Page 100 of The Best Lawyer
She had a hopeful look in her eyes as I showed her a photograph I’d taken of the loose brick and hidden metal key box.
“I swear,” she said. “I’ve never seen that before. I never knew it was back there.”
“You’re absolutely sure,” I said. “Tom didn’t mention it in passing? In case you got locked out? In case he did?”
“Cass, no. Why would I lie about something like that? It would have been the first thing I told the police. It would have been the first thingI told you.”
She was right. And it was a huge fact in her favor.
“But you said there wasn’t a key inside it,” she said. “How does that help me?”
“I think it doesn’t matter,” I said. “It might even be better that therewasn’ta key inside of it. Because that begs the question. What happened to it? Who has it now?”
“But what if Tom didn’t even know about it?”
It was a possibility. Tom had only owned the home for four years. There was a chance the key box had been hidden behind that fake brick years before, its owner long since having moved. And yet, it seemed like the kind of thing the seller would have disclosed.
“You let me worry about that,” I said.
“Will it help?” she asked.
“If Eric found this, then Detective DePaul should have found it. So yes, it could help.”
“But it would help a lot more if you could prove what happened to the key.”
“It’s not nothing, Katy.”
“Please don’t tell me to hang in there,” she said. “I know what’s going to happen tomorrow. Lissa is going to tell everybody what I said. She’s going to make it sound like I was giving her a motive for murder. Please tell me you’ll be there. I don’t care what happened with Joe or what your reasons are. I need you. Even if you don’t feel like you can participate in the actual trial. I want you in that room with me, Cass. Even if I don’t have the right to ask.”
“No,” I said. “You have the right. I’ll be there, Katy.”
She reached for me, grabbing my hands as if they were a lifeline. I wished I could tell her all this would matter. It should. It was the most concrete lead we’d found. But it still didn’t answer the most basic question the jury would have had.
What was Katy doing holding that knife? And if someonehadused this missing key, why wasn’t there any other proof of them being there?
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said.
Katy trembled. It took a moment for her to let go of me. I hated leaving her alone tonight. I also knew this could all be an act. I still had the same questions the jury did.
I went to the office.Eric and Jeanie were waiting for me. None of us would get any sleep anyway. We had a strategy to plan.
I relayed my conversation with Katy.
“She raises a pretty good point,” Jeanie said. “There’s absolutely no reason why she wouldn’t have told us about that key box right off the bat unless she didn’t know about it.”
“DePaul should have found it,” Eric said.
“I told Katy that, too.”
“And we’ll tell the jury,” Jeanie said. “It’s gold, Cass. It’s reasonable doubt.”
“Is it?” I asked.
The front door opened. Emma walked into Jeanie’s office wearing sweatpants and a faded tee shirt. She held a four-slot cup holder with extra-large coffee cups.
“I figured you could use these,” she said.
“Emma,” I said. “You don’t have to …”
