No Time for Death: A Yoshinobu Mystery

by John A. Broussard

  “There's no question about it.”

  Kay turned to Lisa and say. “May I approach the bench, your honor.”

  Ikeda jumped up and almost ran as Lisa indicated Kay should come forward.

  “I would like to have Dr. Victorine recalled at a later time in the course of the trial.”

  Lisa looked questioningly at Ikeda.

  “I want to know why,” he said, almost belligerently.

  My God, thought Kay, I forget between times he can talk English.

  Lisa showed the barest evidence of a smile. “That seems to be a reasonable request, but we'll retire to chambers and listen to your arguments for doing so, counsel. In the meantime, this is an appropriate point to adjourn for lunch.”

  Ikeda's hostility toward Raines was only too apparent. Kay was hoping the feud wouldn't boil over. I don't mind her being annoyed at him, she said to herself, but I'd hate to see a mistrial as a result, especially if Ikeda isn’t around to prosecute in the next one. Let the two of them fight it out in some other arena. The expression on Lisa's face reassured Kay. The judge appeared more amused than angry at Ikeda's reaction—though this only served to heighten the prosecutor's animosity.

  In chambers, Lisa asked Kay to state the reasons for her request. “I've finished my questioning of Doctor Victorine for the moment, your honor. However, I'm planning to bring a rebuttal witness to the stand, and I feel both the prosecutor and I would then find it beneficial to again question Doctor Victorine in the light of my witness's testimony.”

  “Who's your witness?” Ikeda asked, truculently. “You haven't listed any pathologist.”

  “Dr. Apolinario Abang.”

  “He's no pathologist. He's just a doctor at the Clinic.”

  “He is a medical practitioner, however. And he may well refute the evidence presented by Dr. Victorine.”

  “I'm opposed to granting counselor's request. Dr. Victorine is a busy man. There is no pressing need for his reappearance.”

  Lisa turned to Kay. “Do you feel there is a pressing need?”

  Kay expressed reluctance. “I believe Dr. Abang will be bringing up matters upon which we may need Dr. Victorine's opinion.”

  Ikeda's hostility was now becoming tinged with contempt. “Dr. Victorine will have fully expressed his opinions at the end of my re-examination. There will be no need to recall him after that.”

  Lisa looked questioningly at Kay.

  Kay paused, as though giving Ikeda's proposal further consideration, then said, “My only request is that if we do agree at this time on Dr. Victorine's not returning to the stand at a later period, the prosecutor will also agree not to bring him to the stand for purposes of rebuttal.”

  “That seems fair enough. Do you concur, prosecutor?” Lisa asked

  Ignoring the question and turning to Kay instead, Ikeda asked, “Can I be sure you won't be requesting a pathologist to appear on behalf of the defense?”

  “Our only expert witness will be Dr. Abang.”

  Ikeda aimed his next remark at the judge.

  “I take it it is clear my agreement to this proposal will not preclude my reexamination of Dr. Victorine this afternoon?”

  “You take it correctly, Mr. Ikeda,” Lisa said, the amusement in her voice now apparent.

  Ikeda grumbled for a few moments more, glared at the judge, and then finally nodded his head in agreement to Kay's proposal.

  Chapter 18

  Sid and Qual were pacing around nervously when Kay finally arrived at the conference room. I could see right off from her face she'd won the round.

  “The weasel stepped right into the trap,” she said, “but he had me worried for a bit. The judge had me even more worried. I was afraid she'd agree with my original proposal to have Victorine come back later just because Ikeda was opposed to the idea. She's really baiting him.”

  “I need explanations,” I said, and for a minute I thought Kay was going to give me a friendly pat on the head.

  “Victorine was our biggest problem. He's now the only one who could really raise hell with the evidence I'm going to introduce. For one thing, he would be really defensive about his time-of-death estimate. That kind of a witness we just don't need. There may be some more booby traps along the way, but the one that had me the most worried has been disarmed.”

  I still didn't understand, but I was willing to accept we'd scored a great victory.

  “One problem,” Qual said, “is we're going to be running a lot longer than we'd intended. And every day the trial goes on, the more editorials there'll be in the Chronicle.”

  “But what difference does that make?” I asked. “We already decided Judge Raines wasn't bothered by those editorials.”

  “You're forgetting the jury,” Qual answered. “They don't want to be considered soft on crime. And they're not sequestered. They're reading those editorials, and that's bound to have an impact on them.”

  That hadn't occurred to me, and then I thought about all the other coverage of the trial in the local paper. “What I don't understand,” I said, “is why the news reporting has been so even-handed.”

  “That's Joe Sato's doings,” Sid said. “He's a damn good reporter, and he's covering the trial. As it is, the editor has been cutting his stories to omit items which are at all favorable to either Raines or to the defense. That's why there's no byline on the stories. Joe told me he won't let them use his name unless the story goes in verbatim.”

  “Also,” said Kay, “I imagine flagrant editorializing in any news story might bring the wrath of Raines down on the publisher. She may be amused by the cartoons and the editorials, but I doubt she'd put up with really biased reporting. And even if old man Ikeda doesn't have sense enough to know that, Scott Ikeda sure as hell does.”

  “Speaking of whom, do you think our charming prosecutor will finish up today?” Sid asked Kay.

  Kay nodded. “If we're lucky. Judge Raines is getting impatient, but I don't think Ikeda's going to leave her enough time to move on to us. At the rate he's going, he may flow over to tomorrow.”

  “There's only one thing bothering me,” Qual said, “and that's what Ikeda is planning on doing with Chrissie Matthias as a witness.”

  It bothered me too. But it wasn't the only thing.

  ***

  Ikeda elected to re-examine Victorine as he had said he would. And before he'd finished, he had exhausted the patience of everyone in the courtroom, including his own witness.

  “What's he doing that for?” Ron wrote on his pad and passed the note to Sid.

  Sid's scribbled answer was, “He knows Kay has something up her sleeve having to do with the post mortem report. So he figures if he goes over every part of the report a dozen times, he'll have covered all bases. Take a look at the guy in the back row of the jury. The one with the glasses.”

  Ron spotted him at the same moment Lisa did, who at that point interrupted the questioning to request the juror be awakened. “It's only fitting he share our discomfort,” she said.

  Kay winced.

  Sid passed her a quick note. “Thank God the prosecution can't appeal the verdict. Ikeda would have had a strong basis for one after that remark.”

  ***

  I couldn't figure out why my attorneys were getting so jittery. The judge might not have been on my side, but she sure wasn't on the prosecution's side.

  And, as for the sleeping juror, I could only feel sympathy for him. I'd have been sleeping myself if I hadn't been sitting where I was. Ikeda is incredible. And I was sure Victorine was taking it out on all of us by becoming more and more unintelligible. Almost every other word was a medical term with no explanations except some with even more complex medical language involved.

  Ikeda didn't seem to mind. When the flames gave indications of dying, he'd throw more fuel on the fire. I could have sworn the second hand on the courthouse clock had slowed down. And I wasn't the only one who kept looking up at it.

  Finally, it all came to an end. The judge called a reces
s. I had a full bladder to deal with and had to stand in line. A conversation between two guys who'd bellied up to the urinals ahead of me gave me a little comfort.

  “Could you figure out what the pathologist was saying?”

  “Uh-uh. All he did was convince me he didn't know what he was talking about.”

  I was hoping the jury felt the same way.

  When I got back to the courtroom, the audience had dwindled appreciably. I'll bet the ones who left regretted it, because Chrissie Matthias really added spice to the trial.

  Chapter 19

  Sid and Kay had spent the recess quickly rereading Chrissie's file.

  As the judge was coming back to the bench, Sid whispered to Kay. “I'm absolutely baffled. I still can't see what Ikeda's trying to do with this witness.”

  Kay's answer was, “Join the crowd. I can't either.”

  Ikeda started off by having Chrissie clearly identify herself as the former wife of the deceased. He then moved on to her description of Dale Matthias.

  Knowing what he did about Chrissie's true feelings concerning her late ex-husband, her description of him caught Ron by surprise. Dale came out as a more-or-less mild mannered fellow. She didn't praise him, by any means, but he didn't fit the picture of the Dale Matthias whose physiognomy, habits, morals and ancestry she'd called into considerable question on the parking lot a few weeks back.

  Ron remembered what Sid had said. “No matter how certain you are about a witness, they can jump in just about any direction.”

  Ron wrote a note reminding his attorneys about what Chrissie had said on the parking lot and passed it to Sid, who skimmed it and handed it to Kay.

  Sid, Kay and Ron all sat up when Ikeda brought the questioning around to the children. In spite of himself, Sid leaned past Ron and whispered to Kay, loud enough for Ron to hear, and loud enough to bring a remonstrating look from the bench. “My God! That's what he wants her up there for. It's the bereaved children bit. That's totally irrelevant. Object!”

  Kay put her hand on his arm, and made no move to object.

  ***

  The evening after Chrissie testified, we all gathered in Qual's office. Craig was there, too. He was berating himself because he'd gone to the trial but had been one of those who broke and ran because of Victorine's incredibly boring testimony. As a result, he hadn't been there when Chrissie came to the stand.

  “How the judge could sit there and listen to that drivel is beyond me,” Craig was saying. “She should never have let that dreadful pathologist drone on and on.”

  “But she has to allow both sides to present their evidence,” Sid said.

  Craig was indignant. “Evidence? You know as well as I do there was not one bit of evidence presented in the whole two hours he was answering Ikeda's inane questions. The prosecutor didn't understand a word of those answers. And I doubt Dr. Victorine understood any of it either. I watched his face, and I'm ready to swear he thought it was all very amusing.”

  I wasn't much interested in hearing Craig complain. What I wanted to know was where Qual got the information prompting him to write the note to Kay. When I asked about it, Qual grinned and said, “You have Craig to thank for that. He has friends who have friends who have friends. In his own circle he knows as much about what's going on on this island as Leilani does in hers.”

  Craig smiled in acknowledgment, and turned to Kay. “Qual says you handled the matter very delicately. I appreciate that. I wasn't terribly happy about telling anyone what I'd heard. But I think in this case it was justified.”

  It had been while Ikeda was having Chrissie describe her children that I felt someone nudge my elbow. It was Qual, passing me a note addressed to Kay. All it said was, “Keep at her about Kimmie Uchima.” I passed the note along, and then remembered vaguely someone had said something about Kimmie Uchima that was of possible importance. I reached for the folder with her material in it but couldn't find anything of significance.

  That's when it struck me it was Joyce Joaquin who'd mentioned Kimmie. And I recalled distinctly what she'd said, but I couldn't remember whether or not I'd told Kay. So I sent her a note about what Joyce had said. Maybe I hadn't told her, because when she read my note she grinned and gave me a thumbs up sign. What Kimmie Uchida out shopping at one o'clock on the day of the murder had anything to do with anything, was more than I could figure out. But as long as Kay thought it was important, that was what mattered.

  And I was still not sure of its significance even at the end of the session. I do know for sure Chrissie Matthias thought it was darn significant.

  ***

  Sid had definitely been annoyed at Kay. Had he been in charge of the case, he would have prevented Ikeda from going off into the complete irrelevancy of Dale's fatherless children. But he had to admit afterwards the defense had gained considerably because of Ikeda's bad judgment in bringing Chrissie to the stand in the first place. His entire attempt to pluck at the jurors' heartstrings backfired disastrously.

  Kay began her cross-examination of Chrissie by turning her into a character witness for Ron. Chrissie confessed to knowing little about him, but was quick to admit what she had heard was all favorable. She voluntarily added that, since her own move into the office, Ron couldn't be faulted. Kay then moved back to what Chrissie had heard from Dale concerning his new employee. This line of questioning soon ran into obstacles. Chrissie's marriage had already been heading for the reefs when Dale hired Ron, so Chrissie had heard only passing comments—though these were favorable remarks about a promising employee.

  One of the obstacles Kay was facing was an objection by Ikeda to hearsay evidence. Lisa didn't wait for Kay to present her arguments for continuing the line of questioning. Ikeda's face was red with anger at the summary overruling of his objection.

  There was no question but that Chrissie was a good witness. There was no overstatement on her part and no sign of nervousness. She listened attentively to the questions and gave clear and direct answers. Under Kay's skillful questioning, however, the picture Chrissie had drawn of Dale in her earlier testimony began to soften. The image was now far less positive. Chrissie continued to cooperate willingly until Kay began to question her about her activities on the day of the crime.

  “Where were you between twelve o'clock and two o'clock on the day your former husband died?”

  “Objection.”

  “It's become a reflex,” Kay thought.

  Sid also recognized the symptoms. He recalled a case a few years earlier when he'd been defending a client before old Judge Schreiber. Ordinarily, Schreiber was an easygoing, tolerant judge who demanded only that courtroom decorum be maintained. But that day he had seemed to be in a peevish mood. Sid became angry at what he thought were arbitrary decisions on the judge's part. He caught himself objecting on the most trivial of grounds, and had only gradually become aware of Judge Schreiber's increasing irritation. Sid finally took the hint and literally sat on his hands to avoid making further objections. Ikeda lacked such good judgment.

  With no attempt to explain her decision, Lisa simply overruled the meaningless objection.

  Kay felt as though she were caught in a cross-fire. She looked at Lisa, and the judge's unruffled face reassured her. “As long as she keeps her cool,” Kay thought, “we can avoid a mistrial.”

  The interruption had given Chrissie time to gather her thoughts.

  “I had promised a friend I would stop by her apartment for lunch. I was there from shortly before noon until approximately one-forty-five. From there I went home and spent the afternoon with my children.”

  “Could you give us the name of this friend?”

  “Kimmie Uchima. She's an agent for Royal Elima Realty.”

  “The two of you were alone together from noon until one-forty-five. Is that correct?”

  “Yes.” Chrissie's tone had changed. She had become more intense and more abrupt.

  “Did either of you leave the apartment during that time?”

  Chrissie he
sitated. If I were on the jury, thought Ron, and if I were listening (he could see the juror with the glasses nodding off again), I'd sure wonder why the first time she hesitates is over a simple question like that.

  Whatever the reason for her hesitation, the answer finally came out, and rather explosively. “No.” The tone of her answer brought the nodding juror back to reality with a start.

  Kay got her to repeat the answer.

  Kay then did something that disturbed Sid. “That's bad courtroom procedure, at the very least,” he thought.

  She had reminded Chrissie she was under oath.

  Ikeda objected and launched into a scathing reference to “learned counsel's intimidation of the witness.”

  Lisa allowed him to give a two minute speech which included citations from the law supporting his argument.

  When he paused, Lisa asked him if he had completed his argument. Ikeda merely nodded. Lisa overruled him. Turning to Kay, she said, “Please proceed, counselor.”

  “You are absolutely positive both of you did not leave Ms. Uchima's apartment at any time between twelve and one-forty-five?”

  Chrissie nodded.

  Lisa cut in, saying to Chrissie. “Please give oral answers to the questions. The court stenographer can only record what he hears. Would you repeat the question, counselor?”

  Kay did so and, in a low voice, Chrissie answered, “Yes.”

  “How then do you explain the fact Ms. Uchima was in downtown Napua, some three miles from her apartment, at approximately one o'clock on that day?”

  Chrissie gave an emotional response. Watching her closely, Sid couldn't decide whether it was anger, or fear, or merely frustration.

  “That's simply not true. We were together during the whole time. She couldn't have been in downtown Napua.”

  Ikeda objected on the grounds Chrissie was not on trial. Lisa again overruled his objection without comment.