Page 69 of The Best Lawyer
“That’s none of your damn business,” he said. “And it’s a lie.”
“Well, you certainly wouldn’t have been able to keep Katy in the lifestyle Tom Loomis could, could you?”
“This has nothing to do with me. None of this. Katy wanted to be married to Tom. That’s it. And she didn’t kill him.”
“But you don’t know that. You didn’t talk to Katy. You didn’t see Katy. You weren’t even in town. So you cannot vouch for Katy. You have no idea what went on in that house. You are not qualified to testify about what she did or didn’t do because you weren’t there.”
“I wasn’t there,” he said.
“But she wanted you to be, didn’t she?”
“What?”
“Because you’re still in love with your ex-wife, aren’t you?”
“Objection,” Jeanie said. “This is irrelevant.”
“Oh, I’d say it’s entirely relevant. Joe and Katy had been carrying on behind Tom Loomis’s back. Tom Loomis was about to hit the escape hatch and leave them to each other and Joe Leary’s negative-balance bank account.”
“Enough, Mr. Quick,” Judge Castor said. “Save it for your closing argument.”
“You can go to hell,” Joe shouted from the bench.
“Get him off,” I whispered to Jeanie. “Gethim out of there.”
She nodded, her face turning purple with her own bubbling rage at Joe.
“I have no further questions,” Quick spat.
“Ms. Leary … rather, Ms. Mills?”
Jeanie slowly rose. “I have no questions for this witness,” she said.
“You may step down, Mr. Leary,” Castor said.
My brother practically vaulted out of the witness box. He didn’t look at me or Katy as he passed us by. He glared at Addison Quick and stormed out of the courtroom.
“Mr. Quick?” Judge Castor said.
Addison Quick was still on his feet. Still smirking. “Your Honor, at this time, the prosecution rests.”
Chapter 24
I hada directed verdict motion to get through. I knew I would lose it. But I had to try. As expected, Judge Castor found there were enough questions of fact to submit to the jury. Starting first thing Monday morning, I would have to present my defense.
Katy was already gone by the time we finished oral arguments. I’d sent Jeanie back to the office. Before I could go home, there was one thing I had left to do.
Joe didn’t answer the door. His truck was in the driveway, so I let myself in. My siblings and I always had no-knock privileges at each of our houses.
“Joe!”
No answer. I walked down his short hallway, looking into each room until I got to his bedroom. The place was a pigsty. When he was married to Katy, she cleaned up after him. Emma took on that role for a while until she moved out. But my brother found no point in making a bed; he was just going to turn around and sleep in it again.
It was more than that though. As I walked back into the kitchen, he had dishes piled in the sink. Every garbage can in the house was filled to the brim. I counted eight empty beer bottles on his kitchen counter.
“What the actual hell is going on?” I muttered.
He couldn’t be far. His house wasn’t much. Just two bedrooms and one bath. But it sat on ten wooded acres. Knowing Joe, he was out there somewhere checking food plots or chopping wood to clear his head.
