“Yes. I was. I know that’s probably going to be one of your largest cases this year.”
“You’re not kidding about that.” She shook her head. “But what do you need to know about it?”
“It’s been assigned to Judge Perez, I see. I guess what I wanted to know was if the case was to be assigned to Judge Sanders.”
She nodded her head. “Yes, it was, as a matter of fact.” She looked sad. “You’re right, that is going to be one of our biggest cases this year. Judge Sanders, as a former EPA attorney, has the expertise to handle a large case like this with very complex issues. He’s handled some our largest class-action suits in the past, too. So, yes. This was going to be Judge Sanders’ case. Ordinarily the cases are randomly assigned, as you know, but once in awhile, when there’s a large case like this one, I try to assign them to judges who really know an issue inside and out. Judge Sanders was that man.”
I felt excited as I spoke with her. “Can I ask you if Dowling Chemicals was informed that they were going to be in front of Judge Sanders?”
“Yes. The attorney for Dowling Chemicals was informed about this months ago when he inquired as to who was most likely going to be trying their case. I told him that I was going to go ahead and assign it to Judge Sanders.”
Months ago. That was about when everything was blowing up in this case. That was about when the Kansas City Star had run their story about the people being sickened by those chemicals. I was sure that was when the attorneys for the plaintiffs were interviewing plaintiffs and trying to get people into the class.
“And how did it end up with Judge Perez?”
“Well, when Judge Sanders was murdered, I decided that it was best that it was randomly assigned. After all, all the other judges on the bench are equal as far as this case goes. None of them have a particular expertise in environmental concerns. The only reason why I wanted Judge Sanders to have that case was because he was an environmental lawyer for so many years before he was appointed to the bench, so he knows those issues inside and out. Once he was murdered, I knew that it was better off that the case be randomly assigned.”
I nodded my head. “Thank you, your honor. You don’t know how much you’ve helped me out here.”
She smiled. “I’m happy to help.” She looked at the clock. “I have to get ready for my 9 AM docket, so is there anything else I can help you with?”
“No, thank you very much.”
We shook hands and I left her chambers and exited out the suite, saying goodbye to the clerk on the way out. Judge Haynes was immensely helpful, because she answered the one nagging question – how did Dowling Chemical know that Judge Sanders was going to be their judge? Judge Haynes answered that question for me.
Now, I was just going to have to piece the rest of the puzzle together. I still hadn’t tied Michael into the crime. Yet I knew that there were only a few more pieces to fit together until I could prove that he was in on the murder, if not the actual murderer.
Then I was just going to have to prove it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
After I saw the judge, I knew what I had to do. I went over to the prosecutor’s office to tell her my suspicions. I was violating every single ethical duty in doing this, because I was going to point her in the direction of a possible motive. The motive was only possible, at this point, because I still hadn’t quite figured it out.
What I did figure out was that, as far I could see, Stone Enterprises was probably behind the murder of the judge. And it seemed as if Kayla Stone was also in on it. That suddenly seemed like the most likely and logical explanation for why it was that the pre-nuptial agreement was changed in her favor. She didn’t care that I knew that Michael was her boyfriend. She was open about this in her deposition, and, considering she stood to lose millions if Gerald found out that she was sleeping with Michael Reynolds, I would have thought that she would have kept her mouth shut about her having a boyfriend. Yet she wasn’t trying to cover that up.
Might she have agreed to kill the judge in exchange for Gerald Stone changing the prenuptial agreement? She had special access to the judge, after all, through Michael. That was how I started to think it went down. Michael killed the judge for Kayla.
But how to prove it? How would the prosecutor go about proving it? The connections were tenuous and circumstantial. Worse, the connections possibly could be all in my mind. My imagination was active, too active, and this whole thing was shaping up like a bad pulp novel. A really bad pulp novel. One that was unbelievable.
The prosecutor was probably going to laugh me out of the office, but I was determined to put my theory out there for her. April Todd was going to hear my story. She was either going to bite or she wasn’t, but I was determined to give her food for thought.
I went to the prosecutor’s office, hoping to see her. I knew that she probably was going to be in her office, because she didn’t have an early docket that I knew about. In fact, I knew that April Todd didn’t have a docket until 1:30, which is when she did her probation violation dockets.
“Hey,” I said, going into the prosecutor suite where the clerk, whose name was Mika Coulter, was sitting. “Is April in?”
“She is. Do you want to speak with her?”
“Yes, I do. I need to speak with her about the Michael Reynolds’ case.”
She nodded. “Go on back. I think that she was going to be calling you about it, too, so I’m sure that she’ll make some time for you.”
“Thanks.”
I went back to the office and knocked on the open door. April turned around, her face somewhat startled but, when she saw me, she smiled. “Hey Harper,” she said. “I was just going to call you. Where are we on the Reynolds’ case?”
I sat down. I was going to have to deftly handle this so that she didn’t suspect what I was doing. I was going to help her, but I didn’t want her to openly know this fact. “I don’t know, where are we? I did some depositions, so I’ll send you those transcripts. That’s been the only discovery I’ve done so far, however.”
She nodded her head. “I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t been doing as much on this case as I should be. I’ll get you my discovery by the end of next week. The results of our investigations and reports and deposition transcripts. I’m so sorry, I’m very behind on this.”
I leaned back in my chair and regarded the frazzled prosecutor. I knew how she felt. I was a Public Defender at one time, and I knew what it was like to have case upon case piling up on you. I looked at her desk and saw the files piled up, and looked around her tiny office and saw the white file boxes that were filled to the brim, and I knew that she was going to need a lifeline on this. I doubted that she had all that many trials scheduled, because prosecutors never do try too many cases, but she had probation violations to attend to and plea agreements to figure out and victims to speak with. Her work was never done, and somehow, someway, in the middle of all she had going on, she was going to have prepare for this enormous trial.
I didn’t envy her.
“Is there anything particular that you need to speak with me about on the Reynolds’ case?”
“No. I was just wondering what you were thinking about as far as my clients’ motive goes. Where is your head on this?”
“I’m in the process of figuring that out,” she said. “I need to speak more with the investigators on this case. They’re trying to piece that together. And, by the way, I do have an offer for you to take to your client. Life in prison without a possibility of parole. It beats the death penalty, and you know that your client is going to get the death penalty if he takes this to trial and loses. Food for thought.”
“I’ll be sure and get to that. I mean, I’ll tell him about this offer. I’m sure that he doesn’t want to take it, but I’ll tell him about it.”
“It’s not nothing, the offer. I don’t think that I need to tell you that life in prison is much better than spending years on death row, waiting for the needle. You should probably tell your
client as much.”
“I know.” How was I going to put the bug in her ear about the judge and the Stone case? All I need to do is point her in the right direction and hope that she picks up the ball and runs with it.
I felt frustrated because I didn’t quite know the proper way of throwing Michael under the bus. I didn’t want April to have any suspicions about my motivations for being on this case, because I didn’t know if she would have ended up gossiping about me. She might tell other prosecutors that I was in the office helping her out, and that would mean that my career could be in trouble.
I rose to my feet. I was going to have to figure something else out. Some way of letting April know that she needed to look into the Stone case and see how it tied in with everything that was going on.
Not that I was for sure, myself, of what was going on. I knew that I was getting close, though – close to proving I was correct about my hunch. Not getting closer to letting the prosecutor know what I knew, though.
“Thank you, April, for seeing me on such a short notice.”
“Of course. I’ll be in touch with my discovery within the next week or so.”
I left the office, frustrated with my inability to figure out how to tell the prosecutor what I knew. I was going to throw Michael under the bus, just like Christina Sanders hoped that I would.
I was going to. But how?
FRIDAY NIGHT, AND THE GIRLS’ party was going to go on. I had the laser tag company bring over the laser tags, I had a tent set up in the backyard, and I had a karaoke machine set up. Rina and Abby both had invited 5 boys and 5 girls, and everything was set up and ready to go. Axel had even taken off of work early, so he was over at my house right at 5 PM to help me with whatever I needed.
“Hey, lass,” he said, coming in the door with five 2 liter bottles of various soft drinks. “Tell me what I need to do. Put me to work.”
I handed him an apron and he readily put it on. He put his hands out and smiled and I grinned at him back. “That suits you, it really does.” The apron had little cherries on it and it was too small for him, but I had to admit that I liked seeing him in it.
“I’ve always wanted to wear an apron,” he said. “So, what are you serving these rugrats?”
“I have some stuff I bought from Costco. Some pizzas that I picked up from there, and some frozen buffalo wings. Some chip and dip. And a cake. Look at this cake.”
I opened up the ice cream cake I bought from Baskin Robbins, and it was decorated to say “Happy Early Birthday Rina and Abby.”
He smiled. “Now remind me again on why you’re having this party now, in the first part of November, instead of when their actual birthdays are?”
“Well, two reasons. One, their birthdays are in December, so there’s not much that we can do outdoors at that time. It’s going to cold as it is, but I have outdoor heaters, and they’re going to be running around, so I don’t think that they’re really going to feel the cold. But there’s bound to be snow on the ground in December, so I don’t anticipate that they’re going to be able to do much on their actual birthdays that involve being outdoors.”
“Okay. That makes sense. But this party came on suddenly. Why did you decide to do it so quickly?”
“Well, actually, Abby likes a boy. I told her that she could have a party over here and invite him. She’s too shy just to come out and ask him to go out with her. I know that girls do that now, but Abby doesn’t. She’s way too insecure. But she wasn’t too shy to ask him to come to a party, so that’s why I decided to have this party for them.”
His smile broadened and I melted just a little. I felt like this ice cream cake after it had been left out in the sun. “Mate, that’s brilliant,” he said. “Having a party so that her little crush can come over.”
“Yes. So, if you don’t mind, I need somebody to make this spinach dip while I set everything up outside. And I don’t really know how to set that heater up outside, and you’re a guy, so I have to assume that you probably know things like how to set up heaters and things like that. I hope that I’m not wrong about that.”
“You’re not wrong. I am well-versed in guy things like putting up outdoor heaters, so I’ll be happy to help you out there.”
For the next hour, Axel and I worked together to make sure everything was set up, and Abby and Rina did the same. They were totally excited about their party, and so was I, in a way. It was an excellent distraction for me, and it was a healthy way for me to direct my excess energy. I still hadn’t slept, except for about two hours the night before last, so I didn’t know why I was still so energetic. I only knew that I was, and that I was feeling as if I could do anything at all. It was a weird feeling.
“So, who is on the guest list?” I asked Rina.
She rattled off a bunch of names, and, for some odd reason, one of the names caught my attention: Amelia Stone.
“Wait a second. Amelia Stone. You mentioned her before. You said that she had broken up with her little boyfriend, and that all the kids were talking about it. Right? That’s the same girl, right?”
She shrugged. “That was like a million years ago. She likes this other boy now, but he’s not going to be here. Why do you care?”
I furrowed my brows. “Who are her parents?”
She dipped a chip into some dip and forced it into her mouth. “I don’t know. Her dad is some rich dude. Some really rich dude. Her mom is somebody. I don’t really know. Why do you care?”
I remembered reading, on the prenuptial agreement, that the Stones had no children. I had a feeling that Amelia Stone was Gerald Stone’s child. I didn’t know why I thought that, but that was the first thought that popped into my head.
Kayla Stone and Gerald Stone had been married for 13 years. Amelia Stone was in the same grade as Rina and Abby, which meant that she was 11, going on 12. Might Amelia have been born to a different mother? And, if so, how was that significant to this case? Was it significant?
I shook my head. “Nothing, nothing. But what do you know about her? Who does she live with?”
Rina rolled her eyes. “She lives with her mother. They live in Hallbrook. Her mother stays home with her and doesn’t work. That’s all that I know. Her mother doesn’t have the father around anymore. I don’t know if the father has ever been around. I only know that he’s some really rich dude that gives Amelia’s mother a lot of money. That’s all I know. Why? Do you want to meet her parents?”
“Actually, I do. I would love to meet her mother.”
“Okay. Her mother is going to bring her here, so you can meet her.”
“Thanks.”
Axel came in after Rina left the kitchen. “I overheard you talking to Rina,” he said. “What’s going on?”
I sighed. “Oh, Axel, I haven’t spoken with you about the Michael Reynolds case. I’m getting so close to breaking it wide open. I have to do some more investigation, but I think that things are going my way.”
“What do you mean? Are you saying that you’re finding evidence that will solidly exonerate your client? Or are you saying something else?”
“I’m saying something else.” I sighed. “I know that you’re not going to like what I’m doing. Hell, I don’t even like what I’m doing. I’m happy about it, but I don’t like it.”
He sat down at the table and pulled me down on his lap. I threw my arms around his neck and put my head on his shoulder. “Harper,” he said. “Tell me what’s going on? Are you trying to undermine your own client?”
I nodded my head. “I’m a horrible person, aren’t I?”
He laughed. “No, of course not. I’ve never heard of an attorney doing that, but I don’t blame you for doing that. That’s a bad bloke you got there. Are you sure that it should be you who is going to make sure he goes down, though?”
“Yes,” I said. “I spoke with the prosecutor and I know that she’s not going to figure out what happened in this case. She’s a good prosecutor, but she’s busy. She has investigators out there looking at
the facts of this case, but I don’t think that they’re going to figure out what really happened. I know that the cops aren’t going to figure it out. So it falls on me.”
“Why aren’t the cops going to figure it out? I’m a cop. A detective. I think that my brothers in blue are going to be all over this case. After all, the media’s all over it, so they’re under a lot of pressure to perform.”
I shook my head. “I spoke with the cop who was the first responder. I wasn’t encouraged. I got the feeling that they stopped looking after my client was arrested. Which is fine, but they’re not looking hard enough. They aren’t looking at the big picture.”
“What is the big picture in this case?”
“The big picture is that there is a conspiracy going on. I can’t say anything just yet, but I think that it involves a large corporation who stood to lose millions, hundreds of millions, if the case went the wrong way. And the case was going to go the wrong way under Judge Sanders. The ironic thing is that the person involved, Gerald Stone, has a daughter that I didn’t know about, and she’s going to be at this party tonight. So is her mother – her mother is bringing her here. I’m going to get a chance to speak with her, but probably only briefly. I don’t even know if I’m going to be able to say much to her. I don’t even know what it is that I’m going to ask her.”
Axel looked skeptical. “Lass, tell me what you think happened in this case. And how does it tie into your client?”
“I’ll tell you later. Believe me, it’s a long and sordid tale. One that can’t really be told in a short period of time, which is what we have right now. The kids are going to be here in a half hour. We have to get moving on this.”
For the next half hour, Axel and I put the finishing touches for the party. The outdoor tables were set with snacks and he checked the outdoor heaters to make sure that they worked properly. We also set up stations for the laser tag and I tested out the karaoke machine.
Axel laughed as I sang an Adele song on the machine. “You’re voice is very nice,” he said. “You should be a lounge singer.”
Harper Ross Legal Thrillers vol. 1-3 Page 52
