Fox is Framed (18 page)

Chapter 22

“Are we ready to bring the jury in?” Judge Liu asked as Crowder pushed through the swinging gate, dropping her file box with a thud on the chair where Shanahan would normally be sitting. She was late, and we'd all been waiting in the silent courtroom for ten minutes. Where was her lead detective, I wondered. And what about Eric Gainer? He could be upstairs waiting in the DA's office—but if they planned to call him as their first rebuttal witness, he ought to be visible now.

“Your Honor, if I could just have a minute to confer with Ms. Schuyler. The state has a proposal for a plea bargain.”

Liu blinked in surprise. It was a shocking development. The balance of the trial had appeared to have been tipped in the state's favor. Until this minute. “Use the jury room. Take the time you need, but no more than fifteen minutes,” Liu admonished. “We've kept these jurors waiting long enough.”

Nina shot me a glance. I touched Teddy's arm and we went through the swinging door into the well of the courtroom, followed closely by Dot. I put a hand on my father's shoulder. Through the fabric of his suit I could almost feel his anxiety. I let Crowder go first, then we filed into the windowless jury room with its conference table and dozen chairs. Nina sat in the chair at the head of the table and leaned back, apparently without expectations. The toll of the trial showed around her eyes. The rest of us and Crowder remained standing.

“Here's the offer,” Crowder said. She too looked exhausted. “Second-degree murder, conditional plea for time served, you walk out of here today.”

“What about Bell?” Nina asked, her posture betraying neither surprise nor appreciation, just the fatalism of a lawyer nearing the end of a hard-fought trial. “We'd need a nonprosecution agreement.”

Crowder shook her head. “Not gonna happen. He has to take his chances.” It crossed my mind that it might be a trick, that they were hoping to get Lawrence to plead guilty to killing my mother as a means of building up the case against him for murdering Russell, establishing motive beyond a doubt. If I'd been the DA on my father's case, I'd have gone for the jugular. I wouldn't have been offering any kind of deal today.

Whatever it was that had brought about this softening in the DA's position, Crowder wasn't telling. “I'll leave you to talk it over,” she said to Nina. “I'm sure you know that I'm fully prepared to press forward. This is from over my head.”

I speculated this could mean Jackson Gainer had leaned on someone in the DA's office, and Crowder had been told she needed to offer Maxwell a plea to protect Eric Gainer from being called as a witness, but speculation was all it was.

Or maybe my visit to Eric had achieved more of an effect than I'd realized.

“Five minutes,” Nina told her, at which point Crowder left us there, wondering.

“She must have heard something that worries her from Eric Gainer,” I said. Nina just shrugged. I recognized her indifference for what it was, a lawyer's recognition that only one consideration mattered now, whether to take the deal or reject it. The backstory was irrelevant.

“With a conviction on my record, I wouldn't be able to get my law license back,” Lawrence said. “I wouldn't be employable.”

Teddy reassured him, “You'll have a job.”

“I'm ready to proceed,” Nina told him. “But I wouldn't blame you for taking this offer. Other than that, I have no advice. I'm going to leave you three to talk it over. Whatever decision you make will be the right one.” She rose, resting her hand briefly on my father's arm, and walked out.

There was a pause after she'd gone. Then Dot said, “It's the deal you wanted, Lawrence. All except the nonprosecution. We could walk out of here right now and be done with Caroline forever. I'm ready to say good-bye. Aren't you?”

He didn't respond, but gripped her hand.

Teddy said, “You can't think about the other case. Divide and conquer. This one, they've heard Shanahan testify about the confession. We have to cut our losses.”

“Leo doesn't want me to take the deal,” Lawrence said, reading it in my face. “Teddy does.”

I hadn't intended to take a side, but Teddy didn't seem to see the danger of accepting this offer, only the immediate benefit of ending the trial. “You have to remember your plea in this case would be admissible in the next one. It would be evidence of your motive for killing Bell. All you'd have accomplished is punting to the next trial, while providing the DA with an admission of guilt to beat you over the head with. I feel good about this jury. I don't want you to admit to anything. You've been fighting for twenty-one years. Don't give in so close to the end.”

My father's eyes were bright. “You don't want me to admit to something I didn't do.”

“Pleading guilty doesn't mean admitting to anything,” Teddy said, his voice tight. “You just stipulate to a factual basis.”

“That's what it means to a lawyer,” I told Teddy. “But I'm not a lawyer on this case. I'm sorry. I can't help it.” Dot's eyes were hard, and she nodded to me. I turned to Lawrence again. “If you were my client I'd tell you to take the deal. But, speaking as your son, it makes me want to throw up, the thought of you giving them anything after all we've come through.”

“You believe I'm innocent,” Lawrence said. “You really believe it.”

I couldn't answer, but I gave a nod. My encounter with Lucy last night had essentially confirmed all that my father had reported in his surprise testimony about his conversation with Bell. Bell had surprised Lucy and raped her, then faked her death and used that to blackmail Gainer, and either Jackson Gainer or Lucy had killed him for it.

“Teddy believes I'm innocent, and still he wants me to take the plea. So does Dot.”

“Do what you have to do,” she told him. “It's going to break my heart if they put you back in, that's all. And I don't care about you having a record, but Leo has a good point. They may just be setting you up, and I don't want to go through this again. I'm ready to walk back out there and testify for you. I've never been readier. Just promise me one thing. If you get off, we go straight down to city hall and get married.”

He looked her in the face and nodded to her. She kissed him.

“I don't want you going back to prison for something you didn't do,” Teddy said. “You'll have a conviction on your record, but who gives a shit? At least you'll be out here rather than in there. You lose this trial, then you'll have a conviction, and you'll be back inside for life, too.”

“It's good advice he's giving you,” I said. “It's the smart move. But remember, if they try you for Bell, the jurors will hear about this prosecution. Even if you win here, the DA can still argue that you only got off because you had Bell killed.”

“But you all believe in me,” my father said. Again I nodded. “Then I'll turn it down. Let's go back in there. Let's keep fighting.”

“Leo,” Teddy said. For an instant he resembled his old self. “Let me talk to Dad and Dot alone for a minute.”

I could see that our father didn't want me to leave. His hand still gripped Dot's. I didn't get up. “You should probably listen to Teddy and take his advice,” I told him, knowing he wouldn't. “He's been fighting for you longer than I have. I'm late to the party. I won't hold it against you if you take the deal. In your shoes, I'd probably take it.”

“If you all believe in me, then let's go back in there,” Lawrence said. “Let's go on fighting. You're right. Jesus. Twenty-one years. I'm not going to stop now. I'm not going to let those bastards beat me right before the end.”

“This could turn out badly,” Teddy said, looking at us with dismay. The one thing he no longer was was a gambler.

“He's told the truth,” I told Teddy. “Every word of his testimony, it was the truth, and I know it now for a fact.” I'd learned that much from my encounter with Lucy last night, that it was true Russell had
had her again
, as our father had testified. “I think we can make the jury see that you were trying to do what was right.”

“I don't think you should listen to him,” Teddy said. He looked both sad and grim.

“I hear everything you're saying, Teddy, and I know you're right, but I can't give in. Leo's right; they'll just use it against me in the next trial if I plead guilty here. I can do the time if that's what I have to do. It'll be different after this. You won't abandon me if the judge puts me back in?” Lawrence now asked me.

“No,” I managed to say. “I'll visit you. Even if they convict you, this won't be the end. That confession should never have come into evidence.”

“I'm going to turn down the deal,” Lawrence said to Teddy. “You boys have carried me this far. But whatever happens now, it's on me.”

With this decision, we went back out into the courtroom. Sitting at the defense table, Nina looked up questioningly. I caught her gaze and held my clenched fist before me. Nina gave a satisfied nod, her eyes half closing, then she looked down at her pad.

~ ~ ~

Shanahan came in the doors at the back and resumed his seat at the DA's table. Resigned and unyielding, he gazed across the courtroom at my father, seemingly trying to catch Lawrence's eye. When Lawrence looked up, Shanahan just nodded as if to say that it wasn't over between them, no matter what happened.

Judge Liu came onto the bench. “Anything we need to take up?” No doubt he'd already been informed that my father had rejected the DA's offer.

“Nothing from the defense, Your Honor,” Nina said.

“Then let's bring the jury back in.”

Once the jury was reseated, Nina said, “The defense calls Dorothy Cooper.”

Dot took the stand and was sworn in. She sat very straight, her face all attention and nerves. Her hair was brushed back and she'd put on makeup during the break. She'd never testified in court before, and she'd told me in the hall that she wanted to puke, but when she returned Nina's greeting her voice was clear and strong.

Nina moved into the meat of the examination, asking Dot if she recalled the morning of Bell's death. In response, Dot described how she and Lawrence had decided on the spur of the moment to take a motorcycle ride down the coast. “Whose idea was it to make that ride?” Nina asked, establishing the important fact that the trip hadn't been preplanned, as it would've had to be under the prosecution's theory that the ride was a sham cooked up by Lawrence to provide himself with an alibi while a hired gun made the hit.

“It was mine,” Dot answered firmly. “Lawrence didn't feel confident enough on the bike for such a long trip. But he was ready, and I told him so. We left at seven that morning. We wanted to get an early start so that we could be home in the early afternoon.”

Nina had her retrace her route in detail, Dot narrating from the map in her head. She described the grocery store where they'd stopped to buy sandwiches, and told of eating them on the beach at Half Moon Bay. “It was nice,” she said. “A moment of peace, away from our troubles.”

They'd returned by two, and been surprised by a loud knock on the door shortly thereafter. She'd answered it and found a phalanx of police officers, dressed as if for combat. Bearing a warrant for Lawrence's arrest, they'd stormed in, made him lie on the carpet, and handcuffed him. She teared up, her voice swelling with righteous indignation as she described the scene.

“How long have you been engaged to be married to Lawrence Maxwell?” Nina asked.

“Nearly ten years. We'll be married the instant this is no longer hanging over his head,” Dot told her. “One way or the other.”

“Have you ever known him to be jealous?”

“Never. In the beginning, I was seeing other men, and I made sure Lawrence knew about it. He was patient, and he never pushed the issue.”

At last Nina sat down, and Crowder rose. I felt myself beginning to sweat. I'd warned Nina that the alibi was shaky, but she'd had no choice but to proceed. Now we'd find out just how shaky it was. If Crowder had proof Dot was lying, the case could be lost in an instant.

“Tell me, what is your yearly salary?”

Nina objected, but Crowder was ready with her response: that she must be allowed to explore the witness's potential financial motive for giving testimony in this case. Liu ordered the lawyers to approach the bench, and the argument continued out of the jury's hearing, Nina no doubt emphasizing that of course Dot wasn't being paid anything. I knew the point Crowder was about to make, however, and I also knew she'd win.

For Liu, it was payback time for Nina's earlier transgressions.

The lawyers returned to their places, Nina with a smirk on her face as if Crowder had played a cheap trick that had no chance of working. Liu ordered the question read back to the witness, and Dot provided the answer: a relatively modest sixty-five thousand dollars.

“The morning you say you drove halfway across the state with no witnesses, what motorcycle was your fiancé riding?”

“A Harley,” Dot said. “A current-model Softail. Chrome.”

“And who paid for this spectacular and beautiful machine?”

“I did,” Dot said, with an apologetic glance at Lawrence.

“Where did the money to pay for the bike come from? Savings?”

“I financed it. A five-year note. The rate was reasonable.”

“Do you expect to come into some more money anytime soon, Ms. Cooper?”

“I don't know what you mean.”

Crowder circled. “Didn't you just testify that Maxwell promised to marry you if he's acquitted here?”

“We've promised to marry each other after it's over. Whichever way the trial turns out.”

“Wonderful. And if he's acquitted, and if he manages to extract a substantial settlement from the city, then maybe, just maybe, the two of you can buy a house with a garage to park those bikes in. And if you're really lucky, you can retire and tour the world. Is that the plan?”