The Good Client

by Dan Decker

  “At what point did you start to suspect that Barbara and Ron could have been involved in the murder?”

  “We found email messages between the victim, Gordon Howard, and Barbara Howard Smith. Gordon threatened to go to Barbara’s husband and tell him about the affair she was having with Ron Cooper. We also found text messages along the same lines.”

  They weren’t going to mention this, and I wouldn’t bring it up either, but I strongly suspected they had not found this until after I had pointed them at Barbara. I did not blame them for not going through Gordon’s emails carefully until they had a reason, particularly since some people received hundreds of emails a day. If they would have had the resources to do a better job, they might have charged Barbara and Ron first and Timothy might never have been brought into this.

  “That’s all for now, Your Honor.”

  Judge Anderson gave me a neutral look. “How much time do you think you’re gonna need?” He looked at the clock.

  “Shouldn’t be too long,” I said.

  I hated how Frank had made me look but I had made some mistakes, no question.

  “If you take longer than twenty minutes, I’m going to put you on hold and send everybody to lunch.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “Your witness.”

  I went to the lectern, taking my binder with me again, even though I was a bit self-conscious about it because of Keith Williams’s actions from before.

  “Detective Gray, we appreciate your service.”

  “Thank you,” Stephanie said in a guarded manner. Judging by the look on her face she clearly expected me to be rough with her. I had an inkling of what was coming from the other defense counsels and decided to not play it that way with her today.

  “You mentioned that Timothy Cooper looked afraid the night you were in his apartment.”

  “I did.”

  “You’ve been in a lot of places with people after they have discovered bodies, would that be fair to say?”

  “Yeah, I suppose it would.”

  “Would you say that there’s been a consistent way that people respond to such a stressful situation?”

  “No. It is all over the map.”

  “Have you found a consistent link between the behavior of people at the crime scene and suspects that you later charge?”

  “Occasionally, but it was primarily the circumstances of the murder that made me suspect Timothy, more than the way he was acting.”

  I nodded, as if I had gotten exactly what I wanted, it was close enough.

  “Are there cameras at the apartment building of the victim?”

  “There are security cameras, but they are old and have not been working for years. The building’s owner just left them up as a deterrent, thinking that would be enough.”

  “During the course of your investigation, did you look at the security cameras at the law library?”

  “We did.”

  “Did you see the defendant, Timothy Cooper, on those cameras during the night in question?”

  “We did. We found him entering the law school at about 9:30 in the evening.”

  “Were you able to find proof of what time he left the law school?”

  “We did not.”

  “Can you conclusively say that my client was at the apartment at midnight, the time of the murder?”

  “I cannot but the evidence tends to indicate that he was there.”

  “But you have no solid evidence he was there.”

  She was bristling now. “No, but we have no substantial evidence he was at the law school either.

  I hesitated, thinking about asking if they had looked for doorbell cameras but then thought better of it. I wanted Winston to look into it first.

  “No further questions.”

  49

  July 25 – 12:17 AM

  The walk back from the courthouse helped me clear my head. I had reached out to Winston to have him look into the doorbell cameras but he hadn’t answered. On the way I stopped for a turkey bacon avocado sandwich at a mom-and-pop shop. I had just taken a bite after sitting at my desk when my phone buzzed, it was Ellie telling me that Cynthia Cooper was here to see me.

  “Tell her I will see her in a few minutes.”

  While I was curious to know what she had to say, I was also famished and knew that if I didn’t take an opportunity to eat when I could that I might not at all. There was no telling how long Cynthia Cooper would want to talk and I could not afford to go back to court on an empty stomach.

  The sandwich was not the best I ever had, but after a day in court, it hit the spot and took my mind off the theatrics of the preliminary hearing, if only for a moment.

  It had gone about as well as could be expected, given the situation and my client’s way of continuing to screw things up.

  My mistake with the lipstick hadn’t helped matters.

  After the judge had dismissed us for lunch, Timothy had looked like he wanted to talk but I told him I had a meeting, leaving him flabbergasted as the bailiff took him away. I made a mental note to have a private sit down after the day’s hearing was over.

  I sipped on the cold Coke I had also bought while I pulled out my notepad and made a few notes about some of my observations from the morning. Stephanie had put on a good show. I suspected she still thought that my client had not done it but was holding the party line. It was Frank who was the obstacle. Perhaps this was why he had seemed to take pleasure in grilling her about the mistakes she had made on the case.

  I chuckled without mirth, glad Britney had not been in the courtroom today. I had finally mentioned to her that we were working on the same case together, albeit on opposite sides and she had not said anything. I had known by her thin-lipped frown she was worried that old flames would reignite. She had nothing to worry about.

  I cringed when I thought of how Stephanie had mentioned in open court that I had sent her a text, because I knew how Britney would perceive that. I hoped it did not get back to her. She was not normally the jealous type, but when it came to an old girlfriend, the colors tended to come out.

  Several minutes later I had eaten most of my sandwich, so I buzzed Ellie and told her I was willing to see Cynthia Cooper.

  I was taking another long pull on my Coke when Cynthia stormed in.

  “Why did you keep me waiting? I saw you walking in as I pulled up.”

  “It’s good to see you too. Have a seat.” I was not going to dignify her accusation with a response. If she wanted to press the issue, we could get into it, but the last thing I needed was to be drawn into a pointless argument. Her son’s life was on the line and it was my job to zealously represent him. I could not do that if my blood sugar was low. “Why did you want to meet?”

  Cynthia stared at me before giving a small shake of her head and a rueful chuckle before sitting. It sounded forced and looked like an act.

  “It doesn’t look like we were doing so hot out there, does it?”

  “Are you familiar with how preliminary hearings work?”

  “Yeah, I know it’s different. This is not the trial.”

  “The prosecution is given a degree of latitude today that they won’t have on the day of trial. Unless some sort of miracle occurs, your son is not walking out of the courthouse a free man today.”

  “There is no need to lecture me, Mister Turner.”

  I lifted an eyebrow. “Why are you here?”

  “Something from the morning testimony jogged my memory.” She took a deep breath and leaned forward, whispering in a conspiratorial fashion. “I just wished I would have known sooner. I think it could have saved us all a lot of trouble.”

  I looked on expectantly. Something about her face told me that she was going to tell me a lie, it was difficult to say how I knew, but I was certain.

  “Timothy contacted me that night while he was studying in the library.” She looked at me expectantly. I waited until she went on. “I was not aware of the time of death until this morning. Timothy calle
d me after his roommate was killed.”

  “We looked at the cell records and there is no record of a call or text until he reached out to me.”

  “We have this little ritual. He gives me a video call after he has completed a test or quiz.”

  “He called you after midnight to tell you that he had completed a quiz?” I would have had a hard time keeping the incredulous tone from my voice so I did not even try.

  “It’s something he has done ever since he was a little boy. He always lets me know how he did on those things. That night he took a test, I think it was Civil Procedure or something like that. He got a hundred percent and called to tell me. Normally, he would have waited until the morning, but he was having a hard time getting perfect scores with some of his classes, this one in particular, and wanted to let me know.”

  I studied Mrs. Cooper, every instinct told me she was lying about something. I hoped she would not suggest I call her as a witness, because there was no way I would ask about this.

  I would not suborn perjury.

  “Why didn’t you bring this forward sooner?”

  “Well I forgot until this morning, didn’t I?”

  “You mean to tell me this whole time you have been sitting an alibi for your son who is charged with murder and you didn’t think of it until this morning?”

  I gave her a skeptical look.

  “When Detective Gray mentioned the time of death it suddenly occurred to me that he had reached out after that. None of the news reports ever mentioned that the time of death was midnight. A lot of times details like this don’t make it into the papers because they want to keep them under wraps until they have a suspect.” She spoke with arrogance as if lecturing me on how the police did their job.

  I shook my head and made a note on the pad in front of me, more to gather my thoughts then because I had something useful to write.

  “Do you remember the service he used to call you?”

  “I don’t. It just comes through on my phone and I answer it. It’s a service that is already there, I can tell you that much.”

  I looked her in the eyes. “Are you willing to go to Detective Gray? If you can prove Timothy made the call, you might just keep him from spending his life in jail.”

  Cynthia let out a sigh and I knew it was not going to be as easy as that.

  “I think both you and I know, especially this late in the game, that word from somebody’s mother is not going to cut it. We need hard evidence.”

  “What do you have for me?”

  “Nothing.”

  I licked my lips and took a bite of sandwich and followed it up with a long drink from my Coke. I decided to push the issue of suggesting she go to the police one more time, I wanted to gauge her response.

  “This is all very interesting. At the very least let’s have you talk to Detective Gray. If they look at your phone perhaps they can—”

  “Let me be clear, Mister Turner. I will not be meeting with the detective. There has to be some other way to prove this. Take a look at his computer. You can find evidence of how he called me, I am sure. He was talking to me from his laptop, the back wall of his study area at the law library was in the background. He had a Far Side cartoon taped up. Check it out, you’ll see. I am telling the truth.”

  “Let me just make sure I understand this. You don’t want to turn over anything that might help exonerate your son. Instead, you want us to look at the evidence we don’t have. I shouldn’t even need to tell you this but I don’t have access to his laptop. We can make a motion and my investigator can review it, but it is gonna be very difficult and painful, not to mention time-consuming and expensive. If you can give me your phone or even just let my investigator look so we know how you received the call, we might be able to determine if there is an online history we can use to prove Timothy’s location. Failing that, we could go to the service to see if they have a record of it in their systems. I need something more to go on.”

  “I have nothing else,” she paused, “at least on that matter. I do want to ask your advice on something.” She waited until we made eye contact. “I reviewed Ron’s and my financial records and was surprised to notice that shortly before the murder he withdrew a bunch of cash from our bank account.”

  “How much?”

  “A thousand dollars.” She looked as if this were significant in some way.

  “You think he used it for the affair?”

  “I don’t know but I couldn’t help wonder if maybe he used it to buy a blackmarket pistol.”

  There was something in her eyes that I could not immediately place, it was as if she were gauging my response to decide what else to say.

  “You should take this to the police as well,” I said, scrutinizing her face.

  Cynthia stood while shaking her head. “I am sorry, Mister Turner, I don’t believe that is wise.”

  As she left my office, I was tempted to ask further questions, but she obviously felt she had control of the situation and I did not want to dispel her of the notion.

  I stared at the place where she had stood while I finished my sandwich, trying to understand what had just happened. If what Cynthia claimed was true about that video call, it could be the break we needed.

  But why not give us access to her phone?

  Would it prove she was someplace she would rather keep quiet?

  I pulled up an internet browser and did a quick web search for Timothy Cooper’s case and looked back at some of the initial news stories. It was true that the time of death had never been published in those. I did not have enough time now to review all the others to see if that held up, but it was possible Cynthia Cooper’s story checked out.

  I shot Ellie an email and asked her to review all of the news articles about Timothy to see if the time of death had ever been mentioned. I wanted to know if it was at least plausible Cynthia had not been aware of the time until today.

  I had shared copies of all the formal paperwork with Timothy, but he might have never sent it on to his parents. The time of death was mentioned there.

  My instincts still continued to tell me that Cynthia Cooper was lying, but I could not say what she was lying about. Given what I knew about her, it was not surprising she did not want to go to Detective Gray to provide an alibi. If she had been serious about protecting her son, she would have at least been open to the idea of providing her phone to me or my investigator. She’d given me a clue with virtually no information. While I might grumble about what she had done and how she had done it, I had no choice but to follow up. I didn’t even know where to begin with the missing money she claimed Ron took.

  How do I even know it was him and not her who took it?

  I picked up the phone and dialed Winston. He answered on the first ring. “Sorry I missed your call. How’s the preliminary going?”

  “Well enough,” I said. “You dig anything up on Cynthia yet?”

  “Not much, I’m afraid. I’ll keep looking.”

  “See that you do. I need you to get down to the courthouse and meet with Timothy before we start up again. His mother is claiming he called her on video chat, apparently after George was killed. She is refusing to give me any more information than that. I need you to learn from Timothy what he used to make this call. We also must figure out why his mother won’t give her phone to us. Can you do that?”

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “And another thing. She also said Timothy had just finished an online test in Civil Procedure. Can you find his professor and see if she can tell us if that is true or not?” At one time I had actually met the professor who taught this class at the local law school, but I could not remember her name. Luckily, Winston could learn that readily enough without my help.

  “Got it. Will do.”

  “Finally, when you have a chance, could you go to Timothy’s apartment and see if any of his neighbors have one of those doorbell cameras?”

  “Yeah, I’ll take a look. Hope all this helps.”


  50

  July 25 – 1:05 PM

  I smiled when I saw Keith Williams had his binder as he approached the lectern. Whatever game he had been playing before by only taking up a sheet of paper, he had given up on it now. Stephanie Gray was back on the witness stand, the judge had reminded her that she was under oath.

  Keith took another moment or two to shuffle papers around, even looking up with an apologetic smile to the judge before he finally settled on a page in his binder and looked straight at Stephanie.

  “Miss Gray. I understand you had a personal relationship with Mitch Turner in law school. Is this correct?”

  I gripped my fingers into a fist and suppressed every urge I had to jump out of my seat and yell, “Objection.” The judge looked at me as if he expected me to do so and was prepared to respond, but there was nothing I could do about this line of questioning. In an actual trial I would object all day long, but here I would just have to take it.

  Other than curling my fingers into a fist below the table, I didn’t move a muscle or make a face, certain that everybody in the room was now looking at me. Timothy stirred. When I glanced at him, I could tell he regretted hiring me as his attorney.

  Stephanie stared at Keith Williams for a long moment before answering. “That was a long time ago. It is not relevant to the present matter.”

  “But you see, Miss Gray, there are a lot of suspicious things that have happened in this case. Don’t you find it a little convenient that Mitch Turner found the murder weapon?”

  “Yeah, the murder weapon that is being used as evidence against his client? That’s real convenient for him, don’t you think.” Her tone was so acidic it could have eaten metal. “There are these little things called rules of ethics, have you heard of them? Mister Turner was under an ethical responsibility to turn the evidence over once he discovered it. To do otherwise would be criminal, he could go to jail and lose his license. He had no other choice.”