning with indignant anger. "Of course I am!"

  "You're sure of that?" Kade had perfected the skeptical glance, looking at Ballard as though he couldn't even manage to raise a pencil, much less anything else.

  "Sure I'm sure," Ballard blustered. "There ain't nothing wrong with me!"

  "Well, if all of them only slept with you to become pregnant, and there's nothing wrong with you, how do you explain the fact that none of them is pregnant today?" Kade asked, moving back to the witness-box to stare down at the defendant.

  Ballard shrugged. "I suppose sometimes it takes more than one time."

  "And how do you explain the fact that Ms. Matthews and Ms. Kinsley took the morning-after pill when they were treated in the hospital? Why would they do that if they wanted to get pregnant?" Kade fired her questions at Ballard, who was visibly beginning to sweat on the stand.

  "Maybe they changed their minds," he answered weakly.

  "Both of them?"

  D'Aquino stood. "Objection, Your Honor, asked and answered."

  "Sustained," Linehan agreed.

  Kade had already proven what she wanted and moved on. "It's your theory that Ms. Riggs, Ms. Matthews, and Ms. Kinsley accused you of raping them because their girlfriends found out and reacted negatively to their alleged one-night stand with you, is that correct?"

  "Exactly."

  "Wouldn't you say it disproves your little theory when I tell you that none of them had a girlfriend or a partner at the time?" Kade rested both hands on the stand, glowering down at Ballard.

  "No!" Ballard's voice was getting louder, less controlled. "Then there must have been other people that they didn't want to know about a heterosexual affair, their families and lesbian friends."

  Kade shook her head. "Why should they try to hide it? If they would have gotten pregnant, surely no one would have believed it was from a lesbian affair," she commented dryly.

  "That is why they lied and accused me!"

  "Why would they choose such a complicated lie, then? Why not just tell their families they had gone to a sperm bank and used an anonymous donor?" Kade asked logically.

  Ballard's mouth opened and closed, but he didn't answer.

  "Did you understand the question, or do you want me to repeat it, Mr. Ballard?" Kade asked in a condescending manner that made Aiden smile. Go, Kade! Rip him to shreds!

  Ballard stared at Kade as if he was only seconds away from calling her a bitch, too.

  Kade remained unimpressed; she didn't move an inch. "You don't want to answer my question, do you?"

  "Objection, Your Honor," D'Aquino came to his client's help. "Mr. Ballard is not a psychologist. He can't answer questions about the motive and reason for these women's behavior."

  "Not being a psychologist didn't prevent your client from offering us his theories about why the women allegedly had sex with him," Kade countered coolly. "He was not afraid to speculate about reasons and motives then."

  Linehan nodded at her. "The objection is overruled. Mr. Ballard, please answer the People's question."

  Ballard glowered at Kade. "What was the question?"

  "Why did none of the three women choose a simpler lie to hide their alleged one-night stand with you? Why choose a lie that would result in a police investigation and a trial, where the truth could easily be discovered?" Kade folded her arms and looked down at Ballard along the line of her aristocratic nose.

  Aiden grinned triumphantly when Ballard hesitated. She hoped that it was as obvious to the jury as it was to her that Ballard was running out of feeble excuses.

  "I guess they didn't think that far ahead," Ballard finally said.

  "You want us to believe that they were intelligent enough to think up an elaborate conspiracy to frame you for three rapes but not clever enough to think about the consequences? Not one of them?" Kade asked doubtfully.

  "Objection, my client has already answered that," the defense attorney called.

  Linehan spared a glance in the direction of the defense counsel. "He has not. Overruled. Mr. Ballard?"

  "Uh... I guess they weren't as smart as they thought."

  Kade took a step closer to the witness stand so she could look down at Ballard more effectively. "They weren't or you weren't, Mr. Ballard?"

  "Objection, Your Honor! She's badgering my client."

  "Withdrawn."

  Aiden knew that it didn't matter, because the jurors had heard Kade's question and would be drawing their own conclusions.

  "No further questions, Your Honor," Kade announced and strode away.

  Victor D'Aquino sto
od. Aiden watched as he fiddled with his tie for a few seconds. Does it feel like the noose around your neck is getting a little tight, buddy? she thought with a grin.

  "Garett, having seen Ms. Riggs', Ms. Mathews', and Ms. Kinsley's apartments, what assumptions would you make about their finances?" D'Aquino asked.

  Kade shot up from her seat. "Objection, Your Honor! The question is exceeding the scope of the cross-examination."

  "No, it's not," D'Aquino protested. "It is meant to show why some of the women preferred a one-night stand to get pregnant instead of using a sperm bank."

  "Overruled – for now," the judge emphasized. "I'll give you a little rope, Mr. D'Aquino. You better not hang yourself with it. You may answer the question, Mr. Ballard."

  "Well, I guess the first one, Ms. Matthews, I think, was not too well off. She hardly had any furniture, and the whole apartment building was pretty run down."

  You mean easy to break into, you bastard! Aiden thought grimly.

  "Do you think she could afford to use a sperm bank to get pregnant?" D'Aquino asked.

  Visibly relieved at having been shown a possible explanation for his allegations, Ballard shook his head. "Definitely not."

  "Garett, do you have any proof that the women slept with you because they wanted to have babies?" D'Aquino asked his client.

  "The strawberry blonde," Ballard pointed to Dawn, making her jerk, "had pictures and photos of kids everywhere, like she was obsessed with them."

  "Thank you, nothing further."

  Kade stood again. "Recross, Your Honor? Just two or three questions."

  Linehan nodded.

  "Mr. Ballard, would you describe the apartment of 'the strawberry blonde,' as you put it, as being run down?"

  "Well, not really but –"

  "Would you expect a successful psychologist and a history professor to make enough money to afford artificial insemination?" Kade asked point-blank, not allowing him the opportunity to finish his last statement.

  "I suppose," Ballard was forced to admit.

  "Did you know that the children in the photos in Dr. Kinsley's apartment are her niece and her nephew?"

  Ballard began to fidget. "No," he said through gritted teeth.

  "Would you call it an obsession with babies to have a few pictures of your niece and nephew in your apartment?" Kade asked her last question.

  "She wanted to have a baby!" Ballard protested.

  Dawn blanched. "Not with him," she whispered.

  "That was not what I asked you, Mr. Ballard," Kade told him sharply.

  Ballard shrugged. "I guess it's not directly an obsession, but –"

  "Thank you, Mr. Ballard," Kade interrupted. "One more thing. You testified that Dr. Kinsley ripped the phone cord out herself even though Mr. Jenkins, the fingerprint expert, testified that your prints were found on the cord?"

  "She did," Ballard stubbornly insisted.

  "How did her cell phone, on which your prints were also found, get tossed out the window? Did she also do that herself?"

  "Yes."

  "Because she didn't want to be interrupted?" Kade didn't bother to hide the disbelief in her voice.

  "Yes."

  "Why didn't she just turn it off? Are you saying that she was so overwhelmed by your being a 'real man,'" Kade formed quotation marks with her fingers, only a few inches away from Ballard's face, "that her common sense deserted her and she tried to throw a perfectly good phone down to the street?"

  The defense attorney stood again. "Objection! Your Honor, counsel is badgering the witness."

  "Withdrawn. No further questions." Kade sat back down with one last, cold stare at Garett Ballard.

  The judge looked at D'Aquino. "Do you have any other witnesses?"

  "Yes, Your Honor. The defense calls Janice Cahill," D'Aquino announced.

  A tall woman with short blond hair walked in and took the stand. Who's she? Aiden wondered. Ballard's character witness?

  "Ms. Cahill, what is your occupation?" D'Aquino asked after the witness had been sworn in.

  "I'm the manager and co-owner of a club called Rainbows," the blonde explained.

  "How long has the defendant been your employee?"

  Janice Cahill thought for a few seconds. "Five, almost six years now."

  "And during that time, has Mr. Ballard ever acted in a hostile manner toward any of your customers?" D'Aquino wanted to know.

  "No, never."

  "And in your conversations with Mr. Ballard, did he ever indicate any negative feelings toward homosexual people?"

  The club owner shook her head again. "No."

  "Have you ever heard of affairs between members of your male staff and some of the customers?" the defense attorney asked.

  "Not often and I certainly don't encourage it, but yes, it has happened before," Janice Cahill confirmed.

  D'Aquino turned back toward the defense table with a satisfied smile. "Thank you. That will be all."

  "Ms. Cahill," Kade paced in front of the witness-box, "tell us what would have happened if you had ever heard derogatory remarks against lesbians from Mr. Ballard or seen him act hostile toward a customer."

  The club owner straightened. "I would have fired him immediately."

  Kade stopped her pacing to look directly in the witness' eyes. "Did Mr. Ballard know what the consequences would be should his homophobic attitudes become apparent?"

  "Yes. All employees are informed of the club's policies before their first day at work."

  "Mr. Ballard testified that your clientèle consists mainly of lesbians and bisexual women. Is that correct?" Aiden noticed that Kade's voice was not as cold as during Ballard's cross. Her gestures were softer, and she had taken a step back, not encroaching on the witness' personal space as she had done with Ballard.

  "Yes, it is," the nightclub owner answered readily, reacting to Kade's friendly approach.

  "Generally, how well do you know your customers, Ms. Cahill?"

  "I know most of the regulars pretty well."

  Aiden couldn't tell where Kade was going with this. She knew that Dawn hadn't been a regular at 'Rainbows' or at any other club, but she trusted Kade's abilities and kept listening in silence.

  "These affairs between male staff members and some of your clientèle, were these women regulars with whom you were familiar?"

  "Yes."

  "And did they identify as lesbians?" Kade wanted to know.

  The club owner shook her head. "No, in each case the woman in question was bisexual."

  "Did you ever see a lesbian customer flirt with Mr. Ballard, buy him a drink, or ask him to go home with her?"

  Cahill shook her head again. "I never witnessed that, no."

  "No further questions, Your Honor." Kade was through with the last witness of the trial.

  Victor D'Aquino stood again but didn't make the effort to walk to the witness stand to ask his last question. "Is it possible that Mr. Ballard had affairs with customers without your knowledge?"

  "Objection!" Kade didn't want to allow him to have the last word. "That's beyond the personal knowledge of this witness. The answer would be a mere speculation."

  Ruth Linehan inclined her head. "Sustained."

  "No further questions, Your Honor. The defense rests," D'Aquino declared.

  "Very well." Linehan nodded and excused the witness. "We'll reconvene on Monday, nine a.m., to hear the closing arguments. Court is adjourned."

  The gavel banged, and everyone rose while the jury and the judge filed out the side entrance.

  * * *

  "Is the defense ready to proceed with its closing argument?" Ruth Linehan asked.

  "Yes, Your Honor." Victor D'Aquino took position in front of the jury box. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, when I stood before you a little over a week ago, I told you this case was about an innocent man who was wrongfully accused of crimes he didn't commit – I still feel that way." D'Aquino shifted his weight and let his gaze wander along the rows of jurors. "As in every c
riminal case, the prosecution has the burden of proof, and in the case against Garett Ballard, they could not keep their promises and prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. During this trial, the prosecution presented no concrete evidence to support their allegations of rape."