Writ of Execution

by Perri O'shaughnessy

  Jessie went over to Potter and handed him the bundle and stepped back. Gabe woke up. They all waited for him to start wailing at finding himself in a stranger’s arms.

  But Gabe started playing with Potter’s blue silk tie. Potter held him very carefully.

  Riesner began speaking into the phone, saying there had been a misunderstanding, no intervention was requested at this time.

  Potter clutched the baby to his chest. His eyes were pressed shut. His hand rubbed the baby’s back, moved to his hair, smoothed it. His hand was shaking, tender. Jessie watched, an agonized expression on her face. Nina was biting her nails again. She noticed what she was doing and put her hand in her pocket.

  “His name is Gabe,” Jessie said.

  Gabe let out a little fart.

  Sandy said, “Remember, you gotta hold him the whole five minutes.”

  23

  WHAT A LUNCH it had been, with bedlam barely suppressed in her office. And now she was back in court at her table, studiously ignoring Riesner, still trying not to think about the shootings, planning her next move.

  Hmm. Time to put sweet old Gramps on the stand and expose him as a racist, possibly homicidal, verdict-buyer.

  Possibly she should adjust that strategy. Possibly she could bring Gramps and Mom and Baby together. Gramps would put away his suspicions and Jessie would forgive him his persecutions and . . .

  She stole a quick look at Jessie, who, as she had throughout the hearing, stared stonily ahead. Put the right hat on her and she could guard Arafat’s tent. She did not exactly appear willing to back down.

  Atchison Potter’s voice held a new determination as he said, “I do,” and took the stand. Finding a new family member seemed to have galvanized him. Nina took a swift trip through Riesner’s mind. If she were his attorney, what would she tell Potter?

  That getting the money away from Jessie would leave her helpless. That siccing a private detective on her right away would keep her in view. That Potter should bide his time and ride through the rest of the hearing because he was probably going to win it.

  No strategy adjustment appeared necessary. She had to try to convince Amagosian to throw out the judgment.

  “Good afternoon, Mr. Potter.”

  He gave a distant nod. Nina thought, Dive on in, the water’s cold but it won’t be getting any warmer.

  “At what point after your son’s death did you become convinced that his wife had caused his death?” she asked him. That made the courtroom sit up straight.

  “Immediately. My son was an excellent swimmer and boater. The story never made any sense to me.”

  “Did you convey your suspicions to the police?”

  “Repeatedly. They were incompetent. They were afraid to proceed. I was told that the district attorney’s office did not determine it had enough evidence to proceed.”

  “Did your son ever complain to you of suffering any illness in the last months of his life?”

  “Never. Never said a word.”

  “How often did you speak to him during that time?”

  “Well, not very often. He was very busy.”

  “How many times?”

  “I don’t remember.”

  “Did you speak to him at all?”

  “I don’t recall.”

  “In fact, you and your son were not on speaking terms during the last months of his life, isn’t that correct?”

  “We were having some family difficulties.”

  “What family difficulties?”

  Riesner ascendant. “Objection. How close Mr. Potter was to his son at that time is totally irrelevant to the issues in this hearing. We have a judgment. Should it be enforced? What has that got to do with this line of questioning?”

  “This lawsuit was brought in bad faith, out of personal animosity, Your Honor. I am going to demonstrate that in a moment,” Nina said.

  Amagosian said, “Unfortunately, personal animosity is often a factor inspiring a lawsuit. It doesn’t invalidate a resultant judgment.”

  “But the bad faith extends all the way from the initiation of the lawsuit through the trial. I am introducing this important background material so that the court can understand this gentleman’s subsequent actions,” Nina said.

  “Keep it brief, please. I’ll allow it.”

  “What family difficulties?” Nina said again.

  “I didn’t approve of my son’s marriage.”

  “To Jessie Potter? The judgment debtor?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “I didn’t like her or trust her. She was not my idea of a good wife. A Marine! An outsider. Of course, like many parents, I had hoped my son would marry into a local family.”

  “A family of Caucasian ancestry?” Riesner stayed in his chair. Evidently he felt that Potter could handle this.

  “Not at all,” Potter said. “I wouldn’t care if she was a green Martian, so long as she had grown up in Hawaii.”

  “Isn’t it true that your main objection was that Mrs. Potter was of Native American ancestry?”

  “No,” Potter said, looking shocked, like Nina had said a bad word. Nina was getting nowhere with this, so she switched to a new subject.

  “Prior to bringing the lawsuit, did you urge the local authorities to arrest Mrs. Potter for killing your son?”

  “Yes, I did,” Potter said. “Dan spent his life in those waters. He had kayaked thousands of times without mishap. I knew she was lying about what happened out there. She had something to do with his death. My son had a trust fund, and she didn’t have two nickels to rub together.”

  “Has she made a claim on the trust-fund money?” Nina said.

  “No, only because she knows what would happen if she did.”

  “You would stop her? By any means possible?”

  “Yes. Of course. By any legal means possible.”

  “In fact, by obtaining this judgment, you ensured that she would not be able to make any claim on the trust fund, didn’t you? If she did, you would come in with this colossal judgment and take the trust fund away from her, am I correct?”

  “That would be one course of action.” He didn’t seem ashamed of it, either.

  “In fact, Dan Potter’s estate is still in probate, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. These things take time.”

  “Especially since you are fighting the executor bank, which indicated it would distribute the trust-fund monies to Mrs. Potter?”

  “Yes. She will not be rewarded for my son’s death.”

  “If she doesn’t get the trust fund, who does, Mr. Potter?”

  “Well, it came from my father. It would revert to the sole surviving member of the family.”

  “You?”

  “Yes. Of course, everything has changed now that I have learned that I have a grandson, who Mrs. Potter took from Hawaii and has been cruelly hiding from me.”

  A stir in the back. Amagosian stopped writing and gave Potter his full attention. “You say Mrs. Potter has a child?”

  “I was holding him half an hour ago. She admitted he was Dan’s child. She hid him from me.”

  Amagosian thought about this. “Then,” he said, “you seem to be in a rather different position, Mr. Potter. Your grandchild will be affected by the result of this writ.”

  Riesner stood up and said, “I have discussed these new developments with my client. Nothing has changed. We are requesting to enforce the judgment.”

  “Still, an informal settlement conference might be in order. I would be willing to make time for that tomorrow morning,” Amagosian said.

  “There is nothing to settle. The judgment is either going to be executed or it isn’t,” Riesner said. “A settlement conference will achieve nothing at this time.”

  “Well, I thought I’d make the offer,” Amagosian said to Potter. “It’s your grandchild.”

  “There is nothing to settle,” Potter said, parroting Riesner.

  “You may continue,” Amagosian said to Nina. His l
ook said, I tried. She appreciated that, but even full-bore sympathy wasn’t going to make her feel better if he had to enforce the judgment.

  “Now, then,” she said to Potter. “At the time you sued Mrs. Potter, you knew she had left Hawaii, did you not?”

  “I had no idea.”

  “You had hounded her out of the Marines, had you not?”

  “Certainly not. My understanding is that she chose not to reenlist.”

  “After you spoke to her commanding officer? Accused her of murder? Spread rumors on the base?”

  “I did speak to her commanding officer at a function we both attended. That is all.”

  “You accused her of murder at that time?”

  “I told him my suspicions.”

  “You also spoke to her landlord and told him of your suspicions, did you not?”

  “Yes. We attended high school together. Honolulu is not an anonymous city. We’re all friendly and try to get along. I thought he should know what he was harboring.”

  “And as a result she was evicted from her home?” Nina waited a beat for Riesner to object, but he didn’t bother. Potter was doing fine.

  “I don’t have the slightest idea about that,” Potter said. “I assume she left town to hide her pregnancy from me.”

  Nina lost her temper. “Did you try to attack my client and her husband a few weeks ago in Markleeville?” she said very sharply.

  Potter stared at her, as if he had never heard anything so idiotic in his life. Then he burst out laughing. Riesner joined in.

  The whole courtroom started to laugh.

  “Ha, ha. I—I think Counsel might need a break,” Riesner said. Amagosian looked astonished, but at least he had not laughed.

  “You have evidence of this?” he said to Nina.

  “Somebody attacked my client’s husband, tried to run him down with a car, and was stalking him and my client,” Nina said stubbornly.

  “Just a moment. What evidence do you have that Mr.

  Potter might have had anything to do with that?” Amagosian said, stopping her cold.

  “The whole pattern of events.” Nina stopped. She had let herself get angry and fallen into a thicket.

  Riesner was smiling broadly, like she’d made a joke.

  “That’s all the evidence you have?”

  “No direct evidence, Your Honor. But given Mr. Potter’s—”

  “Oh, no. Don’t say another word. I’m going to direct you to move on from this line of questioning, Counsel.”

  She had miscalculated. She had lost a lot of credibility.

  But it had happened, according to Jessie and Kenny. She wrote it off and went on. But she was afraid she had taken a bad hit. She felt her case hemorrhaging along with her credibility.

  “All right. You spoke with Mr. Byron Eppley at the Cafe Sistina not long before you filed the lawsuit?”

  “Yes. He had been Dan’s friend.”

  “You paid him five thousand dollars cash on that occasion?”

  “Absolutely. I knew what a hard time he was having paying his university tuition. I wanted to help him, in Dan’s memory.”

  “Come on, Mr. Potter. You made sure before you paid him that he was going to go along with your version of events at the trial, didn’t you?”

  “Objection. Misstates the previous testimony. Leading. Badgering, really. Vague. Incompetent.” Riesner had thrown that last word in for the fun of it. He was having a wonderful time.

  Before Nina could open her mouth, Amagosian said, “Sustained.”

  “But, Your Honor—”

  “Sus-tained. I have heard Mr. Eppley’s testimony. We do not need to rehash it at this time.”

  “Very well, Your Honor.” She paused, her chest heaving. They were beating her. She bit her lip. Riesner could see she was in trouble. So could Jessie.

  “And Dr. Jun, your other witness in this eighteen-minute trial—”

  “Objection. The trial was not eighteen minutes. Written evidence was introduced. A trial brief was submitted. Opening and closing statements were made.”

  “I’m just pointing out that the taking of the evidence lasted eighteen minutes,” Nina said.

  “Your point?” Amagosian said, though he seemed to have figured her point out pretty well and already dismissed it.

  “My point is that it wasn’t enough time for the trial judge to hear such a complicated matter as how a man died,” Nina said. “Dr. Jun has testified that his testimony was twisted. Mr. Eppley has testified that he lied. They were the only two witnesses, besides the documents—”

  “Which were quite sufficient, standing on their own, to support the Judgment,” Riesner put in.

  Amagosian said, “We have Dr. Jun’s testimony. What is your question to this witness?” Nina didn’t like the way he was looking at her.

  She said quickly to Potter, “You paid Dr. Jun as an expert witness, didn’t you? Instead of as a treating physician, which is what he actually was?”

  “Objection,” Riesner said, a real hound of the Baskervilles, baying behind her. “We will stipulate that Dr. Jun was paid as an expert witness. Dr. Jun rendered an opinion as an expert regarding various matters in connection with the so-called treatment of the nonexistent disorder Daniel Potter allegedly suffered from.”

  “Well, which is it?” Nina said to Potter. “Was it a nonexistent illness? Or was it poison? Make up your mind.”

  “Objection! I ask that Counsel be admonished.”

  “Counsel,” Amagosian said, “I am going to be charitable. I am going to take an early afternoon break. Collect yourself, or you will wish you had.”

  She went out to the hall. Jessie said not a word but went straight to the phone. Barbet Schroeder, trotting alongside Nina and no doubt dreaming up a juicy headline for the Tahoe Mirror, said, “So you’re saying that Potter was stalking your client?”

  “No comment, Barbet.”

  “He tried to run Mr. Leung down, you said.”

  “No comment.” Nina ducked into the bathroom.

  But there was to be no mercy. Barbet followed her in. “What’s this about a grandchild?” she said from the other stall. “Is Potter going to try to get custody?”

  “No comment! Maybe when the hearing is over! But only if you stop now!”

  “Okay, okay. Stress gettin’ to you, kid?”

  Nina said nothing. Waiting until she heard Barbet wash her hands and exit, she came out and furiously brushed her hair in front of the mirror.

  Dr. Jun waited for her outside.

  He rushed up, Paul on his heels. “I hope I’m not too late!” he said. “Is Mr. Potter still being examined?”

  “Yes, but—what in the world are you doing here, Dr. Jun? You’re supposed to be in the mid-Pacific by now!”

  “It was something you said at the lunch,” Jun said.

  “Me? Paul, what’s going on?”

  “I took him to the airport but he wouldn’t get out of the car. He said he had to get to a computer right away, so we went to this funky Internet cafe right by the airport and he went online. And he sat there for two solid hours,” Paul said. “Missed the flight. Won’t tell me what it’s all about.”

  “I’ve figured this out,” Jun said. “The illness. I think I know what happened to Dan.”

  Nina looked at her watch. They still had five minutes. “Come on,” she said, and propelled them outside into the balmy afternoon, out behind the courthouse into the trees.

  “It’s the Armenian connection,” Jun said. “And Paul told me about the sick baby on the way to Reno.” The words tumbled out of his mouth. “You said the judge thought Jessie looked like an Armenian. Is she? I have to know. It’s essential.”

  “But she’s Washoe! I explained that. . . .”

  “Please. Just ask her.” Paul was already trotting back in to look for Jessie.

  “It’s a genetic illness,” Jun went on. “What about Mr. Potter? How is he doing?”

  Nina thought back and remembered how Potter had lo
oked at the bar at Caesars. “He did look sick when I saw him recently. But maybe he was just having a bad night.”

  “Because it’s a series of acute episodes,” Jun said. “Three generations. In Hawaii, of all places. It’s a small world.”

  “But what is it? What have you learned?”

  Paul came running back with Jessie. “What?” she cried, breathless.

  Dr. Jun said, “Do you have any Armenian ancestry?”

  And Jessie laughed. “That’s what you wanted to ask me so bad?” She caught her breath. “How did you know? My father was Armenian.”

  Jun’s mouth fell open. An expression of wonder and joy came into his eyes. “Okay. Let me think,” he said. They all stood around, befuddled, while he did that.

  “The baby,” he said. “Fever attacks? How many?”

  “Four, so far.”

  “How long do they last? About two days?”

  “Y-yes. What has Gabe got to do with this?”

  “Mr. Potter,” Jun said. “What is his ethnicity?”

  “Well, he’s haole—well, he was adopted.”

  “What is his ethnicity? What was Dan’s ethnicity? His mother?”

  “Dan’s mother—she was Caucasian,” Jessie said. “I mean Northern European.”

  “Then it has to be Mr. Potter. Adopted! What do you know about his birth parents?”

  “N-nothing!” Jessie cried. “I’m sorry! He never said anything about it to me!”

  Nina looked at her watch. “We have to go back in right away. I mean right now.”

  “Let me sit with you,” Jun said. “You have to ask him some questions. You have to find out about his birth parents.”

  “But why?”

  “I’ll tell you. After the questions.” He started away, but Nina took him by the arm.

  “Dr. Jun,” she said. “Can I trust you?”

  The young doctor swallowed and said, “I think I am right. Please. Let’s go find out.”

  By the time Nina got back to her table, Atchison Potter had taken the stand again. Dr. Jun sat right behind her, leaning over toward her. Nina passed him her legal pad and a pen.

  “I remind you that you are still under oath,” Amagosian told Potter, who nodded and crossed his legs. A walk in the park.

  Jun passed her the pad. On it he had written in capital letters POTTER SICK?