Conflict of Interest

by Jae

  No evidence? Aiden snorted. Give me a break, you jerk!

  "The only evidence they have is circumstantial and can be interpreted in many ways. According to the law, you have to adopt the interpretation in favor of the defendant because he has the presumption of being innocent." D'Aquino raised his index finger and gazed at the jurors with a serious expression.

  "The prosecution presented an inexperienced police officer who would not know a real crime from a staged one. Next, they called a detective who was predisposed to believe anything the alleged witness said because of their previous acquaintance. Their physical evidence – fibers, semen, and fingerprints – proved nothing more than that my client had been in the apartments and had sex with these women, a fact that he readily admitted to. The People didn't prove a homophobic motive. Just the opposite, in fact: a lesbian woman, who worked closely with Mr. Ballard for years, told you he has always acted with respect and tolerance toward lesbians."

  D'Aquino moved along the first row of jurors. "Even their own expert witness, Doctor Van Hayden, admitted that patients rarely confess that their injuries were caused by rough sex because they're too embarrassed to. And that is exactly what happened on the nights in question. Therefore, I ask that you acquit my client and find him not guilty. Thank you."

  Linehan scribbled something down on her legal pad. "Are the People ready for their closing argument?"

  "Ready, Your Honor."

  Aiden's eyes were on Kade as she rose and strode over to the jury box, appearing calm and focused. "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is not a case resting on circumstantial evidence as the defense wants you to believe. Every possible testimony you heard in the last week – except for the defendant's – pointed to the fact that three brutal rapes had been committed by the defendant, Garett Ballard. While some of the evidence may blur the line between rough consensual sex and rape, there is more than enough to prove the latter: torn clothing, bruises, broken bones, vaginal tears at a position consistent with rape, a gun that has been found in Mr. Ballard's apartment, his fingerprints on a ripped out phone line and on a cell phone that had been thrown out of the window."

  Kade counted it off for the jury with her fingers and then shook her hands to emphasize her next words. "Every single piece of evidence tells us that these three women have been raped, just like they said. The defense's attempt to come up with a motive as to why they should accuse an innocent man of rape has been less than convincing. Why should they be embarrassed or ashamed about having a heterosexual affair when many families of lesbian women would throw a victory party should that ever happen?" Kade looked intently at each juror in turn.

  "When Mr. Ballard tried to explain why three women, who had never spoken to him or to each other, should first sleep with him and then accuse him of rape, he got entangled in his own web of lies. All of the testimony – that of an experienced ER doctor and a detective with the Sexual Assault Detail, for example – indicates that Melanie Riggs, Jayne Matthews, and Dawn Kinsley were raped by the defendant, and Dr. Renshaw explained his motive: a pathological hatred against lesbians that the defendant developed after having been left by his lesbian mother and raised by his homophobic father." Kade half turned toward Ballard, who was staring at her with angry eyes.

  "The crime, the motive, and the perpetrator have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. I ask that you seek justice for the victims, make the defendant accountable for his actions, and return a verdict of guilty on all counts," Kade demanded, intently looking at every juror who would make eye contact. "Thank you."

  Linehan leaned forward to instruct the jury and then excused them to the jury room for deliberations. She raised her voice to be heard over the whispered conversations that started in the gallery. "This court is adjourned."

  Aiden finally leaned back. She looked at Dawn, who was sitting next to her on the edge of her seat with a pale face and a white-knuckled grip on Del's hand.

  "God, I think I need a drink," Dawn whispered, leaning her head back tiredly.

  "Then let's go and have one," Aiden suggested spontaneously. "I'm off duty, and Kade will page me when the jury returns."

  Dawn hesitated. She looked to her left, where her mother and Del sat.

  "Ah, you go with her, grasshopper," Del Vasquez encouraged her. "Your mom and I can manage to get smashed on our own."

  "Del!" Dawn and Grace slapped her on the shoulder from both sides.

  Aiden smiled, grateful that Del's comment had lightened the mood and made Dawn laugh. She waited patiently for Dawn's decision.

  "Okay, let's go." Dawn rose and followed her out the courtroom's double doors.

  Aiden shortened her stride, remaining protectively at Dawn's side. Her warning gaze and the gold shield she wore made sure that no one in the busy hallway strayed too close to Dawn. Soon, they descended the steps leading to the courthouse building. "Where do you want to go?" Aiden wanted to let Dawn decide in which bar or restaurant she would feel safe.

  "You know what..." Dawn stopped on the step above Aiden so she could gaze into her eyes without looking up. "If you don't mind, I'd rather take a rain check on that drink."

  Directly face-to-face now, Aiden studied the other woman. Dawn seemed edgy and exhausted. "You're tired, huh?"

  "I'm still not sleeping very well on some nights," Dawn admitted. "The trial brought back a lot of memories. And I don't want to be falling down drunk when the jury comes back with the verdict, no matter what it's going to be."

  Aiden pushed back her disappointment about parting ways so soon and nodded in understanding. "Kade said it could be a while before the jury gets back, and your place is just around the corner. Why don't you go home and take a nap?" she suggested.

  "I'd like that – but not alone."

  She wants to take a nap with me? Aiden was suddenly glad that she had already reached the last step, sure that she would have tumbled down the stairs otherwise.

  Dawn had to laugh when she saw the look on Aiden's face. "Come home with me, Detective," she invited, almost matter-of-factly, "for coffee and company, nothing more."

  Fool! Aiden scolded herself. Sharing a bed with you, even platonically, is probably the last thing on her mind. "Nothing more? Does that mean I don't get cookies with my coffee this time?" She tried to hide her embarrassment behind a joke.

  Dawn smiled. "Hmm, maybe I can scare up a few."

  They strolled along the treelined Fourth Avenue and finally took the elevator up to Dawn's apartment in companionable silence.

  "Is coffee okay?" Dawn asked when they crossed the threshold. "Or do you want something stronger? You can still have a drink."

  "No, coffee's good," Aiden said. "I'm off duty, but still... I promised myself I would never depend on alcohol to make myself feel better or to help me forget." To her astonishment, she had told Dawn before she could censor herself. She's just too easy to talk to.

  "Your mother?" It was more a statement than a question. Dawn seemed to know the answer intuitively.

  Aiden nodded. "My mother and a lot of good cops who end up drunk every night to forget about the evil they had seen that day." She leaned against the doorframe and watched Dawn as she prepared coffee and tea.

  The small, slender hands moved efficiently, giving the everyday activity of boiling water an easy grace.

  When the green-gray eyes lifted and glanced at her questioningly, Aiden looked away and let her gaze wander around the rest of the apartment instead. She affectionately took in the methodically cluttered desk and the new children's painting that was pinned to the living room wall.

  "When did you decide that you wanted to be a cop?" Dawn suddenly asked.

  Aiden blew out a breath. She wasn't keen on playing "twenty questions" with a shrink, but at the same time she found that she couldn't refuse to answer the questions of this particular psychologist. "I don't know. On some level, I think I always knew."

  "You never considered other careers?" Dawn wanted to know.

  "Not really, no."

/>   Dawn stretched, reaching for the cookie box on the top shelf, and for a moment, the blouse that was stretched taut across the lithe body distracted Aiden. "And you always planned to join the Sexual Assault Detail?"

  Aiden forced her gaze away from Dawn. "I didn't plan it from the start; that's just the way it happened. Guess it's my fate, huh?" Her facial muscles began to hurt from the effort it took to keep her face calm and expressionless. Normally, it wasn't too hard to talk about the way she had been conceived in an almost matter-of-fact way – it was something to which she had grown accustomed, and she had learned to keep a certain emotional distance. But somehow, staying emotionally uninvolved was difficult when she was dealing with Dawn Kinsley.

  Dawn's hands stilled on the cookie box, and she turned around. "If you were destined to work with rape survivors, it's because of your strength and compassion, not because you have anything to atone for. The sins of your father are his own, not yours."

  Aiden swallowed helplessly. A whirlwind of thoughts was racing through her mind, and she didn't know what to say. "What about you?" she asked when she couldn't stand the silence any longer. "Why did you become a psychologist instead of following family tradition and becoming a cop?"

  "Well, I thought about it when I heard that there are some lesbians who have a thing for women in uniform," Dawn said with a grin. "No, seriously, I considered going into the 'family business' for a while. There are some things about being a cop that really appeal to me."

  Aiden took a step forward and leaned against the kitchen cupboard. She didn't want to miss a word that Dawn said. "What things are those? Apart from the attention-getting uniform," she added with a smile.

  "Helping people, protecting people..." Dawn shrugged. "But I quickly realized that 'protecting and serving' is not really the main focus of police work. Investigations and legal proceedings are about the perpetrators, not about the victims."

  "So you became a psychologist," Aiden concluded, "and you love your job."

  Dawn poured hot water into the mug with her tea bag. "Some days I want to chuck everything and move to the Bahamas, but overall, yes, I love my job... even if it's not a chick magnet like yours."

  Aiden reached for the tray before Dawn could and carried it into the living room. It surprised her how at home she already felt in the cozy apartment. "How did your parents react to your career choice?"

  Dawn shoveled sugar into her tea and stirred thoughtfully. "My dad died before I had my degree, but he was always very supportive of me."

  "And your mom?" Aiden found herself wanting to know all the details of Dawn's life even if she was reluctant to reveal personal information about herself.

  "My mom was relieved when I chose not to attend the Police Academy. She almost burst with pride when I got my PhD. I think she called me 'Doctor' for a week." Dawn chuckled around a mouthful of cookie.

  Aiden laughed, too. She was glad that Dawn had a parent who was not reluctant to show her love and pride.

  "At first, she wasn't too keen on my idea to specialize in counseling rape survivors. She wanted me to go into family therapy or any other field of work where I wouldn't be confronted with all the violence and the crimes that my dad and Brian had to deal with on a daily basis," Dawn continued.

  Aiden shrugged. "She wants to protect you from the ugliness of the world. That's what mothers do."

  Dawn studied her over the rim of her mug. "Did yours?"

  "Sometimes."

  Dawn didn't pressure her to explain, but Aiden felt it wasn't fair to pump Dawn for information about her family and then give her one-word answers in return. "There were times when she just wanted to forget everything that had happened to her, including me," she told Dawn, closing her hands tighter around her mug without drinking. There was already a bitter taste in her mouth, even without coffee. "When she was drunk, she didn't care about other people."

  Dawn took the unused mug out of Aiden's grip and replaced it with her own hand. She silently squeezed Aiden's fingers.

  Not wanting to be pitied, Aiden squared her shoulders but did not dare to break the connection between their hands. "She did care when she wasn't drunk," she belatedly defended her mother. "She was proud when I became a police officer, but she hated that I joined the Sexual Assault Detail. At least once a week, she begged me to transfer to homicide, narcotics, or any other unit."

  Dawn closed her other hand around Aiden's and looked down at their tangled fingers. "She hated it because she knew it had the potential to hurt you. But I'm sure she loved you for doing it anyway."

  Aiden's gaze followed Dawn's, taking in the contrast of Dawn's fairer, smaller fingers against her own. She noticed that her thumb had been drawing circles over the back of Dawn's hand again, and she wasn't sure if the gesture was meant to sooth Dawn or herself.

  The pager that suddenly went off on her hip made her jerk back from Dawn. Quickly, as if she had been caught doing something forbidden, she disentangled their fingers and grabbed her pager to look at its display. "It's Kade," she announced. "The jury's back."

  CHAPTER 22

  DAWN NERVOUSLY took her seat next to Aiden. She clutched the edge of her seat and leaned toward Aiden. "They didn't take long to reach a verdict, did they? Is that a good or a bad sign?"

  "Let's hope it means that they saw right through Ballard's feeble defense," Aiden said with an encouraging nod.

  Dawn felt her already tense body stiffen even more when Garett Ballard turned in his seat to stare at her. She looked away and directed her gaze toward Kade Matheson, who looked calm and secure behind the prosecution's table, as if any verdict other than "guilty on all counts" was not even a possibility. Once again, Dawn envied her cool confidence.

  Judge Ruth Linehan settled her black robe around herself on the bench and looked down at the jurors. "Has the jury reached a verdict?"

  The jury foreman stood. "We have, Your Honor."

  Dawn watched anxiously as the bailiff walked a folded piece of paper over to the judge, who read it and then handed it back. Linehan's expression revealed nothing. "Will the defendant please rise."

  Garett Ballard and his attorney stood.

  "On the first count of the indictment, the charge of unlawful possession of a firearm, how does the jury find?"

  The jury foreman looked down at the piece of paper in his hand. "We, the jury, find the defendant guilty."

  Dawn nodded stiffly. That was the easy one. Proving he was carrying a concealed weapon even though he didn't have a permit was all it took.

  "On count two, possession of stolen property, how does the jury find?" Judge Linehan asked.

  "We find the defendant guilty."

  Another easy one, Dawn thought with growing tension.

  "On count three, resisting arrest, how do you find?" the judge asked in a voice that didn't betray any personal feelings.

  "We find the defendant guilty," the foreman said again.

  "On count four, assaulting a public safety officer, how does the jury find?"

  Dawn turned her head to look at Aiden, who sat with a neutral expression, as if she hadn't been the assaulted officer in question.

  "We find the defendant guilty."

  Dawn breathed a sigh of relief but felt her muscles stiffen all the same. Her heart began to pound. The remaining charge was the only one that really mattered to her.

  "Regarding three counts of rape in the first degree, what is your verdict?" Linehan asked.

  "We find the defendant..." The jury foreman cleared his throat. "...guilty."

  Dawn's whole body had been on edge from the moment Aiden's pager had gone off, and now all the tension fled her body in a rush, leaving her with weak knees and a dizzy head. She numbly fell back against the back of her seat. She heard the bang of the gavel and Linehan's "This court is dismissed" as if from a huge distance.

  "Hey." Aiden leaned over and looked down at her with concern. "You okay?"

  Dawn exhaled shakily. "Yeah, I think so."

  "It's over
now," Aiden assured her. "He's been found guilty, and he won't be out on the streets again for a long, long time. If I know Kade, she's going to push for the maximum."

  Still a little numb, Dawn let herself be hugged by both her mother and Del, peering over their shoulders as a struggling and shouting Ballard was dragged from the room.

  "We should celebrate," Grace suggested.

  Dawn nodded even though she didn't feel like celebrating. She was glad that she, and every other woman in Portland, would be safe from Ballard, but no punishment imposed on him could undo what he had done to her and the others.

  "You and your partner are invited, of course," Grace told Aiden.

  Dawn looked over at the prosecution table where Kade was calmly gathering her things. "Should we ask Ms. Matheson if she wants to join us?" She was grateful to the Deputy DA who had won the case and didn't want to exclude her from the celebration.