Sleight of Hand (28 page)

Chapter 37

That afternoon Barbara had to admit that although she despised the insinuating questions Dodgson asked, she admired his skill at implying more than the words he used. Even his body language was an accusation. He was standing before the witness stand, his arms folded across his chest, staring at Wally fixedly as he said,

"Mr. Lederer, it is well-known that performers have to practice their craft continuously. Singers sing, dancers dance and so on. Does practicing your act rely on others who are both unsuspecting and innocent?"

Wally considered it for a moment, then said, "The final act does. When I was still—"

Dodgson cut him off. "You answered the question. You need unsuspecting and innocent people for your act to work. While practicing, did you say, 'Excuse me, sir, while I pick your pocket'?"

"Objection," Barbara said sharply. Without hesitation Judge Wells sustained it.

Dodgson left it at that, but he had made his point. He shrugged and shook his head.

He asked, "When you were perfecting your act and your wife was supporting both of you, did you ever try to get a real job?"

"That's what I was doing all the time, preparing for a real job, a profession as an entertainer."

"Were you content to let her be the official breadwinner while you were
practicing
your craft?" He had made his point and the heavy sarcasm in his voice made it clear what he meant.

"Objection," Barbara cried. "Your Honor, the prosecutor is couching his questions in a manner that is both prejudicial and full of unwarranted implications."

"I just asked a simple question," Dodgson said, raising his eyebrows as if surprised at her indignation.

"Overruled," Judge Wells said.

"Were you content?" Dodgson nearly yelled the question at Wally.

If Wally was struggling to remain calm it was hard to tell, but his voice was firm when he said, "I was working to make a better future—"

"Move the answer be stricken," Dodgson said in a loud voice. "Not responsive."

It was stricken.

"Were you content? Yes or no."

"Yes."

"What was your wife's job?"

"Objection. Irrelevant."

"It's relevant," Dodgson said smoothly. "He was content for her to be the breadwinner. It's fair to know what she had to do to keep him content."

"Your Honor," Barbara said angrily, "I move that the prosecutor's comment be stricken and he be told to stop editorializing."

Judge Wells said softly, but in a way that suggested he was as angry as Barbara,

"Sustained. Mr. Dodgson, ask your questions in a straightforward manner."

Dodgson spread his hands in a gesture suggesting he was innocent. He spent the next hour trying to get Wally to admit to envy of the wealth of the celebrities who frequented the casinos, their expensive jewelry, the retinues that accompanied them, their fat wallets. It was excruciating to watch. His manner, his looks of disgust and disbelief, of incredulity said more than the words.

Barbara well understood that he was trying to rattle Wally, make him lose his temper.

And he was running out the clock. He didn't want to finish in time for Barbara to start her redirect. He wanted the jurors to take away the impression he was creating that Wally was a deceitful man, lying, secretly envious of others, and one who very likely used his skill as a pickpocket not only on the stage, but off, as well. Guilt by implication, by innuendo and insinuation. Plant the seeds of distrust and suspicion and let them take root overnight and send the roots deep into the jurors' minds where they would be hard to remove. Whether her many objections were sustained or overruled, Dodgson was undeterred.

At lunch that day neither Wally nor Meg had any appetite. Barbara took a sandwich and immediately went upstairs with Shelley. They had work to do.

Dodgson didn't get to the boat until late that afternoon. "Isn't it true, as Mr. Wilkins told the investigating officer, that he handed that boat to you and while you were looking at it, he escorted your wife to the bar room?"

Frank took Meg's hand and held it firmly. She was trembling.

"No, that isn't true," Wally said.

"Filled with envy for the boss's son who was now the boss, surrounded by luxury and comfort while you were struggling to make your house habitable, didn't it strike you as a way to get back, to even the score just a little bit by taking a prized possession of his?"

Barbara called out her objection before Dodgson finished his question. "Your Honor, may I approach?"

He beckoned them forward.

"His questions are loaded with false implications and assumptions that have repeatedly been denied. Such questions are on the order of when did you stop beating your wife? Mr. Dodgson is reinforcing again and again his own assertions about envy and jealousy that Mr. Lederer has repeatedly disclaimed. I move that his entire line of questions be stricken."

"You're out of your mind!" Dodgson said, possibly even in real disbelief.

"I will take your motion under advisement," the judge said. "Mr. Dodgson, I have spoken twice to you about inserting opinions and implications into your questions. If you persist, not only will I find you in contempt of court, I will order you to submit your questions in writing for my approval and have the court stenographer read them to the witness. Is that clear?"

Dodgson nodded, and Judge Wells said sharply, "I want an answer, counselor. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Your Honor."

"Objection sustained. Rephrase the question, Mr. Dodgson, and take my warning to heart."

In a series of rapid-fire questions, Dodgson forced Wally to admit that when Jay Wilkins moved from the glass case to lead the way to the bar room, there had been a time, however brief, that his back had been turned and he couldn't have kept his eyes on Wally during that period.

And so he had it both ways, Barbara thought. It didn't matter if Wally had handed the boat back or if Jay had replaced it himself, there had been an opportunity for Wally to take it.

Dodgson moved on to the day when the detective and the insurance agent had gone to ask Wally about the boat. "When the detective told you to hand it over and Mr.

Wilkins would forget the whole thing, did you believe him?"

"I had no reason to believe or disbelieve—"

"Did you believe him? A simple yes or no!"

"Objection. The witness was trying to answer the question."

"No speech is called for," Dodgson said hotly. "He believed it or he didn't."

"He didn't know what the detective was talking about. He had no basis for belief or disbelief."

"Sustained," Judge Wells said.

"If you had taken the boat then would you—"

Barbara objected before he could finish. "Conjectural. A hypothetical question." It was sustained.

"Looking back now, from what you know about Mr. Wilkins, do you believe today that he would have forgotten the matter?"

She objected and it was sustained.

"Did you worry about that boat all week, what it could mean if a charge of grand theft should be filed with an expanded investigation?"

Wally said yes, he worried.

"Did you consult a criminal defense attorney during that week?"

"Yes."

"And on Saturday night, did you decide you had to try to clear up the mess, make amends, ask forgiveness—"

Barbara objected in a loud furious voice.

"Withdraw the question," Dodgson said. "Mr. Lederer, on Saturday night, April 26, did you leave your house at about nine o'clock and drive to the home of Jay Wilkins? Did you ask him to forget the—"

"Objection!"

"Sustained," Judge Wells said sharply.

Dodgson swung away from Wally abruptly and returned to the prosecution table.

"No more questions," he said angrily. He looked as if he believed he was being thwarted by the legal system and the defense attorney, both intent on preventing his getting at the truth. He sat down with his arms crossed, glaring at Wally.

She could well understand why he had a string of successful prosecutions behind him. It was ten minutes past five and Judge Wells adjourned for the day.

The small group at the defense table did not hurry out. "Let's wait until the corridor clears a bit," Frank had suggested. Meg was very pale and shaking, and Wally, now that the focus was no longer on him, was little better. "You were really super," Frank said to him.

"You raised a live one," Wally said, nodding toward Barbara. "She's good." He had one arm around Meg's shoulders and she was leaning in toward him.

"The best," Frank agreed.

"I think what we'll do," Wally said, "is go to our room and have a good drink or two, and eventually order some food. And then," he said, giving Meg a little shake,

"let's take in a movie. Game?"

"Whatever you want to do," she said in a low voice. She looked as if she would get to their room and weep for a long time.

"Okay," Barbara said, "let's make tracks. You were great, Wally. The best I've ever had on the stand. Now Shelley and I have work to do. Make the movie a comedy."

While Shelley transcribed the notes she had made all through Dodgson's cross-examination, Barbara and Frank started on her closing statement. They stopped for the dinner delivery later and got back to it. Shelley left at ten, and it was midnight when Barbara began to gather up her own things.

"Bobby, try to get a little sleep tonight," Frank said. But he knew she would go over the day's inquisition closely. They were both very aware that Dodgson had scored points that day. Sleep was not a menu item that night.

Chapter 38

The next morning, Barbara started her redirect examination. "Mr. Lederer, you said you felt no envy toward Jay Wilkins when you were boys working at the dealership.

What did you feel toward him?"

"I was sorry for him more than anything, when I thought of him at all. But I didn't spend much time thinking about him."

"Why were you sorry for him?"

"Well, we were both hired at the same time, at minimum wage, and I was working twenty hours a week, and he was working half that much, and sometimes even less. I had more spending money than he did even after buying my own clothes and things, and putting away a little for school. A lot of times he didn't have gas money, and once when he let his insurance lapse, his dad took away his car keys until he caught up. After I left the job every day, I could forget it, but he had to go home with his dad. I wouldn't have traded places with him for anything. I mean, his father had all those rules, and he made everyone follow them, and I guessed it was the same at their house."

She nodded. "The question was raised about how you practiced your act in the early years. Can you explain to the jury how you perfected your skill?"

He grinned. "I must have picked Meg's pocket a thousand times. Also, we got hold of a store mannequin and while she was working I practiced with it. We'd sit in a sidewalk cafe with coffee and I watched people, where they kept their wallets, the inside breast pocket, or hip pocket, or even in the side pocket of a coat. And one night at the restaurant where Meg worked I got to talking with the owner, Luigi Maggiore, and I told him everything, and what I was up to, but I needed some real live people and I was stumped. He thought it was pretty funny, and he suggested that he might be able to help. It was a neighborhood restaurant with a lot of regulars. He said he'd invite some of them over for an after-dinner treat and let me have a go at them. We talked it over and it seemed perfect.

"One night about eight people hung out after they ate, waiting for the treat. They all knew Meg —she was the cashier and hostess —and she took me around introducing me. Luigi didn't show up but his wife was there, in on it, and she invited everyone to have a drink on the house while they waited. So everyone was milling about, talking.

Altogether it was half an hour or more before Luigi came in. He asked them all to be seated and said he'd explain what was in store. I started pulling things out and putting them on a table and his wife handed them back. The folks were all laughing, having fun. They wanted to do it again another time and I said it would be best if unsuspecting people were involved, and someone said, why not do it again next week and he'd bring in another couple and not tell them what was up. A few of them did that, and then the friends brought friends, and I got in a lot of practice."

"Did Mr. Maggiore provide free drinks for that event?"

"Well, we agreed that I'd pay for them, but he only charged me at cost, so it was okay. After the first time, most of them didn't take him up on it, when they realized what the joke was."

"Have you kept in touch with Mr. Maggiore through the years since then?"

"Yes. He's one of our good friends. He's in a nursing home now and we visit him two or three times a year."

"Did you keep in touch with any of the regular diners who were there in the first practices?"

"Quite a few of them. I send them passes for any show I'm going to be in and we get together when they can make it."

"After you started working at the casinos didn't you envy the wealth you saw all around you?"

Wally shook his head. "Those folks had their lives and we had ours. I liked ours.

Those exhibitions took us all over the country, three or four different areas year after year. We had a camper and over the years we explored wherever we happened to be. Grand Canyon, the sequoia groves, the Tetons, old Williamsburg, Mammoth Cave, the museums in New York and Philadelphia. We liked our lives just fine."

"When you went to Jay Wilkins's house, did you feel a sense of injustice that he had so much and you had little in comparison?"

Wally shook his head. "It wasn't like that. I thought it was a little pathetic that he was my age and living in his father's house, while I had worked for my house and it was truly mine and Meg's. We found exactly the house we had come home for, and we love it. I thought there he was surrounded by things his father and grandfather had collected, they weren't really his. It was more like he was the caretaker. And he was having trouble with his wife when my wife was by my side, still my best friend. It was not enviable at all to see him so jumpy and nervous."

"Did you feel that you had to settle the score in any way?"

"No. There wasn't any score to settle. I thought his father had decided his future, and he had stepped right into the role his father had chosen. I felt sorry for him."

She continued to cover some of the points Dodgson had hammered on until the morning recess.

"I'll wrap it up in a few minutes and Dodgson will make his closing statement, and either he'll stretch it out until adjournment, or he may stop early, hoping to break my stride by adjournment. If he cuts it off between four and four-thirty, I'm going to ask for an early adjournment. Meg, I'll use you as a reason to stop early. I'll tell the judge you're ill. Okay?"

"I don't think it would be a lie," Meg said. "By the time that man finishes, I may be quite ill." She looked ill, pale, with deep shadows under her eyes.

"We call what ails you a hangover," Wally said gravely. "I poured gin and tonics into the old girl last night, had her giggling like a kid." He grinned, but that morning his grin looked forced.

When Barbara resumed, she asked, "Mr. Lederer, you admitted that you were worried after the detective and the insurance agent came to your house to ask questions about the boat. You consulted an attorney. Will you please tell the jury what advice you were given?"

"You said there wasn't a thing I could do except deny it. I didn't take that boat but there was no way to prove it. You said it is impossible to prove that you didn't do something if it seemed that you'd had the opportunity. You told me to be patient and wait for developments."

"Did you take that advice?"

"Yes."

She asked a few more questions to reinforce what he had said earlier, then she asked, "When was the last time you saw that gold boat before it appeared here in court?"

"That Monday night when my wife and I visited Jay at his house."

"When was the last time you ever saw Jay Wilkins?"

"That same night, Monday, April 21."

"Exactly what did you do from six o'clock on during the evening on Saturday, April 26?"

"I changed my shoes and jeans on the back porch, showered and had dinner with Meg. We cleaned the kitchen together, then settled down to watch a movie. When it ended we went to bed."

She nodded at him. "Thank you, Mr. Lederer. No more questions." It was five minutes before eleven, an hour and a half before the usual lunch recess.

Wally was excused and Judge Wells asked Dodgson if he was prepared to make his closing statement.

Dodgson spent the hour and a half extolling the virtues of Jay Wilkins, a man of integrity, with an impeccable reputation, a preeminent business leader who had been looked up to by the entire business community, and indeed the community as a whole. He had no enemies.

"He gave up his social life when he married Connie Wilkins and devoted himself to her care....

"And then, on a mission that was devoted to the future of his wife's health, a chance encounter brought him in contact with Wallis Lederer."

Barbara glanced at her watch, twelve twenty-five, right on time, she thought derisively. Judge Wells tapped his gavel a minute later and announced the luncheon recess.

"Sort of makes you want to go lay a wreath on his grave," Wally commented as Frank drove them to his house for lunch. "Or drive a stake through his heart,"

Barbara said. Her gaze met Wally's in the rearview mirror. His was shrewd and knowing. He believed Jay had killed Connie, and she had more or less confirmed his suspicion that she shared that belief. She turned away and did not try to modify what she had said.

Dodgson picked up where he had left off when he started that afternoon. "Jay Wilkins extended the hand of friendship and offered the hospitality of his home to the defendant....

"You have been entertained and amused during the course of this trial, but, ladies and gentlemen, this trial is convened for one purpose and one purpose only, to determine the guilt or innocence of the defendant. There have been many diversions from that one grim purpose, many side trips to distract your attention, and now you must refocus on the facts of the case.

"Jay Wilkins had no enemies with a murderous hatred in their hearts. He was well liked and respected. He set rules at his workplace, and he expected those who accepted the rules, his employees, to abide by them just as he abided by the rule of law.

"There was one and only one motive for his murder." He went to the exhibit table and picked up the gold barge, returned to stand close to the jury box, and held it up.

"It is a fact that this gold boat was in Jay Wilkins's house on the night of April 21. It is a fact that for a time, however brief, Mr. Wilkins's back was turned from the case and from the boat. Whether it was in the case or in the defendant's hands is irrelevant. We have all seen his skill at stealing, how fast he can move, as fast as a striking snake. The boat is small, not much bigger than a deck of cards. It could be slipped into a pocket in a second."

He slipped it into his own pocket where it made hardly a bulge. He took it out again and returned it to the exhibit table.

"It is a fact that after the defendant and his wife left Jay Wilkins, he closed the outside door, resetting the security system, and that system is mute evidence that no door in that house was opened again until the housekeeper arrived the following morning and discovered the theft. It is a fact that the defendant is a felon, twice convicted of theft. It is a fact that after being questioned about the theft of the boat the defendant was alarmed enough to consult a criminal attorney. He knew a third conviction with his criminal record would result in a much longer prison sentence than the one he had served in the past. He was told by the attorney that it would be impossible to prove he didn't take the boat, and we can surmise how much that must have added to his alarm.

"It is a fact that we know exactly when the house was entered during the days that followed the theft. And we know exactly who entered, when and when they left again, right up until the discovery of the murder of Jay Wilkins."

Dodgson went down the list carefully, detailing each time the door had opened and closed.

"It is a fact that no one had the opportunity to return the boat before the night of April 26, the night of Jay Wilkins's murder, and no one had the opportunity to return it after that murder."

He paused, then said, "There is only one conclusion that can be drawn from the undisputed facts. Only one person could have taken the boat and returned it. Only one person entered the house on the night the boat was taken, and that same person entered the house the night the boat was returned, and on that night Jay Wilkins was assaulted and killed. Only one person was there on both nights, the thief and the murderer. And that person was the defendant, Wallis Lederer. Why he took the boat makes no difference. Envy, malice, a vicious practical joke? It doesn't matter. The fact is that he alone had the opportunity."

The prosecutor began a meticulous and painstaking recapitulation of the night of the murder. After that he said, "You have heard much testimony about the dirt and debris found on the jeans the detectives collected from the defendant's house but, ladies and gentlemen, we have no way of knowing how much dirt was on those jeans on the night of the murder of Jay Wilkins. Perhaps the defendant wasn't cutting blackberries that day We don't know, but ask yourselves, is it likely that Mr. Wilkins would have opened his door to admit a stranger off the street who just happened to be wearing jeans that were an identical match to those collected from the defendant?"

He looked and sounded incredulous at the idea.

In the same vein he said, "And ask yourself if it isn't stretching coincidence too far to suggest that a car drove down Hunter's Lane at nine-fifteen, an event unusual enough to draw the attention of Mrs. Ogden. Is it a coincidence that that car left the area where the defendant lived at precisely the right time to arrive at the Wilkins house at nine forty-five on the night of April 26?" He shook his head and looked the jurors over as if expecting an immediate answer.

"You have the facts, ladies and gentlemen," Dodgson said. "You are required to consider them carefully when you begin your deliberations and put aside all the distractions that have been presented by the defense. The facts say one thing loud and clear —the defendant did steal the boat, and on the night he returned the boat, he murdered Jay Wilkins."

When he sat down Judge Wells said, "Is the defense ready to make its closing statement at this time?"

Barbara turned to Meg, who looked as if she might faint. "Your Honor," she said, rising, "may I approach?"

When she and Dodgson went to the bench, he looked smug and satisfied. She asked for an adjournment for the day. Dodgson protested vigorously. "It's just a waste of time, a delaying maneuver."

"Mrs. Lederer has been taken ill," Barbara said when he subsided. "I'm afraid she will collapse in court."

The judge looked past her at Meg, then nodded. "I think that's a reasonable request at this time," he said. "We'll recess until morning then. I trust that if Mrs. Lederer needs medical attention that will be taken care of overnight."

"Yes, Your Honor. Thank you. We'll see to it."

That was a sincere pledge, Barbara thought when she returned to her table. Meg needed a tranquilizer, or sleeping pills, or something to get her through the next day or two. She must have felt the knife twist deeper into her heart every time that damned boat was mentioned.