Secrets and Lies

by Rachel Sinclair

  I saw the cops talk to Mrs. Warner, who started crying hysterically as they led her into the squad car. The cops drove off, and I followed them. I was going to give a statement, and tell them what Nate had told me. That was the only way that they would have probable cause to arrest her.

  I got down to the station and talked to the officer in charge of this case. After about an hour of talking to this officer, I was informed that Mrs. Warner was, indeed, arrested for molesting my son. Apparently, she gave them a confession, and broke down crying.

  This was only the beginning. I knew that I was going to have my work cut out for me with Nate. I was going to have to talk to his therapist about what was going on, as well as getting Nate himself to see the same therapist. I was going to have to press the case against Mrs. Warner in court. For now, I did my duty as far as talking to the cops about what was going on. This was the first step in what was going to be a very long process.

  As I drove Nate home, I looked at him. “Thank you very much for finally telling me what’s going on with you. I’m going to make an appointment with our family therapist as soon as I can.” I didn’t really know what else to say. I didn’t want to make things worse, and I was afraid that anything I said at that point would do just that – make things worse.

  “Whatever, dad.” He continued to look out the window.

  “I know you don’t want to talk to that therapist, but Nate, you need to.” The therapist that I had found for me, Nate, and Amelia was a good one. I had faith in her. Nate always had problems opening up to her, but I hoped that tonight was a turning point.

  One thing was for sure – Nate needed help. He needed professional help, and he needed to make sure that I was by his side the whole time.

  I knew that in the coming weeks and months, I was going to find out more about what Mrs. Warner did to my son.

  And I was probably going to want to kill her myself.

  Chapter 26

  The next day, I got into court. Harper was already there, working feverishly on her cross-examination of the Jacksons, who I knew was going to be first on the prosecutor’s list for the morning. She looked up when she saw me, and she came over and gave me a hug. “How are you doing?” She shook her head. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you last night, or Nate. I couldn’t imagine being in your shoes. If that happened to either one of my girls, I think I would probably have to kill that person.”

  I took a deep breath. “I’m just going to have to compartmentalize, so I can win this case. After I win this case, then I’m going to have to turn all my mental energy into making sure that Nate does not become one of my clients one day.”

  “Do you still want me to take the lead on this case?”

  “No. I think I’m okay. Last night, mentally, I was in a bad place. A very bad place. But this morning, I got my fighting spirit back, and I decided I was just going to take the bull by the horns and win this case. So no, I’ll be okay.”

  She put her arm around me. “Okay, but if you need to step away, I’ll be happy to help. You know that.”

  “Thanks. I know that I can count on you.”

  After about 20 minutes, the jury had come in, and the prosecutor was in place. The bailiff announced the arrival of the judge, we all rose when he came in and sat down again. “Okay, I’m going to once again call the case of the State of Missouri v. Parker. Ms. Hughes, call your first witness.”

  “The state calls Opal Jackson.”

  I looked around and I saw Opal coming through the door, and she approached the witness stand. The bailiffs swore her in, she sat down.

  Ally approached her. “Please state your name for the record,” she said.

  Opal leaned closer into the microphone. “Opal Rosemary Jackson,” she said.

  “And Ms. Jackson, can you please tell the court what your relationship is to the accused and to the deceased?”

  “Yes. I am the mother of Ava Porter, and the accused, Silas Porter, is my son-in-law. Or he was my son-in-law. Now, he has no relation to me.”

  “Now, to your knowledge, did your daughter have a healthy marriage with Mr. Porter?”

  She shook her head. “No. They did not have a healthy relationship.”

  “What kind of relationship did they have?”

  She sat up straighter in her chair. “They had a relationship that was abusive.”

  I stood up. “ Objection Your Honor, the witness stated a conclusion. Move to strike.”

  “Motion to strike sustained,”Judge Pruitt said. “Counselor, please rephrase your question. Your previous question called for a conclusion, so the witness can hardly be blamed for giving one.”

  Ally nodded her head. “What specific incidents would cause you to believe that Mr. and Mrs. Porter did not have a healthy relationship?”

  “I saw bruises on my daughter’s body. On her arms. She tried to hide them, because when she would come to visit, she would always wear long sleeves. But one day, I dropped in on her in her home. She was wearing short sleeves, and I saw that there were bruises all over her arms. I asked her what happened, and she didn’t give me a good answer. I knew the truth. She didn’t have to tell me. After all, there were restraining orders against Silas. I had a pretty good indication as to where those bruises came from.”

  “Now you mentioned the fact that your daughter had restraining orders against Mr. Porter. During this period of time, when she was getting restraining orders, did she come and stay with you for any length of time?”

  “No. She had her own apartment though. She maintained that apartment for many years. In fact, she still had her own separate apartment at the time that she died.”

  “Did she explain to you why she got restraining orders against Mr. Porter?”

  “Objection, hearsay.”

  “Sustained. Ms. Hughes, you have to find another way to establish why the victim in this case obtained restraining orders against Mr. Porter.”

  I knew that that was not going to be a problem. I was quite sure that Ally had obtained a copy of the restraining orders, and they would be exceptions to the hearsay rule, as they were business records kept in the ordinary course of business. Assuming that she produced these records in court, I was not going to object to them being entered into evidence.

  Sure enough, Ally produced a copy of both restraining orders. “I would like to enter these restraining orders, these orders of protection, into evidence.”

  “No objection,” I said.

  At that, Ally had the records marked as exhibits, and she passed them around to the jury. “I reserve the right to question the defendant about these restraining orders.”

  “Were you concerned for the safety of your daughter?”

  She nodded her head. “I definitely was.”

  “Was there anything that happened recently that made you more concerned for her safety than you were before?”

  “Yes. My daughter got engaged to a man by the name of David Taylor. She got engaged to him while Silas was away on a business trip in Europe. I was very concerned that when she told Silas that she was leaving him for another man, that he would harm her.”

  “I have nothing further for this witness.”

  Crap. Ally did not open the door for me to cross-examine Opal on the issue of the identical twin sisters. I decided to go ahead and ask her the questions I needed to ask her anyways, hoping that Ally would not object to my asking them. If she did, I was just going to have to call Opal as my own witness, and treat her as hostile.

  I figured that there was a good chance that Ally would not object to my cross-examining Opal on issues that were not brought up in the direct examination. After all, she knew that I was going to try to get this evidence from Opal one way or another. If she wanted a trial to not drag on forever, she would go ahead and let me ask the questions that I needed to ask.

  I stood up and approached the witness. “Ms. Jackson, you stated on direct that you saw bruises on the arms of your daughter. Yet you questioned your daughter on where
she got those bruises, and she did not tell you that my client was hitting her. Isn’t that correct?”

  She nodded her head. “Yes. That is correct.”

  “Were you aware that your daughter was involved in an alternative lifestyle?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “I mean that your daughter enjoyed being beaten by strangers. She was sexually gratified by strangers beating her. Were you aware that she was involved in these kinds of activities?”

  My strategy was to throw her off balance. Throw her off balance, and hope that she would mess up when I asked her about the identical twin situation.

  She shook her head. “My word. No. I didn’t realize that people did things like that.” She looked mortified. “Why would anybody be sexually gratified by being beaten?”

  “There is an alternative lifestyle that is known as bondage discipline sadism and masochism. BDSM for short. Have you ever heard of the term BDSM?”

  “Well I’ve heard of that book, that 50 Shades of Gray book, but I didn’t think that people actually did that in real life. And I certainly never imagined that my daughter was involved with something like that.”

  “Your daughter has an identical twin, correct?” I looked over at Ally to see if she was going to object, but she didn’t.

  “Yes. She does have an identical twin.”

  “And you stated on direct that your daughter is engaged to a man by the name of David Taylor, and that was the reason why you feared for her life. Isn’t that right?”

  “Yes. That is correct.”

  “And who is David Taylor currently engaged to?”

  She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “He’s engaged to my daughter Emma.”

  I paced back and forth. “Emma. Is Emma the identical twin of Ava?”

  “Yes. That is correct.”

  “And when did they get engaged?”

  “They got engaged on June 1.”

  “June 1. And Ava was murdered on May 19. So, Ava is murdered on May 19, and not two weeks later, Emma is engaged to the man that Ava was engaged to before her death. Isn’t that right?”

  “Emma and David were friends from way back. They knew each other for quite a long time. They leaned on each other after Ava died.”

  “And in fact, you held a large engagement party for David and Emma, didn’t you? You held a party the first week of July. A large shindig at the Mission Hills Country Club, attended by 300 of her closest friends. Isn’t that right?”

  “Yes. Of course. We always hold parties for occasions such as engagements and weddings.”

  I paced back and forth. I was about ready to trap her. “I see. So, Emma and David got engaged on June 1, and one month later you held an event that was attended by 300 of her closest friends. This was on a Saturday night, wasn’t it? During the summer, right?”

  “Right. It was on a Saturday night, and it was a very nice evening.”

  “The Mission Hills Country Club is not the kind of country club where you can hold an event with just a month’s notice, is it? Especially during the summer time, when that country club is packed with different events, especially on the weekends. Isn’t that right?”

  I took a look at her face, and it dawned on her that she had fallen into a trap. “Well, no.”

  “As a matter of fact, to have an event such as the event that you held for Emma and David, you would had to have booked the country club for at least a year in advance. Isn’t that true?”

  “There was a last-minute cancellation. We got lucky.”

  “Actually, there’s a waiting list for these openings. You would not have been very high on the waiting list, considering you were trying to plan that event only a month in advance.”

  She didn’t say anything. She knew that she was lying, and that the jury also knew that she was lying. There was no way she would be able to get a Saturday night event, during the summer, with only a month’s notice. She knew it. She knew that the jury knew it.

  “Actually, you planned this engagement party much earlier, didn’t you? In fact, you planned it a year ago. Isn’t that right?”

  She sighed. “Yes. That’s true.”

  “In fact, you had actually planned this engagement party a year in advance, but, the engagement party was originally supposed to be for Ava and David, isn’t that true?”

  She leaned closer into the microphone. She hesitated. “Yes. We did plan the engagement party a year in advance, and it was originally supposed to be for Ava and David.”

  “I see. So your daughter Ava was brutally murder on May 19 of this year, and two weeks later, David is engaged to Emma, Ava’s identical twin, and on July 1, you hold a party for David and Emma, a party that was supposed to be for David and Ava. Isn’t that right?”

  “I know it seems insensitive, but we had the date all planned out, we had already paid for the party, so –”

  “I see what you mean. I mean, after all, Ava certainly did not have a need for that party anymore, right? So why not just give Emma the party that Ava was supposed to have, with the man that she was supposed to be with? I mean, after all, Ava had only been dead for a little over a month at that time. That’s a good time to party, isn’t it?”

  She crossed her arms in front of her. “I don’t know what you’re getting at.”

  “I’ll tell you what I’m getting at. Emma and David were not the ones who had that party, but, rather, it was Ava and David, wasn’t it? That’s because Emma is actually dead, as she was the one who died in my client’s dungeon, not Ava. Isn’t that right?”

  She shook her head. She looked at Silas nervously. She looked very unsure.

  “I’ll remind you that you are under oath.”

  She finally took a deep breath. I knew that she was trying to calculate if she should go ahead and lie, knowing that I was going to break down somebody somewhere along the line. She looked down at the stand. “No, that’s not true.”

  “Oh, but it is true. It is true. Admit it. Admit that Emma was dying of pancreatic cancer, and that your daughter Ava made a deal with Emma, where Emma agreed to pose as Ava, and consume the barbiturate known as Secobarbital, whereupon Ava would take the identity of Emma, because she wanted to get away from my client without him tracking her down. Emma was going to die anyway, probably painfully. At least this way her death could mean something. It could mean freedom for Ava. Isn’t that right?”

  “No. That’s not true.” I could see by her face and her body language, however, that this was true. She couldn’t look me in the eye. Her shoulders were hunched, and she was slouched down.

  “And you and your husband were in on the scheme. The two of you believed that my client was abusing Ava, and that she wanted to get away from him. It was tragic that your daughter was dying, but I’m sure that Emma making the sacrifice for Ava made her death seem much more worthwhile. Isn’t that right?“

  “I said no.”

  “I have nothing further.”

  I sat down. I knew that I had drawn blood, a considerable amount of blood with that exchange. What parents would throw a party for their daughter, a party that was meant for their other daughter who was brutally murdered, just a little over a month after that murder?

  “Counselor, do you have any redirect?” Judge Pruitt asked Ally.

  “No Your Honor.”

  “The witness is excused. Ms. Hughes, call your next witness.”

  “The state calls David Taylor.”

  I was going to have to hammer him just the way that I hammered Opal.

  He was sworn in, and Ally got right to work. “Mr. Taylor, are you the fiancé of Emma Jackson?”

  “Yes. I am.”

  “And were you the fiancé of Ava Porter?”

  “Yes I was.”

  “And when did you and Ava Porter become engaged?”

  “About a year ago. Ava was still living with Silas, but we were seeing each other behind his back for several months. He was away on business a lot. Then, he left for six months for a
n extended business trip to Europe, and Ava lived with me during that time.”

  “And were you concerned for the safety of Ava Porter?”

  “Yes. I was.”

  “And why were you concerned for her safety?”

  “I was concerned for her safety because she was engaged to me, and I knew that he had abused her. And that she was fearful of him. She was specifically afraid that he was going to kill her once he found out that she was engaged to me.”

  “I have nothing further for this witness.”

  I stood up. I felt that David did not add much of anything to Ally’s case, but that he was going to be invaluable to mine. I thought that Ally was strategically stupid for calling him in the first place.

  “Mr. Taylor, you are currently engaged to Emma Jackson. Isn’t that true?”

  “Yes. That’s true.”

  “Actually, that’s not true, is it? You’re actually still engaged to Ava Porter, isn’t that true?”

  As with Opal, he hesitated. It was as if he was turning the question around in his mind, trying to decide if he should answer truthfully or not. After all, he was under oath. He knew the truth. “No. That doesn’t make sense. Ava is dead. She died in that guesthouse that your client maintained. She died painfully in a fire.”

  “Is your father a scientist?”

  “Yes. He is. He works for the federal government.”

  “And would he be able to get a hold of a barbiturate by the name of Secobarbital?”

  “I suppose so. He is a chemist.”

  “And isn’t it true that you asked him for a vial of Secobarbital with the intention of giving it to Emma Jackson? And isn’t it true that your father gave it to you, and you gave that drug to Emma? Granted, Emma was in on the plan, but that’s what happened, wasn’t it?”