No Way Out (16 page)

But with the direct examination over, the jury would feel free to start forming opinions about the case, and that could only hurt Claymore. The judge started speaking.

“In view of the hour, I think it would be appropriate –”

“Your Honor,” Alex interrupted leaping to his feet. “I know that we only have a quarter of an hour, but I would like to at least
start
my cross-examination now –”

“Is that really necessary Mr. Sedaka?”

“There are one or two points I’d like to clear up right away.”

“Very well.”

“Miss Newton have you at any time, since first making your complaint, contacted anyone involved with the defense?”

Oh very good, thought Andi, plant the idea in the jury’s mind. Even if it all fizzles out, it’ll keep them pre-occupied with it now, so they won’t think so much about her testimony.

Sarah Jensen was on her feet.

“Your Honor, is counsel making any specific allegations? Or is he just trying to cloud the issue with unsubstantiated allegations.”

“Approach the bench!” snapped the judge.

Alex and Sarah approached. Andi hesitated for a moment and then approached, ignoring the forbidding stare of the judge. Only Nick Sinclair stayed in his seat.

“Are you going anywhere with this Mr. Sedaka?”

“Your Honor, my co-counsel has been receiving anonymous eMail messages of an abusive and harassing nature. We wouldn’t for one minute suspect the prosecution of involvement, but this witness is another matter altogether.”

“How do you know it isn’t one of the thousands of whack jobs looking for his fifteen minutes?”

Alex turned to Andi, to let her answer.

“Your Honor, the content of the messages suggests that it’s some one with intimate knowledge of the case.”

“Knowledge that only this witness or some one on the prosecution team would have?”

Andi hesitated for a moment, embarrassed by the truthful answer.

“Well, some of the knowledge… appears to be.. things that not even this witness would know.”

“What do you mean?”

“Private conversations that I’ve had.”

Sarah was shaking her head, smiling with utter contempt. Justice Wagner ignored her.

“So what are you saying? That your office is bugged?”

“I don’t know what I’m saying. It just doesn’t make sense.”

The judge was silent for a few seconds, as if weighing up what she had just heard.

“Well when you
do
know what your saying, I may revisit the issue and allow the defense to resume this line of questioning. Until then, such questions are out of order.” Andi, was looking at the floor, unable to meet the eyes of either the judge or Alex. “I think we’ll adjourn for now.”

When they had returned to their places, Justice Wagner addressed the jury.

“Members of the jury. You will ignore that last question and refrain from any speculation about it. We will now adjourn until ten O’clock tomorrow morning. The jury are admonished not to form an opinion on this case until they have heard all the evidence and the case has been put to them, nor to discuss this case among themselves or with others or to permit it to be discussed in their presence. Court is adjourned.”

They all stood up as the judge left. But Andi remembered one thing from when Alex had asked the question about contacting anyone on the defense: Bethel Newton had looked absolutely terrified.

Outside, Alex walked over to Andi’s side to speak to her.

“I want to know about these anonymous eMails –
including
why you didn’t tell me about them before?”

“I’ve had a couple. The first one right after I agreed to serve as co-counsel. The second one came just after I blurted out my statement about the ethnic imbalance in the panel.”

“What did they say, the eMails?”

“Like I said, they were full of abusive language. I can’t remember verbatim, but I’ve saved them. I can show them to you back at the office.”

“You said something about the writer knowing intimate details that not even the victim would know.”

She noticed that he had said “victim” rather than “alleged victim.” He would never have been that careless in Court.

“Whoever sent them seemed to know about things that happened at our private conversations.”

She was watching him carefully as she said this.

“What do you mean ‘
our
’ private conversations?”

“Yours and mine. Things that occurred when you and I were alone together.”

“Such as what?”

“Such as you practically blackmailing me into working with you on the case.”

“I didn’t blackmail you
-
.”

“That’s the way
they
described it.”

Andi realized that by classifying this opinion as “intimate knowledge” she was effectively saying that she agreed with that classification of Alex’s action.

“What else did they say?”

“They said I should have resisted your pressure and that I’m a ‘whore’ and Claymore is a ‘nigger scum-bag’.”

“And it was anonymous?”

“More or less.”

“Well what does that –”

“It was signed ‘Lannosea’”

“Does that mean anything to you.”

“Nothing.”

“Did you look it up?”

“Yahoo
and
Google. Apparently, she was one of the daughters of the old English queen Boudicca.”

“I assume you did an internet search for other people with the same name?”

“I found four sites where the name came up: two foreign, one meaningless, one that gave the answer – about it being Boudicca’s daughter.”

“Alternative spellings?”

“Loads of results, but mostly foreign.”

“What about tracing the source – of the eMails?”

“They were sent via a webmail account.”

“From what my son told me, I understand they can still trace it through the message header.”

“Yes, but anyone sending this kind of message would probably use a public computer, like in a library or an internet café.”

“They might have security cameras at places like that.”

“We’d have to bring in the authorities for that.”

“Okay, let’s hold off on that Andi.”

“The thing I don’t get is how they knew about private conversations.”

Alex was looking at her with a skeptical smile.

“You think they really
did
bug the office?”

“It may sound crazy Alex, but there has to be
some
explanation.”

Alex smiled, mockingly.

“Well in that case, I’d better tell you what I’ve decided before we get back to the office.”

“What?” Andi felt apprehensive at Alex’s tone.

“
You’re
going to conduct the cross-examination tomorrow.”

Jerry Cole had never really amounted to much. At forty years of age, he was a lean, nondescript figure of average height and receding hairline. Such hair as he had was greased back, not in a stylish nineteen fifties style, but more in the manner of a lazy man who doesn’t want the bother of unruly hair and who uses grease as the easiest option for keeping it in place.

He had been working at the forensic science laboratory in Ventura County for half his life and all he had to show for it was a rented roof over his head. He didn’t own a car and didn’t even know how to drive. He was, according to everyone who knew him, feckless and barely capable of doing anything other than by rote. His job title was “Lab Technician,” but this could just as easily have been translated as Gopher. Unlike other younger technicians at the lab, he was never sent on courses that could improve his job skills because it was widely assumed that he lacked the aptitude for them

When he asked about this, he was told that the others were younger and thus “age-qualified” for courses that were designed to enable young people with ambition and initiative to progress. When he pleaded with them that he too wanted to progress. they told him that because of his low SATs and his poor results in the psychometric tests that he wasn’t eligible. He had felt bitter at the time, but too passive to do anything about it. Now he had come to accept it.

Most of the time he worked in the Forensic Alcohol Section, but occasionally he had to run errands for the Toxicology or Controlled Substance sections. Never for the DNA Section. But he knew how they worked and at times it could get chaotic. In fact the lab was chaotic. That was why he didn’t always remember to do things he was supposed to, you see, not because he was lazy or incompetent.

But his bosses didn’t always see things that way. That was why today he had been summoned by the Forensic Alcohol Supervisor, the head of his administrative section.

“You remember a month ago, you received an official caution about using a stale batch of testing solution?”

Cole remembered the incident very well. He had been acting under intense pressure in a busy lab and had grabbed the nearest batch of made-up testing solution. What he hadn’t realized was that it was an old solution that another technician had been using and was about to throw away. It could have been disastrous if he had used it because he was running tests on real-crime samples. Fortunately the other technician had spotted it just in time and intervened.

“Yes sir, but I’m more careful now. I always make sure it’s a fresh batch.”

 “Well that isn’t exactly true now is it Mr. Cole.”

Jerry Cole’s face flushed.

“I don’t know what you mean sir.”

“You know that every three months, the Department of Health Services sends blood samples spiked with alcohol to verify that facilities such as the crime lab are getting accurate results?”

“Yes sir.”

In fact he didn’t know anything of the kind. But he was afraid to admit it. Also, he sensed where this was going.

“Well they did such a test last week and we have the results back. I’m sorry to have to inform you that you failed the test.”

“What… me personally?”

“Yes Mr. Cole. The samples were coded and the other technicians passed. You were the only one who failed.”

“I must have been under pressure sir, otherwise –”

“It’s the same pressure for everyone Mr. Cole. You were the only one who failed and this was on top of your mistake a month ago with a live batch. You were given an official written warning then, so I’m afraid there can be no further warnings. We’re going to have to let you go.”

“But this isn’t fair sir.”

“It complies with the labor laws and I’m afraid the decision is final. Here is your written notice, effective immediately. We’re giving you one month’s pay in lieu of notice, plus lay-off pay for twenty years service which should see you through until you find a new job. Also you’re entitled to three weeks holiday and again we’ve given you pay in lieu of that. I’ll send a member of security to help you clear out your locker.”

Fifteen minutes later, Jerry Cole was on the streets and unemployed.

On the third day of the trial, the tension in court was even greater than the day before, as the judge took his place his place. This was to be the first time the defense had a crack at the accuser. Claymore was sitting at the defense table uncomfortably, the fear visible in his eyes.

Andi realized that while Sarah Jensen had acted wisely from the point of view of courtroom tactics, she had been less than kind to Bethel personally. For Bethel had had to go sleep last night knowing that the following day she would be subjected to a thorough and rigorous cross-examination.

But Andi realized that perhaps she was projecting her own discomfort that had left her tossing and turning in an almost sleepless night at the hotel last night. And to make it worse, she didn’t even have the comfort of Gene to hold her and reassure her. When she finally woke up – late – she felt as if she hadn’t slept at all.

After the Court was called into session, the judge looked up at the defense table and told Alex that he could begin his cross-examination. Andi thereupon rose and said:

“Your Honor, I will be cross-examining Miss Newton.”

Claymore tensed up when he heard this. Andi realized that Alex hadn’t warned him about the change of plan. Sarah Jensen rose from her seat.

“Your Honor I object. Lead counsel began the cross-examination yesterday. Absent a compelling reason, it would be quite improper for co-counsel to take over in the middle.”

Andi well knew why Sarah Jensen was objecting. A cross-examination of an alleged rape victim by a
man
would inevitably elicit sympathy for the victim, no matter how gently it was conducted. Whereas a cross-examination by another woman – especially an attractive one – allowed scope for some probing questions, and even a modicum of aggression.

Justice Wagner hesitated for a moment.

“No I think I’m going to allow it. Cross-examination barely started yesterday. And the defendant has the right to have his defense handled according to the best judgment of his counsel.

Sarah Jensen sat down reluctantly. Andi gave her a knowing look and then returned her attention to Bethel Newton.

“Miss Newton, would it be correct to say that when you got into the car, you didn’t know the man who’s car you were getting into.”

“Yes.”

Weakly.

“In other words you were getting into a stranger’s car?”

“Yes.”

“And were you not aware of the danger to which you were exposing yourself?”

“I know that it isn’t all that smart to hitch a ride, but I didn’t have a choice.”

“Are you saying that he forced you into his car?”

“No. But my car had broken down and I couldn’t use my cell phone. It had a flat battery – the phone, I mean.”

Andi kept a neutral look on hers face. She was forcing Bethel to elaborate on her answers, taking her into unfamiliar territory.

“But you were aware that there is
always
an element of danger when one gets into a stranger’s car?”

“Yes.”

“Assuming of course that you didn’t
want
what ultimately happened?”

“Objection,” Sarah Jensen interrupted.

“Sustained. Counsel will refrain from embellishing her questions. The jury will ignore defense counsel’s last remark.”