Page 52 of The Best Lawyer
“Just to clarify, you have no eyewitness to the actual murder of Tom Loomis, do you? You’ve been describing Jenna as an eyewitness. But she’s not. She saw the aftermath of something, nothing more, isn’t that right?”
Sharon crossed her arms in front of her and glowered at me. “I believe I’ve already answered that.”
“You’ve been describing her as an eyewitness,” I said. “But she’s not an eyewitness to murder, is she?”
“No,” Detective DePaul finally said.
It was entirely possible all I’d done was irritate the jury as well as Sharon DePaul. But she’d at least said the most important thing I needed her to say.
“I have no further questions,” I said, then turned my back on her.
Chapter 19
There wasn’tmuch time to talk to Katy after getting through the more end-of-day, mundane procedural motions. Jeanie had taken her to a small conference room one floor down. I texted Eric that Jeanie and I would meet him back at the house within the hour.
Katy paced along the far wall as I walked into the room. Jeanie gave me an exasperated look as she sat at a small table, a notepad in front of her.
“She didn’t do her job,” Katy said. “Cass, why didn’t Detective DePaul look into Tom’s stalker?”
“That matters less than her not being able to provide a very good answer for that on the stand today.”
“I’m really surprised Addison didn’t try to rehabilitate her on that,” Jeanie said.
“I’m not,” I said. “He knows the more he underlines it for the jury, the more important a fact they’ll think it is.”
“I don’t understand Jenna either,” Katy said. “It isn’t true what she said. I wasn’t frozen in place like that. I was shocked. Yes. But that’s not how I remember it. When she came in, I started walking toward her. She ran. She wasn’t in that doorway for more than a second or two. How can she possibly remember all the things she said she did? It was so fast. For me and for her. You have to let me tell the jury that. They have to hear my side of this.”
“We’re not making that decision today,” I said. “We’ve got a lot of trial left. The prosecutor isn’t even close to being done calling witnesses. The only way we’re putting you on the stand is if I feel there’s no other choice. We’ve gone over the risks of that strategy. Right now, they far outweigh any benefit.”
“I can’t just sit there,” she pleaded. “I see them staring at me. Everyone in the courtroom. Everyone on the jury. The way he’s making it sound, I’m some monster. I don’t know why Tom saw a lawyer. But it can’t be for the reasons that man is implying. Things were good between us. They were getting so much better. Cass, we were intimate the day before.”
“For now,” I said. “I just need you to try to decompress as much as you can. Youmustremain calm and stoic while you’re sitting next to me. You cannot have outbursts like you did today. You cannot verbally comment on whatever is happening in the witness box. If you do that, you risk Quick being able to cross-examine you. You force the issue. I cannot have this trial go out of control. You might think you’re helping your cause, but you’re not. Okay?”
Her lip quivered. “You don’t know what this is like. You’ve never been on my side of the table. I’m not who that man is painting me out to be. My relationship with Tom isn’t what he’s trying to make it.”
“And we will have an opportunity to show your side of things as we go along. But right now, you need to keep calm. If you need to get upset, do it after court is done for the day. Rail and scream all you want. Just don’t do it in front of the jury. Are we clear?”
She put her hands on top of her head as if it were about to pop off. I’m sure she felt like it was. After some assurances from her that she’d behave herself tomorrow, I poked my head into the hallway and gestured for the deputies to take her back to holding.
Jeanie hitched a ride with me back to my house. She’d left her car there this morning. Eric was waiting for us in the war room.
“Well,” I said as we walked in. “Did either of you get a read on the jury today?”
One of the most crucial roles Jeanie and Eric could play was to observe the body language and facial expressions of the jury. They acted as eyes in the back of my head.
“They’re pretty stoic,” Eric said. “They all seem attentive and sober.”
“That’s a good thing,” Jeanie said. “It might mean they’re keeping an open mind. I didn’t see anybody giving Katy the evil eye. Not that they couldn’t be thinking it. But I agree with Eric; for now they all seem neutral.”
“She’s her own worst enemy,” I said. “She cannot have tantrums like that again. As of right now, I have zero confidence she could keep it together on cross if we decide to put her on.”
“She doesn’t get it, Cass,” Eric said. “That’s been my read on her from the beginning. I don’t think she realizes how damning this looks for her. She never has.”
“That’s Katy.” I sighed. “Joe always took care of her. I think it’s what attracted him to her in the first place. He’s a sucker for a damsel in distress. I think Tom Loomis fulfilled the same role. Katy just doesn’t ever think about consequences. If it weren’t for how she was with Emma, I might not have been thrilled with Joe’s choice to marry her in the first place.”
“And yet we all still loved her,” Jeanie said. “She made Joe happy for a very long time.”
“Are we any closer to finding Maisy Carmichael?” I asked Eric.
