Yuki fought the panic that was rising from her stomach and busied herself with her note cards as she thought through this surprise bombshell.
What St. John’s testimony meant was that Ellen Lafferty had motive. And since Dennis Martin had a gun — evidence that Yuki herself had introduced — it followed that Ellen could have found the gun. If so, Lafferty had had the means to shoot Dennis Martin. Motive? Maybe. Opportunity? Every single day.
Dammit.
First rule any litigator learned was you don’t ask questions if you don’t know the answers. She was flying absolutely blind.
Yuki got to her feet and said, “Good morning, Mr. St. John.”
“Good morning.”
Yuki rounded the prosecution table, talking as she walked toward the witness.
“All I want from you are facts,” Yuki said. “Not what someone told you. Not what you heard.”
“Ms. Castellano,” LaVan said wearily. “I’m wearing the robes, not you. I give the instructions, not you. If you have a question, I suggest you ask it.”
“Yes, Your Honor. Mr. St. John, please answer my questions with what you know firsthand.”
“Sure. Okay. I understand that,” St. John said.
Yuki sent up a quick prayer to her dead mother, then said, “Mr. St. John, did you ever see Mr. Martin and Ms. Lafferty in what would be called a compromising position?”
“Having sex, you mean?”
“Yes. Or kissing. Overtly sexual behavior.”
“No. I only know what Ellen told me.”
“Thank you. That’s all I have for this witness, Your Honor.”
“You may stand down,” said the judge.
Chapter 65
PHIL HOFFMAN STOOD UP from his chair beside Candace Martin. “Your Honor, we call Ellen Lafferty to the stand.”
Ellen Lafferty entered the courtroom with her head up and confidently strode down the center aisle.
All eyes were on the pretty, young woman, impeccably and modestly dressed in a dark gray suit, a gold cross hanging at her throat. She looked to be just the kind of person you would entrust with your children.
Phil Hoffman did his best to hide his anticipation. Ellen Lafferty had been Yuki Castellano’s star witness against his client. With the information he now had, he was going to destroy Lafferty on the stand and turn her into a witness for the defense. But he had to do it in such a way that the jury didn’t see him as a monster.
After Lafferty had been sworn in and was seated, Phil approached the witness box. He greeted his new witness and then asked his first question.
“Ms. Lafferty, how would you describe your relationship with Dennis Martin?”
“In what regard, Mr. Hoffman?”
“I think that my question was pretty clear. Let me repeat it. What kind of relationship did you have with Dennis Martin?”
“He was the children’s father. And I took care of the children. That was all that mattered to me.”
“Your Honor, permission to treat the witness as hostile.”
LaVan swiveled his chair ninety degrees and said, “Ms. Lafferty, for you as well as for the members of the jury to know, a hostile witness is one for the opposing side — in this case, a witness for the prosecution — who when examined by the other side — in this case, the defense — might not be forthcoming.
“In designating you a hostile witness, Ms. Lafferty, I’m giving Mr. Hoffman permission to ask leading questions. You have sworn to tell the truth. Don’t forget that.”
“I won’t, Your Honor.”
Hoffman fixed his eyes on Lafferty and said, “Were you having an affair with Mr. Martin?”
“Oh my God.”
“Yes or no? Were the two of you having an affair?”
“Yes.”
“Could you speak loudly enough for the jury to hear you?”
“Yes. I was. We were.”
“And when did this sexual relationship begin?”
Tears welled up in Ellen Lafferty’s eyes and spilled down her cheeks. “Two years ago last April.”
“So, more than a year before Mr. Martin was shot?”
“Uh-huh. Yes.”
“And were you still seeing Mr. Martin at the time of his death?”
“Yes.”
“You admit you were having a sexual relationship with a married man in the home where he lived with his wife and children. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes.”
“And when Ms. Castellano had you on the stand, you didn’t think it was important to tell us about this affair?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“And how did you feel about Dr. Candace Martin?”
“I think she’s cruel.”
“Were you jealous of Dr. Martin?”
There was a pause as Lafferty’s eyes went everywhere. To Yuki. To the jury. To Candace Martin.
“Answer the question, Ms. Lafferty,” Hoffman said. “Were you jealous of Dr. Martin’s marriage to your lover?”
“Your Honor, do I really have to answer that?”
“Yes, you certainly do, Ms. Lafferty.”
Lafferty sighed, clasped the cross at her neckline, and finally spoke, her words sounding loud in the hushed courtroom. “I wished that I had her life. But I would not have done anything to hurt her.”
“How about Mr. Martin? He wasn’t leaving his wife, was he? Would you have done something to hurt Mr. Martin?”
“No, no. Never. I loved him.”
“And how did Mr. Martin feel about you? Had he promised to divorce his wife and marry you?”
“Why are you doing this to me? You see what he’s trying to do, Judge?” Lafferty said. “He’s trying to make it look like I’m the murderer, when it’s her who did it.”
“Ms. Lafferty, please answer the question.”
Lafferty choked and began openly sobbing. It was as if she’d been saving up these tears for so long, the crack in the dam became a fissure and the lake just came barreling through.
Chapter 66
PHIL HOFFMAN jingled the keys and coins in his pants pockets. “Do you need a moment?” he asked Ellen Lafferty.
She nodded. Hoffman gave her a box of tissues and when his witness was more composed, he said, “Let me repeat my question. Did Mr. Martin tell you that he wanted to leave his wife and marry you?”
“Yes. He told me that a few times. Often, I would say.”
“Did he firm up those plans, Ms. Lafferty?”
“What do you mean? I don’t understand.”
“It’s pretty simple, really. Did Dennis Martin start a divorce action against his wife?”
“No.”
“Did he take you out with his friends?”
“No. I wouldn’t have expected that.”
“Did you and he set a wedding date, for instance?”
“Dammit, no. He didn’t give me a time or a place. I was taking care of his children. I saw him every day. He told me that he loved me and that he despised her. I thought he was going to leave her because he said he would. And I believed that until the day he died.”
“Or — did he break off his relationship with you, Ms. Lafferty? Did he tell you to bug off? Did he treat you like just another one of his used-up girlfriends and tell you that he was staying with his wife? Is that why you were angry with him?”
“No. We were together and in love.”
“The bastard lied to you, didn’t he?”
“No.”
“Were you mad enough at him to shoot him, Ms. Lafferty? Was this a crime of passion?”
Yuki said, “Your Honor, counsel is badgering the witness to death.”
“Sustained. The jury will disregard the defense’s last run-on question. Mr. Hoffman, that’s twice. Do you have anything further for this witness? Or do you want to be sworn in so you can testify yourself?”
Ellen Lafferty gripped the edge of the witness box and said fervently, “I didn’t kill him, I didn’t. I am telling the truth. I would never have hurt Dennis. Never, nev
er, never.”
“Just like you would never, never, never lie? Right, Ms. Lafferty?”
“That’s right. I would never lie.”
“Did Candace Martin have a gun in her hand when you left the house on the night of the murder?”
“I think so. I thought so. I don’t know anymore.”
“Right. But you would never, never, never lie. Thank you. I have no further questions.”
Chapter 67
A SHOCK OF ANGER blew all the dread and fear right out of Yuki. The defense had annihilated her damned witness, annihilated her and planted the seeds of reasonable doubt.
Yuki didn’t know if she could rehabilitate a would-be home wrecker and probable liar, but she knew that her entire case might depend on it.
Yuki barely saw Nicky’s note: “You go, girl.”
She got to her feet and walked to the witness box that wrapped around the witness. She put her hand on the arm of the box as if to communicate to Ellen that she was placing a comforting hand on her arm.
“Ms. Lafferty, did you kill Mr. Martin?”
“No. I did not.”
“Did the Martins fight?”
“All the time.”
“Did you see a gun in Candace Martin’s hand on the night of the murder?”
“I thought so. It was so long ago. And it happened so fast. I don’t know for sure anymore.”
“Okay. Were you telling the truth to this jury when you said you thought Candace Martin shot and killed her husband?”
“Yes, that is God’s honest truth.”
“The prosecution has no more questions for Ms. Lafferty.”
Phil Hoffman watched the witness step down, wipe her eyes with a tissue, and head out to the rear of the courtroom. She was still crying as she went through the doors.
It was only eleven-fifteen.
Before the jury had a chance to even think of feeling sorry for Ellen Lafferty, Phil Hoffman would launch the next bomb.
Chapter 68
PHIL HOFFMAN SAID, “The defense calls Dr. Candace Martin.”
For a moment, Yuki thought she’d heard him wrong. But when Candace Martin edged out from behind the defense table, wearing her game face, a two-thousand-dollar Anne Klein suit, and eight-hundred-dollar Ferragamos, Yuki knew that Hoffman was running the table.
Candace wasn’t required to testify.
Judge LaVan had told the jury that the defendant was not obliged to take the stand and that the jury could not hold that against her.
So for Phil to call his client as a witness in her own defense was an act of either desperation or supreme confidence.
Hoffman didn’t seem desperate at all.
Candace Martin put her hand on the Bible, and when asked if she swore to tell the whole truth, she said, “I do.” Then she sat down in the chair facing the gallery and gave her attention to her attorney.
“Dr. Martin,” Hoffman said, “some of this has been established, but for the benefit of continuity, were you at home when your husband was killed?”
“Yes.”
“Where were Caitlin and Duncan?”
“They were each in their own rooms.”
“And so that the jury can place everyone in the house, where was Cyndi Parrish, your cook?”
“She was upstairs in her room.”
“And where was Ellen Lafferty?” Hoffman asked.
“I don’t know where she was. She said good night to me about fifteen minutes before Dennis was shot.”
“And where was Dennis just before the incident?”
“I don’t know that either. I didn’t see him. I went to the bedroom wing, passed the kids’ rooms and said hello to each of them. Then I went down that hallway to my office. That’s where I was when Ellen said that she was leaving.”
“What were you doing in your office that evening?”
“I was returning calls.”
“And were you still in your office when you heard shots?”
“Yes. I was about to call a patient’s wife. It wasn’t going to be good news. I had taken off my glasses and was massaging my temples, like this.”
Dr. Martin took off her glasses and put them down on the armrest. She rubbed her temples with her thumb and third finger of her left hand.
“I had the phone in my other hand,” she said, making a claw of her right hand as if she were clutching a receiver.
Yuki thought that this demo was a pretty ingenious way to visually put a cell phone in Candace Martin’s hand instead of a gun, and she had to admire Hoffman for coming up with it.
“Please tell the jury what happened when you heard the shots,” Hoffman said. He stepped aside so that he wouldn’t obstruct the sight line between his client and the jurors.
Candace Martin listed the timeline just as Hoffman had done in his opening statement. She said that she ran to the foyer, found her husband on the floor, blood pooling near his chest, and checked his pulse.
She went on to say that she wasn’t wearing her glasses but heard the clatter of something metallic falling to the floor. She realized it was a gun at the same time that she saw someone in the shadows moving toward the front door.
Yuki watched Candace Martin’s face for tells, facial tics or eye movements, and she listened for lies. She found Candace believable.
And she thought that the jury would believe her, too.
In a few minutes Yuki would have to discredit this heart surgeon, this good mother, and undo the work Phil Hoffman had done, polishing a halo and affixing it to the crown of Candace Martin’s pretty blond head.
Yuki knew what she had to do.
She wondered if she could do it.
Chapter 69
PHIL HOFFMAN was winding up his direct examination of Candace Martin, trying to rein in any visible sign of the rush he was feeling. The gamble was paying off. Candace was the perfect witness for herself: Concise. Clear. Consistent.
And, of course, innocent.
“When you found Dennis on the floor and realized that he had expired, what did you do?” Hoffman asked.
“I remember grasping the gun. I had never held a gun before, but I saw someone leaving the house. The front door was open. Instinctively, I wanted to stop whoever had shot my husband. I ran after the intruder. I yelled, ‘Stop!’ a couple of times,” Candace Martin told the jury. “And then I fired.”
“Did you hit anyone, Dr. Martin?”
“No. I didn’t see anyone outside. I just fired high to make sure he didn’t come back. Then I came back into the house, locked the front door, and went back to Dennis. By that time, the kids had come out of their rooms and were crying. It was horrible. Horrible. I sent Caitlin to her room, and Duncan went upstairs to Cyndi’s room.”
“What happened after that?”
“I called nine one one. The police came in a few minutes.”
“Please tell the jury how you were feeling.”
“Me? I was almost paralyzed with shock and grief. And then, unbelievably, everything got worse. Shall I go on?”
“Please do.”
The doctor nodded, swallowed hard, and resumed speaking.
“It was the routine end of a routine day. Suddenly — gunshots. Someone had come into my house and killed my husband. When the police arrived, they started questioning me. I had to leave my children at the most traumatic moment in their lives. I had to walk past my dead husband and get into a patrol car so that I could be interviewed at the police station.
“I was questioned for eight hours, then held overnight. In the morning, I was charged with a murder I didn’t commit.
“I was terrified then — and I’m terrified now. The fear never leaves me. Because I’m also afraid for my children and I’m not with them.”
Yuki thought, Holy crap. Candace Martin had had the jury at I do. Under the best of circumstances, they would have a hard time seeing the killer in this woman. Yuki scribbled a note to Nicky that sent him to his laptop. He was opening files as Hoffman thanked his client.
“Your witness,” Phil Hoffman said.
Chapter 70
YUKI RAN HER FINGER down the section of the transcript on Nicky’s laptop, her deposition of Candace Martin from a year before. Then she stood and walked toward the witness.
“Dr. Martin, did you love your husband?”
“Yes.”
“But you had been having an affair for more than a year before he was killed.”
“Yes.”
“How do you feel about Felix Ashton, your lover?”
“Objection. Relevance,” Hoffman said from his seat.
“Overruled. Dr. Martin, please answer the question,” said the judge.
“I have a lot of affection for Felix.”
Yuki said, “Mr. Ashton testified that he loves you. But you don’t return his feelings?”
“I don’t know how to quantify my feelings for Felix.”
“Did your husband tell you how he felt about you having an affair?”
“Not specifically.”
“Did it upset him? Did it make him angry?”
“I don’t think he cared if I had an affair,” Candace Martin said. “If he did, it would only have made him a hypocrite.”
“Well, your lover testified that your husband followed the two of you around. Is that true?”
“Yes. But, I don’t think Dennis cared that I was seeing Felix. He was just trying to get me to agree to a divorce.”
“And you wouldn’t give it to him?”
“I wouldn’t accept his terms.”
“So you subscribe to the theory that it’s better for the children if a couple stays together — even if they are both having affairs — than if they divorce?”
“Your Honor,” Hoffman said from his seat, “counsel is badgering the witness.”
“Sustained. Get to your point if you have one, Ms. Castellano.”
“Yes, Your Honor.” She walked to the center of the well, then turned back around to face the witness, the distance between them making it necessary for Candace Martin to speak loudly. Yuki said, “Ellen Lafferty testified that she was having an affair with your husband. Were you aware that they were involved?”
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