Outlaws

by Tim Green

  "Mrs. Grey," she said softly, "how long have you known your husband?"

  Jenny hesitated, wary of some trap, then said, "About fifteen years."

  "Since high school, isn't that right?"

  "Yes."

  "And in that time, your husband has been in some trouble, hasn't he?"

  'Yes, he has."

  "And you have unfortunately had to witness these outbursts, haven't you, Mrs. Grey?"

  'Yes, I have."

  "But isn't it true that in each one of these outbursts, Mrs. Grey," Madison said in a normal tone, "that you were the direct cause of the problem?

  "Objection, your honor! Counsel is badgering the witness, there is no relevance to this whatsoever!" Van bawled.

  "Sustained."

  "It is true," Jenny said anyway, and there was absolute silence. "He fought over me since I knew him.

  "And you liked that, didn't you, Mrs. Grey?" Madison said wickedly. She wanted the jury to know that this beautiful woman was nothing but trouble from the start.

  'Your honor, objection!" Van said desperately.

  "Sustained. Ms. McCall, I see no relevance whatsoever, here. Please move on."

  "Isn't it true that you lie on a regular basis, Mrs. Grey?" Madison said.

  "Of course not," Jenny replied, her lip curling up in contempt.

  "No? Well, do you think that deceiving your husband on a daily basis and breaching your marital vows is being honest?"

  "I don't know what you're implying, but I don't lie."

  "Isn't it true that you have had before and are at this time having an extramarital affair, Mrs. Grey?" Madison said with as much nastiness as she could muster. She knew that if a woman like Jenny Grey had a lover now that it wasn't her first.

  Jenny paused. She glanced briefly at Cody, then said, 'Yes."

  The court erupted, and Judge Connack slammed his gavel twice with a warning. "There will be no more of that in this courtroom, or I'll bar you ladies and gentlemen from the press. This is not a circus. This is a court of law, andfor those of you from out of town, just ask the people who know me. 1 mean it."

  Van looked over his shoulder for the CNN people, hoping they hadn't been too offended.

  Madison let the notion of Jenny as a coldhearted slut sit for a while. She stood there until she was certain everyone in the entire courtroom was uncomfortable, even Jenny.

  "Isn't cheating on your husband a lie, Mrs. Grey?" she said abruptly.

  "No," Jenny responded.

  "No? What would you call adultery, Mrs. Grey? Is it cheating or is it lying?"

  "My husband never asked. I never told. If he'd bothered to ask," Jenny seethed, "I would have told him the truth."

  "So you would have us believe that you are really nothing more than a cheater, and not a liar?"

  "I don't think of myself as either."

  "Mrs. Grey, your husband has made a substantial amount of money over the past nine years as an NFL player, hasn't he?"

  "Yes."

  "And you've lived well, haven't you?"

  'Yes, fairly well."

  'You drive a Porsche, don't you?" Madison asked.

  'Yes."

  "Objection, your honor," Van said.

  'Your honor, may I approach the bench to explain my line of questioning?" Madison asked politely.

  "I wish you would," Judge Connack responded.

  'Your honor," Madison said in a whisper as Van Rawlins hung over her shoulder to hear her every word, "this woman has spent every penny my client has made. Because of his age and his injuries, his earning potential is about to drop off to relatively nothing. I believe that she is planning to divorce my client because of this. If he was sentenced to jail, then Mrs. Grey would have grounds for an easy and cost-free divorce. I believe that this may show some bias of the witness toward my client in this case. That is the line of questioning I am pursuing."

  "Preposterous, your honor," Van commented.

  Walter thought a moment, then said, "I'll allow it."

  Madison returned to her spot.

  "Besides the Porsche," Madison said, "you live in a three-quarter million dollar home with a pool, isn't that right?"

  "Yes," Jenny huffed with boredom.

  "But you don't have any money in savings, do you, Mrs. Grey?"

  "Not much. Not really."

  "Isn't it a fact that if your husband were to lose his job today that you would have to sell your home?"

  "Probably."

  "And you wouldn't like to have to live in any other way than the one you've become accustomed^, would you, Mrs. Grey?"

  "I suppose not. Who would?"

  "And your husband, Cody Grey, is at the end of his career, isn't that right?"

  "Yes."

  "And he won't be making that money much longer, will he?"

  "I doubt it."

  "And you're planning on leaving your husband, aren't you?"

  "Not because of that."

  "But you are planning on leaving him, aren't you?"

  "Yes."

  "So you'll want a divorce, correct?"

  "I guess I will, yes."

  "So you can marry someone who does have money, isn't that right?"

  "Objection!"

  "Ms. McCall," the judge said, "now I really am starting to lose patience with you."

  Without pausing to absorb the rebuke, Madison said, "And you're aware that if your husband is convicted in this case that it will be unspeakably easy for you to divorce him, aren't you?"

  "No, I didn't know that."

  "You don't really care what happens to your husband, do you, Mrs. Grey?"

  "I care," she said.

  Madison looked toward her with disbelief, in dear sight of the jury. She counted off her fingers as she spoke: "You cheat on your husband, you're planning to divorce him, you came here today under absolutely no legal obligation to testify against him, and you say you care what happens to him? Are you lying to us now, Mrs. Grey, or simply cheating again?"

  "Objection! Your honor! This has gone too fan" Van was steaming and judge Connack wasn't too far from boiling.

  Madison didn't care. She didn't give a damn if Walter threw her in jail overnight. She had probably gone too far, and she was going to go even further. It was a question she knew she shouldn't ask because she had no good faith belief that it was tnie, but she had to do it. She had to link this woman's testimony against Cody to something more than a divorce. The jury would want a stronger motive to kick around when they were deliberating.

  "Has one of your illicit affairs been with a man named Ricardo Lopez?" Madison barked. "And didn't he drive you here to this courtroom today?"

  It wasn't in Jenny's response,- she said nothing. It was the momentary shock on her face that let Madison know she had struck a nerve with mention of the man who dropped Jenny off. She had no idea if the man was Lopez or if he had something to do with Lopez, but one thing was certain. That man had something to do with this case. He might even be the real killer.

  Van was yelling, the judge was yelling, and the entire courtroom was in an uproar. But the jury heard, and Madison knew she'd battered Jenny's image around enough so that they'd remember. They'd make the connection between the cheating wife and the mobster who had a plausible reason to want Board dead. They might even buy her whole theory now.

  "1 would like to redirect, your honor," Van said after he'd calmed himself down enough to speak and Judge Connack had finished his bellowing. Van walked calmly back to his place beside the jury.

  "Mrs. Grey," he said, "why do you want to leave your husband?" Jenny looked pointedly at Madison before she turned to Van and the jury. "Because he is a violent man and I can't stand it anymore. I think he may be addicted to painkillers. He's been using them for over three months now, nonstop."

  The people were quiet except for the rustling of clothes as every head in the courtroom craned to get a view of Cody Grey.

  "Did anyone ask you not to testify here today, Mrs. Grey?" Van said. "Y
es," Jenny replied, pointing her finger at Madison, "my husband's attorney told me to say nothing to anyone about what time he came home."

  The courtroom erupted with a quiet murmur. The judge looked shocked. Van smiled. He had never had any intention of questioning the ethical behavior of another member of the bar in open court, not even Madison McCall's, but she had gone too far. She asked for it.

  Van nodded and said, "Finally, Mrs. Grey, why did you tell us that youi husband came home at two-thirty?"

  "Because that's what happened."

  "Thank you, Mrs. Grey."

  Jenny got down off the stand and walked with her chin still held high, looking straight ahead, right out of the side door of the courtroom that she had come in through. Madison nudged Marty and he quickly got up and followed.

  Madison wasn't upset about what Rawlins had just done to her. It was smart on his part. Under the circumstances, she would have done the same thing. Her father used to tell her, and it was true, that if you're going to bite and kick, you're going to get bitten and kicked back. She looked at Cody sitting next to her. He was stone-faced, not an ounce of emotion detectable on his face. She put her hand on his arm and gave it a friendly squeeze. He looked at her and smiled weakly. He looked like a condemned man already. Madison had a moment to consider what Jenny's testimony did their case and realized it all but killed tbem.

  Van Rawlins got back to business. He called Alice's boss to the stand, the Travis County Coroner, to go through the gory details of what exactly had killed Jeff Board, the struggle that took place, how he had defecated and cried right before death. Van was trying to get the jury to see Board in their minds, begging for mercy.

  Madison made it as hard for Van as she could, protesting at every step of the way about the prejudice such morbid talk was casting on her client. Walter, however, wasn't disposed to let her have her way any longer, and Madison was relieved when court was finally adjourned for lunch.

  Chapter Thirty

  Marty walked into the court even before Madison had finished packing up her things to go to lunch. She looked at him expectantly.

  "Marty," she said quietly, so Cody couldn't hear, "did you get it?"

  He nodded and quietly said, "Yes."

  He figured correctly that Madison didn't want to wound Cody any deeper than he already was by openly discussing the man with whom his wife was obviously involved.

  "Good," Madison said. "Listen, I want you to track it down. Find out who this guy is and what he does, okay? Can you do that tonight?"

  "You got it," Marty said. "I'm like a real private eye here. First I'm a tax attorney, then I'm an agent, then a trial lawyer, and now I'm a private eye. Be friends with Madison McCall and see the world."

  'Thanks, Marty," she said. "You go with Cody to our room. I'll meet you."

  Madison went to a bank of pay phones outside the courtroom and dialed Alice Vreland's office.

  "I'm sorry," the young man who answered the phone told her, "Alice is in the field. She won't be back until later this afternoon. Can I help you?"

  Madison chewed her lower lip and said, "No, thanks. Just tell her that Madison called, and I have to speak to her today. I'll try back around four- thirty. If she's not going to be around, please have her leave me a message where I can reach her. It's very important."

  Madison hung up the phone and went to the same room they'd eaten lunch in the day before. She found Cody and Marty eating the same sandwiches they'd had the day before, as well. Things weren't as upbeat as they were a day ago, though. Jenny's testimony put a damper on everyone's spirits, and Madison didn't want to share her possible new lead until she had something more concrete. She couldn't, however, keep her mind from jumping to all the possibilities that could exist if she were able to link both bullets to a real person. She had to push those thoughts from her mind, though. She was in the middle of a trial, and what happened with the prosecution's eyewitness over the next few hours could prove to be more important than a matching bullet and a man in black.

  The afternoon was a slow, meticulous battle. Van carefully built up Boris Hauffler as a credible and completely unbiased eyewitness. Hauffler seemed to become more nervous and forgetful as the time wore on. Seeing that fatigue was setting in, Van tried hard to get right to the point as well as sneak in some leading questions that were not allowed on direct examination. Madison was certain that everyone in the courtroom was growing tired of the words, "Objection, leading the witness," but that was her job, and she did it well. By the time Van was through with his direct, Hauffler was tired and frazzled. Still, without hesitation, Hauffler had pointed directly to Cody Grey as the man he saw running from Jeff Board's house the night he was killed.

  Madison had a complete history on Hauffle^ and she attempted to impeach his credibility for every indiscretion he^ever committed, grilling him thoroughly on things as mundane as some unpaid parking tickets and as embarrassing as the time he beat a neighbor's dog with a shoe after it allegedly bit his dog. Madison also knew that Hauffler's wife had left him twenty years ago and run off with a fitness center owner who had once been a semi-pro baseball player. Her theory, challenged unsuccessfully by an irate Van Rawlins, was that Hauffler maintained a grudge against any and all professional athletes as a result and was thus a biased witness against Cody Grey.

  By the time she got to the important things, both Madison and the jury knew from the tone of his voice that Hauffler hated her vehemently. Madison went into great detail on the exact way in which the police had presented the picture of Cody Grey to Hauffler. She suggested that from the instant he was told that it was Cody Grey, the famous athlete, Hauffler was convinced that Cody was the killer, but that the man Hauffler saw running from the house was not the man in the picture.

  Hauffler stuck firmly to his story, as Madison knew he would have been coached to do. Suddenly Madison paused dramatically. It seemed she had come to a dead end. Then she lifted a stack of papers four inches thick from her table and said, "Mr. Hauffler, are you aware of how many cases there are in this state alone where innocent people have been convicted of murder by eyewitnesses who were later proven to be wrong?"

  "Objection, your honor," Rawlins said, rising tiredly from his chair. "Is counsel trying to admit those papers to evidence? If so, I'd question their relevance,- if not, I question this method of unfounded suggestion."

  "Ms. McCall, are you presenting those papers as evidence?"

  "I think I'd like to, your honor," Madison said, as if it were the first time she was even considering it. "I realize it is unusual, but I think these cases are critically important for Mr. Hauffler and the jury to consider. These are real cases, your honor. Cases like this one, with witnesses, like Mr. Hauffler, who claimed to be just as certain that they had made a correct identification. They were wrong, your honor, as the respective courts later determined. Unfortunately, your honor, in two of these cases, the defendants were executed before the truth was discovered...."

  There was a low murmur throughout the courtroom.

  "All right, Ms. McCall," the judge said with a heavy sigh, "that will be enough. Please submit copies of this to the court as well as to the state."

  "I object to this, your honor," Van said. "I see no relevance to this case whatsoever."

  "I just don't want this jury," Madison said compassionately, "or Mr. Hauffler, to have to live with that kind of guilt, your honor."

  "I understand," Walter said impatiently. He certainly wasn't buying Madison's phony concern, but he did think it was a legitimate body of evidence to consider. "Please submit the evidence, Ms. McCall."

  When she'd finished her cross, Madison felt certain that she had done everything she possibly could. Once again, however, despite all her work. Van Rawlins was able to use his redirect to build his witness back up. His final question was simple and to the point: "Are you absolutely certain that you saw that man, Cody Grey, coming out of Jeff Board's house right after he was murdered?"

  ^

  H
auffler answered yes with the certainty of a king.

  Madison was beginning to think more and more that if they were going to stand a chance at all, it would come down to Cody's testimony and how well he stood up under Van Rawlins's cross-examination.

  After the trial was adjourned for the day, Madison left Cody in the care of Marty and excused herself. She went immediately to her office to call Alice Vreland. Her friend was there.

  "You want me to what?" Alice exclaimed.

  "Don't you know anyone in the D. A.'s office that can get you in the vault?"

  Madison said. She wanted Alice to go to the D. A.'s office and sign out the bullet that was in the evidence locker being used for Cody's case. Whenever evidence was needed for a trial, the D. A.'s office secured it from the police. They would keep the evidence for each case in their own vaults until the trial was over. The only way Alice could check to see if the .21 slugs found in the wall of the garage and in Jeff Board's brain were the same was to put them under the comparison microscope together. To do that, Alice would have to get the slug from the D. A.

  "Yeah," Alice said, "I know a gal in the felony bureau who could probably do it, but why? You don't think there's a connection between Cody Grey and our smelly corpse, Ramon, do you? I mean, Cody's your client."

  "No," Madison explained. "It's not Cody. It's the man who Yusef claims made him pull the trigger. He, Yusef, saw him this morning, dropping Cody's wife off in the back of the courthouse."

  "What?" Alice said, mystified.

  "Yusef was in court for a pleading this morning," Madison explained. "When they were taking him out to the bus to take him back to jail, he saw him. I guess he pulled up in a car and Jenny Grey hopped out."

  "Wow," Alice said, "the plot thickens, but you've lost me."

  "I admit I'm a little lost in all this myself," Madison told her, "but I can't do anything until I find out whether these bullets came from the same gun. I'd ask Rawlins if I didn't think the press would hear about it before anyone has a chance to find out who this mystery man is. I don't want him disappearing or having a chance to ditch the weapon if he hasn't already. Matching slugs without having this other guy only makes things look worse for Cody."