Special Circumstances (19 page)

There are cameras by the entrance and exit to the garage. It would bepretty tough to leave the building undetected. So they say.
Pete’s interviews with the security guards revealed there are nocameras in the elevators or stairs. Too expensive. Except for a fewacts of vandalism, there isn’t much crime in elevators. Nobody usesthe stairs.
Joel hits the play button. The quality of the black-and-white video issimilar to the videos of convenience-store robberies you see on showslike America’s Most Wanted. The time is stamped in the lower-leftcorner in block white numbers. The cameras don’t move. It feels likewe’re eavesdropping.
Pete is the master of ceremonies. He’s been through this exercise manytimes.
“The tape starts at eight o’clock,” he says.
“At eight-eleven, you’ll see Doris Fontaine leaving the building.”
Lo and behold, we see Doris insert her security card into the scannerat the guard desk at exactly 8:11 and fourteen seconds.
Pete gives us an “I told you so” look.
“At eight-thirty-seven, Mike leaves.”
I see myself leaving the building at 8:37 and eighteen seconds. Itstrikes me that everyone in a security video looks like a criminal.
Mort chirps, “I presume this means we can rule out Mike as asuspect?”
Rabbi Friedman glares at him, and his smile disappears.
There are no surprises in the first two hours. Most of the peopleattending Skipper’s reception leave by 8:30. The evening wordprocessors show up at 9:00.
Skipper and the mayor and their respective entourages leave at 9:15.Everything is just as I’d expect—so far.
At 9:30, the people working on Russo’s deal begin to leave for dinner.I take notes. I want to confirm Joel’s time line. Jack Frazier andDan Morris leave at 9:32, followed almost immediately by Bob Holmesand Vince Russo. At 9:48, Joel and Diana leave. Frazier’s lawyer,Martin Glass, and Ed Ehrlich, from the city attorney’s office, leave at10:00.
Pete reminds us Frazier and Morris went to Aqua, Holmes and Russo wentto Tadich’s, and Joel and Diana went to Harrington’s. Glass andEhrlich went home.
Pete says he’s talked to eyewitnesses and confirmed everybody wentwhere they said they did.
Joel loads the second tape. Not much between 10:00 and 11:15, exceptfor Joel’s return at 10:25. At 11:15, the rest of the dinner crowdbegins to return.
Holmes and Russo check in at 11:16. It’s hard to tell, but I thinkVince is staggering. At 11:18, Frazier and Morris sign in. Nobodylooks refreshed after dinner. The videotapes are consistent with thelist provided by the security guards.
It’s after nine o’clock when Joel starts the third tape, which shouldcontain everything from midnight to two a.m.—the key times, as far asI’m concerned.
Our first surprise is at 12:20. Pete looks at his list in disbelief.
“He isn’t on the list,” he mutters, as we stare at the shadowy figureof Skipper Gates passing the guard desk and walking toward theelevators.
I ask Joel to rewind the tape. The NFL isn’t the only place whereslow-motion instant replays help.
“Look,” I say, “he walked past the guard desk, but he doesn’t run hiscard through the scanner. He isn’t on the list because the guard lethim in.”
“He isn’t supposed to do that,” Pete says.
“Happens all the time,” I reply.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been waved through after hours.You get to know the guards. They let you in.”
Pete shakes his head. He’s still a cop at heart. This stuff reallybothers him.
You should see my mother’s house. It’s a fortress.
“What the hell was Skipper doing there?” Rosie asks.
“Beats me,” I say.
“We’ll find out.” I turn to Pete.
“Do you have a checkout time?”
He scans his list.
“Nope. As far as the guards were concerned, he was never there.”
“Either he left without running his card through the scanner, or hedidn’t leave that night.”
Nobody else comes or goes before one o’clock. We’re getting into primetime now, and the rabbi’s living room is silent. All eyes concentrateon the black-and-white images on the nineteen-inch Zenith. Nobody iseating Naomi’s popcorn.
At 1:10, we see the slender figure of Diana Kennedy hurrying towardthe guard desk on her way into the building. She’s dressed only in alight sweat suit. At 1:10 and fifteen seconds, she waves to the guard,who lets her in without running her card through the scanner. Thebuilding managers will have a fit if they see this tape.
One-fifteen. Skipper saunters past the guard desk. We replay the tapetwice. My heart races. Silently, I hope he’ll be splattered withblood. He isn’t, of course. And even if he was, it would be tough tosee on the black-and-white video. He waves to the guard, but doesn’trun his security card through the scanner. It confirms Skipper was inthe building after Diana returned. I make a note to figure out howlong it takes the elevators to get down from the forty-seventh floor tothe lobby. Skipper may have been there when Diana died.
I’m not ready to accuse him of anything—yet. On the other hand, Iwant to keep my options open. If nothing else, he has some explainingto do.
At one-thirty. Art Patron lugs his stomach, chins and eyebrows pastthe guard desk and runs his security card through the scanner. Thoughthere’s no sound on the videotape, it’s clear Patton harrumphs at theguard. Even in the middle of the night. Art can find a way to bepissed off at somebody he barely knows.
Five minutes later, Clan Morris and Jack Frazier walk out together.They seem to be having a friendly conversation. They’re an oddcouple—the political fixer and the investment banker. I make a mentalnote to check it out.
Vince Russo waddles out on the heels of Morris and Frazier. He scowlsat the guard and walks tentatively toward the escalator to thegarage.
Finally, Charles Stern brings up the rear at five minutes after twoo’clock, looking, as always, as though he has the weight of the worldon his narrow shoulders. He looks even worse in black and white thanhe does in living color, although there’s very little difference.
We quickly fast-forward through the next two hours of videotape. Otherthan the departures of the S&G night-shift word processors, nobodycomes or goes. It’s eleven-fifteen when Joel turns off the VCR andPete turns up the lights. Naomi brings cold sodas from the kitchen.Mort excuses himself to use the bathroom for the seventh time. He’sgone out to the back porch twice for cigar breaks.
“Is that it?” Rabbi Friedman asks Joel.
Joel’s rewinding the last tape.
“That’s it,” he replies.
“Before you head home,” I say, “let’s take a few minutes on thesetapes.”
Mort was already halfway out the door. Rosie hasn’t moved from thesofa.
“Michael,” Rabbi Friedman says, “is there anything from these tapesthat may help us?”
I look at my notes.
“There’s a lot that may help us.” More importantly, there’s nothingterrible in there that could hurt us.
“First, we can place everybody at the scene and we know what timeeverybody left. Everybody was in the S and G offices after Dianareturned from her apartment. Even Skipper was there.”
“How does that help us?” Rabbi Friedman asks.
“It doesn’t prove any of them did anything. And it doesn’t exonerateJoel.”
“Rabbi,” Mort interjects, “it’s always good to be in a position toargue that there were other people around. It gives us options. Ithelps to give the jury an opportunity to blame it on somebody else.Especially if somebody else isn’t particularly likable.”
Joel isn’t happy with his explanation.
“I thought our defense is going to be suicide,” he says.
“It is,” I say.
“But Rod Beckert is going to testify that Bob was knocked unconsciousbefore he was shot. We’ll put on our own expert to rebut histestimony. But we also want to keep our options open—and that meanswe want to identify as many potential suspects as we can. Tonight, weidentified a bunch of people who were in the building at the righttime—Vince Russo, Jack Frazier, Clan Morris, Arthur Patton and CharlesStern, by my count.”
“Don’t forget Skipper,” Rosie points out.
“He was still there when Diana came back.”
“I’m supposed to meet with him first thing tomorrow. I’ll ask him whathe was doing there at one in the morning. The distinguished districtattorney of the city and county of San Francisco will be the first nameon our witness list.”
Under the California rules of criminal procedure, you’re required toprovide a list of potential witnesses. You can get in trouble if youtry to call someone who isn’t on the list. You can’t get in too muchtrouble, however, if you put someone on the list and you don’t call himor her at trial. Prosecutors and defense attorneys play all sorts ofgames with their lists. If I thought I could get away with it, I wouldinclude every name in the San Francisco phone book on ours.
Mort grins.
“I like it,” he says.
Rosie is more realistic.
“They’ll never let him testify.”
“I know,” Mort replies.
“But it’ll give them something to think about.”
We start to gather our belongings when Joel looks in the Macy’s bag inwhich I brought the tapes.
“There’s one more tape,” he says.
Shit. I’m tired.
Rabbi Friedman wipes his glasses.
“It’s awfully late,” he says.
“Can’t this wait?”
I look at Joel.
“It’s your call. I can come back in the morning.”
“You’re supposed to meet with Skipper in the morning. We’d better lookat this tape tonight and see if there’s anything else on it.”
We return to our seats as Joel pops the tape into the VCR. Pete’spuzzled.
“The inventory says we’ve seen all the security tapes,” he says.
We leave the lights on. It’s getting close to midnight.
The tape starts. It isn’t another security tape. First we see a blackscreen.
Then we hear a badly dubbed sound track of familiar music. I realizeit’s the theme from LA Law. After about ten seconds, some homemadecredits appear.
SIMPSON & GATES FIRM RETREATS.F. LAW. The music continues as thescene shifts to the lobby of the S&G offices. The picture is grainy.Somebody did a real hatchet job with a hand-held camera. S&G lawyersare videotaped as they walk into the reception area. Bob Holmes mugs.Diana Kennedy smiles. Art Patton scowls. Charles Stern says somethingthat I can’t make out.
After a few minutes, the scene shifts to the Silverado Country Club inthe Napa Valley. The same S&G lawyers who were shown in their businesssuits now appear in golf shirts and khaki pants. Some are shownheading toward the golf course.
Others are playing tennis. One big, happy family.
“What’s the point of all this?” asks Rabbi Friedman.
“This tape was taken at the firm retreat last fall,” Joel says.
“Why is it here?”
“I can’t believe Sandra included this with the evidence tapes bymistake,” I say.
Pete looks intently at his lists. He finds a note from Sandraindicating the package includes one miscellaneous evidence tape inaddition to the security videos.
After a few more minutes of well-dressed yuppies butchering the tenniscourts, the scene shifts to a swimming pool in the outer row of condosin the Silverado complex. I recognize Arthur Patton sitting in alounge chair.
“The white whale,” Rosie says.
“Never mind,” I reply.
The theme from L.A. Law continues to play as the tape cuts to a dinnerparty in the main dining room. It looks like a convention for blueblazers. There’s a quick shot of a crowded dance floor. I catch abrief glimpse of Diana dancing with Art Patton.
The video cuts to the bar in the main house that overlooks the golfcourse. The camera pans across the crowded room. I see myself sittingnext to Wendy Hogan at a small table in the corner. Bob Holmes andSkipper are sitting at a table near the door. They’re surrounded bysome of the best wineries in the world and they’re drinking martinis.Art Patton is sitting next to Diana at the bar. He’s drinking aManhattan. Two empty glasses sit in front of him.
The cameraman circles to his left and focuses on Diana, who winks atthe camera. She staggers toward the door. Patton follows her. Shegives him a condescending look and says something to him. Theycontinue toward the door. As she passes the table where Joel issitting, she arches her eyebrows at the camera, leaps into Joel’s lap,cups his face in her hands and forcefully kisses him on the mouth. Sheturns and waves to the camera and struts out of the room.
Patton follows her. The camera pans back to Joel, who smilessheepishly. He says something that’s drowned out by the L.A. Law themesong. The tape ends abruptly.
Rabbi Friedman’s living room is stone-cold silent. I glance at Joel.His eyes are closed. His face is red. Rabbi Friedman sits quietly,his hands folded in his lap. Rosie stares at the TV screen. Petelooks at his clipboard. Mort looks at his watch. Naomi doesn’t takeher eyes off Joel.
“Well,” I say, “maybe this would be a good time for us to break fortonight.”
Joel says in a barely audible whisper, “That’s probably a good idea.”
I stop at Rosie’s on my way home. I sip a Diet Dr. Pepper. She eatsa carrot.
“How do you think the scene in the bar will play?” she asks.
“Pretty bad.”
“The security videos looked pretty good. At least there were a lot ofpeople there when everything happened.”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t seem very convinced.”
“The thing at the bar is inflammatory. What are you supposed to thinkif you’re on the jury? We had a decent defense that Joel’s a nice,oldfashioned family guy who’s being wrongly accused. Now, they’ll trotout this cheesy videotape showing a pretty young woman throwing herselfat him. It won’t be hard to decide he’s been sleeping around. Juriesdon’t like liars. And they really don’t like people who cheat on theirwives.”
She takes a bite of a tuna sandwich.
“Don’t you think you may be overreacting a little bit? It doesn’tprove he was sleeping around.”
I crunch a potato chip.
“Maybe. I just don’t like it.”
“Maybe we can get it knocked out. You know, that tape was edited alot.”
“We’ll try. We’ll see what the judge says.”
“You think he was sleeping with Diana?”
“I don’t think so. But two weeks ago, I would have said no. Now, I’mnot so sure.” I look into her dark brown eyes. Rosie and I nevercheated on each other. Our breakup was the result of fundamentalincompatibility, which we took out on each other.
“What do you think, Rosita? You’ve always had good instincts.”
“I wouldn’t bet Grace’s college fund, if we had one.” She decides tosay something positive.
“We got some good stuff from the security tapes. Do you think Skipperwas involved?”
“Hard to say. I can’t imagine what motive he had. But he’s slippery.I just can’t tell.”
She kisses me on the cheek and puts her plate in the sink.
“I guess you’ll just have to ask him in the morning.”
CHAPTER 21
WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING THERE, SKIPPER?