‘I tried my old clerk three times, and she wouldn’t tell me which judge was taking the case. Said she couldn’t. She was sworn to secrecy. Loyalty ain’t what it used to be.’
The doors at the back of the court opened, and I heard footsteps approaching. One pair of heels, and one pair of boots. I turned and saw Kate Brooks marching down the aisle, with a tall lady in a leather jacket behind her. Hardly the entourage I’d expected from Levy, Bernard and Groff.
Kate took a seat at the next defense table, furthest from the central aisle. Across the aisle was the table reserved for the prosecution. In front of us was a raised plinth, a mahogany bench and behind that a high-backed leather armchair flanked by the American flag.
Kate said, ‘Hi,’ as she passed my table.
Harry stood up and introduced himself, ‘I’m Harry Ford. Consultant with Eddie Flynn. And you are?’
‘Kate Brooks, from Brooks Law. That’s my investigator behind you, Bloch.’
Harry turned around, and the tall lady with short black hair and the biker jacket shook hands with Harry. ‘Ex-law enforcement, I presume?’ said Harry.
Bloch nodded.
‘Sorry, I didn’t get your first name, Miss Bloch,’ said Harry.
Bloch merely nodded in agreement. Harry sat his ass down.
I got up and went around to Kate’s table. She stood behind it, arranging her papers. From her bag, she took out five different colored pads of Post-It notes and five different colors of highlighters and began arranging them. I didn’t want to disturb her, but I wanted to make sure I’d heard her correctly.
‘You said Brooks Law, right?’
‘Right. I left Levy, Bernard and Groff about a month ago.’
‘Shit, and you’re representing Alexandra?’
‘I am,’ she said.
I stood back and took a second to look at Kate properly. She seemed to stand taller. She wore a nervous and excited smile, but now she looked like a lawyer rather than a beat-down paralegal who jumped and clapped for the boss every ten minutes.
‘Congratulations, I’m really pleased for you. I do have one thing to ask though. I didn’t get any of your motions to the court. I take it you’re moving to split the trial?’
Kate took her own damn time to look at me now. She was gauging me, trying to figure out if I was a threat or if I was making some kind of play.
‘We’re not objecting to the DA’s joint trial,’ she said.
I heard Harry sucking air through his teeth, and the legs of his chair slapping down on the tiled floor. This was a major play from Kate. She’d realized that she had the better chance in a joint trial – that a jury would be more likely to believe Alexandra than Sofia. A brilliant strategy, but for one thing.
‘I understand your thinking. But it’s high risk, there’s lots of ways that strategy might backfire,’ I said.
‘It can’t backfire on me, only on your client,’ she said.
‘It can backfire if you destroy my client’s credibility, and if I, in turn, destroy your client’s. Then the jury won’t believe either defendant and both get convicted. It’s called a cut-throat defense – the DA just has to hand out the razor blades and sit back while we cut each other’s throats.’
‘I’ve considered it. I don’t think you can lay a glove on my client.’
‘Don’t be so sure. I don’t think this is wise. We should be fighting the prosecutor, not each other.’
‘It’s a risk my client is aware of, but we’re confident. Tell me, is Sofia going to take the polygraph?’
‘Is Alexandra going to take the polygraph?’ I asked.
Kate folded her arms, shifted her weight. Her tongue grazed the inside of her cheek. She wasn’t going to give that away so easily.
‘Look, the way I see it, the prosecution is getting an easy ride with a joint trial. It will make us fight each other instead of fighting Dreyer.’
She pulled out a chair and sat down at the defense table, placing her three identical Muji pens in a neat row before her. The conversation was over. This was shaping up to be a war on two fronts for Sofia. It made it even more important that I got the trial split.
‘Kate, I’m real pleased for you going out on your own. That’s brave and no more than you deserve. I thought Levy was a creep. This is great for you, but I’m worried about making life easy for this prosecutor. At least don’t object to my motion to split the trial? Don’t muddy the waters.’
‘I’ve got to do what I think is right for my client,’ she said.
‘Okay, let’s see what happens,’ I said. I didn’t want to start a fight with Kate. I liked her. She was smart, and I was glad she’d ditched Levy and managed to wrestle his biggest case away from him.
I returned to my table, Harry giving me a worried look.
‘If we don’t split this trial—’ he said, under his breath.
‘I know, I know.’
Wesley Dreyer was the last player to show up and he looked like he’d been shopping for a new outfit for today. A pale yellow tie in a Windsor knot lay over a crisp white shirt. The combination was set off by a smart blue suit. Cut especially for him, of course. He looked like he was about to go for a photo shoot with a magazine, and in some ways that was exactly what would happen after the hearing. I’d no doubt Dreyer had called a press conference from the DA’s office straight afterwards. He had one assistant with him, a young man in a suit that looked almost as smart as Dreyer’s.
I did notice one other thing about Dreyer’s outfit, though.
‘I see you’re not wearing your pin,’ I said.
‘I don’t need to wear the pin today,’ said Dreyer, a smug grin on his pink face.
The court clerk came through the chambers door and said, ‘All rise.’
I stood with Harry. Dreyer was already on his feet. Judge Stone came through the door with our motions under his arm.
I heard Harry mutter, ‘Shit. We’re toast,’ under his breath.
Son of a …
‘Mr. Dreyer, you appear for the People. Mr. Flynn for Sofia Avellino and Miss …’
‘Brooks,’ said Kate. ‘For Alexandra Avellino.’
‘Very good,’ said Stone. ‘Mr. Flynn, I’ve read your legal briefs. I’m granting all three of your discovery motions. The prosecution is obliged to provide you with the evidence and documents listed in your affidavit by close of business today. I’m also granting the motion for inspection of the crime scene. That’s for both defendants. The inspection will be done alone, without police presence save for an officer of the court who will video-record the inspection to ensure the scene is not tampered with. There will be unilateral disclosures of these videos. Edited to remove sound, so you can discuss the case freely at the locus.’
Dreyer’s assistant lifted a box from the prosecution table, put it on my desk. He then picked up another box and put it on Kate’s table.
‘All documents and evidential reports have now been served. We have an officer with a video camera at the ready for the inspection of the Franklin Street property,’ said Dreyer. He was expecting this. I’d no doubt he’d spoken privately with Stone about it before today. That would be a huge breach of ethics, but it happened and there was no way to prove it.