The TRIBUNAL

by Peter B. Robinson

  Later in the night, Ellen got up to go to the bathroom. She looked at her clock. It was 3 a.m. They didn’t lock her in her room anymore, so she walked to the bathroom quietly on her own. When she got there, she saw Hans’ cell phone lying on the counter.

  Ellen stared at the phone. Should she call her parents? She wanted to so badly. But what if someone heard her? She had only one more week, and she didn’t want to spend it in the basement. What could she tell her parents? She didn’t even know where she was.

  The debate raged in Ellen’s mind. She calculated the odds of getting caught. The bathroom was at the end of the hall near her bedroom and away from the other bedrooms where Anna, Hans, and Jan slept. Maybe she could say she had gotten really lonely if she got caught.

  Ellen’s instincts were to not break the rules. She was going home anyway, why risk it? She headed back to her bedroom. Just as she walked out of the bathroom, she had an idea. She took the cell phone, put it under her pajamas, and climbed back in bed.

  She got under her covers and pulled them and her pillow over her head. She pushed the “on” button to the phone.

  A small “beep” sounded. Ellen prayed that the blankets and pillow had muffled the sound. She dialed her home number and willed someone to answer.

  Kevin was deep in sleep when he thought he heard the phone ringing. After a moment, he shook himself awake. It was still dark outside. He heard the ring again and raced to the phone in his office. He glanced at the clock. 3:16 a.m. It was either the kidnappers or some inconsiderate fool calling from the United States.

  “Hello.”

  Kevin heard a soft whisper, “Daddy, it’s me.”

  “Ellen! Where are you? Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine, Dad. I gotta be quick. I’m on a farm in Utrecht. That’s all I know. They say I’ll be coming home in a week.”

  “Can you get away?”

  “No, there are no houses around here. And someone is with me all the time.”

  “Are you being treated okay?”

  “Yeah. I even have a puppy. Her name is Johanna.”

  “Ellen, who kidnapped you?”

  “Two guys named Hans and Jan, and a lady named Anna. But that’s not their real names. Dad, I gotta go. Write this down. 84 FG SJ. That’s the license number of the van they drive. It’s a black van.”

  Kevin scrambled to find some paper. “Give me that again.”

  “84 FG SJ”

  Kevin repeated it.

  “That’s it,” Ellen said. “I gotta go, Dad. I can’t get caught using this cell phone.”

  “God, I wish you could tell me where you are!” Kevin exclaimed. His mind raced for questions to ask. He wanted to never let go of that phone until Ellen was safe.

  “I really gotta go, Dad. They’ll lock me in the basement if they catch me using a phone.”

  “Okay. We love you and miss you so much.”

  “Love you too. Tell Mommy I love her. Bye.”

  “Bye, Ellen, see you soon.”

  “Diane!” Kevin yelled, and ran into their bedroom, turning on the light. “Ellen just called!”

  Diane sat upright in bed. Kevin repeated every word Ellen had said.

  “Oh, God,” Diane said. “I wish I could hear her voice. How did she sound?”

  “Good. She wasn’t crying or anything. She sounded like her usual self, but a little scared. She sounded sure she would be coming home next week. And she said to tell you that she loved you.”

  “Do you really think they’ll let her go after the trial?”

  “I hope so.”

  Diane immediately called Detective Weber’s office with the news. The night dispatcher paged Detective Weber. A few minutes later the detective called. Kevin related what Ellen had said and the license number.

  “We’ll run this license plate right away,” Detective Weber said. “We just got some other leads last night as well. I was going to call you this morning. We found some fingerprints on the envelope with Ellen’s second letter. They come back to a Johan Oosten from Amsterdam. He’s a Dutch male, about 25 years old, who has no criminal record. We contacted the Amsterdam police. Their files show that he’s been a member of a socialist, left-wing student group, sympathetic to unpopular causes like the Serbs.”

  “Wow!” Kevin exclaimed. “That’s a great lead.”

  “We had people looking for him last night in Amsterdam. He hasn’t been seen since the day Ellen was kidnapped. He told his mother he would be gone for awhile on a job, but didn’t say where he was going.”

  “Sounds promising.”

  “There’s more,” Detective Weber said. “We got a court order to wiretap Vacinovic’s phone. After your meeting last night he called your old friend Mihajlo Golic in Serbia. They’re behind this whole thing. They hired Oosten and some other Dutch radicals to do the kidnapping.”

  Diane had been right all along! She now stood by the phone with a quizzical expression on her face.

  “I’d like to strangle that pot-bellied pig, Vacinovic” Kevin said between clenched teeth.

  When he hung up the phone, Kevin told Diane everything. She overcame whatever temptation she had to get into I-told-you-so recriminations.

  “I’ve had my hopes up so high before,” she said, surprisingly calm. “I’m almost afraid to let them get up again.”

  “I know. The police work is out of our control. Let’s go downstairs and work on Draga’s trial. That’s something we can do.”

  Diane made some coffee and Kevin got out his papers. It was just before 4 a.m. “Here’s the big question for the trial,” Kevin said. “Do we go for broke and use the CIA evidence?”

  “Why would you use it?”

  “I think there are two ways to possibly win Draga’s trial at this point. The best way would be to prove that Draga was working for the CIA and tipping them off to his military operations. With the CIA evidence, I can show that Draga more than discharged his duty as a commander to prevent war crimes. And it will put the damaging speeches and statements he made into a wholly different light.”

  “What’s the other way?”

  “The other possibility is to continue with our defense that the people who committed the war crimes weren’t even under Draga’s command, which is true. But William Evans from the CIA might be the only witness who could identify the list of bona fide Black Dragons that Draga gave me. As it stands right now, I’ve got a list of all the perpetrators of war crimes from the victim witnesses. That’s defense exhibit 5. But I need the CIA evidence to show that these people were not on the list of people under Draga’s command.”

  “Will Draga let you expose his CIA activities?”

  “Well, it’s actually my decision. As his lawyer, I have the right to make decisions on trial tactics. I did promise Draga that I would leave that decision to the end of the trial. It looks like that time has come.”

  The next day, Kevin brought pannekoeken with him to the prison. When he went into the interview room with their breakfast, Draga was his usual sports-obsessed self.

  “One week to Super Bowl Sunday,” Draga enthused. “The point spread is down to five points. I think I’ve got you.”

  “You haven’t got anything. There’s a saying in the United States: ‘It ain’t over till the fat lady sings.’”

  Draga looked puzzled. “You mean, like in the opera? Well, just bring 30 Euros to court a week from Monday.”

  “We’re not going to be in court a week from Monday. Your trial is going to be over this week.”

  That pronouncement seemed to have no impact whatsoever on Draga. “Well, you better come here and see me on Monday. In fact, use some of my winnings to buy us both a steak dinner and bring it with you.”

  “Is that all you think about – football and food?”

  “Just about. Two of the three F’s. The other one is not available to me.”

  Kevin got serious. “We need to talk about the trial.”

  Draga grimaced. “I like the way you’re handl
ing it. Just keep up the good work.”

  “Don’t you care how it comes out?”

  “I already know how it comes out, Kevin. We lose. I get a life sentence. I am transferred to the United States, and I get a new life in a year or so. We’ve had this conversation.”

  “I know, but now my daughter’s life is wrapped up in this. It looks like Vacinovic and Golic are behind her kidnapping. That guy’s not really your brother-in-law, is he?”

  Draga’s expression sobered. “No, he is not related to me at all – he is with the secret police. But, I don’t like our odds, Kevin. We’re playing against the house. Our chances of winning in this court are close to zero. I wouldn’t bet on us.”

  “Not if I throw the Hail Mary pass on the last play and show them that you were playing for the home team all along.”

  Draga shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Kevin, you’ve been straight with me all along. Let me ask you this. If we keep quiet and don’t bring this CIA stuff up, do you think Pete Barnes and the boys will honor their promise to me?”

  Kevin thought about that. He could say no and make it more palatable for Draga to let him use the CIA evidence in court, but he was not going to lie.

  “I think they will,” he finally replied. “They got Maria Jones out of solitary confinement. Plus, now a Dutch police officer has heard the tapes and seen the reports. I think the CIA will try to keep its word.”

  Draga looked like he was thinking; he said nothing for a while. “I think so, too, now that you got ’em on tape. That was the best thing a lawyer could have done for me. I’m so lucky I got you as my lawyer. No one else would have had the guts to do that.”

  Kevin held eye contact with his client.

  “So, I don’t have anything to gain by exposing that aspect of my life, and I have a lot to lose,” Draga continued. “If we use it, my family will be in danger and the CIA won’t honor the deal.”

  “But if you are acquitted, you won’t need their deal.”

  “Kevin, you don’t understand. If I burn my bridges with the CIA, even if I am acquitted, I lose. Remember that I have to go to Germany, then Belgium, and then Sweden to serve my time on my old cases. I’ll serve more time in worse places than if I am convicted in this case.”

  “So the best result for you is if we lose,” Kevin said slowly.

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you from the beginning,” Draga said. “I want to lose. Except, now, for one reason: your daughter.”

  “I guess this is what Bradford Stone meant when he claimed it presented a conflict of interest,” said Kevin, beginning to feel thoroughly defeated.

  “No. I know you, Kevin. You wanted to win my case from the very beginning. Your daughter’s situation hasn’t changed that.” He stood up and stretched. “Will the CIA evidence make a real difference?”

  “I think so,” Kevin said. “Right now, we can’t even use the list of Dragons you gave me without a witness who can identify it. By using the CIA evidence, not only can we prove that the men who committed war crimes weren’t under your command, but we can show that you tried to prevent war crimes.”

  Draga started pacing around the room.

  Kevin had never seen him this serious.

  Suddenly, Draga stopped. “All right, I’ve made my decision. Screw Bradford Stone and the horse he rode in on. Let’s use everything we’ve got and play to win.”

  “What about your family?”

  “I’ll have some people look after them. I brought this on my family for what I chose to do. You didn’t bring anything on your daughter. You were just doing your job.”

  Kevin’s eyes watered as he considered what Draga had just said. This alleged “war criminal” had more character than some of the prosecutors and judges at the Tribunal.

  CHAPTER 28

  Kevin remained obsessed with his quandary over the CIA evidence. Would he be trading Draga’s life for Ellen’s? There was no guarantee that it would work. The kidnappers might kill her anyway or the Tribunal might still find Draga guilty. But he had to do everything in his power to save Ellen. Draga was right. She didn’t deserve this.

  On Sunday, Kevin made an appointment to see Detective Weber, who was working in a command post set up at the Utrecht Police Department.

  “Any news?” he asked.

  Detective Weber was wearing jeans and a plaid woolen shirt and looked as if she were ready to do some farm chores herself. She led Kevin into an interview room and closed the door.

  “Golic is coming to The Netherlands,” she said when they had sat down. “He’s flying in from Belgrade on Tuesday morning. If we haven’t found Ellen by then, we hope he’ll lead us to her.”

  “That’s great. Why do you think he’s coming?

  Detective Weber looked away for a moment. “I guess this is the end game for the kidnapping. When the trial’s over, if you believe their demands, they will release Ellen if Draga is released.”

  “And if Draga is not released?”

  “I don’t know. They said to you on the phone that they would kill her.”

  Kevin felt sweat forming on his forehead. “What are you doing in the meantime?”

  “We’re looking for the van, Johan Oosten, the farm, the puppy, anything that will lead us to your daughter. The headmaster of the American School has been asking what they could do to help. Tomorrow they are closing the school for the day and bussing a few hundred high school students as well as parents and staff to Utrecht to knock on doors. We are providing them with pictures of Ellen and Oosten.”

  Kevin was moved at how wonderful everyone had been since Ellen went missing.

  He leaned forward, and lowered his voice. “On Tuesday, I have to start calling witnesses and producing evidence on Draga’s behalf. I may need to use the CIA reports and tapes that I gave you the first day we met.”

  Detective Weber’s expression gave Kevin no clue as to how she was receiving this request. He forged ahead. “If the judges know that Draga was working for the CIA during the war and giving them advance information about the military targets of his Black Dragons, I think it would significantly increase his chance of winning. And that would increase our chances of getting Ellen back if she’s not found today or tomorrow.”

  “So you want me to give the materials back to you?”

  “Well, I may want you to bring them to court on Tuesday morning. I haven’t decided for sure yet. You see, it’s not that simple. It may well be in Draga’s best interests to lose the trial rather than use the CIA evidence.”

  Detective Weber gave Kevin a puzzled look.

  He wondered if he was making sense. “If we don’t reveal the CIA evidence, the CIA will probably keep their promise and Draga will be free in a year or two. But if we use it and, in the process, burn his bridges with the CIA, even if he wins he’ll be taken to Germany, Belgium, and Sweden to serve his old sentences there. He’ll end up serving more time than if he loses this case, and who knows what will happen to him and his family once his role with the CIA becomes known.”

  The detective nodded and her face softened. “That’s a difficult problem for you then, isn’t it?”

  “It sure is. For Draga, it’s better to lose the trial, but for Ellen I need to win.”

  “What does your client say?”

  “He says to use the evidence and try to win. He said something like he made his choices and he and his family have to live with the consequences.”

  “That’s unusual. Most criminals I know only look out for themselves.”

  “I’m not sure what I should do. But I want to know if you’ll bring the evidence to court in the event I need to use it.”

  “Sure, I’ll bring it to court. I’ll need a subpoena to cover my behind with my superiors, but I’m not going to stand in the way of anything that might win your daughter’s freedom.”

  “I brought a subpoena with me. I was hoping it would be okay with you.”

  Kevin took out the subpoena from his briefcase and handed it t
o Detective Weber.

  She scanned it and put it down on the table. “That’ll work.”

  “Do you think I should try and postpone the trial and buy more time for you?”

  “You know, I think finding Ellen would be great, but having the kidnappers release her would be a whole lot better. Who knows what would happen if we find Ellen and have a confrontation with the kidnappers? She could be killed. Police officers could be killed. And the longer she stays with them, the greater the danger. So I would say to go ahead and finish the trial.”

  “Let me ask you – do you think I should use the CIA evidence?”

  Detective Weber hesitated for an instant. “Yes, if it might make a difference between winning and losing the trial, I would. Your client is right. Ellen didn’t do anything to deserve this. I think it’s fair to use the evidence if it might save her life.”

  Kevin shook the detective’s hand and walked from the station. The train and bus ride to his house were a blur as Kevin replayed his conversations with Draga and Detective Weber. He passed the American School and thought of the hundreds of people who would be lining up to be bussed to Utrecht tomorrow to help find Ellen. Everyone had been so unselfish. Would it be selfish of him if he sacrificed Draga for Ellen?

  When Kevin and Diane walked into Courtroom 1 the next morning, there was energy in the air as everyone anticipated the closing of the prosecution’s case.

  Bradford Stone strutted around the prosecution’s side of the courtroom like an artist getting ready to put the finishing touches on his masterpiece.

  Judge Orozco’s legal officer came over and asked Kevin how many days he expected for the defense testimony, but Kevin was noncommittal.

  “Check with me after the last witness.”

  At last, the usher commanded everyone to their feet and the three judges strode briskly to their places. They too seemed fresh and ready to move on to the next phase of the trial.

  “Are you ready to call your next witness, Mr. Stone?” Judge Orozco asked after the preliminaries had been taken care of.