Sleight of Hand (29 page)

"Honey," Wally said, taking Meg's hand as soon as the jury was escorted out,

"remember when you had the flu a couple of years ago? You had some sleeping pills. We still have them. Let's take a run out to the house, check things and get the pills. It would be a nice break, a drive out in the country, sit in our own nice chairs for a while."

"I'm all right," Meg whispered.

"You're not," he said flatly. He looked at Frank. "That's what we're going to do, head out to the house. I'm not taking a powder or anything. Don't worry."

"It's a good idea," Frank said. "I wasn't worried." At least, not about that, he added under his breath.

Chapter 39

It was late that night when Barbara finally got to bed, only to drift into a restless sleep punctuated by dreams that woke her up but left little memory Bad dreams, she knew, disturbing dreams. Hours too early she was up again, unrested and heavy-feeling.

That morning Meg looked as dopey as Barbara felt. "I'll be like this for hours," Meg said. "Sleeping pills." She grimaced. But at least she had slept.

Then the judge called on Barbara for her closing statement, and she felt the familiar surge of adrenaline.

"Ladies and gentlemen," she started, "the trial you have been witnessing involves a circumstantial case. I want to explain exactly what that means. There is no direct evidence, no indisputable facts that point to one person only as the perpetrator. No eyewitnesses. No fingerprints. No DNA samples to match.

"The only possible match the prosecutor has presented proved to be inconclusive.

The denim fibers could have come from any garment roughly of the same age, equally faded and with the same wear and tear evident. In our area, ten- or twelve-year-old denim jeans or jackets, or even children's garments, are not rare."

She was walking back and forth before the jury box slowly, emphasizing each point she made. "As it always happens with circumstantial cases, there are a few undeniable facts, and there is a great deal of speculation. What that means, ladies and gentlemen, is that the facts lead to opinions about their meaning. That is what speculation means in this context, an opinion, no more than a guess as to the meaning of factual evidence and its relevance. As we move along today, I want to make a clear distinction between the facts and the speculation about them. We all know that well-meaning people often have different opinions about the meaning of the same facts.

"In circumstantial cases such as this one it is important to know enough about each of the people directly involved in order to form your own opinion about the probability that any one of them would have behaved in the way the prosecution has speculated."

She paused a moment, then said. "I want to examine what has been testified to here in court about everyone, starting with Wally Lederer."

She did a step-by-step recap of Wally's life, then summed it up. "He committed two crimes and he accepted his punishment as just and deserved. He did not come away bitter and resentful. He confided in the restaurant owner who came to his aid, and they became lifelong friends. He valued friendship. He befriended his cell mate, an old man who was ill, because he valued the advice the man had given him. He put on exhibitions for nothing more than his expenses, and he made the training video for police departments all over the country to use and charged only the cost of handling and mailing.

"As a youth he was sentenced to do community service and today, more than forty years later, he is still doing community service because he recognized a need that he could fulfill."

She kept the focus on Wally until the morning break. When they resumed, she said,

"The second person you must take into consideration is Connie Wilkins, the wife of Jay Wilkins." There were several looks of surprise.

"She's an important element in the tragedy that unfolded," Barbara continued. "She has been referred to many times during this trial, and her death has been referred to.

She died on or about April 19 or 20 and her body was recovered nearly two weeks later. There is an ongoing investigation by the homicide unit concerning her death."

She had expected Dodgson to object, and almost obligingly he did so. "I move that the remarks be stricken," he said. "That is a red herring that adds a layer of confusion to this trial. It is irrelevant."

"Your Honor," she said quickly. "Insofar as Connie Wilkins's health was a major concern of Jay Wilkins and had a direct bearing on his actions, it is extremely relevant."

He overruled.

She recounted Connie Wilkins's history, then said, "With one exception, the witnesses who testified that she was suicidal had not seen her for more than two years. The other witness who testified that she was suicidal was the instructor who gave the exercise and self-defense class."

She shook her head. "He said he has learned to listen with more than his ears, and he had the ability to know what Connie Wilkins meant no matter what words she spoke...." She quoted a few of the things Howie Steinman had said, then added,

"You must decide if she told him to get a life, or to get on with his life.

"You heard the testimony of Adele Wykoph, a psychologist with more than two decades of experience working with troubled women. Ms. Wykoph said that Connie Wilkins was never suicidal, she had been in mourning and she did not try to pretend otherwise.

"Connie Wilkins s sister stated that she was not suicidal. It was against her religious beliefs and, besides, she had been making plans for the future. Connie Wilkins s brother said the same thing. Neither of them accepted suicide as even a remote possibility."

She reviewed Adele's statements about a public face, and how impossible it was to maintain, and compared Connie's period of deep mourning with her recovery of vitality and optimism.

She began to walk back and forth slowly again, as she said, "And finally there is Jay Wilkins."

She quickly repeated some of what the businessmen had said about him. "But keep in mind that the box where he so generously entertained his guests was paid for by the dealership. It was a business expense. As were his contributions to the university, business expenses to be taken as such, reducing the company's tax liability. The meetings he lavishly hosted were business expenses, advertising and promotion expenses.

"His associates and business friends all said that Jay Wilkins had no enemies, but that has to be examined in the light of something else they all said. They were not personal friends. He did not have a confidential relationship with any of them. The most that can be made from their opinion that he had no enemies is that they, in the casual, group relationship they had with him, did not know of any enemies. And that is quite a different statement."

Judge Wells tapped his gavel at that point and announced the luncheon recess.

"Right on schedule," Frank murmured when Barbara returned to the defense table.

When they left the courthouse for lunch, Barbara said, "I'll take a walk and catch up to you in a while."

She was aware of Frank's anxious searching look, but she ignored it, waved and left them. She felt she could not bear Wally's forced good humor, or Meg's unfeigned despair.

That afternoon, Barbara continued, "The personality of Jay Wilkins that we have been considering was not an assumed public face. With his peers, his business colleagues, his equals, Jay Wilkins had the persona of a congenial host, easy to get along with, a man who enjoyed the tailgate parties and get-togethers to watch sporting events.

"But Jay Wilkins had a second persona that was dominant at other times with other groups. Again, it was not a temporarily assumed public face. That persona was also Jay Wilkins and it governed his behavior and every aspect of his being when it was dominant. The phrase Jekyll and Hyde has passed from a literary work into the general consciousness. There are people who have different, distinct personas, and when either one is dominant, the person is exactly what that persona accepts as normal and reasonable.

"Jay Wilkins at the workplace was a man of many rules, and he enforced those rules personally and inflexibly." Item by item she reminded the jurors of the many rules and how Wilkins had enforced them.

"Jay Wilkins monitored his employees on the showroom floor, in the closing room and even in the employees' lounge. That goes far beyond maintaining discipline. It is accepted that the employee lounge is where they can relax and speak freely, but not if an inflexible employer might be monitoring every conversation.

"Aside from his many rules, Jay Wilkins showed what seemed to be an obsession about what he required of Doug Moreton. The mirrors, the washbasin and faucets, wastebaskets, the surface of the glass-topped table in the closing room, all had to be kept shiny clean at all times.

"When new management arrived, they let Doug Moreton go because they saw no need for such compulsive cleaning. There was a professional cleaning crew who came in every night, and that was sufficient, as it is with most establishments.

"Jay Wilkins did not confine his rule-making to the workplace. He tried to impose his own rules in his neighborhood." She talked about the boy whose car had been towed away and the threatened lawsuit over the camper.

"He was an impatient man who not only demanded that his rules be obeyed, but that obedience be instant."

She was moving back and forth before the jury. And they were listening attentively, without movement, as still as statues, their expressions unreadable.

Barbara continued, "Jay Wilkins imposed rules in his house, as well. The housekeeper had to clean and polish the same things every day. Although he lived alone in that big house for a number of years, and he alone might have left a fingerprint here or there, she was required to clean and polish every surface that might have shown a fingerprint or smudge. On the rare occasions that he found fault with her, he left her curt little notes — clean the refrigerator, or clean the stove. She also said that he never talked to her. And Doug Moreton doubted that Jay Wilkins even knew his name.

"At his home, Jay Wilkins installed a state-of-the-art security system and he had a special feature added to it. He wanted a log to keep tabs on every single opening and closing of all doors. His trophy cases had their own separate circuits, thus they were doubly protected. He had a key for those cases, which made them even more guarded. He knew exactly when all the doors and windows were opened and when they were closed. He wanted to know not only when anyone entered his house but when anyone left it."

Barbara regarded the jurors soberly as she said, "Please keep in mind when you deliberate the characteristics of the three people involved in this trial. And keep in mind that the past actions of most people determine their current actions. As we examine the events that occurred between Saturday, April 19, and Saturday, April 26, the night of the murder of Jay Wilkins, ask yourselves is the allegation that has been made in character?

"We know from testimony that Connie Wilkins bought her plane ticket for Virginia and packed her suitcase for the trip herself. Jay Wilkins drove her to the Portland airport on Saturday, April 19. She got out of his car to walk toward the departure gate and he left the airport and drove to the coast where he spent Saturday and much of Sunday on a preliminary investigation of property he would consider purchasing.

"We know that a chance encounter Saturday night occurred between Jay Wilkins and Mr. and Mrs. Lederer. On that occasion Jay Wilkins invited them to his home on Monday evening to discuss old times.

"We know that on Sunday evening Jay Wilkins returned home in anticipation of his wife's phone call from Virginia. And we know the phone call did not come.

"Sunday night Jay Wilkins checked the airlines and learned that his wife's flight had landed safely on time. He called his wife's sister and learned that she had not arrived, and neither was she expected. He then called the police to report his wife missing.

The officer who took his call treated it as a routine case of domestic dispute. But Jay Wilkins continued to worry and at midnight he called his manager to say he would not be at the office on Monday. He had a cell phone, and there was the phone at the dealership where his wife could have called him, but he remained at home. And at four-fifteen Monday morning he called his wife's sister in Virginia again. He told her that he had been up all night, unable to sleep because he was so worried. And he voiced his fears that Connie Wilkins was suicidal and he feared for her life. Her sister rejected that assessment. She knew it was not true and she thought, as the police officer had, that Connie Wilkins simply wanted some time alone. She did not take his call seriously.

"Jay Wilkins made other calls that day, each time repeating his fear of suicide, and those he spoke to, people who had not seen his wife for years, accepted that she might have been suicidal. But Adele Wykoph, who had been with Connie Wilkins a great deal during the winter and spring, told him that she did not believe it. That afternoon Jay Wilkins called his wife's brother in Virginia.

"This time he pleaded with the brother to get in touch if he heard from her. He said she didn't have to call or anything, but he had to know she was alive and safe." She repeated the phrase, "He had to know that she was alive and safe." She paused then for a moment before continuing.

"Connie Wilkins's brother repeated what his sister had said earlier. He knew Connie was not suicidal, and he also did not take her absence seriously.

"But on Monday Jay Wilkins called the police again and this time he demanded that they begin a full investigation, post her picture and start a real search for her.

"Jay Wilkins had no reason to state that his wife was suicidal, but such a claim accounted for his panic about her disappearance. His panic went far beyond the worry that a domestic dispute might have caused.

"Then Wally Lederer and his wife arrived in response to his invitation to visit. He put on a public face, pretended for a time to be the genial host they would have expected and showed them his trophy cases."

She paused again. The jurors remained as still as wax figures, watching her intently.

"Please picture that scene before the glass case," she said. "Jay Wilkins opened the door wide in order to remove the gold barge. He handed it to Meg Lederer. She in turn passed it to Wally Lederer. And here the two accounts diverge. In Jay Wilkins's account, he moved away from the case and took Meg Lederer's arm to escort her to the bar, leaving Wally Lederer holding the boat with the case wide-open. Ask yourselves if what you know about Jay Wilkins fits that scenario. He monitored his employees, even in the lounge, and he monitored the coming and going of his own household members. His house had the tightest security system possible. Is it likely that, knowing Wally had been convicted of stealing in the past, Jay Wilkins would have left him holding the gold boat, with other valuable objects accessible? Would that be in keeping with what you know about him?