The TRIBUNAL

by Peter B. Robinson

  “No, Your Honor.”

  “Very well, the witness may be excused.”

  Jacobson got up from his seat and took his laptop with him to the prosecution table. He sat down at his usual place. No one looked at him and he looked at no one.

  Judge Orozco looked to Oswald, who rose again. “The prosecution rests.”

  “Very well. I believe then that it is your turn, Mr. Anderson,” Judge Orozco said lightly as the tension lifted from the courtroom. “It’s almost four o’clock. Would you like to begin tomorrow?”

  Kevin stood up. “The defense rests, Your Honors.”

  Judge Orozco’s eyebrows shot up. “You mean you aren’t calling any witnesses?”

  “That’s correct. They’ve just admitted everything I would prove. Mr. Zaric had no responsibility for the men who committed the war crimes.”

  “Very well, then,” Judge Orozco said, collecting her thoughts. “We’ll have closing arguments tomorrow morning at 9:30. Court is in recess.”

  Kevin turned and looked back at Draga. He walked over and Draga gave him a huge bear hug. “You destroyed them!”

  Kevin smiled. “They’re still the home team. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Kevin walked back over to the defense table to gather his papers. He sat down next to Diane. “Why didn’t you use the CIA evidence?” she asked, her brown eyes boring in on him. “I thought you were going to do everything to save Ellen.”

  “I just couldn’t, Diane. I had to act in the best interest of my client. It was the right thing to do. And besides, if these judges find Draga guilty after what they heard today, no evidence from the CIA or even God Himself is going to change their minds.”

  Diane got up shakily. “I hate you and your games.” She ran from the courtroom. Kevin sat there in the courtroom, alone now, stunned. He had just finished the best cross-examination of his career. He had followed his instincts about the CIA evidence. But his instincts had, after all, caused him to lose Ellen.

  Had he made the wrong decision? One that might cost his daughter’s life?

  Ellen, in her room at the farm, heard the sound of a car drive up. She peeked through the curtains and saw Hans walk out of the barn and meet the car.

  Ellen saw a brown-haired woman driving, and two young girls in the back. Ellen saw the woman showing Hans some papers. After a few minutes, the woman took back the papers and Hans stepped back from the car door. The woman started driving around towards the road. As she did, Ellen’s eyes met the eyes of one of the girls. The girl looked familiar, like someone Ellen had seen at school. Ellen waved. As they pulled away, Ellen saw the girl excitedly bouncing in the car, tapping her mother’s shoulder.

  I hope she recognized me, Ellen thought.

  When the car drove away, Hans rushed into the house. Ellen came out into the kitchen. Hans was talking heatedly in Dutch to Jan and Anna. From what Ellen could understand, the woman in the car was looking for Ellen, and had shown Hans pictures of Ellen and Jan.

  Hans turned to Ellen. “We’ve got to leave here. Get you’re stuff ready.”

  “What’s happening?”

  “Never mind. If you want to take anything, grab it right now. We’re leaving.”

  Ellen thought of all the homework she had done. She ran around the house, gathering her homework binders and stuffing them into her backpack. She wondered if she should bring some clothes, but she had nothing else to carry them in.

  She put on her raincoat and stood by the door.

  “Let’s go,” Hans said.

  Ellen followed Hans and Jan out the door. Anna was behind her.

  “Wait,” Ellen yelled. She ran back into the house, and came out holding Johanna in her arms. “Am I going home now?”

  No one answered her. Ellen thought they would get in the black van, but Hans led them through a field to a road behind the pasture that Ellen had never seen before. After walking rapidly down the road for a good five minutes, they came to a wooden shed the size of a garage. Hans unlocked the shed. Ellen saw an old blue van inside. “Get in the back with her,” Hans told Jan. Anna got in the driver’s side and Hans in the front passenger’s side. Ellen squeezed Johanna as Anna turned the ignition.

  “It’s okay,” Ellen bent over and whispered to Johanna.

  “Wait. I forgot my wallet,” Jan said suddenly. “I don’t want it left in that house.”

  He ran out of the van, and back down the road. Anna pulled the van out of the garage and waited. Hans fidgeted around the van nervously. Suddenly, in the distance, they heard the sound of police sirens. The sounds were getting louder.

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” Hans shouted. “Let’s see if we can get on the main road. If no one’s near the farm, we’ll go in and pick Jan up.”

  Anna drove the van slowly, with the lights out, away from the farm. When she reached a paved road, she turned the lights on. Hans gave her directions to get back to the main entrance to the farm. As they approached, they saw police cars parked near the road leading to the farm. They could see flashing lights down the road in the direction of the farmhouse.

  “It’s too late to get Jan,” Hans said. “Just keep going by.”

  “Where to?” Anna asked

  “Amsterdam. We’re going to turn the girl over to the boss.”

  CHAPTER 30

  On the way home from the Tribunal, Kevin tried to talk to Diane, but she remained sullen and silent. He explained again why he had decided not to use the evidence of Draga’s long-time cooperation with the CIA. Diane seemed unmoved.

  Once home, Diane went up to their bedroom and shut the door. Kevin fixed some dinner for both of them, but Diane refused to come down to join him. Kevin sat in the dining room, eating by himself. It was 6:30, and he had a closing argument to give tomorrow. Why couldn’t Diane have waited for one more day to vent her anger at him?

  Kevin tried to work on his closing argument, but he knew that he would not be able to concentrate until he had resolved things with Diane. He went up to their bedroom. Diane was lying on the bed. She didn’t move when he opened the door.

  Kevin went over and sat on the edge of the bed.

  “Can we talk?” he asked.

  Diane did not respond. She was lying on her stomach, her face pressed against the pillow.

  “Come on, we have to face this together. Right now, we both need to do everything we can to get Ellen back. Hate me when it’s all over.”

  Diane rolled onto her side, turning her back to Kevin. “There’s no point talking to you. You just go do whatever you please anyway, no matter what I say.”

  “That’s not true. I do listen to you. I do respect your opinion.”

  Diane turned around and glared at Kevin. “You always think you’re right, but Ellen and I have to pay for your mistakes. I’m tired of being a spectator while you play games with our lives.”

  Kevin took a deep breath. “Look, I’m convinced I did the right thing today. We have a real good chance of winning this trial. We showed today that the people they spent the last month prosecuting had nothing to do with Draga.”

  “Kevin, you are so damned blind. I’ve seen how those judges act. They’re going to find some way to find your client guilty. And Ellen is still out there, her whole life riding on this stupid trial. I just hate it.”

  “Maybe the police will find Ellen. They had hundreds of volunteers out there looking for her today. They have a suspect, and a license number.”

  “We would have had a call by now if they found her. They’ve had almost a month to find her. This is so discouraging.”

  “Will you help me with my closing argument?”

  “No,” Diane shot back. “You don’t listen to me anyway. Why don’t you get your buddy Draga to help you? You obviously value his life more than your daughter’s.”

  Kevin winced. “That hurt.” He waited for an apology, but none was forthcoming. “I guess I’ll get to work.” He got up from the bed. “I’m going to prove you wrong about the verdict
.”

  “I hope you do. For Ellen’s sake.”

  Kevin trudged down to the dining room and began spreading out his notes. He remembered wistfully the evenings when it was Ellen who had her work spread out all over this same table. How he sorely missed her.

  He was trying hard to focus on his closing argument when the phone rang at about 9 p.m. He let Diane answer it upstairs, trying to back off from being the boss of everything.

  After about ten minutes, Diane came downstairs. “That was Detective Weber.”

  Kevin sprang from his seat at the table.

  “They found the farmhouse where Ellen was being held, but they missed Ellen and the kidnappers by about five minutes.”

  Diane came over and sat down. She had been crying.

  “A girl from the American School saw Ellen peeking out from behind some curtains,” she went on. “The police arrested one of the kidnappers. The one whose fingerprints they have – Johan somebody.”

  Kevin had a million questions. “Where do they think Ellen is now?”

  “They don’t know. Johan told them that the other guy and the woman were driving a blue van. Detective Weber’s got everybody in Holland looking for a blue van and the two kidnappers.”

  “How did they treat Ellen? What was the farmhouse like?” The questions gushed out of Kevin.

  “I guess they treated her okay. A bunch of her drawings were pasted up around the house.”

  “What else did Detective Weber say?”

  “The Johan guy said that they were hired by some people from Serbia to do this. He claims that his partner had made the contacts with the Serbs. He says he doesn’t know who they are.”

  “Who’s his partner?”

  “I wrote down the name. It’s Pieter van Dale. And the woman is Christina Trent. They’re all connected with some Dutch left-wing political group.”

  “Do they have any other leads on finding Ellen now?”

  Diane shrugged. “I don’t know. She said that they expect that the guy, Golic, will contact the kidnappers after he flies in tomorrow morning. They’ll be following Golic and they’re hoping he’ll lead them to Ellen.”

  “Damn! We almost had her back tonight.”

  Diane didn’t reply.

  “At least we know she’s alive and has been treated reasonably well,” he said.

  “Maybe they’ll harm her now that they’re desperate and on the run.” Diane said, starting to sob.

  Kevin walked over to comfort her, but Diane got up from her chair and went upstairs. He went back to the dining room table. There was no way he could concentrate on his closing argument now.

  He went up the stairs and into the bedroom.

  Diane was back on the bed.

  “I want to see the farmhouse,” he said. “I want to see Ellen’s drawings. Do you want to come with me?”

  Diane looked up. “Yes. I was thinking the same thing.”

  Diane got dressed while Kevin called Detective Weber. She gave Kevin directions and said she would alert the officers at the farmhouse to let Kevin and Diane look around. She asked Kevin not to touch anything.

  “Anything else new?”

  “I think tomorrow will be critical,” the detective said. “If we follow Golic, he should lead us to Ellen. We also have the number of van Dale’s cell phone. I’m getting a court order to listen on that phone.”

  “Thank you so much for everything.”

  Kevin and Diane drove out to Utrecht in the darkness. Kevin tried to keep the topic on finding Ellen, although he couldn’t resist saying that he was glad Detective Weber would be spending her time tomorrow looking for Ellen instead of testifying about the CIA evidence. Diane had softened a bit; she was at least speaking to Kevin. But the sub-freezing temperatures were not the only chill in the Anderson’s car as they drove east toward what had been their daughter’s home for almost a month.

  When they went inside the farmhouse and saw Ellen’s drawings, Kevin and Diane were both moved to tears. There was something about seeing these creations of their daughter that made her seem so much closer at that moment. They wandered around the house three times, each time seeing something new. When they had finally seen everything, they thanked the officers and drove off.

  Diane slept most of the way home. It was almost 1:00 a.m. when they pulled up to their row house in Wassenaar.

  Kevin was still too wired to sleep. He had a closing argument to give in a few hours in the most important case of his life. He went up to his office and began banging it out on his computer. When he was done, it was almost 5 a.m. There was no point in sleeping.

  Kevin got on the Internet and checked the coverage of Draga’s trial. He saw the Reuter’s News Service headline first: “War Crimes Suspect Puts Up No Defense.” He read the story, which had apparently been put on the wires from a story written by Toma Lanko for the Bosnia News Service. The story revealed that for the first time in the history of the War Crimes Tribunal, an accused had called no witnesses in his defense.

  Kevin found Lanko’s original story. Lanko made no mention of Bradford Stone or of Kevin’s cross-examination of Chief Investigator Jacobson. Instead, he quoted unnamed sources in Serbia decrying the Tribunal’s appointment of an American prosecutor to represent Draga. He also quoted the Registrar of the Tribunal as saying that it was the first time in the history of the Tribunal that no defense had been offered for an accused. He noted that thousands of dollars of public money had been disbursed to Draga’s defense team for experts and investigators, and promised to look into how that money was spent.

  Kevin groaned at the slanted and inaccurate coverage of the trial. This would just confirm the Serbs’ suspicions of him. All he could do was pray that Ellen would be found today, or that the kidnappers would at least wait to hear the verdict.

  Kevin went on his regular run at 6:00 a.m. He tried to put everything out of his mind except his closing argument. He went over the argument in his mind as he ran under the streetlights on another cold and wet morning. The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that he was going to win Draga’s trial.

  Kevin didn’t even notice the runner who came up from behind him until the man was running alongside. When he looked over, Kevin saw Pete Barnes. “Thought I might find you here,” Barnes said.

  “Guess I’m predictable.” Kevin said.

  “You may be the least predictable guy I know,” said Barnes, chuckling.

  “I know this isn’t a coincidence. What’s up?”

  “I just wanted to thank you, Kevin. Most lawyers would have used those reports and the tapes. They would have rationalized away their client’s best interests in a thousand different ways to make it coincide with their own. But you stood tall, Kevin. I’ll always have great respect for you for that.”

  “Thanks. I owe you an apology for accusing you of kidnapping my daughter.”

  “Hell, I would have thought the same thing if I were in your shoes.”

  “Well, I hope things turn out. They found the farmhouse where Ellen was kept last night.”

  “I know. Last night after I heard that you weren’t going to name us in court, I mobilized our people. You wouldn’t believe what is going on as we speak. We’ve got people at CIA Headquarters in Virginia listening to conversations and reading faxes from Serbia. We’ve got so much coverage this morning that we know when someone turns a light bulb on anywhere in that damn country. Your daughter will be found, I know it.”

  “I’m going to win this trial. One way or the other, I hope we get Ellen back soon.”

  “Give ’em hell today. We’ll get Draga out of those charges in the other countries if you win.”

  “I was hoping you would.”

  When they reached Kevin’s street, Barnes waved as Kevin turned left toward his house.

  Kevin was pumped up as he ran up the stairs to his bedroom. He hadn’t slept, but his adrenaline was racing and good news seemed to be right around the corner.

  Diane was getting dress
ed when Kevin arrived. She was still subdued when Kevin greeted her and gave her a kiss. Kevin determined to ignore their problems for the rest of the day and do his part at helping win Ellen’s release.

  Kevin made small talk with Diane as they drove to the Tribunal. When they walked into the courtroom, he saw that a handful of people were in the visitors’ gallery. Most of them appeared to be court and prosecution employees. It reminded him who was still the home team.

  After the judges entered, Charles Oswald rose to give his closing argument. “Your Honors,” Oswald began, “this is a case about murder, torture, and rape. It is not a case about prosecutorial misconduct. Please do not be distracted by the unfortunate events involving Mr. Stone. The bottom line is that despite too many regrettable incidents, this court has given the accused a fair trial, represented by able counsel.”

  All three judges listened intently as Oswald summarized the testimony of each victim who had testified. His paralegal flashed pictures of the victims on the courtroom screens as Oswald described their suffering. Oswald talked for an hour and a half, and did not once mention Draga.

  Kevin shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Oswald was making a powerful argument, but what did it have to do with Draga? As if reading Kevin’s mind, Oswald asked, “What is the responsibility of the accused for all of these atrocities?”

  He then had his paralegal play a portion of the tape where Draga told Ed Bradley of “60 Minutes” that the Muslims should be forced to leave Bosnia and live in Turkey or some other country. “Bosnia is and always has been part of Greater Serbia,” Draga was heard telling Bradley. “And if they won’t leave on their own, we’ll give them a choice. They can leave on a bus or in a box.”

  Kevin tried not to grimace.

  Oswald played a few other excerpts, and then got to his punch line. “The evidence has shown that the accused fed the climate of fear and terror that led directly to these events in Bosnia. Just as a person who brews the poison cannot escape responsibility by claiming that someone else administered it, the accused cannot escape responsibility in this case for the horrible acts of inhumanity that he promised the world he would bring to Bosnia.”