Witness for the Defense (31 page)

Sarah took a deep audible breath, and I kept going.

“Wouldn’t it be a shame?” I slapped my hand on the table. “Thanks to a hangover, a serial killer might get convicted of assault and kidnapping. Now, wouldn’t that just break your heart?”

We were both silent as the waitress reappeared with our drinks. I immediately drank mine.

Sarah watched, her face grim. “I understand how you must feel. But don’t you think you’ve had enough?”

“Nope.”

“Well I think you have,” she said in a stern tone.

I started laughing, but in an instant her hand clamped tightly on my wrist. Strangely enough, it didn’t upset me. She wanted me to stop because she cared. I tried to straighten myself, but my other hand kept noticeably slipping off the seat of the booth.

“Maybe you should eat something,” she said, nodding to a spot behind me where two lone players were shooting darts. Farther back there was a cook-your-own grill where someone’s steak was charring.

“I just might do that,” I announced loudly enough for everyone to hear. I held up my glass for the waitress to see. “As soon as I have one more.”

“You’re already drunk,” Sarah declared. “You better stop.”

“Oh no, I’m not,” I said, but my head began to weave. “Don’t you understand, Sarah? I just left Reineer and he not only admitted everything, but he also threatened me. How can you get on me for having a couple lousy drinks to help calm my nerves?”

“You have more on your mind than just calming your nerves,” She nodded at the waitress, who was waiting for the bartender to pour me my third double. “I suppose that young girl was giving you what? A massage?”

I smiled. Sarah was jealous and I liked it. But I had to wait for the waitress to place my drink on the table before I could say anything.

“Will there be anything else?” she asked.

I lifted my glass in one hand and pointed to a spot halfway up the glass with the other. “When it gets this far down,” I said, feeling my tongue thickening, “get me another.”

“I keep telling you that’s not going to help,” Sarah said. The longer I looked at her, the more I understood why everyone in Kellogg’s courtroom that first day had acted like the current month’s
Playboy
centerfold had just walked in.

The three bar lumps cheering a Forty-niner touchdown broke the silence.

“You sure look beautiful when you’re upset,” I heard someone say. But my lips seemed to be the only ones moving. For weeks I’d intentionally tried everything possible to make sure I didn’t put a move like that on Sarah. Yet there I sat plotting how nice it would be to be with her on something other than a professional basis. I wanted to get her into bed. That’s when I realized I had way too much to drink—I was a goner.

“I’m not upset.”

“Whatever,” I said, and propped my elbows on the table, enjoying her face. “Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?”

“That’s twice,” she said, running her finger around the rim of her glass. “But that’s the booze talking.”

“It is not!” I bellowed.

“You’d never say anything like that if you were sober. It’s obvious that once you’ve had enough to drink,” she said nodding in the waitress’s direction, “anybody would look good to you.”

I leaned into Sarah and pointed at the waitress. “She isn’t that bad looking, is she?”

“Not for what you had in mind.”

“Phew,” I said, blowing air between my lips. “I thought for a second I’d had too much to drink.”

That finally brought a smile to Sarah. “You’re impossible.”

I tried to focus on Sarah’s face, but my head was bobbing. I rested it on the cushioned seat behind me. Then my attention was drawn to two boys about Danny’s age as they zipped past the front window on their skateboards.

“What the hell am I going to do?” I said as they zigzagged down the sidewalk. “There’s almost a dozen pieces on that damn necklace. Do you know what that means?”

“Father told me what you suspect.”

“Well I don’t suspect it anymore. Reineer admitted it.”

“I wish there was something I could do.”

“There is,” I said as I tried to sit upright. “You can help me get him convicted.”

Sarah gently placed her hand on my arm. “Dad and I talked about it at length and—”

“And there’s nothing I can do except present every defense that the law permits regardless of my personal opinion as to his guilt or innocence,” I finished for her.

“You’re stuck,” she said.

“But if he gets off, he’ll just continue his murderous rampage. There has to be a way we can make sure he won’t be set free.” I lowered my voice. “Maybe we could leak some of what I know to McBean. Like maybe that his fingerprints are on the box of perfume.”

Sarah squeezed my hand. “Ethically you can’t.”

“Screw my ethics. We have to stop him.”

“Neither you, me, nor my father,” she said, her concern rising with each word, “nor anyone who has worked with the defense can do anything even close to what you’re suggesting. All we can do is pray that somehow, someday, he’ll get caught.”

“Tell that to all the kids he’s going to rape and kill,” I said, my voice catching in the bottom of my throat.

Sarah was right. I was just hoping against hope she’d had an idea. But we both knew there was no way I could ever use anything I knew about Danny, or any of Reineer’s other victims, against him. My hands were tied. And no one knew that better than Reineer himself.

Sarah stood and firmly gripped my arm. “I think it’s time I put you to bed.”

That perked me up. I looked up at her, barely able to focus. “Only if you agree to tuck me in?”

Sarah smiled as she pulled me up. “We’ll see, lover boy.”

Thanks to the strength of Mr. Chivas, that was the last thing I remember either of us saying that night.

Chapter 34

The courtroom was packed. Every seat not occupied by court regulars and media was filled with members of law enforcement. Some in uniform, some plainclothes, they were waiting to see if the big-mouthed attorney from San Francisco would make good on his claim that he’d prove their chief of detectives had planted damaging evidence.

Priest gaveled the room quiet. Two bailiffs held the doors open as Carol Sealy paused to pat down her newly permed hair. Dressed in a pink work dress with a Sav-on badge pinned to her chest, she squared her shoulders and walked down the center aisle with a self-conscious smile. She was uncomfortable being the center of attention and was likely wishing she was still outside, sneaking a smoke. When she walked past me, I could tell by the carcinogenic waft enveloping her that she’d had one only seconds before.

I glanced past Reineer at Sarah’s empty chair. When I finally did manage to get out of bed, I found a note on my dresser from Sarah. It said she was driving to San Francisco to meet personally with Patterson. She wanted to make sure they’d be dropping the charges against me now that Bobby Miles was dead.

I couldn’t help but think about what may have happened between the two of us the night before. Something awakened me about four in the morning. I could have sworn it was the front door clicking shut. When I turned on the light, I found the blankets on the double bed pulled aside like someone may have been lying next to me.

I jerked as the sound of the clerk’s loud voice reverberated throughout my skull. “Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?” the clerk bellowed as he administered the oath.

My head was so sensitive to sound, I could hear Reineer breathe. God, what I would have given at that very moment to make sure that breath was one of his last. All I could think of was there had to be a way I could be sure he was voted guilty. But between my certain disbarment and Reineer’s conviction being overturned on appeal, there was nothing I could do. I had to ask every question and raise as much doubt in the jurors’ minds as possible.

With little enthusiasm, I systematically led Sealy through her contact with Danny that night. She specifically recalled the boy and smiled every time she mentioned his name. Like the rest of us, she was obviously smitten by him.

“I watched him from the moment he walked in.” She went on to explain that she recalled he was wearing gloves from the moment he had entered until he left.

I moved on to her meeting with McBean the following day.

“He asked me to get him a package of Gummy Bears,” she said. ‘The same kind the boy bought.”

“Then what happened?”

“He told me to put it in a bag for him.”

I paused, knowing the next answer could be the most damaging to McBean’s credibility. It would lay the foundation for Danny’s testimony later.

“Did you ever see him touch the package of Gummy Bears with his bare hands?”

She hesitated. Like everyone else, she knew the point I was trying to make and even though she was my witness, her sympathies were with the prosecution. But to her credit, she testified as she remembered it.

“I can’t say I ever did see the lieutenant touch the wrapper with his hands.”

I knew Bragg would likely object to my next and last question, but I also knew that many times the question was more important than the answer. The question itself would leave the jury wondering.

“Why didn’t Lieutenant McBean touch that candy wrapper with his bare hands?”

Sealy paused for a moment to consider it. I was wondering why Bragg hadn’t jumped to his feet screaming out an objection. Finally Sealy’s hesitation caught Bragg’s attention. He lifted his head as if a light had been flipped on.

“Objection,” he shouted. “This witness has no idea what Lieutenant McBean was thinking or what he would or wouldn’t do.”

“Sustained,” Priest said and waved at me to proceed.

“Nothing further,” I said and turned to Bragg. “Your witness.”

Bragg questioned the elderly lady for thirty minutes before he realized he couldn’t put a dent in her story. When he finally did give up, Priest recessed for lunch. As usual, I had to remain seated next to Reineer while the jurors were escorted from the courtroom.

“Have you heard from Sarah?” I mouthed to Avery who was back in his old seat.

“Not yet,” he whispered.

Reineer leaned over as I gathered the files strewn across the table. “I must talk to you,” he said sternly. They were the first words either of us had said to the other all morning.

I shoveled the rest of the files into my briefcase. “I’m busy.”

“You didn’t spend enough time examining that old witch,” he said. “Why didn’t you emphasize that McBean didn’t want to touch that package because he’d get his fingerprints all over it?”

“Didn’t you hear Bragg object?”

“So what? You should have kept it up until you were sure every one of those twelve idiots knew exactly what you were driving at.”

I didn’t have to put up with his shit. “Are you finished?”

“I’ll tell you when I’m finished.”

I edged away from the table. I didn’t want to be next to that maniac any longer than I had to. Before I had a chance to push away, Reineer reached for my leg and squeezed so hard that it felt like a metal prod was driven through my kneecap.

“That hurts,” I yelled.

The bailiff catapulted toward us. “What the hell’s going on?”

Reineer released me as the bailiff pulled on the back of Reineer’s chair. “Let’s go.”

Reineer wouldn’t budge. “I’m talking to my lawyer,” he said.

“It doesn’t look like he wants to talk to you.”

Reineer looked at me. “It’s about Sarah,” he said solemnly. “You better listen.”

More threats, no doubt. It was better to have him make them now while an armed deputy was present.

I looked at the bailiff. “Could you give us a couple?”

“No way.”

“Please,” Reineer said, “it won’t take but a minute.”

I nodded that everything was all right.

“Only a couple minutes,” he said. “And you better behave, Reineer.”

Without taking his eyes off us, the bailiff stepped far enough back so we could talk in private. From behind us someone firmly placed his hand on my shoulder. It was Avery.

“Do you need me?”

Reineer narrowed his eyes. They appeared so much darker than at any time in the past. But that’s how I saw Reineer now. Everything about him was dark. He was the Grim Reaper and I was his helper.

“Get out of here, old man,” he said. “I want to talk to Dobbs. Alone.”

I assured Avery everything was fine and I’d be right out. But before he left, he made a show of scowling at his long-time friend.

“You like Sarah, don’t you?”

Reineer’s question caught me off guard. “If that’s what you want to talk about, I’m leaving.” I placed my hands on top of the table to help push myself up.

“Don’t move,” he ordered. “I’m not done with you.”

“You’re not done with me?” I said in a mocking voice. “Well, I’m done with you.”

Reineer grinned. “You know you’ll never marry her.”

I did a double take. “What was that…? What did you just say?”

His face went blank. “You’re afraid you’ll hurt her the same way your father hurt your poor sweet mother.”

I was speechless. How did this sicko know so much about me?

“Too much liquor can make a person irrational,” he added.

“You’re probably right,” I said. “Booze was my father’s excuse. What’s yours?”

Reineer blew air from his mouth. “That’s simple,” he said. “I’m just plain old crazy.”

“You’ve got my vote.”

He grabbed my arm. “You better do a better job.”

“Or what?” I pulled away from him. “You’ll kill me, too?”

Reineer didn’t respond. He was too busy grinning at the deputy.

“If you ever were to harm me, you’d need a new attorney. You know what?” I leaned into him, so close that I could feel the warmth of his stinking breath. “That would mean the judge would have to declare a mistrial, and it would have to start over. You’d be separated from your precious necklace the whole time.”

Reineer gave me a look as though I was someone he was being forced to put up with. “Let me know when you’ve finished with your irrelevant bullshit.”

“Cut the tough guy act. You won’t do shit to me and you know it.”

A look of amusement flickered across his face. “Maybe not to you,” he said and flashed an evil smile. “But Sarah, now she’s a different story.”