The Girl From Home

by Adam Mitzner

  He stops. Jackie knows she should be quiet, but the silence becomes too much, and she says, “I . . . I don’t know what you’re expecting me to say, Detective.”

  “Well, let’s start with the easy one. I’m expecting you to say that you are having an affair with Jonathan Caine.”

  “Who said that?”

  “I’m asking you, Mrs. Williams.”

  “No, you told me.”

  “Are you saying it’s not true?”

  She scrolls through her mind, wondering what evidence the police could have to prove the affair. Did someone see something? That seemed unlikely. She and Jonathan haven’t been in public since that time at the Château. That was weeks ago, and there wasn’t any public display of affection. Phone records from before she got the burner phone would only reveal one or two calls a day. That wouldn’t be frequent enough to prove the affair, would it? They must have listened to her voicemail messages or read her texts. That’s the only way anyone would know about her and Jonathan.

  But she immediately deletes every message Jonathan sends or she receives from him. Maybe Jonathan doesn’t. And even if he does, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re really gone. The damn cloud, whatever the hell that even is, might still have them.

  If the police have even a few of the messages, they’d know about the affair. Not the murder, but the affair. No doubt about it.

  Then a dark thought forces itself into her brain. Maybe Jonathan told them about the affair.

  “Mrs. Williams, yes or no?” Detective Martin says with an obvious edge. “Were you having an affair with Jonathan Caine?”

  “No. It’s not true. We’re friends. Nothing more. I don’t understand why you would think otherwise, and I think the least you can do is tell me what you think you know.”

  “I know your husband was murdered,” Detective Martin says.

  His big reveal might as well be followed by scary music. Da-da-duuuum.

  Jackie’s entire body goes numb. It’s as if she’s watching someone else, and wondering why on earth that person is talking to the police when they so clearly believe she murdered her husband.

  “Do you know a man named Ariel Kishon?” Detective Martin asks.

  “No.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. Who is he?”

  “So you never communicated with him by e-mail?” he presses.

  “No. Never. Why would I?”

  There’s a long pause. Then Detective Martin answers Jackie’s question. “Because he was hired to kill your husband.”

  Jackie’s about to say Hired by who? when the female cop, Murray, says, “Mrs. Williams, I’m with the FBI. I’ve been assigned to the case because it’s a murder-for-hire. That also makes it a federal crime, so the FBI has concurrent jurisdiction with the East Carlisle PD. And even though New Jersey has abolished the death penalty, it’s alive and well in the federal system. Now, we know that Ariel Kishon ran down your husband. And we know that someone paid him ten thousand dollars to do it. And the way we see it, this went down one of three ways. You hired Kishon, Mr. Caine hired him, or you did it together. Bottom line for you is that if you tell us how it happened, you might just spare yourself a date with a lethal injection.”

  Lethal injection? Jackie’s heart is hammering in her chest to such an extent that she clutches at it, almost as if to ensure it doesn’t burst through.

  She’s got to end this. Now.

  “I think you should leave,” Jackie says, trying to sound forceful but acutely aware that she sounds scared more than anything else. “And please don’t bother me again.”

  Detective Martin doesn’t budge, although the FBI agent, Murray, rises. Jackie has a momentary panic that they’re going to arrest her right then and there.

  “You’re playing this wrong, Mrs. Williams,” Detective Martin says, finally coming to his feet. “All wrong.”

  * * *

  Alex Miller answers his own phone, and does so on the first ring. Jonathan wonders whether Alex has any other clients. He must, because Jonathan isn’t paying him, so there are undoubtedly other clients who keep the lights on at his law firm.

  “Hey. What can I do for you, Jonathan?” Alex says.

  Jonathan gives him an uninterrupted narrative. As part of the download, he confesses the affair with Jackie, but adamantly denies that he had anything to do with Rick’s murder. He withholds from his lawyer that Jackie admitted to committing the crime. He’s not entirely sure why, but decides that such information should be dispensed solely on a need-to-know basis, and right now, at least, Alex Miller doesn’t need to know.

  When he’s finished, Jonathan hears the familiar sigh of disapproval from his lawyer. “Well, I suppose you already know that talking to the police was a big mistake,” Alex says.

  It’s one of the things that Jonathan finds so frustrating about dealing with Alex. It’s easy to pass judgment after the fact, with greater knowledge than was had at the time a decision had to be made. But in life, like on the trading floor, immediate action is required based on imperfect knowledge.

  “I do now. At the time, it seemed more like a calculated risk.”

  “All right, I guess what’s done is done. No more talking from now on, though. Understood?”

  “Yeah. Got it. So, tell me, what do I do?”

  “The next step is to have Jackie lawyer up. I can’t represent both of you, but I’ll reach out to a buddy of mine who practices criminal law in New Jersey. Let’s all meet at my office tomorrow. Five o’clock?”

  “Okay. Sounds like a plan,” Jonathan says.

  “One more thing,” Alex says. “You need to remember that your conversations with Jackie aren’t privileged, and for all you know, she’s recording you. So don’t say anything to her that you don’t want to hear again over the speakers in a courtroom.”

  Alex has clearly come to the conclusion that Jonathan is trying mightily to resist: Jackie might turn on him to save herself.

  “I understand,” Jonathan says.

  * * *

  Jonathan calls Jackie right after he gets off the phone with Alex. He gets her voice mail and decides to heed Alex’s concern enough not to leave a message. She’ll see a missed call and call him back. He’s been anxiously waiting that return call for the last twenty minutes.

  Jonathan’s first interpretation of the silence is that it means Jackie has already turned. After some reflection, he takes odd comfort in the fact that the cops wouldn’t play it that way. If Jackie’s cooperating with them, they’ll want her to call back. Like Alex said, when she does, she’ll be taping the call.

  When the ringtone finally sounds, Jonathan prepares himself for her betrayal. But as soon as he hears Jackie’s voice, he realizes that she’s been crying.

  “They know,” she says through the sobs.

  That doesn’t make sense. They certainly would have shared with him if they had evidence that Jackie killed Rick. All the cops indicated to Jonathan was suspicion about the affair.

  Jonathan can still hear Alex’s admonition not to have any substantive discussion with Jackie—that she might be taping him—ringing in his ears, but his curiosity overwhelms him. He needs to know what the police know.

  “Know what?” he asks.

  “About Ariel Kishon.”

  The name means nothing to Jonathan. “Who’s that?”

  “I’m assuming he’s the guy I hired to kill Rick,” Jackie says. “The guy I found on the Internet didn’t tell me his name, but the ad said he was a former Israeli commando. And now the cops are asking about a guy with an Israeli-sounding name, who claims he was paid to kill Rick.”

  Jonathan swallows hard. “What did you say?”

  “What could I say? That I didn’t kill Rick. That I didn’t have the first clue who this Ariel Kishon guy was. That you and I are friends, nothing more. I lied about everything.”

  Jonathan is trying to process this information. If the police know that Rick was murdered, and they know this Ariel Kish
on was hired to do it, that can only mean that they’ve arrested Kishon. But Kishon must not know Jackie hired him. If he did, they would have already arrested her.

  “It may not be so bad,” Jonathan says, trying to sound comforting. “The police obviously can’t connect this guy to you or they would have arrested you. And they were here, too, and they didn’t arrest me.”

  “They were at your house?”

  “Yeah. I guess they coordinated this to question us both simultaneously.”

  “What did you tell them?”

  “It sounds like the same thing you did. I said we were friends, nothing more. They didn’t ask me about any Israeli commando guy. But they did ask to see my phone. That’s when I told them that I wanted to talk to a lawyer first. Then I called Alex Miller.”

  “Who?”

  “You remember, I told you about Alex. He went to ECHS with us. He’s a criminal defense lawyer in New York City. He was helping me in the securities thing, and so I called him.”

  “What did he say?”

  “That you need a lawyer.”

  Jonathan realizes that sounds like he’s distancing himself from Jackie. You need a lawyer. It reminds him of her comment that You need to be careful. He wants her to believe that they’re in this together.

  “I mean, Alex will be my lawyer, and so he contacted a friend who can represent you,” Jonathan says.

  “Okay,” Jackie says, in a way that suggests that she understood what Jonathan meant the first time. That she’s the one who needs a lawyer.

  33

  At three o’clock the next day, Jackie pulls her car into Jonathan’s driveway. His Bentley, which has been a fixture since she’s met Jonathan, is not there, and Jackie wonders for a moment whether she’s mistaken about the time they had agreed to meet to go to the city.

  A moment later, Jonathan exits the house. He jogs over to her car and climbs into the passenger seat.

  “Would you mind driving?” he asks.

  “Sure. Where’s your car?”

  “It was in my driveway when I went to sleep, and when I woke up there was a certified letter from Harper Sawyer on my doorstep that repeated the word repossessed several times.”

  “I thought it was a prepaid lease?”

  “Apparently Harper Sawyer believed it was their prepaid lease,” he says.

  “I’m sorry,” Jackie says. “I know you loved that car.”

  Jonathan shrugs. “I did once . . . just like I loved my penthouse and the East Hampton oceanfront house I was going to buy. But it was all in the same kind of way. I loved what I thought they said about me. That I was successful, I guess. That I mattered.”

  “You matter, Jonathan. You matter to me.”

  He looks into Jackie’s face. He’s still not sure what’s going through her mind. Does she love him, or is he being played for a fool? The one thing he does know is that he certainly loves her. And that is enough for him to take a leap of faith.

  * * *

  Jackie stares up at the skyscrapers like the tourist she is as they walk the few blocks from the parking garage on Williams Street to Peikes Selva & Schwarz. Upon entering the firm, Jonathan says hello to the receptionist and introduces her to Jackie. Alex Miller comes out a minute later, with another man following close behind.

  “This is Mark Gershien,” Alex says. “He’s a friend of mine from law school, and a top-rate criminal defense attorney.”

  Even though Mark Gershien was Alex’s classmate from law school, Gershien looks a good ten years older. He’s a handsome man, with kind eyes and a strong chin, but there’s a weathered quality about him that’s more in keeping with someone who has already crossed fifty.

  “Very nice to meet you,” Mark says, shaking Jackie’s hand, and then Jonathan’s. “Although I’m sorry it’s under these circumstances.”

  “I’ve given Mark a very superficial understanding of what’s going on,” Alex says, “in part because I don’t fully understand it myself. So I thought it would be the best use of our time today, Jackie, if you meet with Mark in the conference room, while I chat with Jonathan in my office.”

  Jackie looks at Jonathan with concern. She apparently doesn’t want them to be separated, even if it is only to meet their respective lawyers.

  “It’ll be okay,” Jonathan says.

  “Okay,” Jackie says, sounding less sure.

  * * *

  Once they’re in Alex’s office, Jonathan says, “So, your buddy, is he any good?”

  “He is. Good enough that I can guarantee you that his advice to Jackie is going to be that she should turn on you.”

  Jonathan at first thinks Alex is kidding, but he hasn’t cracked a smile. “I told you, I didn’t have anything to do with Rick’s death.”

  “I know,” Alex says, which sounds more like I hear you than I believe you. “But that doesn’t mean that she’s not going to say that you killed him. I hate to break the fantasy, but the truth doesn’t always set you free in the American legal system, and love doesn’t always conquer all anywhere.”

  “She’s not going to say that I killed Rick,” Jonathan says.

  “Are you willing to bet your life on it? Because this is really one of the few times when the question is actually meant literally. If she turns on you, your life is over. And I got to tell you, I’ve seen couples who were married thirty years, couples with six children together, turn on each other to avoid prison. So, are you sure—and I mean really sure, bet-your-life-on-it sure—that Jackie isn’t going to turn on you to save herself?”

  The truth is no, he’s not. How could anyone be sure what someone else is willing to do to save herself?

  “I don’t know,” Jonathan says, fully knowing that it means she might.

  “In that case, I need you to listen to me, Jonathan. Keep an open mind, and hear what I have to say. Will you do that?”

  Jonathan knows what’s coming. “Yeah.”

  “Just like I told you that Mark’s a good enough lawyer to advise Jackie to turn on you, I’m that good a lawyer, too. And my very strong advice is for you to turn on her. Empower me to seek a deal where you get immunity in exchange for testifying that she admitted to killing Rick. I may even be able to get the immunity deal to cover the securities fraud, too. A complete get-out-of-jail-free card for you. The one caveat is that you have to do it ASAP—before she tells them that you confessed to her.”

  As with his fears about whether Jackie would turn on him, Jonathan has also considered this counter-option—saving himself by giving her up. At least he’d be telling the truth. He hadn’t even considered that he could get out from under the securities fraud charges, too. If the specter of a criminal indictment went away, he could start his life over. Maybe stay in banking, even.

  Nevertheless, he shakes his head as if it’s not even a consideration.

  “No, I’m not going to do that.”

  Jonathan wonders whether Alex believes him. He’s sure that many people declare that they’re never going to turn, and then they do, when all other options evaporate.

  “No judgments, Jonathan. You know me better than that. But this is a serious fucking thing here. Not to say that a potential securities fraud conviction isn’t, but you have an excellent shot of beating that one, or at the very least pleading it down to a sentence that’s doable. Three years, maybe. Short enough that you’ll still have a full life afterward. But this . . . this is a full-on murder charge we’re talking about. Worse than that, actually. It’s a murder-for-hire. That makes it potentially federal, which brings the death penalty into play. And like I said, the clock is ticking. If she makes the deal first, it’s all over for you.”

  * * *

  Jackie’s first impression of Mark Gershien is that he seems too happy to be there for her liking. She suspects that defending an attractive woman in a murder trial brings out the hero complex in a male lawyer, and so she decides to give him the benefit of the doubt for a little while longer.

  “I’ve had lots of introduc
tions under these circumstances, and I know how hard it can be,” Mark says after he and Jackie enter the conference room. “For what it’s worth, you’re holding up pretty well. At least from what I can discern.”

  She’s tempted to correct him. She’s not holding up well. She’s about to jump out of her skin. He has no idea how hard it can be thinking about spending the rest of your life locked in a cage. But she doesn’t see the point of telling him that what she’s experiencing is well outside his comprehension. If Mark Gershien likes to pretend that he knows something about what she’s going through, so be it.

  So she says, “Thanks.”

  “I thought we’d start off with a reading from the Gospel of Criminal Defense according to Mark L. Gershien.”

  Jackie smiles. She knows that he’s trying, so she might as well throw him a bone.

  “I can’t wait to hear it.”

  “Good. I’ll let you in on a little secret. The best criminal defense lawyers do not win at trial. Winning at trial costs a lot of money and a lot of sleepless nights. Not to mention that the odds of acquittal are very long. The prosecution wins . . . I don’t know, ninety percent of the time. That’s why the very best lawyers win before trial.”

  Jackie bites. “So, how do I win before trial?”

  “By cooperating against Jonathan,” Mark says matter-of-factly, staring intently at her.

  Jackie immediately looks away. She wonders whether her lawyer will think the worst of her if she turns on Jonathan, or whether that judgment will only apply if she doesn’t.

  “Jackie . . . listen to me. If Jonathan is responsible for the crime . . . or even if the two of you did it together, I can go to the DA and see what type of deal I can get for you. They’re going to demand jail time if you were in on it, but I may be able to get them down to something that is livable. Not easy, mind you, but survivable. Maybe ten years. I think you already know this, but I gotta say it anyway. If you lose at trial, the best case is life without the possibility of parole.”