“There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Pratt will let Jake take the stand,” Candace disagreed. “It’s Defense 101. Never put the defendant on the stand.”
The team made friendly bets on the issue. Ryan and Lauren betting against Candace and Kyle. Wallace, who had joined them today, abstained, commenting he had been surprised by trial outcomes so often that he no longer cared to guess what might happen. Lauren wondered if the wrongful conviction of his father was one of the “surprising court outcomes” Wallace alluded to.
“Is Pratt ballsy enough to call Lauren to the stand?” Kyle wondered aloud.
“Nope,” Candace said. “Pratt is many things, least of which is an arrogant asshole, but he isn’t stupid. Lauren’s a terrible risk for them. They couldn’t break her on cross-exam last time and she would be unpredictable as hell. They won’t call her.”
Lauren let out an audible sigh of relief.
“Of course, we’re still going to have to prep you this weekend, just in case,” Candace cautioned. “It wouldn’t be the first time I was surprised by this fucking trial. Maybe Pratt and Fisher forgot to take Defense 101.”
“Fisher took Publicity 201 instead,” Kyle said.
“And Pratt was probably in Smoke and Mirrors 302; the advanced course,” Ryan commented.
“So, what’s your best guess?” Wallace asked. “Do you think they’ll call me back for more cross this afternoon?”
Candace pondered. “That’s a tough one. On one hand, I know Pratt would be loath to allow us the last word before recessing for the weekend. On the other hand, you’ve already embarrassed him a few times. I can’t imagine he cares to square off against you again.”
But when court resumed that afternoon, Pratt did approach Wallace on the stand once more.
“Detective Wallace,” Pratt said in a voice smooth as silk, “you testified this morning you could not absolutely prove that Miss Rose was not responsible for the murder of her sister, did you not?”
“That’s not what I said. I can’t prove that you didn’t kill Liz Wakefield either. All I do is testify about the evidence and let the jury interpret the facts.”
Despite the fact that Wallace had scored yet another embarrassing point against him, Pratt grinned. “You also testified you were able to verify Lauren Rose’s alibi. Can you tell us how you did that?”
“Yes, we spoke to Dr. Rose’s immediate supervisor, a man by the name of Dr. Matthew Stone. He was able to confirm that Dr. Rose had been at work that evening for her entire shift of noon to midnight and that she had stayed until about six-thirty a.m. because she was busy saving the life of a child.”
Pratt glared at Wallace for plugging Lauren with his response, but did not object. “And Dr. Stone had visual contact on Miss Rose for the entire evening?”
“Not the entire time, but they interacted frequently throughout the night.”
“Detective Wallace, have you spent much time in hospital emergency rooms?”
“Yes, I’m afraid I have spent far too much time in emergency rooms.”
“Is it fair to say ERs tend to be busy places?”
“Yes.”
“And the people that work there tend to be busy people?”
“Yes.”
“So, isn’t it fair to believe that Miss Rose could have departed the hospital for a short period of time undetected by her supervisor?”
“Long enough to use the restroom or make a quick personal call? I would imagine so, but I doubt very much she had time to leave the ER, drive across town, commit a vicious murder, and return to the hospital without her absence being detected by somebody.”
“You doubt it, but you don’t know for sure because you weren’t there, Detective Wallace.”
“No, I wasn’t and neither were you, Mr. Pratt. We have no eye witnesses to the crime, so we have to rely on the evidence, which implicates Jake Wakefield, not Dr. Rose.”
“That’s how you chose to interpret the evidence, but other possible interpretations do exist.”
“Any logical person would draw the same conclusion. I believe these jurors are logical people, who will interpret the evidence accurately.”
“Have you ever misinterpreted evidence, Detective Wallace?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“Really?” Pratt asked incredulously. “I find it hard to believe that in all of your years of service, thirty-five years all together as you told us in your earlier testimony, that you’ve never made a mistake.”
“I didn’t say I’ve never made a mistake. We all make mistakes. But, to the best of my knowledge, I’ve never arrested the wrong person.”
Pratt smirked, “Until now.”
“Objection.” Candace was on her feet. “Defense counsel is attempting to provide his own testimony in this courtroom.”
“Sustained.”
“I will withdraw the remark,” Pratt offered. “No more questions for this witness.”
“The witness is excused.” Candace beamed at Wallace as he descended the stand and departed the courtroom. “On behalf of the people of the State of Arizona, the Prosecution rests, Your Honor.”
The reporters in the courtroom began feverishly typing into their portable telecommunications devices. This was breaking news. After nearly a month of testimony, the State’s case against superstar Jake Wakefield rested.
Pratt said, “Your Honor, at this time, the Defense would like to call Lauren Rose as a witness.”
Candace was outraged. “The Defense did not advise Dr. Rose they intended to call her today.”
“Your Honor, we did not anticipate the Prosecution would rest their case today,” Pratt said. “We don’t wish to delay the court proceedings. We are very mindful of the sacrifices this jury is making during their sequestration and we wish to get these jurors home as soon as possible. We would be pleased to open the Defense case today if you will allow us to call Miss Rose.”
One couldn’t help but admire the extent of Pratt’s wily ways. Candace was now in a bind. If she protested, it would appear as if she had no regard for the jurors and as if Lauren needed protection. If she did not, she would be sending Lauren into the lions’ den without any preparation. She asked for, and was granted, permission to consult the witness. Candace beckoned for Lauren to approach the Prosecution table and then whispered. “Are you ready for this?”
Lauren felt sick to her stomach. Candace and Kyle had been planning to prepare her over the weekend for the possibility the Defense might call her as a witness, which everybody thought unlikely. Now it was a grim reality. The Defense had an urgent need to make Lauren look guilty. They were clearly prepared to pull out all the stops to make that happen. Lauren’s mind raced. What could she possibly say that wouldn’t make her look suspicious to the jury? “I’m ready as I’ll ever be.”
Chapter Forty-six
(Friday, September 22)
After Lauren was sworn in, Pratt approached like a cat about to pounce. Lauren’s heart was thumping so loudly, she worried the jurors might hear it.
“Good afternoon, Miss Rose,” Pratt said chummily. The Defense team never addressed Lauren by her medical title.
“Good afternoon.”
“You are the younger sister of Elizabeth Wakefield, correct?”
Lauren would soon be older than Liz had ever been. Because of the murder, she would reach ages Liz had never reached. “Yes.”
“Liz enjoyed more financial success than you did?”
“Liz had more money than most people, including me.”
“Do you think it’s fair to say Liz was prettier than you?”
Candace objected, but Judge Robles overruled it, forcing Lauren to answer the offensive question. “Absolutely. Liz was very beautiful.”
“And Liz enjoyed more romantic success than you, didn’t she?” Pratt was warming up now
.
“Everybody used to think that before they found out what a monster Jake is,” Lauren responded.
“Did you think Jake Wakefield was a monster when you began spending time with him last September, two months after your sister’s death?”
Candace had believed the Defense would not want to introduce this evidence. Candace had been wrong.
Lauren resisted the urge to squirm in her seat. “No. I believed we were both grieving for Liz. That was before I knew he killed my sister and then tried to frame me for her murder.” She looked directly at Jake, who refused to meet her gaze. She hoped the jury noticed.
“You admit you became friendly with your sister’s husband very shortly after her death? It sounds to me like you were hoping to step into your sister’s expensive shoes.”
“I was grieving and Jake made me feel like he genuinely cared about me. He created that illusion for many people, including my sister.”
“Isn’t it true you entered the words ‘deaths from traumatic injuries’ into the search engine of your home computer on the twenty-second of July?”
“I don’t remember the exact date, but I did enter those search terms. I’m an emergency medicine resident and I was conducting research for…”
Pratt interrupted. “And you did another Google search on July twenty-second with the search term ’causes of death’?”
“I needed the information for my job because…”
Pratt interrupted again. “Miss Rose, isn’t it true you were having some financial strain at the time of your sister’s death?”
“No. That is not true.”
Pratt moved to enter documents into evidence. After doing so, he handed one to Lauren. “Can you identify this for the jury?”
“That’s my student loan statement.”
“And how much money does it say you owe?”
“This one is a few months old so I owe less now, but this statement reflects a balance of one hundred sixteen thousand, eight hundred twelve dollars.”
“One hundred sixteen thousand, eight hundred twelve dollars?” Pratt asked with exaggerated shock. “Isn’t that a small fortune in student loan debt?”
“It’s not uncommon for medical students to owe such amounts.”
“So you don’t feel like this is a large debt?”
“It is a large debt, but not one I can’t reasonably pay off over time.”
There was a commotion at the Defense table. A heavyset man in khaki pants and a polo shirt was whispering animatedly to Fisher. Pratt became aware of the disruption and returned to the Defense table where both Fisher and the stranger murmured to him excitedly, Jake listening in with a smile.
Pratt turned back to Lauren with a gleam in his eye.
“Miss Rose, will you please tell the court where you were between the hours of seven and eleven p.m. on the evening of July twenty-third last year?”
“I was at work at Good Samaritan Hospital.”
“For that entire period of time?”
“Yes.”
“What hours were you there that evening?”
“My shift started at noon so I got there around 11:45 in the morning. And my shift ended at midnight, but I was busy with an important case so I didn’t leave until about six-thirty in the morning.”
“Don’t you get a dinner break?”
“We eat if and when we can find the time in between patients. There’s a cafeteria in the hospital and vending machines. The nurses almost always have baked goods lying around. We don’t practice the healthiest eating habits.”
Several people in the courtroom chuckled.
“Do you remember if you ate on the evening of July twenty-third?”
“I snacked here and there, but I never sat down and ate a real meal. We were too busy that night.”
“So you didn’t leave the hospital at all that night, is that correct?”
“That’s correct.”
“The Defense would like to introduce into evidence a videotape from the hospital filmed that evening.”
Candace shot to her feet. “Your Honor, may we approach the bench?”
The judge called a sidebar. Lauren could hear only bits and pieces of the conversation. She heard Candace fume, “This is an outrage!” Pratt was clearly impassioned as he gesticulated wildly with his hands.
While the minutes stretched long, Lauren wondered what could possibly be on the hospital videotape that would be of interest to the Defense. She was aware of only one video camera at the hospital. It had been placed in the waiting area to allow the triage nurses to keep an eye on waiting patients. Hospital security also monitored it as many ER patients were drunk, high, belligerent, or some combination of the three. Secretly, the interns also surveyed the video footage to divvy up patients, Ritesh angling to be the treating provider for any and all attractive female patients. For a fleeting moment, she wondered if the Defense might have video of the interns dishing about patients or otherwise acting unprofessionally, but that was unlikely because the only camera was in the waiting room. The remainder of the ER was not taped in order to protect patient privacy.
Growing bored while the lawyers bickered, Lauren attempted to make eye contact with the jurors. The Defense was desperately trying to convince the jury that Lauren was capable of murder and she wanted them to see this wasn’t true. She wanted them to know she wasn’t afraid to look them in the eye. But most of the jurors were either staring at the spectacle at the sidebar or doodling in their notepads. One appeared to be asleep.
She scanned the courtroom for a comfortable place to rest her eyes. Jake was leaning back in his chair, laughing and joking with the front row of spectators behind him, which included his parents and several reporters. Most people in the gallery were browsing their cell phones. Even Ryan had been using the downtime to check his phone, but he suddenly seemed to sense Lauren’s discomfort. He glanced up at her, feeling alone and small on the witness stand, and he smiled reassuringly.
After more than twenty minutes, the huddle at the judge’s bench broke up. Candace looked grim and even irrepressible Kyle looked deflated. Meanwhile, Pratt and Fisher exuded victory.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,” Judge Robles instructed, “the Defense has filed a motion to introduce newly discovered evidence, which they have only uncovered today. We will recess early today to allow the Prosecution time to review the evidence. We will make some approved movies available for you to watch at the hotel over the weekend. See you back on Monday morning.”
Chapter Forty-seven
(Friday, September 22)
“Not here,” Candace snapped when Lauren returned to the Prosecution table. Candace was slamming documents into boxes, stacking the boxes roughly on a rolling rack.
They walked in silence through the long tunnel to the county attorney’s office. Several passing people greeted Candace, but she barely acknowledged them. Lauren raised her eyebrows at Ryan in a questioning manner. He shrugged his shoulders in response.
No sooner had they entered the war room than Candace slammed the door shut, rounded on Lauren, and shouted “Did you forget to tell us something about the night of your sister’s murder?”
“What? No. I’ve told you everything. Why? What did they say?”
“It’s not what they said, it’s what they found. They say they have video footage of you leaving the hospital at 6:42 p.m. on July twenty-third. Please tell me that isn’t true.”
“It isn’t true.”
“We’re about to find out.” Candace pulled a labeled DVD out of one of the evidence boxes. “Fucking Pratt. I wonder how long he’s been sitting on this little nugget. He claims their investigator only discovered it today. I told Robles the timing was suspiciously convenient. They just happened to find this footage right when they get you on the stand. I’ll bet. Pratt’s been hinting at a problem with your alib
i throughout the entire trial. I thought he was just grandstanding for the jury. Until now.” Like a freight engine that had picked up steam, Candace continued her diatribe as she slammed the disc into a media system set up in one corner of the room. When it failed to load, she gave the unit a sharp kick. The familiar DVD logo popped onscreen and Candace hit play.
The video display was grainy. The image depicted the waiting room at Good Samaritan. The time and date stamp were on the bottom left of the image; 23 July, 18:40. There was no sound. The silence was deafening as they watched for the next ninety seconds. At 18:42, Lauren entered the waiting room and departed through the automatic front doors at the entrance to the ER. Candace eyeballed Lauren. “That’s you, right?”
“Yeah, that’s me. Are we sure this thing is date-stamped correctly?” Lauren felt a pit in her stomach.
“They swear up and down the tape has been authenticated by the hospital security staff.”
“That’s weird because I don’t even use that door. We have a staff entrance that leads out to the parking garage. Does it show me coming back in?”
They watched in stony silence for several more minutes, but the video Lauren did not return.
“I can’t believe we didn’t catch this ourselves,” Candace was saying now in an accusatory tone directed at Ryan.
“Hold up, Candace,” he responded calmly. “Lauren’s telling us this is inaccurate and I believe her. We can call Dr. Stone to the stand to verify she was at the hospital all night if we have to. We have his statement to that effect on file.”
“Yeah, but he wasn’t with her every second of the night. The Defense is claiming that Lauren snuck out to kill Liz, and the ER is such a busy place nobody missed her.”
“Anybody that’s ever worked in an ER is going to know that’s ludicrous,” Lauren protested. “You can’t go missing from your shift undetected. I have a pager. I have patients asking for me.”
“Anybody that has any sort of job knows that,” Ryan agreed. “People are going to notice you’re missing and come looking for you. And with technology today, you can always be found.”
The Perfect Game Page 18