Page 32 of The Best Lawyer
“But I’d have to say I did it. Right? I’d have to tell the judge I killed Tom.”
“Yes.”
She put her head down. Then, slowly, she lifted her eyes to mine. “Do you think I killed Tom?”
“Katy, that’s not the …”
“It matters, okay? Tell me the truth.”
She’d never asked me that before. Everyone else had, but not Katy. To be honest, I’d never actually let myself answer it even in my own mind. She wanted the truth.
“I don’t know,” I said. She winced.
“I didn’t,” she said. “I swear on my life. I didn’t kill him. I can’t do it. I can’t say I did. It would be a lie.”
“Life in prison,” I said. “That’s what you’re facing if you’re convicted of first degree murder. You want the truth? You could be. Juries are unpredictable.”
“I trust you,” she said. “Even if you don’t trust me. You told me you wouldn’t accept a single lie from me. I haven’t told you one.I’m innocent. If it means I have to give up my freedom to prove it, then so be it. I’ll find another way to clear my name. Somehow. But I will not swear to a lie.”
She might become her own worst enemy. But I knew this woman. She would fight or die.
“Okay,” I said. “Then we’re doing this. You are going on trial for murder, Katy.”
She lifted her chin and set her jaw into a hard line. She went to the door on her own and knocked. “I’m ready to go.”
Chapter 13
“There’sno point in torturing yourself anymore.”
I stood in front of the whiteboard. Much of Eric’s original writing had gotten smudged or crossed out, or added to. But the Guilty and Not Guilty headers he’d written stared back at me. He came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me against him.
“I suppose I’ve gone to trial with less and won. Though right this second, I can’t remember when.”
“It’ll come down to what it always comes down to. Whether the jury believes the prosecution’s witnesses.”
“They’ll believe Jenna Rodney,” I said. “If I put Katy on the stand, even she wouldn’t contradict what Jenna saw. So the crux of my case is that Jenna never saw Katy stab Tom.”
“Will you do it? Put Katy on the stand?”
We walked out of the spare bedroom and back into the living room just in time to see a brilliant pink and orange sunset. Two geese had landed on the lawn. Marby was outside. He tore afterthem, skidding to a halt just at the shoreline. Then the doggie strutted back to his sleeping spot under the porch.
“I really don’t know. We’ll see how things are after the prosecution rests. Quick can deliver a surgical cross-examination. Katy will have to tell the truth as she knows it. She’ll have to tell the jury she slept through the murder and slept next to a dead man for up to two hours. That will be a hard sell.”
“Her toxicology helps.”
“Maybe. But I expect Quick to bring an expert on for rebuttal. They’ll say the drug combo Katy took could have led to delusions and disorientation.”
“Well, you need a good night’s sleep.”
“I need you to bring me good news, Eric. I’m praying for a miracle that you can find Maisy Carmichael and that she doesn’t have a solid alibi for the night Tom was killed. I need to give that jury at least one plausible alternate suspect.”
My doorbell rang. It was after eight. Who on earth would come down here this late that needed to ring my doorbell?
“It’s Joe,” Eric said, getting to the foyer before I did. “You want me to take care of it?”
“No,” I said. “Let him in. I don’t know why he didn’t just let himself in.”
Eric opened the door. Joe entered with a solemn look on his face. He held a piece of paper in his left hand.
