Burden of Truth (Cass Leary Legal Thriller Series Book 1)

by Robin James

  “Vangie, I know you know what’s happening in this town. And you could have said no. You didn’t have to come, but here you are.”

  “You can be such a bitch,” Vangie said, her voice trembling. I wanted so badly to take her in my arms until she cried herself out. She’d done that so many times when she was little after Mom died. She’d been both lost and strong at the same time. I felt that from her now.

  “I know. Which is why I had to do this. I had to know.”

  Joe stood like a mountain between us. He had his fist curled around the doorknob on the French doors leading to the back porch. He squeezed it so hard he might have crushed it to powder.

  “Know what? Vangie?” But he knew. He could do the math in his own head. My sister had run track. She was ours of course, the spitting image of Mom. But she looked enough like Aubrey Ames too.

  “Oh God,” Joe cried out, sounding like a wounded animal.

  “Joe,” I said calmly. “I need to talk to Vangie. Alone. Corwin, the guy in the driveway, won’t leave. The other one, parked across the street. Tell him he can go. Tell him your sister has what she needs.”

  “I am not leaving,” he said.

  Vangie turned to him. Her face softened and she put a light hand on his arm. “It’s okay. I want to talk to Cass. I missed you, big brother. I’m sorry I made you worry.”

  She melted him, just like only she could. It was the same with our father. He parented her so much differently than the rest of us. Vangie could do no wrong in his eyes. And they were both right. She had been sweet and smart and better than all of us. And then she was gone.

  Joe hugged Vangie, his eyes squeezed tightly shut. “Don’t you dare disappear on me.”

  “I won’t,” she smiled.

  Joe kissed the top of her head and saved one more glare for me. But he did what we asked and walked outside. I waited for the door to shut behind him before turning to her.

  “Let’s sit,” I said.

  “I don’t want to.”

  “Vangie, I’m sorry. But I’m not sorry. And I need to know the truth. You know what’s happening in this town. Coach D is dead.”

  “And you’re defending his killer.”

  “No. Aubrey Ames didn’t kill him. But she was his victim. And as hard as it is for me to hear it, as hard as it is for you to say it, I need to know. Is he the reason you left?”

  She hugged her arms around herself. Her eyelids fluttered but she kept my gaze. “Cass, don’t do this. They’ll never let you get away with it.”

  “Who’s they?”

  “Everyone! Don’t you get it? This is us we’re talking about. Learys. Eastlake trash. You know, I read they’re taking up a collection to erect a statue to that … that …”

  “That what? That monster? He hurt Aubrey. Raped her. Over and over. He made her think she was nothing. Lindsey Claussen. Chelsea Holbrook. Danielle Ford.”

  At the mention of Danielle, Vangie had a physical reaction. She took a staggering step back as if she’d been gut-punched. I realized with cold clarity that she had. Danielle Ford was in the same grade as Vangie.

  You of all people should know … Lindsey’s words haunted me. Look in your own backyard. I pulled a punch with Karen Larsen. I never asked her if Kevin Sydney took a meeting with my sister.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” I cried. “That summer after your senior year when you came to live with me in Chicago. You could have told me then?”

  Vangie shook her head. “No. I couldn’t. I was so ashamed. I thought … he made me think …”

  Just that one word. He. There could be no other person she meant. It was my turn to feel gut-punched. I’d suspected this for weeks. But I hadn’t been able to bring myself to say it.

  “You,” I said. “Larry Drazdowski hurt you. He raped you. He did to you all the things he did to Aubrey?”

  Tears flowed down my little sister’s cheeks as she stepped away from the doors and went back to the couch. She drew her knees up and rested her chin on them.

  “She really didn’t do it?” Vangie asked. “Your client?”

  I went to her and sank slowly on the couch beside her. “No,” I whispered.

  “But he’s dead? You’re sure he’s really dead?”

  I put a hand on her knee. She flinched but didn’t draw away. “Yes. Baby, he’s dead forever. He can’t hurt you. He can’t hurt anyone ever again.”

  “Yes, he can,” she whispered. “Will you get her out of this?”

  I pursed my lips together. “I don’t know. But I will do one thing. I will make sure this town knows what he really was. And I’ll be damn sure to bring down anyone who ever helped him hide it.”

  She nodded slowly and wiped her eyes. “But you need my help to do that.”

  “Not if you don’t want to. God. I’m so sorry. I never should have …”

  “Yes,” she cut me off. “I’m not going to lie and say I don’t hate you for it. But yeah, you should have. It’s been a long time. And I think I’m finally ready to fight back.”

  My heart shattered in a thousand pieces as I watched my sister’s eyes flicker with the steel she was made of. Then she straightened her back and began to tell me her story.

  Chapter 38

  “The defense calls Evangeline Leary.”

  Whispers went through the gallery. I couldn’t look back. My brothers were there, lining the back wall. I welcomed their support and their strength. I hoped Vangie felt it too.

  “Your Honor,” Jack said, breathless. “I object to this witness being called.”

  I’ll just bet you do. I bit my lip.

  “Approach,” Judge Castor said.

  “This witness was not expected,” Jack said.

  “She’s a rebuttal witness to Mr. Sydney’s testimony,” I said. “The man claims the victim warned him about my client. He’s lying. I have the right to explore that.”

  Castor glared at Jack over his reading glasses. “She’s right, Jack. What’s your beef?”

  “This witness is biased. She’s defense counsel’s sister.”

  “Your Honor,” I said. “She is my sister, yes. The prosecution is free to make that case to the jury. Her testimony will speak for itself and the jury can weigh it however they choose. That is within their purview, after all.”

  “The substance of her testimony is irrelevant and highly prejudicial,” Jack said.

  Jack suspected what Vangie had to say. Quiet rage simmered within me. It meant Jack had been talking to Kevin Sydney. I’d sent a courtesy email to Jack last night telling him I was calling Vangie today.

  “Your Honor,” I said. Here was the real battle. Vangie didn’t have anything to say about the murder itself. She didn’t even know Aubrey. Allowing the most shocking bits of her testimony was the kind of thing Jack should object to on relevancy. But it was worth this fight. “My client’s credibility is at issue. It was an issue the moment she took the stand. Mr. LaForge fell just short of calling her a liar. We all know he’s going to do just that in his closing. Ms. Leary’s testimony goes to the veracity of Ms. Ames’s claims.”

  Judge Castor let out a great sigh. “I’m going to allow the witness to take the stand. This better not be a litany of hearsay though, Ms. Leary. My patience for that is wearing very thin.”

  “Thank you, Your Honor.”

  “Ms. Leary,” Judge Castor said, straightening his robes. “I mean, the other Ms. Leary, you may take the stand.”

  The bailiff swore Vangie in. She wore one of my cream-colored suits. Her blonde hair hung just past her shoulders and she’d blown it out until it shimmered. My sister was beautiful and she’d grown into a strong, determined woman. My heart twisted with love, but also anger for everything I was about to put her through.

  “State your name for the record, please,” I said.

  “Evangeline May Leary.”

  “Ms. Leary, let’s get this out of the way. Can you tell the jury how we know each other?”

  “You’re my older sister. We’
re ten years apart.”

  “Thank you. Did you come here today willingly?”

  “No,” she said, her voice rising. “I most certainly did not. I’d rather be anywhere else in the world. Sorry. You had some guy serve me with a subpoena yesterday morning at the bar where I work in Indianapolis.”

  “Vangie, how long has it been since you and I have spoken?”

  Her eyes went up and I knew she was looking at our brothers. “Almost six years,” she answered. “I spent a summer with you right after I graduated from high school. But I haven’t talked to you or the rest of our family in almost six years other than a few texts with my brother, Matt.”

  “You ran away,” I said.

  “Yes.”

  “Okay. Let’s go back to that high school graduation. You knew the victim in this case, Larry Drazdowski?”

  Vangie paused. “Yes.” She said it with venom.

  “How did you know him?”

  “He was the basketball coach. And the girls’ track coach. I ran track. I also tried out to be a basketball cheerleader my senior year. But they don’t pick girls from the east side. I’d taken a few years of gymnastics when it was still free at the Y. They always put me in the advanced classes. I could tumble. I could jump. But they didn’t pick me for the squad.”

  “How did that make you feel?” I asked.

  “Angry. Sad. Just … defeated. Coach D was one of the judges for that set of tryouts. The day they posted the results, he came up to me and asked me to meet with him in his office.”

  “Did you?”

  Vangie dropped her head. I hated myself for making her go there. I hated myself for not protecting her.

  “Yes. I went. It was like he knew what I was feeling. He didn’t want me to be discouraged and kept telling me how special I was. I feel like such an idiot now for not cluing into what was happening.”

  “What was happening, Vangie?”

  She looked up and shook her hair behind her shoulders. “He was grooming me.”

  “Grooming you for what, Vangie?”

  “Can I say it? Can I just get it out and get it over with?”

  The courtroom fell deadly silent. My heart thundered in my chest and sweat broke out between my shoulder blades. I kept my back straight and my eyes laser-focused on my sister. If there was any way I could transmit strength to her, I was trying my damndest.

  “He raped me. It happened after about the third time I met with him in his office. I needed a ride home. In those days, I hated riding the bus. I hated people knowing where I lived. The rest of you had all moved out and Dad lost the house. We were living in this crappy trailer that wasn’t even his. He had a girlfriend that wasn’t so nice to me. I told Coach D all of this. He listened. So he drove me home one afternoon. It was late. I stayed after school to get some tutoring help with calculus. But he didn’t take me home right away. He took me to Shamrock Park. We sat and talked for a while. But then he started rubbing my shoulders. I went kind of numb because in my mind I knew it wasn’t … appropriate. But then he got aggressive. I told him no. He didn’t stop. He pinned me down on the floor of the front seat and he raped me.”

  I squeezed the sides of the podium. I let Vangie’s words hang in the air then sink in for the jury.

  “What happened next?” I asked.

  “He took me home. I was scared. I thought it was maybe my fault somehow. He was … he was Coach D. Maybe I really just was Eastlake trash. It hurt. I mean physically, yes. But inside. I couldn’t rely on anyone else at that time. Everyone had their own problems. That’s when my brother Joe was having issues with his ex and trying to get custody of his kid back. Matty was drinking. And Dad … well … he just wasn’t present. I had no one. I had Coach D. He’s the one who arranged for the tutoring. Did you know he actually signed some of my permission slips? Forged Dad’s name so I wouldn’t be left behind on field trips and stuff. He did all these things for me. I felt like I owed him.”

  “Was that the end of it, Vangie?”

  “No.” She whispered it. “That was October my senior year. Just before Thanksgiving, Dad got thrown out of the trailer we were staying in. So I was pretty much homeless. Somebody told Coach D and he came and got me. He brought me to his house. His parents were in town and they were so nice. They seemed so normal. His mom cooked this amazing Thanksgiving dinner and I could just pretend. You know? I wanted so badly to be normal and have good things happen to me. But then … he did it again. Thanksgiving night. He came to the room I was staying in. I woke up and he was on top of me.”

  “He raped you a second time?”

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  “Did you tell anyone?”

  “Not then. I was just so … so panicked. And I didn’t have anywhere else to go. I lied about where I was staying. I told my brothers I was staying with one of my friends.”

  “Which friend, Vangie?” I asked.

  “Danielle Ford.”

  “Did anyone else know you were staying with Mr. Drazdowski?”

  “Just his parents. It was just for that weekend. When school started up again, I left his house. My brother … Matty was crashing over at a friend’s house. They let me stay there for a couple of weeks until school let out for the holiday break.”

  “Did you tell Matt or anyone else what was happening with Coach D?”

  She shook her head. I motioned to the microphone. “I didn’t, no.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s just … you know this. You all know this. This man. It was Coach D. He was idolized in this town. He still is. I was just barely seventeen. If I could go back in time and talk to my younger self …”

  “What would you say?”

  “I’d tell myself he was wrong. He told me I was special and worth something. He was the only person … the only adult who said that to me. I know you tried to protect me. Joe too. All of you. But it’s different when it’s coming from people who love you. It’s just so much easier to believe the bad things people say behind your back. And it was like Coach D fed into that. He knew I was vulnerable. I needed to believe him. Even though deep down I knew he was just using me and what he was doing was wrong. It’s just … I didn’t know how to fight back. I went numb. He used that too.”

  There is a reason they use the term predator. I wanted to knock over that podium and throw my arms around my strong, brave, beautiful sister and take all of her pain away from her and into myself. Joe made a primal noise behind me. A guttural gasp. Vangie hid it all away, but we should have known. We should have seen.

  Jack LaForge sat at the prosecution table with his head down. There were about a hundred different things he could have objected to at that moment. I could say a lot of things about him, but the man knew how to read the room. And he knew as damaging as my sister’s testimony was to Larry Drazdowski, he still wasn’t the one on trial. It wasn’t his job to save the man’s reputation. It was his job to put his killer behind bars.

  “Vangie, after Thanksgiving, were there any other incidents with Coach D?”

  She shrugged. “Yes. After we came back from break, in January. He was busy with basketball. I didn’t see him very much. But that season ended, I think, in March. Track season started. It was my senior year. I wanted to quit. But if there was a chance I could get a scholarship. I was a pretty good pole-vaulter.”

  “I remember,” I smiled.

  “He cornered me a few times after practice. Offered to take me home.”

  “Why didn’t you say no?”

  “People saw him ask. And it wasn’t just me. He’d take a group of us in his car and drop them off first. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself. Believe me, there are so many things I wish I could go back and change. The more distance I have from the kid I used to be. But you have to understand. People looked at you … treated you differently if they thought you were one of Coach’s favorites. They didn’t mess with you. It made you more popular. It was like … if Coach D thinks you’re worth the time, even if you’re
just Eastlake trash, then they were more willing to give you a chance. It was so hard to reject that. Then later … I did try to say something.”

  “Tell me about that.”

  “It was at the end of April my senior year. I started to suspect that the coach had been messing with my friend, Danielle. I heard that he’d been giving her rides home too. So I confronted her about it. She didn’t admit it, but she didn’t deny it. I was so angry. I felt like it was my fault. Like maybe if I’d spoken up or at least tried to. So I convinced her to go with me to see Mr. Sydney.”

  “What happened at that meeting?”

  “He told us we were trash. He said he’d make it hard for us if we kept saying things about Coach D. He scared me. I mean ... really scared me.”

  “Objection,” Jack said, weary. “This is hearsay.”

  “Sustained.”

  “Vangie,” I said. “Did anything else happen between you and Coach D after that?”

  “Track season was over. I was just so … so angry. I didn’t want to let him get away with any more, you know? When I thought it was just me, it was one thing. When I realized this was something he did to other girls, I knew I had to try to do something about it.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I confronted him. I told him I was going to figure out a way to make him pay.”

  “Vangie, what was your plan?”

  She ground her teeth and gripped the neck of the microphone. “I recorded it.”

  “You recorded what?”

  “All of it. I recorded our conversation. Or actually, I videotaped it. I hit the record button on my phone and put it on the floor of his car, just under my seat.”

  “He didn’t see you do that?”

  “No. I was careful. Then he got aggressive. I knew there was a chance it might happen but I was so angry, I was ready to fight back the only way I could. I got him on tape.”

  “Vangie,” I asked. “Do you still have a copy of that tape?”