Single Jeopardy (24 page)

Myra must have realized the logic of my argument to her and she finally agrees, as long as she can show up Miller and put away a guy who he failed to convict.

“
Okay, I’m in. What’s next? Oh, and by the way Peter…”

“
Yes my dear?”

“
I don’t satisfy the fantasies of lawyers any more.”

“
Neither do I, honey.”

“
Peter, you stopped doing that many years ago.” I can always depend on her for a compliment.

We get together at her house and after mapping out some of our strategy, I call doc and make an appointment to meet with him and Rita on his boat.

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The electricity in the air on doc’s boat is intense. Rita and I look at each other like a lion tamer looks at his favorite big cat when he steps into the cage to start the circus show. There may be some mutual affection, but not enough nerve to get too close. I lay out the basic elements of the bad faith and slander cases to them, but they want to know why I want to go over the top with these new requests, including the one about exhuming his wife’s body. I do my best to explain the strategy.

“
Listen, there are a certain amount of people who still remember your being charged with your wife’s murder years ago. Juries are usually populated with people who are old enough to remember things that happened ten years ago. And if you recall, the whole case was re-visited by the press during our recent indictment fiasco. If people didn’t notice the two lines of news on the back page of the paper where our indictment was reported as having been quashed, they still think you’re guilty of something. That means this case is more than just going in and proving up damages to a fair and impartial jury - it also mean proving that the murder case was bogus and that you’re a completely innocent guy.

“
You’re the victim here, and we have to establish it, so that the judge, jury, courtroom spectators, reporters, and everyone watching the case on Court TV believe it. It’s the only way we’ll ever get serious money out of the jury. At one time or another, everyone has had a bad experience with an insurance company, and that includes the members of the jury. If we can convince them that you’re really not a bad guy or someone who beat a murder charge on a technicality, then we might be able to give them a sub-conscious way of getting back at their own insurance companies. The other side knows this too, so if everything goes as planned, we’ll probably get a generous settlement offer before the case gets to trial.”

They look at each other and doc asks the sixty-four dollar question.

“
Does Robin’s body really have to be exhumed?” Oh boy, I was right. This must be his weak spot. He can’t back out of allowing the exhumation, because that would almost amount to an admission of guilt. I’ve got him backed up against a wall, but I don’t want him to feel cornered just yet.

“
Yes doc, I’m afraid so, and just so you’re not shocked with any surprises, I intend to have a camera crew shooting the whole thing. We want to get some sympathy out of the prospective jury pool, which is everyone watching the six o’clock news every night from now until the trial or the gag order, whichever comes first. And those viewers also include the judges and insurance company lawyers.” After a couple of minutes of hand holding they both agree. I have carte blanche, and they will notify the alleged nurse Judy to be cooperative: not just politely cooperative, but one hundred and ten percent cooperative, because she’ll be told that she’s going to be cut in for a little taste of the damage award.

Now that we’re all on the same page, I break the news to them about the identity of my new associate. Rita is not pleased by this announcement. “That horrible lady who had us arrested? Your ex-wife?”

“
Yes, that’s her, but she’s seen the light and come over from the dark side to help us.” They look at each other. “Please, let me handle this. I promise you that she agrees with me on this case, and having the former deputy district attorney who tried so hard to prosecute you now on your side can only help you. It may get the public to believe that your being prosecuted was wrong from the get-go. All that we both want is for you to get the justice you deserve.” That last part is no lie. They finally agree to leave it in my hands and work with Myra.

First Myra joins the team, and then both the doc and Rita buy in. I love it when a plan comes together like this.

I call Jack Bibberman and tell him to get his video camera kit ready: we’re going to Catalina Island. Myra insists that we fly over there. I know that her fear of seasickness is probably behind the suggestion, but it winds up being a good idea. Not only does it save us a lot of time, but any plane we hire can land at the airport on top of the island, which isn’t too far from Nurse Judy’s convalescent home and the burial grounds.

Also at Myra’s suggestion, we bring with us a lady from the independent lab that did all the district attorney’s DNA analyses. Her job is to get a sample from whoever is buried there in Robin Gault’s grave, protect the legal chain of evidence custody, bring it back to the lab, and run every test on it known to mankind. She also took samples from doc and Rita before we left, so she’ll have some fresh stuff for comparisons.

Doc and Rita decline to join us, which is just fine, because I want to avoid any awkwardness between them and their former persecutor. They agreed to work together, but I know in my heart that Myra still believes he is a murderer and doc believes she’s on an unjust crusade, so the distance between them will work well for us.

Once on the island, our primary job is to document the exhumation and DNA extraction. Behind the scenes, we want to get a look at the convalescent home’s records to see who came in, when, who went out, when, and by what means. We’re hoping to get a lead on who is buried in Robin Gault’s grave.

I learned a good technique from Daniel Vincent, so on this trip I brought along a laptop computer and a portable scanning device. Those handy items worked well for his law practice and they will do just fine for mine. Any documents we find can be scanned into the computer and e-mailed back to Suzi at the office. No fuss, no waiting. The office will have them immediately and probably have a complete analysis and background check on everything and everyone involved before our plane returns to the Santa Monica Airport.

The plane we charter is a twin-engine Cessna Crusader, complete with leather interior, air conditioning, refreshment center, and other luxuries. It carries two crew and four passengers, with room left over for luggage, but not enough for an office manager and Saint Bernard. Other than me, our four-passenger list includes Myra, videographer Jack Bibberman, and the DNA technician, and we’re all flying in first-class comfort. We don’t care how much it costs, because part of the doc’s retainer agreement includes my using his titanium American Express card to cover all expenses in getting the goods on the insurance company. Surprisingly, it isn’t that much. The charter company sells 1/16
^th
timeshares, with monthly payments of less than two thousand dollars. By doing some Internet searching, our office manager found one of the participants who let us use it this week, so we got the trip for a really fair price, which is probably just a little bit more than we would have had to spend for all of us to come over on commercial flights… but on our own travel schedule.

If you’ve never flown to Catalina’s mountaintop airport, make sure you’re heart’s in excellent condition before you try it. Approaching the landing strip, you’re faced with a sheer vertical cliff. If for any reason there’s a downdraft and the plane drops twenty feet or so, the plane doesn’t go onto the runway, it slams into the face of the cliff. Fortunately, Myra and I are seated in the two seats that face to the rear of the plane, so we don’t have a chance to see the death-defying airport approach that Jack and the DNA techie watch with eyes and mouths wide open. Surprisingly we make it. No crash, no airsickness, no problems of any type, until we all climb into the rented Volkswagen van that is hired to transport us to the convalescent home. It’s a long winding road down the mountain, and our driver must have been trained as a Tijuana taxicab driver. By the time we get to nurse Judy’s establishment, I’m ready to check in for an extended stay, but after remembering what happened to the unknown guest now buried in Robin Gault’s grave, I change my mind.

The place isn’t bad. It has a beautiful view of the California mainland, and on a clear day you can see the cloud of brown smog hanging over Los Angeles. You can also see down to Avalon Harbor, where boaters from all the Marinas in Southern California come to spend their weekends. The weather in this part of the country is ideal and perfect for all year boating, but there’s just no place to go. People on the North East Coast only have about five good months to use their boats, but at least they’ve got some really nice destinations and ports to visit during their shortened season, plus the entire Intracoastal Waterway for a nice cruise up and down the whole eastern seaboard. All we’ve got here in our paradise is Catalina Island, so we try to make the best of it.

Down in Avalon Harbor, there are about 400 leased moorings, each privately painted with the name of the boat that has the right to tie up to it. When not being used by their lessees, the city of Avalon has the right to rent them out to visiting boaters on a first-come-first-serve basis for anywhere from twenty to eighty dollars per night, depending on the size boat that each mooring can accommodate. The moorings are leased to boaters by the city on a long-term basis for only a few hundred dollars a year, but having your name on one of those mooring cans means that you have first right to use it any time you want. All you have to do is call the harbormaster’s office and tell them when you’ll be here. I’ve heard rumors that to get an ‘owner’ to transfer the lease on a fifty-foot mooring can cost up to one hundred thousand dollars. I personally know of a nice fifty-foot Grand Banks that would really look good tied up to its own private ‘can,’ not far from the island’s large round casino building where the island’s only movie theater is located, along with the Catalina museum of its own history.

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The phony Nurse Judy is extremely cooperative. She tells us we can see the books, copy what we want, snoop and pry to our hearts’ content, and interview the other guests. Myra does the interviews. Some of the attendants do the digging, the DNA lab lady does all the tests, Jack Bibberman does the videography, while I concentrate on going through the records, scanning and e-mailing everything I can find back to the office by using a device that hooks the small laptop computer to my cell phone. Don Paige, our dock’s Internet guru felt guilty about the misdelivered emails on his network, so he fixed us up with this device, hooked it up and showed me how to use it, all at no charge.

I have to hand it to Myra. She talked everyone at the home into giving up a DNA sample, including phony Nurse Judy and the attendants. I don’t know what spiel she used, but whatever it was, it worked. Our lab tech’s sample case is completely filled up by the time she’s through. At over a thousand a test, I don’t want to think of what it’s going to cost the doc, but since he’s sure that he’ll recover his costs when we win the lawsuits, he doesn’t seem to care about advancing the money for this dog-and-pony show.

I don’t think we’ll be finding anything remarkable while we’re here, but I’m counting on our office to analyze the info we collect and spot whatever looks out of the ordinary or important to the case.

We finish up at the convalescent home, tip the two attendants generously for helping with the exhumation, thank Nurse Judy and depart the way we came, via VW van. All the way back to the airport and during the half-hour flight back to Santa Monica Airport, Myra says nothing. I can tell that something is going through her mind, there usually is, but this time I’m locked out of the loop. Just like during our marriage.

I’m glad it’s a quiet trip, because I need some thinking time before reporting back to doc and Rita about how we dug up what was supposed to have been their mother’s grave.

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It’ll be several weeks before DNA results from the island come back, so in the meantime I start looking into what can be done on Maggie’s case. Criminal matters move a lot faster than civil ones do and I want to be able to nail Palmer for some of his money before it’s all spent on a high priced criminal defense team. I call both Maggie and Stuart in for a briefing on Sexual Harassment law, and some possible strategy talk about her case.

When they arrive at the boat I think it best to give them a brief overview of the subject, so that we might all be on the same page while planning strategy. I hand Stuart a dollar bill. He’s now considered on my staff as an investigator, so that in accordance with our state’s evidence code, he’s a person ‘present to further the interest of the client,’ and thereby doesn’t endanger Maggie’s right to assert the attorney-client privilege, should that be necessary at any time in the future.

In many previous cases the courts have held that the presence of a third person who was neither a party to the case nor associated with counsel has broken the expectation a client should have for enforcement of that privilege, but one dollar took care of that problem today. Suzi reminded me to get a receipt form Stuart.

It’s now time to start my little lecture, and I can see why so many lawyers like to teach at local law schools for very little money: it’s an ego trip.

“
First of all, you should know that the federal law recognizes two different sets of legal grounds for claiming sexual harassment. The first is
quid pro quo
. Under that one, the plaintiff, that’s you, Maggie, gets a demand from a person in authority, like a boss or supervisor, that you provide a sexual favor as condition for getting a job benefit, or keeping your job. So if someone where you worked tried to take advantage of you, that’s one ground we might have to work with.