Reasonable Doubt (27 page)

“They’re terrorists, but that doesn’t make them smart.”

“Naveed is.”

“Exactly, which is why the plans aren’t on his computer.”

Ellery wasn’t convinced, but she moved on. “So, what are you doing next?”

“We have agents checking to see where each of them was the night of the bombing, checking cell phone records, etc.”

“You obviously don’t want to tip them off that you think they were involved.”

“No, we don’t want another Tsarnaev.”

Ellery shuddered. She, like the rest of the country, had followed the trial of the one surviving Boston Marathon bomber. The story of the bloody shootout that preceded his apprehension, including the fact he’d run over his own brother while trying to escape the police, had been horrifying. “So, here’s what I don’t understand. Why are you telling me all of this?”

“Naveed trusts you. That’s why you were with him in court, right?”

“His attorney wasn’t available. I was just standing in.”

“She could’ve gotten anyone to cover, but she picked you because that family looks to you for guidance. They always have.”

“More information you gathered from e-mail?”

“It’s true. And I think you care about them as well. Certainly enough to pay them a personal visit this morning.”

“Someday you should try living under a microscope and see how it makes you feel. For your information, I went to Amir to discuss the only case I knew about at the time. You know, the one where you and your friends accused us both of conspiring to send money overseas to support terrorism. The one where you purposefully placed me in an adversarial position to my former client in an attempt to get me to reveal confidential information. If Naveed was involved in the bombing, I don’t know a damn thing about it.”

“Would you even tell me if you did?”

Caught up in the heated exchange, Ellery said, “I―”, but then she stopped. She couldn’t answer the question because she wasn’t entirely sure. In her line of work, the good of the one, the defendant, outweighed the good of the many, society. She’d always accepted the truism, and for years she never allowed herself to question the consequences, but last year, when the consequences became truly real, she had been forced to face the dark side of the work she did, and in this moment, it all came rushing back.

She leaned forward and put her head in her hands. “I can’t talk about this right now. Go away.” She listened as Sarah’s footsteps echoed across the wood floor and she heard the sound of a glass clinking against the metal of her kitchen sink. In a few minutes she could be alone and then she would find a way to shake off the memories and ease back into the life she’d made for herself. A life where there was no room for a woman like Sarah, who would never be satisfied until she knew every little thing about her and then be horrified at what she found.

*

Sarah set the glass down, leaned against the sink, and looked out the window. The solar-lit backyard was serene, complete with a swinging chair and a gazebo filled with flowers. The large building to the left was probably Ellery’s studio, and she imagined it was as beautiful inside as out. She wondered if she’d ever be invited in to see the place where Ellery created the stunning pieces she’d seen at the show.

Trip wanted her to get Ellery to talk about her former client. She was highly trained in questioning people from all walks of life, but everything about Ellery’s demeanor, her reactions, told her there was something complex at play and she wanted to get to the root of it, not because of what it might mean for the case, but as a way to understand this strong and complicated woman. She was convinced that whatever had Ellery so agitated had nothing to do with this particular case.

She could be wrong. It was rare, but it happened. If she pushed now, Ellery might shut down and close her out completely. Trip would be upset if she lost access, but his feelings had nothing to do with her hesitation. Any pause on her part was personal. She finally settled on being as non confrontational as possible, and she didn’t even turn around as she spoke. “I’ll go away if that’s what you really want.”

Silence.

She waited, resisting the urge to turn around, to plead with Ellery to open up to her. Years of training and experience told her the fastest path didn’t always lead to the truth, but the patience she usually possessed was nonexistent, and she knew it was because she’d let herself get too close. She should walk away, call Trip and tell him to assign someone else or bring charges and let the chips fall where they may. She’d done the best she could, and if there was ever a sign she should no longer be doing this kind of work, her inability to crack Ellery’s impenetrable shell was it.

She pushed back from the sink and walked alongside the table, so close to Ellery she could reach out and touch her shoulder, but uncertainty about whether the touch would be about comfort rather than attraction told her to resist the urge. As she crossed from the kitchen to the living room, Ellery raised her head.

“Wait.”

She turned slowly as if any sudden movement might scare Ellery back into silence.

“Stay.”

She walked back into the room until she was standing on the other side of the table, but she didn’t sit down. “We don’t have to talk about it.”

“Maybe I want to.”

“If it’s what you want.”

“Sit down. You’re making me nervous, towering over me like that.”

“I’m guessing a lot of people don’t look down on you.”

“Are you trying to be funny?”

Sarah pulled out a chair and slid into the seat. “I was trying to add some levity to the situation. We haven’t had a lot of that in our short relationship.”

Ellery straightened up in her chair. “Relationship? That’s an interesting word. I’m thinking you mean it strictly in the context of your behavioral analysis background, since when I kissed you, you ran out of here like the place was on fire.”

As if that was the only thing on fire. Sarah cleared her throat. “We shouldn’t have…I should’ve stopped you.”

“What? Before I even did it? As I recall, you kissed me back.”

“I did.”

“But it meant nothing to you.”

“Did you ask me to stay so you could grill me about my feelings or because you had something else you wanted to say?”

“I suppose both is not an acceptable answer.”

“It is if it’s true. How about we start by talking about the case and then we can talk about the rest?” Sarah made the offer expecting Ellery to continue to resist. What she hadn’t expected was for Ellery to start telling a story completely unrelated to anything to do with the bombing or the unspoken attraction between them.

“A year ago a man came to me for help. He was a family man.” Ellery spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. “Good job, at least until he was arrested, and no prior record. He was on his second attorney and his case was set for trial in a month. I am, I mean I was, always leery about defendants who’d gone through a couple of lawyers, because, you know, the common denominator is the client. He was charged with murder. I called his prior attorneys before I took on the case. The first one was a family friend who vouched for the guy. He had bonded him out of jail, but the most serious criminal case he’d handled was misdemeanor shoplifting and he wanted no part of a murder case. The second attorney was a guy I detest. Blowhard, all flash, no substance. I wouldn’t hire him to represent my worst enemy.”

“I’ve been up against that type in court. It’s no fun, especially if they win.”

Ellery nodded. “The timing was a problem. The judge had continued the trial twice to let this guy settle on the attorney he wanted, but she runs a very strict docket and she’d already made it clear she thought the guy was beginning to think he could delay trial forever if he just kept switching counsel. She gave him a choice. Forfeit his bond or be ready on the special setting.”

“He was out on bond on a murder case?”

“High bond, but yes. His employer posted it. Like I said, he had a good job. Everyone who knew him raved about him, talked about how he had to have been falsely accused. The state was crazy to think he was guilty.”

“What kind of evidence did they have?”

“The usual. All circumstantial. The victim was his neighbor. He was the last one to see her alive. Neighbors heard them fighting several times. An eyewitness saw a car that looked like his near where her body was discovered.”

“Sounds a little lame, even from this jaded FBI agent.”

“Except something similar had happened before. In another state. Neighbor lady turned up dead. He’d been the last one to see her and they’d argued.”

“Okay, so he doesn’t get along well with his neighbors.”

“Exactly. The only physical evidence the state had were some fingerprints in her house, but nothing that couldn’t be explained by the fact he’d been there several times. I had a great time making them look crazy for suspecting the head of the homeowner’s association, a successful local businessman, and a loving parent.”

Sarah noted the bitter edge to Ellery’s voice, and she was certain she knew where this story was going, although she wasn’t sure why Ellery had chosen to share it with her. “What was the result of the earlier case?”

“State didn’t have much in the way of evidence except a witness who’d seen him at the house the day of the murder. The witness disappeared before trial and they didn’t have enough to go forward on. They dismissed the case without prejudice.”

“Meaning they could refile if the witness ever showed back up.”

“Right, but that was ten years ago and they never refiled.”

“So, here he was in Dallas charged with a similar crime and he hires you. What did your gut say?”

Ellery stared hard. “Doesn’t matter. It’s all about the evidence.”

Sarah heard the edge in her voice, bitter and ironic. She didn’t want to stop the flow of Ellery’s story, but she desperately wanted to expose the source of Ellery’s obvious distress. She was convinced that was the only way it could be resolved. “What happened?”

“Exactly what should’ve happened. The jury found him not guilty. The state’s case was weak and they didn’t meet their burden. Another victory for me and he got to resume his life.”

Ellery’s clipped tone signaled her win wasn’t a true victory. At least not in retrospect. She could wonder or she could ask. Time to jar Ellery out of this vague retelling. “Are you going to tell me what really happened or just dance around the subject?”

“I’ve never told anyone. I have a funny habit of taking my oath to keep my clients’ confidences seriously.”

“Like I haven’t noticed.” Sarah smiled to lighten the mood. She reached a hand across the table and curled her fingers into Ellery’s, happy when she didn’t draw away. “You started telling me this story for a reason. Can you tell me the reason without telling me details?”

“It’s hard to distinguish between the two. I’ve already told you enough that you could look up the case if you were interested.”

“I’m interested, not because of what you might say, but because of why.” She drew a finger across her lips. “I get you may not be inclined to trust any government agents right about now, but I promise you I have no desire to look past whatever you tell me.”

“You may not be able to keep that promise once you hear what I have to say. I haven’t told anyone this.”

In the long pause that followed, Sarah wasn’t entirely sure Ellery was going to finish the story. She’d just about decided to try to gently change the subject, when Ellery cleared her throat and resumed her telling.

“This guy, I’ll call him John, he wouldn’t accept no for an answer. When he first came to me, I tried to turn him away. I had a lot of other cases pending and I knew this particular judge was unlikely to give us a reset on his case. He said he’d take his chances. He wanted me. When I heard his story and looked at the evidence, I thought I was taking on a sure winner. Even if he hadn’t offered to pay me a small fortune, I would have taken his case for the sheer justice of it. Justice. That’s a good one.” Ellery laughed and the sound was hollow and hard.

Sarah listened as Ellery relayed the story of the trial. How the judge had not allowed the prosecution to introduce anything related to the prior case. How the state’s key witness got cold feet and took off after sending a letter to the prosecutor recanting his story. How Ellery won by doing nothing more than cross-examining the state’s remaining witnesses without calling any of her own, and how she delivered an indignant closing argument that shamed the prosecution for putting her client through the trial in the first place.

As she listened she could imagine Ellery standing in the well of the courtroom, capturing the attention of the jurors with the combination of her intense likability and commanding presence. They probably nodded right along with her as she pointed out the holes in the state’s case and then demanded they do the right thing and let her client go. She almost caught herself nodding along as Ellery replayed every detail.

“A week later, I called to tell him I had the expunction paperwork ready for him to sign. I explained to him how the charges would be wiped from his record and all evidence in the police reports that was related to him would be destroyed. He asked if I could meet him at a job site and he gave me the address.”

Sarah leaned in closely now as the tension in the room sucked away the air and she hung on Ellery’s next words.

“It wasn’t a job site. It was just a desolate piece of land in the middle of nowhere. Dirt and rocks and the occasional patch of wild grass. No fences, no houses, no barn. Just the two of us standing out there all alone.” Ellery took a long drink from her beer and then set the bottle down softly on the table as if she didn’t want to break the mood, but the disconnect of her next words shattered it entirely. “You want to know the number one question I get asked?” She didn’t wait for a response before saying. “It’s how can I represent a guilty person.”

“I can only imagine.”

Ellery’s smile was mirthless. “Thanks for not asking, but my stock answer is unless I was an eyewitness, there wasn’t any way for me to know for sure if one of my clients actually did what they were accused of doing. Innocent people sometimes confess. Bad guys sometimes get falsely accused. It’s a jury’s job to decide if a person is guilty according to the law, and my only role is to make sure my clients don’t get railroaded by the system.”