Murder One (20 page)

“I’m afraid I have to agree with Ms. McCall,” Judge Cable said. “This doesn’t smell good.”

LaBelle drew himself up. “Your honor, with all due respect, we are both officers of this court and we have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws of this state. The press and the government will be watching this proceeding carefully, so I know I can trust you to uphold your duty regardless of—”

“Now you listen to me,” Judge Cable said, pointing his gavel. “You may be rich, and you may be popular, and you may be the D.A., but I’m the judge, and you will not threaten me in my courtroom.”

LaBelle held up his hands. “No, no, Judge, you misunderstand me.”

“I don’t think I do.”

LaBelle’s steady calm seemed to be eroding a tad. “I—I didn’t mean that as a threat.”

“It sure sounded like one!”

“I assure you I didn’t mean it that way.”

Christina buttoned her lip and watched as the great man melted. There were miscalculations, and then there were miscalculations. And LaBelle’s attempted power play had been a major miscalculation.

Not that she had been exactly lacking for confidence before, but if a great trial master like LaBelle could make such a bone-headed mistake, who could begrudge a little baby lawyer like her a few?

“Your honor,” Christina said, “why don’t we admit what we all already know? These charges were trumped up to suggest fraud in order to get the Dalcanton case reopened. Well, fine. It worked. Right or wrong, they succeeded, and Ms. Dalcanton’s life is on the line once more, despite the fact that the proceeding constitutes a gross violation of her Constitutional double jeopardy protection.”

“Young lady,” LaBelle said, “the Court of Criminal Appeals ruled—”

“I’m aware of how you weenied around double jeopardy. That’s not what I’m here to argue. The point is, they’ve accomplished their mission. They’ve got their case back. They don’t need to keep pushing these frivolous charges against Ben. Frankly, I think they would’ve dropped the charges as soon as they got the decision from the appeals court, except by that time there’d been a lot of press and to dismiss immediately would’ve been a tacit admission that the charges were bogus to begin with.”

“Your honor,” LaBelle protested, “that is not what happened.”

Judge Cable ignored him. “I must admit, I’ve wondered if that wasn’t what was going on here myself. The case seems so thin, and the prosecution is so weak, it’s as if you’re begging me to dismiss the case. Like maybe you know the charges should go away, but you’re too cowardly to do it yourself.”

“Your honor,” LaBelle said, “let me make clear—”

“As Ms. McCall points out, if you dismissed the charges yourself, you’d probably take a lot of flak from the press. But if you can get me to do it, then you can blame the ‘liberal judicial system’ or ‘revolving-door justice’ or something like that.”

LaBelle’s voice sounded weaker with each protest. “I can guarantee that our prosecutorial motives were pure.”

“Yeah.” Judge Cable stacked his papers against the bench and pushed himself out of his chair. “Well, I don’t see any reason to continue with this hearing.”

Christina jumped forward. “Then you’re going to dismiss the charges?”

Judge Cable hesitated. “I want to write this one down. I’ll prepare an opinion. You’ll have it tomorrow morning.”

“With an apology?” Christina asked.

Cable squinted. “Excuse me?”

“An apology. From the D.A.’s office. Or the bench. Or both.”

“Lady, your man should be grateful just to be off the hook.”

“And I’m sure he will be, your honor. But I also think there should be an apology for the great injustice done to Mr. Kincaid, the damage to his career and reputation and so forth. I think it would be appropriate.” She swallowed. “Under the circumstances.”

Judge Cable pushed his eyeglasses down his nose and gave her a stern look. “You’re not exactly shy, are you, Ms. McCall?”

“No, sir,” she said, smiling. “Shy is Mr. Kincaid’s thing. I’ve got a style all my own.”

“A
LL CHARGES DISMISSED!” CHRISTINA
cried, as she danced through the office lobby. “And ‘the court regrets the inevitable inconvenience to the defendant.’ We won!” She flung the judge’s order into the air, then did a spritely jig around Ben. “We won, we won, we won!”

“That’s great, Christina.” Ben scooped the order off the office carpet. “No apology from the D.A?”

“Did you think there would be?”

“I thought it unlikely, but you never know. After the turn you gave LaBelle in the courtroom, anything was possible. You had him quaking in his boots.”

“Oh, right.”

“You did. I bet he’s never been so terrorized by a new grad doing her first prelim.”

“Well, that’s possible.” She smiled. “The best part is, this frees you up to handle the Dalcanton trial.”

“Christina, I want to thank you. You did a great job in that courtroom.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just pay your bill on time, okay? Most of this firm’s clients are total deadbeats.”

“But seriously, Christina. I know you took on a big load in a short time, and I’m grateful.”

She leaned into his ear and spoke in low dark tones. “If you want to show your gratitude—keep your lips zipped.”

“Christina, I already promised you—”

“Do you think I don’t know that woman is in your office? As we speak?”

“Christina, we’ve got a trial to prep. I have a million things to do—”

“Yeah, and she can’t help you do any of them. She probably won’t even take the stand. Since when did you have clients lurking around while you prepared a case?”

Ben squirmed a bit. “She’s very unhappy right now, Christina. And … lonely. She has nowhere to go. She feels more comfortable being here.”

“I’ll just bet she does.” She grabbed Ben by the shoulders. “You just remember what I said. If I get the slightest idea you’re playing smoochy-goochums with our client, I’m out of here. I mean it. I’d rather go back to Raven, Tucker & Tubb than put up with that.”

“Understood. And I will. I mean—I won’t.”

“Good.” She marched off to her interior office.

Jones emerged from the storage room just in time to see Christina stomp past him. “Is this how Christina celebrates?”

“Apparently so.”

Jones nodded. “I’ll keep the champagne on ice.”

Paula rushed out of one of the back offices. She wrapped her arms around Jones, practically clubbing him with the papers clutched in her hands.

“Puddin’, look what I found!” She was bouncing up and down with excitement.

Ben raised an eyebrow. “I assume it’s either the winning Lotto ticket or an invitation to visit Buckingham Palace.”

“No, silly. A new research file.”

“And that’s exciting?”

Jones shrugged. “It’s a librarian thing.” He took the papers out of her hands and scanned them. “Hey, this is hot stuff.”

Ben couldn’t resist any longer. He scrambled behind them. “What is it?”

“Joe McNaughton’s employment file.”

“I thought those were confidential.”

The corner of Jones’s mouth turned up. “Nothing is confidential when my honey-pie starts hacking. She can get anything. FBI files. Department of Defense secrets. She even hacked out the secret formula for Coca-Cola.”

“You’re joking.”

Paula winked. “Come over to my house sometime. I’ve got my own still in the garage.”

“Look at this,” Jones said, pointing to a line on the top page. “Something happened to McNaughton about a year and a half ago.”

“Something? Like what?”

“I don’t know. But up till then he was rocketing through the ranks. Then all at once, he gets bucked back down to patrolman, no explanation given.”

“But when he died—”

“And that’s even more interesting. He only remains a patrolman for about two months. Then he gets promoted again—back to Sergeant!”

Ben squinted. “That makes no sense at all.”

“No, it doesn’t. But it’s what happened. See for yourself. The promotion was formalized with a new employment contract. Witnessed by a Sergeant Bailey.”

“Paula, can you follow up on this?” Ben asked. “Find out where this Bailey is at?”

“Of course. If you promise to never again end a sentence with
at.
”

Ben dipped his chin. “I’ll ask Loving to see what he can ferret out, too. This might have nothing to do with our case. But I’d still be happier if I knew what was going on with McNaughton before his death.”

Paula scurried away just as quickly as she had come. Ben grabbed some papers from his in box and started down the corridor—when he saw an attractive, dark-haired woman making her way through the front office doors.

He recognized her immediately. And he felt the short hairs on the back of his neck stand on edge.

The woman seemed elegant and composed—almost too much so, as if she were making a concerted effort to keep something bottled up inside. “Excuse me,” she said. “I’m Andrea McNaughton. Joe McNaughton’s widow.”

“I know. I remember.” A stupid response, but at the moment, Ben’s brain didn’t seem to be functioning properly. He couldn’t believe this woman had actually come to his office.

“I came to see Christina McCall. Is she in?”

“Uh … yes. Yes she is. May I ask …?”

“She visited me not long ago. Asked me some questions. I tried to tell her everything I knew, but I remembered something after she left. Something that … could possibly be important. If she’s available …”

Ben shook himself out of his stupor. “I’ll get her.”

Before he could so much as move, however, a woman emerged from one of the interior offices. Unfortunately, it was not Christina.

“
You!
” Keri ran forward, her eyes wide with disbelief—and anger. “What are you doing here?”

Ben tried to calm her. “Relax, Keri. She just wants to talk to Christina.”

“To Christina? Why?”

“It has to do with the—”

“I thought you people were on my side,” Keri said. “I thought I could trust you.”

“You can, Keri. Take it easy.”

Keri whipped her platinum blond hair behind her slender neck. “I want this woman out of here. Now!”

Andrea’s face tightened, but she said nothing.

Ben tried to intervene. “Keri, be reasonable.”

“Reasonable? This woman ruined my life!”

“Now wait a minute.” Andrea’s jaw clenched. Her eyes became small piercing points of light. “If you want to talk about who ruined lives—”

“I don’t want to talk to you at all!”

“You stole my husband!” Andrea fired back at her. “First you took his love, then you took his life!”

“Ladies, please,” Ben said, but to no avail.

“For your information,” Keri said, “I didn’t take anything. He gave me his love. He gave it to me because you evidently didn’t want it.”

“You little bitch.” Andrea’s nostrils flared. “Don’t presume that you know anything—”

“Why else would he have needed me? He wouldn’t’ve come to me in the first place if you were giving him what he wanted.”

“That isn’t true!” Andrea shouted, her voice choking. “I loved Joe. And he loved me till he met you. Till you forced yourself on him like the cheap whore you are!”

“That isn’t what happened!”

“Like hell!”

“I’ll bet Joe hated you! That’s why he came to me. And it made you so crazy that you killed him yourself!”

Andrea sprang at her like a panther after its prey. Keri rocketed backward. Andrea slammed her against the wall so hard it knocked off a framed diploma. Although she was much smaller than Andrea, Keri fought back with considerable strength. She pounded the woman on the sides of her neck. Andrea’s hands clenched around Keri’s throat.

Ben raced behind Andrea and tried to break them up. He wrapped his arms around Andrea’s waist. He managed to pull her back somewhat, but Andrea lurched forward again. She and Keri tumbled down to the carpet on top of one another, dragging Ben with them.

“Jones!” Ben shouted. “I need help!”

Although he looked distinctly uneager, Jones climbed out from behind his desk. Meanwhile, Andrea had Keri pinned to the floor, straddling her. Her hands were pressed down on Keri’s head, twisting it sideways and mashing her face into the carpet. Keri began flailing her arms, pummeling Andrea on the chest and legs. Andrea removed one of her hands from Keri’s face and drove it hard into her ribs. Keri screamed.

Ben wrapped his arms under Andrea’s and finally managed to haul her off Keri. As soon as he had Andrea under control, however, Keri lunged at her, taking the opportunity to return the blow to the ribs. Andrea cried out in pain.

“Jones!” Ben shouted. “Get her under control!”

Jones tried, but Keri was moving too fast for him. Even as Ben tried to pull Andrea away, Keri followed them, swinging and jabbing every chance she got. Andrea tried to defend herself with her feet. Jones finally managed to wrap his arms around Keri, pinning her in a full nelson, but the instant Keri’s arms were immobilized, Andrea hit her with a sharp kick to the gut.

“
Stop it!
” Ben shouted. “Both of you. Now!”

Ben and Jones yanked the two women to opposite ends of the office. The fighting finally subsided.

“Let go of me!” Andrea shrieked.

Ben refused. “Not till you’ve got a grip on yourself.”

“I said, let go of me!”

“Do I have to call security? Because I will before I’ll let you attack my client again.”

“Did you hear what that woman said to me?”

“I don’t care what she said. I advised Keri not to press charges the last time you attacked her. I won’t do that again. So cool it!”

“But she said—she said—” All at once, as quickly as Andrea’s rage had come on, it subsided. She crumbled into tears. She fell to her knees, weeping so loud and hard she couldn’t seem to stop.

“She—took—my—husband—” she managed to spit out, in hard gasping breaths, wracked with sobs. “She—took—everything—”

“Excuse me, Boss,” Jones said. The expression on his face alone was enough to inform Ben that he was not having a good time. He nodded toward Keri, who was still struggling to get free. “What should I do with this one?”

“Put her in my office,” Ben grunted. “Lock the door, if necessary.”