For the Defense

by M. J. Rodgers

  “What about her schoolwork?”

  “Very light this summer, and she will grab at any excuse to avoid thinking about her role in the upcoming play.”

  “Okay, pick her up and meet me in my office with your computers. You’re about to learn how to find out most anything about anyone.”

  “I’VE RUN the prospective jurors through the Credit Bureau, Jack,” Mel said a few hours later. “There are twenty-seven with really bad credit histories. Some of them are already among the fifty-one names Mom put in the questionable file. Do you want me to cross-reference them?”

  Jack glanced over at Mel sitting on the couch in his office, her computer comfortably positioned on her lap. Diana hadn’t overstated her daughter’s skills.

  “Cross-referencing is a good idea,” he told her. “Print out the file when you’ve finished.”

  Mel nodded.

  “Three have criminal records,” Diana said.

  Jack scooted his chair next to her to read the information off her monitor. When she brought her laptop and set it on the other end of his desk, he accepted the fact that he was going to be tortured all day by having her within reach—and so unreachable.

  “Ralph Montgomery’s a surprise,” Jack said, pointing to the record on the seventy-year-old widower who’d said he’d like to be Jack’s soap character.

  Ralph lived in an area the advertisers had dubbed, Older Eclectic Intelligentsia. As the advertisers predicted, Ralph subscribed to the Christian Science Monitor, The Smithsonian and drove a vintage Jaguar. His favorite books were mysteries, his favorite TV shows were Jeopardy and Boston Pops specials, and if he won a million dollars he’d donate it all to the local animal shelter.

  Jack read over Diana’s shoulder. “He yanked a rifle out of a hunter’s hand and broke it over the guy’s back. Seems the hunter was trying to shoot a doe and its fawn on Ralph’s property two springs ago. Ralph pled guilty to assault. Was fined and given a six-month suspended sentence.”

  “I’m getting to like Ralph more by the minute,” Diana said.

  “Doesn’t bother you that he answered ‘no’ to the question asking if he’d ever been convicted of a felony?” Jack asked.

  “I doubt Ralph considered what he’d done a crime. And from a moral standpoint, I’m on his side. But this guy has me worried.”

  Jack followed Diana’s pointing finger. “A DUI two years ago he didn’t own up to? I see what you mean. He’s going to identify with Bruce. And he also lists himself as a strong leader, which probably means he’s a loudmouth.”

  “I’m adding him to the list we want excused, as well as this one,” Diana said as she picked up another questionnaire. “This woman has a drug selling conviction from eight years ago she conveniently forgot to mention.”

  “How are you going to weed out the ones you don’t want?”

  “Those I catch in a lie I can get excused by the Court for cause. In addition, I have twelve peremptory challenges, which means I can get a prospective juror excused without giving a reason.”

  “With a hundred and fifty prospective jurors, twelve peremptory challenges don’t seem like a lot.”

  “Which is why I have to maneuver Staker into using his peremptory challenges to excuse the others that I don’t want sitting on the jury.”

  “Care to share how you’re going to do that?”

  “Give me a sec.” Diana sifted through the stack of returned questionnaires until she found the one she’d been looking for. “Take this prospective juror. She’s twenty-eight, collecting unemployment, doesn’t read, her favorite TV shows are cartoons, and if she won a million dollars, she’d have her boobs and butt done.”

  “Not a lot of wattage in that light bulb,” Jack agreed. “Staker’s going to love her.”

  “But four years ago, she was a teacher’s aide in a kindergarten. When I question her in voir dire, I’m going to ask her lots of questions about that job. And Staker’s going to excuse her because those questions are going to make him worry about the possibility that she’ll identify with Connie.”

  Jack smiled. “I’m glad you’re on our team.”

  Despite her attempt to be cool, he knew she wasn’t immune to his compliment.

  In the quiet moments when she wasn’t looking, he studied her, like a lovely piece of art he wanted to know very well. He could read every small lift to her lip now, every nuance in her most casual glance.

  “Even with all this information, a lot will depend on luck,” Diana admitted. “The court clerk draws the first sixteen names from the prospective hundred and fifty when voir dire begins. Those sixteen people will be the twelve regular jurors and four alternates unless they are excused for some reason.”

  “What you’re saying is that if the clerk draws the names of people who we feel will be good jurors, they’ll be less work to do. If she draws mostly losers in the first batch, then your job will get a lot tougher.”

  “In the proverbial nutshell.”

  “Any other way to get an inappropriate juror excused?” Jack asked.

  “Maneuver them into admitting in court that they can’t be fair. Unfortunately, the ones I’ll want to remove can’t—or won’t—admit they’re predisposed to be unfair. Some people love the sense of power that comes with judging others and deciding their fate.”

  Yes, Jack had met a lot of those people. “We’ve only begun on the background checks available through the Internet organizations our firm belongs to,” he said. “We still have professional license, education, military and employment verification, plus a dozen others before we get down to the footwork.”

  “I’m finished,” Mel said. “What would you like me to do next?”

  Jack looked at her bright, eager face. He could get to like this kid. She’d been at it for hours and not one complaint.

  “Go back to the menu options and check the home and business phone numbers the prospective jurors have given us, Mel. See what name those numbers are actually listed under.”

  She nodded as her fingers started to fly over the keyboard.

  Jack shook his head as he turned back to Diana. “I feel like I’m violating the child labor laws.”

  “When they come to arrest you just remember to invoke your right to remain silent,” Diana said. “With a good attorney, you won’t get more than five, six years.”

  Her smile was full of fun. And to think he once thought she was lacking a sense of humor. Seemed like a century ago.

  “What do you want me to do next?” she asked.

  He was very tempted to tell her. Damn good thing she’d brought Mel along. Maybe that’s why she’d brought Mel along.

  DIANA EAGERLY READ the accident reconstruction report from Jack’s insurance company contact. Several days had passed since Jared had told Jack he’d have to tell the sheriff about his investigation. Yet, Staker had not notified her about the new development in his case against Connie.

  The law required him to disclose such information. Clearly, he was stalling. Was he afraid that since Connie had such a very good reason to kill Bruce the jury might sympathize with her? Or was he waiting to spring the information on her right before they went to trial?

  Shuffling her speculations aside, she reminded herself that the important thing was she already knew. Whatever games Staker played, she’d be prepared. In the meantime, two very good investigators were working to find the woman who had been with Bruce in the E.R. Even if Jared was unsuccessful, Diana had full confidence in Jack.

  Strange, that. Jared was the trained sheriff’s detective with all the power of his department behind him. But it was Jack she counted on to come through. The more she was with him, the more she was certain that he was everything he presented himself to be.

  And even when she wasn’t with him, he was constantly in her thoughts—interfering with her concentration. With a discipline that became more difficult to rely on with each passing day, she refocused her attention to the accident reconstruction report.

  In addition t
o an overall summary, several diagrams had been drawn of the scene of Bruce’s death from the different viewpoints of the two eyewitnesses—Lyle Weaton and Edith Lewandowski.

  From the position of Bruce’s body and the vehicle, the preparer’s conclusion was that Connie’s car had hit Bruce at an angle, showing she had tried to avoid hitting him. And in order for Connie to have come to a stop so quickly, the report also concluded that she had been braking at the time she hit Bruce. Neither of those points had been mentioned by the investigating officers.

  Diana was impressed with the credentials of the man who’d prepared the report. He’d worked on the accident reconstruction team for the Las Vegas police department for fifteen years before moving to the Pacific Northwest and joining a local insurance company’s staff. Staker was going to have a very hard time disputing the man’s conclusions or impugning his ability to make them.

  A knock sounded on the door. Diana called for whoever it was to come in. Gail poked her head inside.

  “Hey, stranger.”

  “You’re back!” Diana said, smiling as she slipped the accident report into a folder. She went to her friend and gave her a hug, only too aware of the recent emotional wear on Gail’s face.

  “Yeah, I know I look like hell, Diana, but I’m okay. Thanks for the flowers and the card. Can you spare some time to talk?”

  “Of course. Sit down.”

  Gail did.

  “You were the one in the family who was closest to your mom, weren’t you?” Diana asked as she retook her seat.

  Gail nodded. “My brothers and sister were always too busy with their families to spare much time for Mom. Last time I saw her, she asked me when I was going to start a family. I laughed and reminded her that she had nine grandkids, but only one devoted daughter. You know what she said?”

  Diana shook her head.

  “She said I needed to have a daughter because that’s the only way I’d understand how special I made her feel.”

  A tear trickled out of Gail’s eye. Passing a tissue to her, Diana kept one for herself.

  “I’m going to have a baby.”

  Gail’s shocking words pulled Diana straight up in her chair. The unbidden figure of a chubby, two-foot-high Staker look-alike with a thin black mustache running around the courthouse in a sagging diaper flashed through her brain. She desperately wiped the appalling image from her mind’s eye.

  “You’re pregnant?” Diana asked with a voice somewhere in the stratosphere.

  Gail shook her head. “No, but I’m going to be.” She paused to let out a long, heavy exhale. “I can’t believe I said that. Thirty-seven years old and not once in all that time did I ever even consider marrying, much less having a baby. My career and my freedom have always meant too much to me. But now…”

  “Now you are in the throes of grief,” Diana reminded in the most gentle voice she possessed. “Making such a major life decision may not be…such a wise thing.”

  “It’s what I want,” Gail said in a tone that meant the subject was closed.

  Diana let out an internal sigh. Gail was the least maternal woman she knew. Not even houseplants survived in her care.

  “What about the father?” Diana fished. “Have you decided who he’ll be?”

  “I’ve been seeing someone for…several months now.”

  “Tell me about him.”

  Gail squirmed on the chair. “He can be sweet. And he makes me feel so feminine. For a woman my size, believe me that’s some trick. But he can also be so damn irritating and distant and annoying…”

  Diana didn’t need convincing.

  “Thing is, I don’t know what he’s going to do when I tell him I want to have a baby. He and his wife didn’t have any kids. Work is everything to him. No doubt the reason she divorced him a couple of years ago.”

  “He told you that?”

  “Not in so many words. He doesn’t like to talk about his marriage or himself. Rarely shares anything personal.”

  “Are you…comfortable with that?” Diana asked.

  “What the hell. Most men are emotional clams.” Gail paused to look at her sideways. “You haven’t asked who he is. That would have been my first question.”

  “I was afraid you’d lie to me.”

  Gail’s eyes widened as she read the expression on Diana’s face. “You can’t know.”

  “That it’s, Staker?” Diana said gently.

  Gail exhaled hard. “You’re right. I was going to lie my head off and tell you it was an old boyfriend from college. You must hate me.”

  “Do I seriously question your sanity when it comes to choosing men? Most definitely. Do I hate you? Not possible.”

  “You’re so damn nice.”

  “Damn nice of you to notice,” Diana said smiling.

  Gail sank back in her chair, looking a hell of a lot better than when she’d first knocked on Diana’s door. Getting rid of an ugly secret could have an amazing effect on a woman’s complexion.

  “How did you learn about me and George? We’ve been so careful.”

  “You knew he had political aspirations and that you were next in line for chief prosecutor should he be elected judge. And yet you left the prosecutor’s office to take a position here at Kozen and Kozen without even getting the junior partnership they promised you in writing. There had to have been a compelling reason for you to have thrown away such an important career opportunity.”

  Diana had deliberately implied that she’d figured all this out independent of seeing Gail and Staker together in the park and overhearing their conversation. The last thing she wanted to do was admit to having eavesdropped and embarrass Gail by the other things she’d overheard. What lovers did together was private.

  Gail sighed. “Do you know how strict the county guidelines have become against colleagues dating?”

  “No, but I figured you were caught in something like that.”

  “When George and I first realized what we were feeling for each other, we knew if we did anything about it, both of us would be in danger of losing our jobs.”

  “And you left so he’d no longer be your boss.”

  Gail nodded.

  “But you’re on the other side of the legal fence now. Isn’t it hard not discussing cases?”

  “Since I don’t get to choose my cases, George agreed to hand off the prosecution on any case I’m asked to defend.”

  Diana had already noted that trend. But the other possibilities still nagged at her since the question of the leak had yet to be resolved. “Aren’t you tempted to pass on things you overhear about other cases at the firm?”

  “We decided from the beginning not to talk shop. If we hadn’t, we would have broken up long ago. George can be so rigid. Once he gets an idea in his head, there’s no reasoning with him. Even when we used to be on the same side of a case, he drove me up the wall.”

  A frustrated honesty rang from Gail’s words. Diana no longer worried that her friend was the leak at Kozen and Kozen—if indeed there was a leak at all.

  “I worked for George for nearly nine years, Diana. If you had asked me how I felt about him during most of that time, I would have said he was nothing but an arrogant SOB. But something happened a little over a year ago when we were working together on a case. I can’t explain it. I only know that now…now I love him.”

  Diana wanted to ask what she could possibly find that was lovable about the man. She didn’t. Love wasn’t something that could be explained. She’d fallen in love with Mel’s dad—a self-centered bastard if there ever was one.

  “How does Staker feel about you?” she asked.

  “He’s told me he loves me and that I’m the only woman he’ll ever want.”

  Remembering Staker’s preoccupation lately, Diana began to wonder whether his personal life with Gail might be at the core.

  “Of course, the Kozen brothers are never going to give me that junior partnership when I get pregnant.”

  “They can’t discriminate against you
because you decide to have a baby,” Diana protested.

  Her friend’s head shake was that of the wise, experienced woman. “They’ll find another excuse. These good old boys always do. But you know what? I don’t care. From the day I got here I’ve worked nearly every night, volunteered to be on call every weekend, billed more hours than any other attorney at the firm. And all for the promise of that partnership. Now I’m putting the baby first.”

  Gail ran her hands through her short hair. “You know what surprises do to George. This one is going to blow him away. Any suggestions on when or how I should tell him?”

  Diana was delighted Gail was asking for her advice on this. “How about in the courthouse right before he’s ready to prosecute the Pearce case?”

  For the first time since Gail had come into her office she laughed like her old self.

  “WHY ARE WE DOING THIS, Jack?” Mel wanted to know.

  For several days, Diana and Mel had spent most of their free time assisting him on Internet searches to gain background on the prospective jurors. They’d learned everything they could through electronic means.

  “Because we’ve come to the hands-on part of our investigation,” Jack said.

  “I didn’t know part of being a private investigator was becoming a trash collector,” Mel said, her nose twitching as though she already smelled something bad.

  Jack could see Diana’s smirk as she stuffed envelopes.

  “White Knight Investigations has had a long-standing agreement with the City of Silver Valley,” he explained. “Periodically, we substitute for the regular trash collectors and perform a recycling service. All it takes is labeling the sides of our van with the words, Neighborhood Recycle.”

  “And you actually drive around and pick up trash?”

  “Even wear a uniform. Of course, since we do it at no cost, we get to select the neighborhoods where we pick up the trash.”

  “I don’t understand how this is going to help Connie’s case,” Mel said.

  “When I collect the trash from the prospective jurors next Tuesday morning, I’ll learn things about them available through no other means.”