Broken Promises

by Terri Reid

  Mary grinned at her. “Oh, I intend to,” she replied.

  “That’s my girl,” Gracie said. “You take care now.”

  She left the room, the sound of her high heels echoing down the hall.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  “It’s too bad Gracie couldn’t join us for lunch,” Mary said, as they sat down together at a small restaurant not far from the courthouse. “I really wanted to thank her for her testimony.”

  The waitress came over, handed them menus and quickly took their beverage orders.

  “Well, I, for one am glad she didn’t stay,” Sean said. “That defense attorney made chopped liver out of my testimony. Either it was entrapment or a conspiracy against Copper. I hope the jury didn’t buy it.”

  Ian slapped his menu down on the table. “If this case were tried under English Common Law, we wouldn’t be having this discussion,” he said. “Copper would be well and good behind bars already.”

  “Well, there is that small matter of the war we won,” Sean said, “where we got in our boats and waved ‘bye-bye’ to English Law.”

  “And a lot of good that’s done you,” Ian gumbled.

  Bradley looked over the top of his menu at Ian. “So, you think your testimony would have been more accepted in a British Court of Law?” he asked. “Would they have accepted Jeannine’s testimony through Mary?”

  Sighing, Ian shook his head. “No, they would have laughed their bloody wigs off,” he said. “This is so frustrating. I have no idea what the jury is going to do.”

  “Well, at least it isn’t all going his way,” Mary said.

  “How do you know that?” Bradley asked.

  “Lydia told me that Thanner is going to have Copper testify this afternoon,” she explained. “If this were a slam dunk, there is no way he’d risk Copper saying something stupid.”

  “Like, hey folks, I’m a murderer and a rapist and a fairly poor dentist too,” Ian suggested.

  “Could you hypnotize him and get him to say that?” Sean asked.

  The waitress came back, interrupting their conversation, and took their order.

  “Do you think the defense has any other witnesses?” Sean asked.

  Mary shook her head. “Lydia said we would be wrapping things up this afternoon, so I think Copper is the only witness on the docket.”

  “And then we wait?” Ian asked.

  Bradley nodded. “Yes, and then we wait.”

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  “The court would like to call Dr. Gary Copper to the stand,” the clerk said.

  Gary Copper stood and slowly made his way around the defense table and to the witness stand. He stepped up to the stand, faced the clerk and put his hand on the Bible.

  “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?” the clerk asked.

  He nodded and said, “Yes.”

  “He’s lying,” Ian whispered to Mary, sitting next to him.

  “How can you tell?” she asked quietly.

  “His mouth is open,” Ian replied.

  The defense attorney followed his client to the front of the courtroom and stood facing him. “Dr. Copper, can you please tell the jury about your relationship with Jeannine Alden?” he asked calmly, smiling over his shoulder at the jury.

  “My wife and I had been good friends with Jeannine and Bradley,” he explained. “They invited us over for dinner and then we invited them. You know, the way friends treat each other. My wife and I often commented how nice it was to find a couple that we both got along with. But, after my wife left me, things got a little distant. They were still friendly, but I’m sure it was harder to invite me, a single man over to their home. However, because Bradley had such erratic hours, whenever there was a mechanical issue at their house, Jeannine would call me to help.”

  He sat back and smiled at the jury. “We became the best of friends,” he said. “She would listen to my venting about my wife and, eventually, she opened up about her relationship with Bradley.”

  Turning to Thanner, he leaned forward. “Should I tell them about the abuse?” he asked.

  Bradley, sitting between Mary and Sean, jumped forward in his seat. Both Mary and Sean placed a restraining hand on his arms. “Don’t react,” Sean whispered, “you’d be playing right into his game.”

  Grudgingly, Bradley sat back and tried to keep his face emotionless.

  “Yes, Dr. Copper, do tell us about the abuse,” Thanner said.

  “Objection, your honor,” Lydia called out. “There is absolutely no evidence of abuse of any kind, from any other viable source. Mr. Thanner is allowing his witness and his client to spin fantasies for the jury.”

  The judge looked down on Thanner. “Do you have any other witnesses that can testify and verify your client’s claim of abuse?” the judge asked.

  Thanner shook his head. “No, your honor, but…”

  The judge’s gavel struck solidly. “Sustained. There will be no talk of abuse,” the judge interrupted.

  Thanner scowled and walked back to Copper. “Dr. Copper, what happened on the day the Alden’s home was broken into?” Thanner asked.

  “I was home, getting ready for work,” he said, “when there was a knock on my back door. I answered it to find Jeannine standing on the deck, with an overnight bag in her hand. She asked me if she could come in and, of course, I said yes.”

  “Of course he did,” Ian muttered, “the bloody liar.”

  “She explained to me that she was leaving Bradley,” Copper continued. “She wasn’t sure where she was going to go. I could see she was upset but she didn’t tell me about the breakin. She stayed with me for several hours and then I lent her some money so she could get out of Sycamore.”

  “So you gave Jeannine Alden money and then she left your home?” Thanner said.

  “Yes, I didn’t see Jeannine until a few days before her baby was born,” he explained. “She showed up late one afternoon at my office. I could tell she was under the influence of some kind of drug. I was worried about her and the baby.”

  “Why didn’t you call her husband?” Thanner asked.

  “She begged me not to call,” he said. “She was worried he would hurt her and their unborn child.”

  Mary held on to Bradley’s hand with both of her hands. She felt his grip tighten as Copper’s lies continued. “Lydia will tear him up,” she whispered.

  “So, Dr. Copper, what did you do?” he asked.

  “I have a small apartment below my offices,” he said. “I offered her the use of it, until her baby came. I thought it would be okay for her to stay there. But, on the night her baby was born, she called me, screaming. She was in labor. I rushed over to find that she had taken some of the drugs I had in the office. I was going to drive her to the closest hospital, but she insisted that we go somewhere she could be anonymous. So, I headed out on Highway 88 and drove into Chicago.”

  “Why did you falsify her records?”

  “She begged me not to let them know her name,” he said. “I had no idea she had a drug allergy. I just was trying to help her.”

  “And why did you bury her under your wife’s name?”

  “When we were driving into the hospital, she made me promise that if anything were to happen to her, I would protect her child,” he said. “Keep the baby away from Bradley. This was the only way I could accomplish her last wish.”

  “Did you love Jeannine Alden?” Thanner asked.

  Copper shook his head. “No, she was just a person in need, that’s all.”

  Thanner nodded. “Thank you, Dr. Copper,” he said. “No further questions.”

  The judge turned to Lydia. “Would you like to cross examine the witness?” she asked.

  Lydia nodded. “Oh yes, your honor.”

  Lydia walked forward, but didn’t get too close to the witness stand. The guy made her skin crawl. “Dr. Copper,” she said. “Isn’t it true that Jeannine had parents in Sycamore? Parents that were very close t
o her and parents who financially could have supported her in any way she needed?”

  He shrugged. “I never met her parents.”

  “Yet, you ask us to believe that a woman, who from all accounts of neighbors, coworkers and family members, had a very happy marriage, suddenly showed up on your doorstep after her house had been ransacked, and asked you for help?”

  “Yes, that’s what happened,” he insisted.

  “And why didn’t she go to her parents?” she asked.

  He paused for a moment. “Because they insisted she stay with her husband,” he said. “She told me they wanted her to remain in her unhappy marriage.”

  “Well, that’s interesting, Dr. Copper, because neither of Jeannine’s parents had any kind of conversation with her about her marriage being unhappy,” she said. “Both of them testified that they had just seen Jeannine a day before her disappearance. They remember her being thrilled with her pregnancy and being very much in love with her husband.”

  “Well, I only know what she told me,” he said. “I don’t know why she would lie to her parents; she must have had her reasons.”

  “Dr. Copper, do you have a record or receipt of the money you gave Jeannine Alden?” she asked. “Perhaps a withdrawal slip from the day she came to you?”

  He shook his head. “No, I, um…,” he paused. “I just gave her some cash on hand.”

  “You had enough cash on hand to have allowed Jeannine to live away from all of her friends and family for a number of months until the baby was born?” she asked. “How much money was that, exactly?”

  Copper stared over at Thanner for a moment and then faced Lydia. “I don’t recall,” he said. “It was eight years ago.”

  “And yet you seem to recall all the other parts of her disappearance with no problem,” Lydia said. “I would think that you had to have given her a sizable amount of cash.”

  “Well, money doesn’t matter when you are helping a friend,” he replied.

  “So you testified,” Lydia responded. “When Bradley Alden was going to lose his home, you gave him the money to save it. I find that odd, Dr. Copper, considering you testified that he abused his wife and she felt unsafe coming back to this community because he was there. Why would you save his home? One would think you would want Bradley out of the neighborhood, so Jeannine could return.”

  “Well, it was after she was dead,” he said. “So there was nothing to worry about anymore.”

  “That’s right, after she was dead,” Lydia said. “Dr. Copper, what gave you the idea to put your wife’s name for Jeannine on the death certificate?”

  He smiled and paused for a moment. “Well, I figured she wasn’t going to be using it.”

  “Why didn’t you think she’d ever use it?”

  He shook his head. “You can’t use that,” he said.

  “I’m sorry, Dr. Copper, I can’t use what?”

  “You can’t use the fact the police found my wife’s body in a freezer in my home for evidence,” he said. “It was unlawful entry, they had no search warrant.”

  “Dr. Copper, I didn’t say a word about your wife,” Lydia said. “But you just admitted that your wife’s body was in a freezer in your basement. Would you like to tell the jury about that?”

  Copper turned frantically to the judge. “But, I thought…Thanner said they couldn’t use it in court,” he stammered.

  “The prosecuting attorney was not allowed to use the evidence found by the police department during their unlawful search,” the judge explained. “However, she can certainly follow up on information you just divulged on the stand. Please answer the question, Dr. Copper.”

  Sweat started to bead on his forehead and upper lip. “I...um…,” he began, looking frantically at his attorney.

  Lydia moved over, blocking his attorney from his view. “Your wife, Dr. Copper,” she said. “I’m sure the jury would like to know how she came to be residing in a freezer in your basement.”

  “We had an argument,” he said. “We were standing at the top of the stairs and she was angry with me. She stepped backwards, without realizing how close she was to the top of the stairs and she fell.”

  “If it was an accident, why didn’t you call the paramedics or the police?” she asked.

  “I ran down the stairs after her,” he said. “And I could see her neck was broken and she was dead. I realized our baby was inside her, dying too. So, I decided to perform a C-section on her and get the baby out.”

  “You didn’t call 911,” Lydia reiterated. “You decided to perform an operation on the floor of your hallway.”

  “There wasn’t time,” he said. “The baby only had a few minutes before it died.”

  “What happened?”

  He shook his head, tears falling down his face. “The baby died. Our baby died,” he said. “She killed our baby. Her selfish decision to leave me killed our baby.”

  “And how did her body and the body of your child end up in the freezer?” Lydia asked.

  Glancing over at the jury, he could see the horror on their faces. He wiped the tears from his face and tried to regain his composure. “There was so much blood on the floor,” he said. “And now there were knives and my fingerprints involved, I was worried the police would think I killed her.”

  “But, a coroner would have been able to prove the initial cause of death,” Lydia countered, “if it indeed was from a fall.”

  He leaned forward in the witness stand, his face contorted in rage. “I didn’t kill my wife,” he yelled. “She fell. I didn’t kill her.”

  Lydia walked over to the prosecutor’s table and picked up a folder. “I would like to introduce this report into evidence,” she told the judge. “Unless the defendant introduced the death of his wife, we didn’t think we could use it. But this is a coroner’s report on the remains of Beverly Copper, Gary Copper’s wife.”

  She laid the report on the judge’s desk and turned to the jury. “The coroner did not find any evidence of a broken neck. Even though Dr. Copper had dismembered his wife, wrapped her in plastic and stored her in an upright freezer, he kept her trunk and skull in place. The coroner believes the cause of death was exsanguination caused by severing of the aorta.”

  She turned to Copper. “Your wife died because she bled to death,” she said. “You performed your operation on a woman who was still alive and you cut through her aorta. You killed your wife, Dr. Copper.”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  “Clarissa, I’m home,” Becca called as she entered the apartment.

  She leaned against the wall and tried to catch her breath. It had taken her five minutes to walk up the stairs, having to pause every few steps to catch her breath. She wiped the perspiration off her forehead and took a deep shuddering breath.

  Clarissa came running from the kitchen with a wide smile on her face. “I have a special dinner for us,” she said. “Meat pies! And they smell delicious.”

  Becca shook her head. “Meat pies? Mrs. Gunderson shouldn’t have done that,” she said. “I barely pay her enough to take care of you. She doesn’t need to make us food.”

  Clarissa’s stomach nearly turned at the thought of any food from Mrs. Gunderson’s house, but she didn’t want to talk about Mrs. Gunderson, so she just smiled. “Just smell them, mommy,” she said. “Don’t they smell the bestest? I got them yesterday, but you were too tired when you got home from work. So I saved them for today.”

  Lifting the flaky pie to her nose, Becca inhaled and had to agree that the scent was heavenly. Her stomach rumbled and she quickly put her hand on her abdomen. “Oh, my, I must be hungry,” she said.

  She lifted her fork and cut into the pie. Thick brown gravy oozed out and coated the crust. Becca could see large chunks of vegetables and meat. She brought a forkful to her mouth and took a large bite. The buttery flavor of the crust combined perfectly with the spicy gravy and meat combination. She quickly scooped up another piece.

  “This is wonderful,” she said to Clarissa, w
ho was also enjoying her meal.

  Looking up, brown gravy on her chin, Clarissa smiled. “It’s even better than restaurant food.”

  “Yes, you’re right,” Becca agreed, “it really is.”

  The conversation halted and they both concentrated on their food. Finally, their plates wiped clean, Becca sat back and sighed. “That was so delicious. I need to go up to Mrs. Gunderson and thank her.”

  “No, that’s okay, mommy,” Clarissa said. “I already said thank you to her.”

  “Well, I appreciate that,” her mother replied. “But, I think it’s necessary for me to thank her. She is really doing so much for our family. I need to let her know how much I appreciate her.”

  Clarissa looked down at her lap for a moment and, with a sigh, lifted her head and met her mother’s eyes. “Mrs. Gunderson didn’t make the meat pies,” she said.

  “Clarissa, where did they come from?” her mother asked.

  “Meri’s wife, Drina, made them for us.”

  “Meri? Drina? Who are they?”

  “They’re gypsies, just like the Hunchback of Notre Dame,” she explained. “And they are friends of Mami Nadja at the Nursing Home.”

  “Mami Nadja? The woman at the Nursing Home who knew I’d been taking drugs from them?” she asked, her voice raising and her breathing becoming a little erratic.

  “Mommy, it’s okay,” Clarissa said, sliding out of her chair and running around the table to hug her mother. “They are our friends. They want to protect us.”

  Becca put her hand on Clarissa’s head and stroked her hair gently. “Darling, you don’t understand,” she said. “We can’t trust anyone. The bad man who wants to find us has money and money can make good people do bad things.”

  “No, Mommy, Meri won’t do bad things,” she said.

  Becca sighed. “Perhaps he won’t,” she said. “But he might not understand that it is bad. He might just tell someone where a little girl named Clarissa lives. He might accidentally give our secret away. I can’t risk it. Please try to understand, Clarissa.”