Her eyes popped wide open as she clutched the top of her blouse tight against her neck. “I’d say he’s a liar.”
“And if I told you he videotaped you buying crack and getting high and that I am prepared to show that videotape to the jury, would he still be lying?”
She hung her head, her voice soft and low. “No.”
“So, a moment ago, when you told the jury that you’re clean and sober, that was a lie, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah,” she said, chin down.
“And when you told the jury that you weren’t getting high in your bedroom when your son was shot, that was also a lie, wasn’t it?”
She nodded.
“Ms. Shelburne, you have to answer out loud,” Judge West said.
“Yeah.”
“And when you told the jury that you were coming down the stairs and saw Alex Stone shoot your son, that was also a lie, isn’t that so?”
She lifted her head, her eyes red and tears streaming down her cheeks. “He was my baby. I shoulda been there. I shoulda done somethin’.”
“But instead you were in your room getting high and didn’t see a thing that happened in your living room. Isn’t that so?”
“Yes,” she said and buried her face in her hands.
“Nothing further,” Claire said.
“May we approach the bench?” Ortiz asked the judge after Odyessy Shelburne left the courtroom.
“Come forward,” Judge West said.
Ortiz wasted no time, giving no indication that he’d just taken a beating. He was bright-eyed and jaunty, as if he’d enjoyed Claire Mason’s takedown of Odyessy Shelburne as much as Claire had. He was engaged in the trial lawyer’s time-honored masquerade, pretending that no matter what happened, it was all part of his plan.
“Your Honor, we have one more witness, but we won’t be ready to put her on until tomorrow morning, so we’d like to recess for the rest of the day.”
“Ms. Mason?”
“Who’s the witness?” Claire asked.
“Gloria Temple,” Ortiz said.
“I object to her being allowed to testify, Your Honor. I haven’t had an opportunity to depose her.”
“Her nephew, Lou Mason, spent over an hour with her last night,” Ortiz said.
“Is that so, Counsel?”
“Yes, Your Honor, but-”
“No buts, Counsel. Lou Mason was one of the best criminal defense attorneys in the city before he lost his license. I’d say you’ve had your crack at her. Objection overruled. I’ll see all of you at nine o’clock tomorrow morning,” Judge West said and raised his gavel.
“Wait a minute,” Claire said. “I’m the lawyer trying this case, not my nephew. I’m entitled to talk to her, and Mr. Ortiz is obligated to tell me where I can find her.”
Judge West took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, as if he was defusing an internal bomb. “Mr. Ortiz, tell counsel where to find Ms. Temple.”
“She’s in my office at the moment.”
“Is she under arrest?” the judge asked.
“No, sir.”
“Then when you’re finished with her, give Ms. Mason a call and let her have a turn. Satisfied, Ms. Mason?”
“Almost. In order for me to prepare to talk with her, I’m entitled to know the substance of what she’s going to say on the stand.”
Judge West nodded. “Fair enough. Mr. Ortiz?”
“Gloria Temple was a friend of the deceased, Mr. Reed. She went to his house to visit him the day he was killed. She entered the house through the back door, which leads into the kitchen. She was in the kitchen when the defendant shot Mr. Reed.”
“Judge,” Claire said. “What’s the point of letting her testify? She’s just another witness who didn’t see what happened.”
“Except for one thing,” Ortiz said. “She saw the defendant pull Mr. Reed’s gun from his waistband after she shot him, put the gun in Mr. Reed’s hand, and fire a round into the ceiling.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
Claire whispered Ortiz’s disclosure to Lou while they were packing their briefcases before leaving court, and he briefed Kate and Blues on the way to his office. Claire waited until they’d all gathered there to drop the bombshell on Alex.
Lou was sitting behind his desk. Blues was standing at the window overlooking Broadway. Kate and Claire were standing on either side of Lou’s dry-erase board. Alex was sitting on the sofa. Anyone who walked into the office at that moment would have said they were looking at one another. But they weren’t. They were looking at Alex.
“Alex, we’ve got a problem,” Claire began. “Gloria Temple is going to testify that she saw you shoot Dwayne and that after you shot him, you put his gun in his hand and fired a round into the ceiling.”
Alex jumped off the sofa, arms in the air. “That’s bullshit!” She slapped her thighs and spun halfway around. “That’s fucking unbelievable! You blew Odyessy Shelburne out of the water, so Ortiz had to come up with something, but this is too much, way too fucking much!”
She planted her hands on her hips, first staring and then glaring at them as they watched her in silence until she realized what was going on.
“Oh, c’mon, you guys!” she said. “You can’t seriously think she’s telling the truth. She’s got to be another junkie peddling a story to get a break because they’re about to charge her with something. So she’s going to testify against me in return for immunity. C’mon! I can’t be the only one in the room who can see that!”
“It’s possible,” Lou said. “Rossi and one of the CSI techs testified that that’s the way it could have gone down, but they both said there was no proof. Rossi could have put the idea in her head, let her know what they needed, and she agreed to go along to get along.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Blues added.
“You see,” Alex said, her hands chopping the air. “That’s the only way it makes sense. What do we even know about Gloria Temple? I’ve thought all along that she was the girl who gave Dwayne a gold necklace that belonged to Wilfried Donaire, but that’s just speculation.”
“She used to stay with a woman named Virginia Sprague, who was Kyrie Chapman’s grandmother. Grace Canfield talked to Virginia, and that’s how we found Gloria.”
“I tried talking to her last night,” Lou said, “but I didn’t get anything out of her.”
“Well,” Claire said, “she’ll have to talk to me. Ortiz will see to that. He doesn’t want me to start my cross- examination by having her tell the jury she refused. We’ll know more in a little while.”
Alex calmed down enough to reclaim her seat on the sofa. “Okay, then. What’s the plan besides you talking to Gloria?”
“It begins with you,” Claire said. “We need to know everything that happened in that living room before you shot Dwayne. Everything.”
Alex took a deep breath and nodded, pressing her back into the sofa, feeling staked out.
“Okay,” she said. “For starters, if Gloria was there, I never saw her.”
“Start at the beginning, from when you walked into Odyessy’s house.”
“We’ve been over this a hundred times.”
“And we’re going to go over it as many more times as it takes. I’ve got nothing on Gloria. If I can’t shake her
