Keep No Secrets (38 page)

"Like I started to say, she told me he raped her."

"And based upon that, what did you do?"

"I insisted we go to the police."

"Did she agree?"

"She did not want to do this, she was so embarrassed and upset, but I insisted, and she agreed."

"Did you call the police?"

"No, sir. We drove to the station."

"When did you do this?"

"By the time I convinced her she needed to report the rape, it was about dinnertime. I think we arrived around seven."

Walker takes his witness through

everything that occurred during their visit to the station. Just when Jack starts to think Walker will leave it to Earl to ask about Celeste's refusal to be examined, he broaches the topic.

"Do you know whether your daughter was asked to submit to a rape exam?"

"Yes, she was, but she said no."

"Did you encourage her to say no?"

"No, at first I tried to convince her that she should let them to do it. But she became hysterical, and finally I thought, okay, this is making matters worse. She already had her virginity violently taken

—"

"Objection." This time Earl stands for emphasis. "Judge, there has been no evidence about whether Ms. Del Toro was a virgin on the night in question, and moreover, there has yet to be admissible evidence about what happened in the car."

"Sustained." The judge leans over to Del Toro and says politely, "Sir, please try to testify only about those things of which you have direct knowledge."

Del Toro looks slightly confused by the judge's instruction, but he nods to indicate he'll do as he's told. Jack has no doubt the man believes his daughter
was
a virgin. What father wouldn't want to think so about his sixteen-year-old daughter, regardless of the evidence?

Even Jack was in denial about Michael before that night.

"So you didn't insist your daughter be examined?"

"No, I did not. I didn't want to upset her more."

Once Walker exhausts the details of Celeste's accusations, he turns to Jack's actions after the arrest.

"Sir, to your knowledge, has the defendant been in contact with your daughter since the night in question?"

"Well, not directly, no. But he stole some personal writing from a notebook he found in her backpack."

Earl doesn't object. He already fought this fight in pretrial motions and lost.

Both Jack and Earl know the jury will see the journal entry, but they'd hoped it would first be discussed with a different witness. Earl argued that to let Del Toro testify about it would constitute hearsay; Walker countered that he would be using it for the limited purpose of showing Jack's state of mind. Namely, a sense of guilt. The judge ruled in Walker's favor.

"What type of writing?" Walker asks Del Toro.

"It was a page from Celeste's notebook.

Like her diary. It described what Mr.

Hilliard did to her in the car. I guess he didn't want anyone to see it."

Jack grunts quietly, Earl shushes him.

"It would just bring attention to it if I object," he whispers. "I'll deal with it on cross."

Walker spends a few more minutes

questioning Del Toro about how hard it is for a single dad to raise a teenage girl,

"especially in this age where technology allows them to keep so much hidden from their parents." Del Toro waxes poetic about how beautiful Celeste is, and how he's had to protect her from the boys since she hit puberty. He talks about how much he likes Michael, and that although he'd only met Jack a few times, he once liked and respected him. He thought his daughter was safe dating the son of the DA.

"So you weren't aware that Mr. Hilliard committed adultery a few years back?"

"No, not until after his arrest, when the news started talking about it."

On that last point, Walker turns his witness over to Earl.

Earl stands, and for just a moment, he remains behind the table. His face wears concern as he makes his way closer to the witness box. He nods politely to Del Toro, who returns the gesture.

"Mr. Del Toro, isn't it true that everything you know about what

happened during the night Celeste spent with Michael, and then Mr. Hilliard, you know because Celeste told you?"

"Yes, I suppose that's true."

"You weren't present at any time, were you?"

"I was there when she arrived home."

"But you weren't with her during the time she spent with either Michael or Mr.

Hilliard?"

"No, I wasn't."

"So your knowledge about what happened between Celeste and Mr.

Hilliard is based solely on what your daughter told you?"

"Yes."

"You testified that your daughter's diary entry described what happened between her and Mr. Hilliard in the car."

Del Toro nods. "Was that entry dated?"

"No."

"Did it identify Mr. Hilliard by name or in any other way?"

"No."

"So it's possible that it had nothing to do with Mr. Hilliard, isn't that so?"

"I guess, but—"

"Now, about the torn-up instructions from an at-home pregnancy test, are you aware that over-the-counter pregnancy tests can't determine pregnancy the day after intercourse?"

"Yes, I know that."

"Didn't you find it odd that your daughter took such a test within twelve hours or so of the time she claims Mr.

Hilliard assaulted her?"

"I discussed that with her. She did not understand the limitations of those tests."

"Really?"

"My daughter would have no reason to know about such things, sir. She is not so sophisticated, I am glad to say."

Jack has to restrain himself from rolling his eyes.

"But she is honest," Del Toro adds.

"And I believe what she tells me."

"Is that why you check her underwear when she comes home after dates?"

A smattering of gasps and giggles rises from the gallery. Jack sneaks a look at the jury; a few seem to share the surprise of the audience, while others merely wait for clarification from either Earl or the witness. Del Toro looks horrified, not from the accusation, Jack thinks, but from his actions being so blatantly exposed.

"I don't know what you refer to," Del Toro says defensively, and Jack knows then that Celeste's messages told the truth.

Earl pulls out a transcript of the messages between Celeste and Michael.

When he hands it to Del Toro, Walker starts to object, but Earl interrupts. "I'm merely using it to refresh his recollection, Your Honor." The judge waves at him to proceed. "Mr. Del Toro, have you read the document I've just handed you?"

"Yes."

"Can you explain what it is, briefly?"

"It appears to be messages between my daughter and Mr. Hilliard's son. But I have never seen this—"

"That's okay." Earl takes the document back. "Does it help to refresh your memory about what I'm referring to?

Have you ever asked your daughter to show you her underwear when she

returned home from a date with Michael for the purpose of determining whether she had sexual relations with him?"

"No, I have not."

"But you saw in those messages that she told Michael you had, correct?"

"Yes."

"So she's lying to
one
of you, right?"

Del Toro doesn't answer.

"Sir?"

"She does not lie to me."

Earl lets it drop at that. It's enough that he asked the questions.

"You mentioned that you and Celeste's mother divorced about eight years ago.

So Celeste would have been about eight years old?"

"Yes."

"And you moved to Missouri this past summer?"

"Yes."

"Where did you and Celeste live before that?" Earl asks the question with the innocence of someone who doesn't know the answer, but, of course, he does.

"I lived in Puerto Rico following the divorce."

"And Celeste?"

"She lived with her mother."

"You didn't have custody?"

"We shared custody. She lived with me in the summers. She wanted to stay in Florida during the school year so she didn't have to leave her friends."

Earl returns to the defense table and pulls a paper from a file. Del Toro repositions himself, sits taller.

"Isn't it true that subsequent to your divorce and move to Puerto Rico, your ex-wife was in prison on two different occasions for drug charges?"

A flurry of whispers sweeps the

courtroom. Jack glances at Walker. He sits motionless at the prosecution table, intent on maintaining an expression devoid of emotion.

"Yes, that's correct."

"With whom did Celeste live while her mother was in prison?"

"Her abuela came to live at Celeste's mother's house so Celeste could remain in her same school." His voice has lost its earlier assurance.

Earl looks down at his paper, back up again. "Are you referring to Celeste's maternal grandmother? The one with Alzheimer's?"

Del Toro looks to Walker for help, but Walker maintains a stone face. Jack suspects the DA from Harrison County didn't do his research.

"Sir?" Earl prods.

"Yes, but it was early stage."

"Did anyone else stay at the house with Celeste and her grandmother?"

Del Toro takes such a deep breath that his torso visibly rises and falls. "Yes, my ex-wife's boyfriend. A man named

Torrence Nash."

"Do you happen to know Mr. Nash's nickname?"

"No."

"The nickname Torpedo doesn't ring a bell?"

"No," Del Toro says, adamant. Jack believes him.

"Sir, you mentioned you came to Missouri for a job. But how did it come about that Celeste came with you instead of remaining in Florida?"

"She asked to."

"Did her mother object?"

"Not really." His tone is bitter and sarcastic now, and Jack suspects the divorce wasn't amicable. "I think she was glad to have her freedom."

"Just a few more questions, Mr. Del Toro." Earl pauses. Jack waits for the one-eighty he knows Earl is about to do.

He wants to catch Del Toro off guard.

"On that Sunday following the night in question, before you collected the trash, did Celeste leave the house?"

The tactic works. Del Toro narrows his eyes as he tries to get his bearings.

"No," he says, "not that I know of."

"Did any friends come over?"

"No."

"Then can you explain, if she didn't leave the house and no one came to her, how she might have come into possession of a pregnancy test?"

Del Toro stares at Earl. He's obviously just considered this incongruence for the first time.

"Sir?” Earl says. “Can you answer, please?"

"I . . ." Del Toro shrugs helplessly, and Jack feels empathy for the man. "I don't know."

The judge calls a recess, but Jack and Earl remain at the table after the courtroom empties so they can talk in relative peace.

Except for the judge's clerk, the court reporter, and a bailiff by the doors, they're alone. Earl scoots his chair to face Jack. Like a quarterback calling his team into a huddle, he hunches over and motions for Jack to do the same.

"So Celeste took a pregnancy test, and when her dad found it, she knew the wrath she'd endure if she didn't come up with an excuse for having it. Without thinking it through, she fingered you instead of Mike. Problem is, all we have so far to support this theory is her father's inability to explain why she already had a pregnancy test in her possession. But it will at least raise some doubt in the jury's mind."

"It doesn't make sense, though," Jack counters. "I mean, maybe it did to her at the time, but for her to go through all this just to prevent her dad from finding out she and Michael are having sex?

Because once Mike takes the stand, it'll all be out in the open, right? He won't lie about that, I know he won't, because he already admitted it to me. There's gotta be a larger motivation for her to endure all this. Question is, how do we find out what it is?"

Earl sits back and scans the courtroom.

"Oh, I can crack her, no problem, once she takes the stand. The real question is, how do I do it without the jury thinking we're ogres?"

Walker calls his next witness, Officer Thornton. Officer Thornton explains how he took the initial report when Celeste and her father came into the station on Sunday night. Walker takes him through the timeline (the alleged assault occurred around 2:00 a.m., she came into the station at 7:12 p.m.), Celeste's demeanor (upset, numb, scared), and the procedures followed (collected hair samples, and skin particles from under her fingernails, asked her to submit to the rape exam, which she declined).

Even though his testimony is important to the State's case, Thornton is a minor witness, and Walker keeps the direct short.

Jack knows Earl will follow Walker's lead and ask a minimal number of

questions on cross. Juries generally respect the police force, so unless a good reason exists to challenge an officer's testimony, they appreciate a defense lawyer who respects it, too.

"Officer Thornton, Ms. Del Toro waited almost eighteen hours to report the alleged assault, is that right?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you know why?" Earl asks, even though he already knows the supposed answer from the police reports.

"My understanding is that she was afraid, you know, given Mr. Hilliard's position as DA. She apparently didn't tell her father what had happened until around four that evening. She said he's the one who insisted she report it."

"And yet she still had some of Mr.

Hilliard's skin under her nails, you said?"

"Yes, sir."

Earl nods as if in deep thought.

"You've investigated many rape cases.

In your experience, do victims often bathe extensively after being assaulted?"

"Yes, sir."

"Why?"

"They usually say they felt unclean. It's like they're trying to wash off the assault."

"Does that make it difficult to collect evidence?"

"It can, yes."

"So if a victim were to wash her hands, would you have difficulty collecting evidence from under her fingernails, such as the assailant's skin particles, because it was washed away?"