Hounded (27 page)

“Is that the Mitchell Blackman who according to the media was murdered this week?”

Richard objects, and Judge Matthews both sustains and warns me to be “very careful.” Of course she and Richard both know that I was very careful; that’s how the jury got to hear that Blackman was dead. It’s now in their mind; you can’t unring a bell, and you can’t un-kill a CEO.

“What did Daniel tell you he was going to do the day before he disappeared?”

“He was going to tell Mr. Blackman that he had made a decision: he was finally going to the FBI and telling them what had happened.”

“Was he worried about doing that?”

“I think he was relieved. I was very proud of him.”

“Do you know if he ever got to tell Mr. Blackman his decision?”

“I don’t know,” she says.

I’ve gotten all I can out of Sharon; she has been a very credible and sympathetic witness. She doesn’t make the case for us, but she takes care of a big piece, which is showing how it is possible that all of the “heart attack” deaths were actually induced.

I expect Richard to treat her cautiously, but he surprises me by going right at her. “Ms. Dalton, was Daniel Mathis worried that he himself might be accused of a crime for not reporting the theft?”

“Yes, that was one of the considerations.”

“And in fact, did you delay reporting him missing, because you didn’t want to open him up to those same possible criminal charges?”

“Yes, for a day or so.”

“Are you aware that some people, when worried about going to jail, sometimes don’t come forward and confess, but instead go on the run?”

She shakes her head. “Not Daniel.”

“Because he was a moral, upstanding citizen?”

“Yes.”

“Was it moral to not report the theft for so long, while believing that people could be dying as a result of it?”

“You’re making him look bad,” she says.

“I’m sorry about that, but I am just repeating what you testified to.”

“He wouldn’t have left without telling me, without contacting me.”

“Are you and Daniel married?” Richard asks.

“No.”

“Engaged?”

“We were in love,” she says.

“And you’d do anything to protect him?”

She takes a deep breath. “I only hope it isn’t too late to do that.”

When Sharon finally leaves the stand, Judge Dalton sends the jury out of the room and asks me how much longer the defense case will go on.

I have a big decision to make. I can call witnesses to rebut some of the testimony of the prosecution witnesses, but I can’t prevail like that. Their witnesses were telling the truth, and presenting real evidence. My challenge to it is not that they are wrong, but that the evidence was planted.

If I don’t put on that testimony, then I am counting solely on my conspiracy theory, hoping that the jurors will first understand it, and then buy into it. It’s a gamble, a roll of the dice with Pete’s life on the line.

“We have just one more witness, Your Honor. Tomorrow I will be calling Lieutenant Simon Coble of the New Jersey State Police.”

All or nothing.

I’m pleased with Lieutenant Coble’s attitude.

He and I have had our disagreements, and I was concerned that his testimony might be less than enthusiastic. But he has shown up this morning fresh and raring to go, promising he’ll do his best to prevent the injustice of Pete being convicted.

“The defense calls Lieutenant Simon Coble,” I say, and he strides to the witness stand with confidence and purpose.

I take him through a description of his career path, and awards he has won. He’s an impressive guy in this setting, and seems to have a presence that makes the jurors sit up and take notice.

“Lieutenant Coble, how did you and I first come to speak about this case?”

“You called me. You said that Captain Stanton told you he had discussed the death of Katherine Reynolds with me, and his suspicions about it. And I confirmed that.”

“And how did you come to speak with Captain Stanton about Katherine Reynolds in the first place?”

“Her niece had contacted me with her own concerns that it might have been a murder, and I checked into it. When I heard that Captain Stanton was then investigating it as well, it seemed the logical thing to do would be to have a conversation with him about it. To compare notes.”

I have rarely been stunned and speechless in a courtroom; in fact, this may be the first time. Coble has just said something that caused a set of facts I had in my mind but couldn’t really see to come flooding forward. He had said the same thing before, but I hadn’t thought about the implications of it.

And all of it has convinced me of one thing:

I am talking to a murderer.

I am flustered; and I take a moment to compose myself by drinking a glass of water. Coble sits on the stand looking at me, and there is a slight smile on his lips.

I can’t be certain of this, yet I am:

He knows that I know.

There is nothing I can say in the moment, no questions I can ask, to demonstrate what I am positive is the truth. And the horrible irony is that attacking Coble right now would be completely counterproductive. I desperately need his testimony to save Pete.

So I force myself to focus as I take him through the story. It is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my life, but I get through it.

And Coble is great, the perfect witness. He helps me tell the story economically and with clarity; together we tie up every loose end we can find.

Richard tries valiantly to attack Coble in his cross-examination, but he makes very little progress. Everything that Coble is testifying to is the truth. The events happened exactly as he is describing them. What he leaves out is that he helped orchestrate them.

But because they are true, Richard can’t make a dent in them, or in him.

When he finally gets off the stand, Coble passes me on his way out of the courtroom. He leans in and whispers, “Don’t be a hero, Counselor.”

I don’t answer him. I don’t know what I could say, but in any event, the judge has already asked Richard to begin his closing argument. I force myself to try and listen, but it’s very hard.

“Ladies and gentlemen, you’ve been treated to quite a show in this courtroom,” Richard says. “You’ve been empaneled to decide who shot Daniel Diaz to death in his home, and you’ve heard a lot of clear and I believe compelling evidence that says it was Peter Stanton that committed the crime.”

He goes into the evidence that the prosecution presented, clearly and concisely summarizing it. Just listening to him, I think that even I would vote to convict Pete.

“But that’s not all you heard,” Richard continues. “You heard about a huge conspiracy, about dog drugs that murder people, about kidnapped wives, and dead executives, and missing researchers.

“And what does this have to do with the case you are here to judge? Not a hell of a lot, I’ll tell you that. All that connects that bizarre world to this case is a line on a phone bill. That’s it.

“Maybe it was a wrong number, and maybe the GPS satellite was off. I don’t know about you, but I’ve followed my GPS into more than a couple of dead ends. It’s an imperfect science, and it should not be misused to ignore all the facts you’ve had placed before you.

“Captain Pete Stanton murdered Danny Diaz. He had opportunity, and he had motive. Don’t be fooled into believing otherwise. Follow your heads, follow the logic, and please give justice to Danny Diaz and his son.

Thank you.”

I wish like hell I could delay my closing argument until tomorrow.

It’s not that what I would have to say would be any different, it’s more that I could calm down and focus on what is important in the moment. There will be time to consider what I have just realized, and figure out how to deal with it.

Pete’s entire life is on the line, so I need to get a grip and do what I have to do. Composure has never been a problem for me, and I can’t let it be one now.

And I won’t.

“You okay?” Pete asks. He can tell something is wrong, but obviously has no idea what it is.

“Fine,” I say. “It’s show time.”

I get up and say, “Closing arguments are supposed to be a summary of the case. We lawyers have been bombarding you with different facts and theories, and all you’ve been able to do is sit there and listen. You aren’t even allowed to ask questions, so there is no way for you to possibly remember and connect everything, especially in a case as complicated as this.

“So my job now is to summarize what I have tried to get across, in a clear way, supported by the facts.

“Mr. Wallace presented a great deal of evidence to you, and if it had gone unrefuted, you would be justified in deciding that Captain Stanton was a murderer. So let’s analyze those facts, and see if it is reasonable to doubt that they are accurate.

“Captain Stanton was on the scene the night of the murder. We do not dispute that, and we even showed you the text message that brought him there. It was from his friend Danny Diaz’s phone, and it sounded like Diaz needed help. So he rushed there, just as the real murderer knew he would.

“But Danny Diaz did not have his phone; you heard evidence that it still hasn’t been found, to this day. So what happened to it? Did he text Captain Stanton, then throw it away? Why would he do that? Did Captain Stanton take it? Why would he do that? The text would be on his own phone as well, and in the phone company’s records. No, Danny Diaz did not have his phone because it was taken from him by his killer.”

I go on to point out the weaknesses in the evidence regarding the fingerprints and the gloves, and then move on to the drugs. “And how did they get there? Did Captain Stanton store them there, not under lock and key? Why would he do that? And why would he have all those drugs, without there being the slightest shred of evidence that he ever used or sold them? And why would he have wiped the package clean of fingerprints, and then store them in his own house?

“None of that makes sense, certainly not from a smart cop like Pete Stanton. And even Chief Carnow told you that Pete is one of the smartest and best cops he has ever met.

“We know from the GPS records that people were in Captain Stanton’s house the day of the murder, possible even Diaz himself, but certainly someone who had Diaz’s phone. There was no doubt it was Alex Parker, and if he took Diaz’s phone, surely he could have had the key to the house that was in Diaz’s possession. Why was he there? Isn’t it reasonable to believe that he might have planted the drugs?

“So I believe that just based on the prosecution’s evidence, we did enough to make a not guilty vote the correct one. But then we did more: we pointed to a real-life massive conspiracy of murder, one that has left many bodies in its wake.

“Lieutenant Coble and the other witnesses told you all about it, in probably more detail than you needed. But the facts are the facts, and the facts show that Pete Stanton was framed so that he would not be able to continue investigating that conspiracy of murder.”

I go into some detail about Parker, Reynolds, Mathis, et al., but not too much. Coble had done much of that work in his testimony, and I also feel like I have the jury now, and I don’t want to lose them.

“But I would submit that after all that, you should consider the character of the man that is Captain Pete Stanton. He has spent his entire life upholding the law and protecting all of us. He is possibly the finest public servant I have ever known, and I am proud to call him my friend.

“He doesn’t deserve what has happened to him, not one bit of it. But you have a special power, and only you have it.

“You have the power to make it right.

“Thank you.”

As I head back to the defense table, I see Laurie, and Sam, and Willie, and Vince Sanders. They are staring at me, smiling and giving me gestures of support, from Laurie’s thumbs up to Vince’s clenched fist. Pete claps me on the shoulder and mouths a silent “thank you.”

They think I have done well, and that I should be pleased.

Maybe they’re right.

But they don’t know what I know.

I’m usually a total basket case when waiting for a verdict.

I don’t talk to anyone except Tara, I don’t do anything except walk Tara, and I become a mass of superstitions.

But this time is different; this time I call a meeting of the entire investigative team at our house. I want to tell them what I know, both because I am not positive what to do, and because I don’t want to be the only one who knows it.

I start by saying, “I believe that Lieutenant Simon Coble was a leading member of the murder-for-hire ring; he may have been the leader, but more likely his role was to provide cover for them.

“It hit me when I caught him in a relatively minor lie: he said he was looking into the Katherine Reynolds’s death because her niece asked him to. But Katherine Reynolds lost her family in a car crash; she had no other family at all. And Carson Reynolds was an only child. Therefore, it is not possible that Katherine Reynolds had a niece at all.”

“You’ve got more than that, right?” Hike asks.

“I do. Alex Parker obviously faked his death; I don’t know who the actual poor guy was who had his head beaten in. But Coble said the deceased’s fingerprints matched Parker’s army record. But they could not have; so Coble must have changed them.

“I told Coble that we knew Reynolds and Diaz had been in phone contact with Parker, and that we knew where Parker lived in Hackensack. The next day Parker was out of there, and the phone was never used again.

“When I talked to Blackman the day he died, he said that the ‘cop was coming back,’ to question him. It didn’t mean anything to me at the time, but the cop had to have been Coble, and when he was there earlier, I’ll bet he slipped Blackman the heart attack pill. When he came back, he knew he would find Blackman dead.

“But maybe most important is that Coble is the reason they went after Pete. He knew from his meeting with Pete that Pete had a gut feeling that these were murders, and he wasn’t going to drop it until he found out the truth.