Secrets and Lies

by Rachel Sinclair

  He crossed his arms in front of him. “No. That’s not true.”

  “It’s not? So are you testifying in open court that you’re engaged to Ava Porter’s identical twin, Emma Jackson, and that you got engaged to her not even a month after Ava was killed? How were you able to move on so fast?”

  “Emma and I have been close for years –”

  “How was it that you and Emma have been so close for so many years, when Emma has been living in Australia since the age of 20?” Anna had actually managed to find out that Emma had been living in Australia for the past 12 years. When I found out that Emma had actually moved to Australia when she was 20, it explained to me how it was that Silas never knew about Emma’s existence. I did not know what the circumstances were for Emma moving to Australia so many years before, but it was safe to assume that she did not maintain contact with her family. It was also safe to assume that she did not leave on good terms. In fact, she did not return to the United States until she got sick, and sought treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

  “I –”

  “In fact, Emma Jackson did not live in the United States until January of this year. And during that time, she was living in Minnesota, seeking treatment for pancreatic cancer. So tell me how it was that you were able to get so close to Emma in such a short period of time?”

  I threw him, and I knew it. He shifted in his chair, and then he paused for a long time. “I guess that Emma and I weren’t really close for a long time. But, after Ava died, we became close. We became very close, because we leaned on each other.”

  “You didn’t address what I said earlier. I specifically stated that Emma was seeking treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for pancreatic cancer. You did not refute that, so is it safe to say that you agree that she was seeking treatment for pancreatic cancer at the Mayo Clinic?”

  He looked like he was about to panic. “I don’t know about that. I wasn’t aware that she was seeking treatment for pancreatic cancer.”

  “You weren’t aware of this?” Once again, I laid a careful trap, and he fell right into it. His fiancée, the woman that he was calling Emma Jackson, was as far from a pancreatic cancer patient as anybody could possibly be. If he was trying to say that he had no clue that the healthy woman who the jury would soon see was seeking treatment for the most deadly kind of cancer there is, it was obvious that he was lying. Any other man in his situation would say “what do you mean, she was seeking treatment for pancreatic cancer? There’s nothing wrong with her. In fact she’s very healthy.” They certainly would not say, as David was saying, that they don’t know if their healthy fiancée was seeking treatment for pancreatic cancer.

  “That’s what I’m saying. I wasn’t aware that she was seeking treatment for pancreatic cancer.”

  “So then, what you’re saying is that you weren’t aware that she was seeking treatment for pancreatic cancer, but that it is a possibility that she was seeking treatment for this. Is that what you’re saying?”

  He looked unsure. “That’s what I’m saying.”

  “So does she show any signs of pancreatic cancer? Emma, does she show any signs that she is dying?”

  “No. In fact, she seems very healthy.”

  “In fact, she does seem very healthy. She’s actually in very good shape, isn’t she? She’s very fit, and energetic. Right?”

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  “Yet you admit that there’s a possibility that she with is being treated for pancreatic cancer, the most deadly kind of cancer there is?"

  “I guess so.”

  “I have nothing further for this witness.”

  I thought that that exchange went well. As well as it possibly could.

  But the person I was most looking forward to was the person who was scheduled to testify next.

  The state was about to call Emma Jackson to the stand.

  Chapter 27

  Emma Jackson, a.k.a. Ava Porter, approached the stand looking for all the world like she just came off the tennis court. She was tanned and was wearing a short skirt and a tight sweater. Her skirt showed off her gorgeous legs and tight rear end to their best effect. As before, she had apparently just gotten her nails done, and it looked like her hair was newly styled as well.

  She walked rapidly to the stand, and sat down.

  She could not have known that it had come out in open court that she was possibly being treated for pancreatic cancer. She was out in the hallway when David was testifying, as I had invoked the rule on witnesses, which meant that the witnesses could not be present in the courtroom when the other witnesses were testifying. I had brought the fact that she was supposed to be sick with pancreatic cancer in when I was grilling David, and since he did not dispute her possible sickness, but admitted that it was possible, I was eager to show to the jury just how healthy this woman was.

  She was sworn in, and Ally started asking her questions. “Please state your name for the record.”

  She leaned close to the microphone. “Emma Jackson.”

  “And Miss Jackson, could you please tell the court how you are related to the victim in this case, Ava Porter?”

  “I am her identical twin.”

  “And could you tell me if you believe the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Porter was healthy or unhealthy?”

  “It was definitely unhealthy.”

  “What do you know about the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Porter?”

  “I knew that there were restraining orders. I knew about the bruises. And I knew that my sister was going to leave Mr. Porter for David Taylor.”

  “Now, I understand that you are currently engaged to Mr. Porter. Is that true?”

  “Yes. That’s true.”

  “Can you tell the court how it is that your relationship with Mr. Taylor began?”

  I knew that she was going to lie. I also knew that she had no idea that David had admitted that Emma Jackson had not lived in town for many years, and that she had just started living in the United States this past January. I was unclear as to when it was that Emma started living in the Kansas City area, if she did at all.

  “Well, he was a friend of the family for years and we grew up together. We’ve known each other for years. And when Ava died, we grew very close. We were both so sad and upset that we were drawn to each other, to lean on each other. And then it just happened. We fell in love. I don’t think that anybody can begrudge us that – we found love in the middle of tragedy.”

  Oh, she was good. She had a little Kleenex, and she kept dabbing her eyes. “I’m so sorry, it just hurts so bad to even talk about her anymore. I loved her so much. And to have her die in such a way…” She shook her head. “I just can’t imagine it. Dying at the hands of that monster. It just makes me sick.”

  “Were you concerned for Ava’s safety?”

  “Yes. I was. I was concerned for her safety because I knew that she was engaged to David, and I did some research on battered women, and I found out that the most dangerous time for a battered woman is when she’s getting ready to leave her abuser. So yes, I was very scared for her.”

  “I have nothing further for this witness.”

  Ally sat down, and I stood up. “Ms. Jackson, or should I say Mrs. Porter,” I began.

  She visibly bristled. She looked me right in the eye. “I know what you’re getting at. For some odd reason you have this obsession with the fact that I am not who I say I am. I don’t know why you think that I would ever, and I mean ever, take my sister’s identity, but I will not answer to the name Mrs. Porter. I won’t answer to the name Ava. I won’t answer to either of those names, so I would ask you to address me by my name, Emma. Or Ms. Jackson is fine too.” She sat up straighter in her chair, and glared at me. Challenged me. The look in her eyes said just try it. Just try to prove that I took my sister’s identity. You can’t.

  I wasn’t going to accede her point. “If you aren’t Ava Porter, then why is it that you were willing to have an e
ngagement party on July 1, an engagement party that was meant for Ava? This engagement party happened less than a month and 1/2 after your sister was allegedly brutally murdered. So you’re telling the court to believe that you would be willing to take your murdered sister’s party, after taking your murdered sister’s fiancé? The same murdered sister who you allegedly loved so much, and whose death made you so sad and depressed. Is that what you’re willing to tell the court?”

  “Mr. Harrington, I don’t know why it is that you’re judging me. The heart wants what it wants. As for my taking her engagement party, that’s a lie. My parents managed to plan this party after David and I got engaged. We got engaged on June 1, and my parents were able to quickly plan a party, and the party took place on July 1.”

  I shook my head, and wagged my finger at her. “That isn’t what your mother said on the stand, when she testified. She testified that the party that took place on July 1 was originally a party that was planned for Ava and David. She admitted that it was impossible to book a party at the Mission Hills Country Club on a Saturday night in the summertime with just a month’s lead time. So now, you are lying under oath. Its obvious to the court that you are lying.”

  She shot daggers at me through her eyes. She had no idea that her mother had come clean on the stand about whose party that really was, so she had no idea that she was caught in a lie. “Okay. Yes, that engagement party was originally for my sister and David. So what? We already had the deposits made on the party, already had the menu planned, already had the space, already had the guest list. So we didn’t want to cancel the party. We didn’t want to let everybody down. So yes. David and I went ahead and had a party that was meant for him and Ava. I wasn’t aware that that was a crime.” She crossed her arms in front of her and glared at me with a pissed-off look.

  “No, it is not a crime to take a party that was meant for your sister. That’s not a crime. But it is a crime to assume her identity – that is a crime.”

  “I do agree that that would be a crime if that’s what happened, but that’s not what happened.”

  “It would also be a crime to kill your sister, and take her identity. And that’s what happened here, wasn’t it? You gave your sister poison, while she was posing as you, and you timed it so that you would know when she would die. Then when she died, you set the dungeon on fire, with an accelerant, so that your sister’s remains would not be able to be identified properly. Her remains would not be able to be identified properly, and the fact that the drug known as Secobarbital was in her system would be missed by the medical examiner. And that’s also an important point – where would my client be able to get a hold of Secobarbital? He wouldn’t be able to, but you would be able to – through David’s father, wouldn’t you?”

  She shook her head. “That’s a great imagination you have there.”

  “Emma was dying, wasn’t she? She was dying of pancreatic cancer.”

  As I crossed her, she kept shaking her head desperately.

  “She was dying of pancreatic cancer, and the two of you never got along. Isn’t that right?”

  “No. That’s not right. We were very close.”

  “If the two of you were so close, then why is it that my client, Silas Porter, never knew that his wife Ava had an identical twin? Why is it that he never met Emma Jackson? Ava and Silas were married for seven years, but he never met Emma, and he never even heard of her. Now, if you were so close with her sister, why is it that Silas never knew that she existed?”

  “I don’t know why he never knew that she existed.”

  I smiled. “Don’t you mean that you don’t know why he never knew why you existed?”

  She looked confused. “That’s what I just said. I just said that I didn’t know why he never knew why I existed.”

  “Actually, no. You said, and I quote, I don’t know why he never knew that she existed. She existed.”

  I looked over to the judge. “Could you please have the court reporter read back the witness’ response to my question about why it was that Silas never knew that she existed?”

  Judge Pruitt looked over at the court reporter. “Could you please read back the witness’ response to that question?”

  The court reporter looked at her transcript. “I don’t know why he never knew that she existed.”

  I turned back to her. “You know what the definition of a gaffe is, don’t you? It’s when you accidentally tell the truth.”

  She glared at me. I caught her, and she knew it. She just stared at me for several minutes. You could hear a pin drop in the courtroom as she glared at me, not saying a word. She took several deep breaths and sighed several times. It was only a matter of time before she had to come clean, and I knew that it was going to happen sooner or later.

  Turned out it was sooner, rather than later. “Okay. Okay. You got me. Yes, Ava was not the person who died in that dungeon. It was my sister, Emma. And yes, she was dying of pancreatic cancer. Have you ever seen anybody slowly die of cancer? I’ll give you a hint. It’s not like in the movies.” She looked away. “It’s painful. People don’t look beautiful as they die, like you see in the movies. They lose their hair, they lose their body, they have to go and have fluid drained from their belly all the time. If they want to live longer, they have to take chemotherapy that makes them sicker. Chemotherapy kills all cells, not just cancer cells, so the final months of your life are spent puking your guts out, laying on the bathroom floor, wanting to die. Your organs fail, one by one. At some point, you just close your eyes and you don’t wake up. But it takes days for you to die that way.”

  I decided to just let her continue on.

  “So she wanted me to help her die. She begged me to help her die. She told me that I owed her that.” More glaring at me, but she was on a roll. “You’re right, we never got along. I hated her because she stole my husband when we were 20 years old. She moved to Australia with Chris, my husband, and shunned all of us. I turned our parents against her, and she’s been dead to her all these years.”

  “So, I agreed to help her die. We reconciled our differences, and she decided,” she said. “She decided, not me, to make her death mean something. She came up with the idea that she would go ahead and take poison, and pose as me, so that Silas would be nabbed for her murder.”

  “And why did the two of you cook this plan up?”

  “Because. I wanted to get away from Silas, and I knew that he would never leave me alone. Ever. I tried to leave him several times, years ago, and he stalked me and made my life hell. He followed me, wherever I went, and would just appear out of nowhere whenever I was out on a date with somebody new. He told me, in no uncertain terms, that he would haunt me until the day that I died, if I decided to leave him. He called me constantly, and, you have to understand, he’s a very wealthy and powerful man. If I left him and moved to Siberia, he would find me. He told me as much. So, yes, I had to do something drastic. Emma agreed to help me.”

  I had to smile. I just won. “What about the fire? How did that happen?”

  She shook her head. “That’s how we planned it. I was right outside the dungeon, listening and watching the two of them. That’s how we planned it – after she died, I was to set fire to the dungeon.”

  She was still staring at me with her head held high.

  “I have nothing further for this witness.”

  “Ms. Hughes, do you have any redirect for this witness?”

  Ally stood up. “No, Your Honor.” She looked at me. “I would like to ask for a short recess.”

  “The witness is excused. However, I would like to ask the bailiff to take the witness into custody. Let’s everybody take a five minute break.”

  The jury filed out, the bailiff took Ava into custody, and the judge addressed us. “Well, looks like your case just fell apart,” he said to Ally. “Right before your eyes.”

  She shook her head. “Looks like it.”

  “I expect you to dismiss it when the jury gets back,” Judge Pruit
t said.

  Ally sighed. “I will.”

  “Good.”

  She turned to me. “I just can’t believe that that happened. What just happened?”

  “You need to listen to me more often,” I said. “I told you. You never listen.”

  “Man, people are psycho. They’ll do anything, won’t they?”

  “You know it. I’ve always known it. Looks like you’re learning it too.”

  The jury came back in, Ally dismissed the case, and it was over.

  This might have been over, but I had something much more pressing to worry about.

  Nate.

  Chapter 28

  I was relieved that the trial was over so soon. I was surprised about the way that it ended. Nobody was more surprised than me. Harper couldn’t stop laughing about it all. “You’re a regular Perry Mason,” she had said. “Breaking her down on the stand like that.”

  “Well,” I said, “I tripped her up, and that was that. She knew that I had her when she said, accidentally, that she didn’t know why Silas didn’t know about her, when she clearly should have said me. Plus, her mother was stupid, trying to make the court believe that she just planned that huge Mission Hills Country Club shindig in a month. Everybody knows that that’s not possible on a Saturday night in the summertime at a popular country club like that one. Then, when Ava tried to parrot that same line, and I told her that her mother already told the truth, I knew that she was breaking. It’s hard, or it must be hard, to keep up such a lie.”

  But I needed to spend some time with Nate. That was important to me. Gretchen was watching him, but I hadn’t had the chance to really talk to him since he admitted to me that his teacher had been molesting him.

  I got home, and went right up to Nate’s room. He was laying on the bed, reading a magazine. “Hey dad,” he said. “How was your trial?”