“I was furious, of course.”
“At the school, or at Jeremy Dawson?”
“At Jeremy Dawson.”
“Why?”
“Why? Are you kidding me? I suppose you
“No, I don’t, Mr. Jenson. And I’m sure you don’t either. So you were outraged, is that right?”
“Yes, it is.”
“You say you don’t
Jenson frowned. “What do you mean?”
“After the school told you that, did you make any investigation of your own? In particular, did you search Jeremy Dawson’s room?”
Jenson hesitated.
“Well, Mr. Jenson?”
“Well, as a matter of fact, I did.”
“Why?”
“Why? Come on, I was living in that same house. If he had drugs in the house, he was endangering us all.”
“I see. So you searched his room?”
“Yes, I did.”
“And did you find any drugs?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“And did that make you think maybe the school was wrong?”
“No. Because he didn’t have them at home. He had them at school. He was selling drugs out of his locker.”
“You know that now because of what the police found in his locker, but you didn’t know it then.”
“Yes, I did.”
“How?”
Jenson hesitated, bit his lip.
“How, Mr. Jenson?”
“I don’t know. I just knew.”
“How did you know?”
“Well, it stood to reason.”
“Yes, it did, Mr. Jenson,” Steve said dryly. “And it certainly stands to reason much more now after the police found vials of crack in his locker. Just as it stands to reason now that Jeremy Dawson must have been taunting you about Uncle Jack’s money since the police found a will in his possession leaving all that money to him.”
Dirkson lunged to his feet. “Objection, Your Honor.”
“Sustained,” Judge Grimes said. “Mr. Winslow, that is clearly improper.”
“Sorry, Your Honor. Mr. Jenson, you saw Jeremy Dawson on the day of the murder?”
“That’s right.”
“You spoke to him about skipping school and asked him if he’d seen Jack Walsh?”
“That’s right.”
“He went upstairs, took a shower and changed?”
“That’s right.”
“And when he came downstairs to go out, you asked him where he was going and he told you to be nice to him because he was going to be rich?”
“Yes, he did.”
“And the amount of money which you personally have involved in the outcome in this case has in no way colored your recollection or judgment?”
“No, it hasn’t.”
Steve sighed and shook his head. “Thank you. No further questions.”
Judge Grimes said, “Mr. Dirkson. Any redirect?”
“No, Your Honor.”
“The witness is excused. It has reached the hour of adjournment. Court is adjourned until tomorrow morning at ten o’clock.”
37
“Do you like to gamble, Jeremy?”
Jeremy Dawson frowned at Steve Winslow through the wire mesh screen. “What?”
“You a gambling man? You like to take chances?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Dirkson’s getting ready to rest his case. When he does, we got a problem.”
“What’s that?”
“You. You’re the problem. You’re a teenage crack dealer, and people don’t like that.”
“Yeah, right,” Jeremy said. “You tell me this now? So what the fuck you doin’, man? I sit in court and watch you, and all I can think is what the fuck is goin’ on?”
“At least you didn’t grab my sleeve.”
“I was too stunned. I didn’t know what to do. I’m sittin’ there, you got Carl on the stand, and suddenly you’re asking him if I was selling crack.”
“You didn’t like that?”
“What, are you nuts? I didn’t know what the hell you’re doin’. I thought you lost your mind.”
“Yeah, I think Dirkson thought so too.”
“So what the hell were you doin’?”
“The crack issue’s in the mind of the jurors. We can’t keep it out.”
“Yeah, but we don’t have to hammer it in.”
“With Carl, I did.”
“Why?”
“For one thing, it kept me from talking about the other stuff. The stuff you told him about Uncle Jack.”
“Oh.”
“You really tell him that?”
“I may have made some remarks.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet you did.”
“Well, so what? And what’s that got to do with crack? And what’s crack got to do with Carl Jenson, for Christ’s sake? I mean, why you have to ask him about crack?”
“You don’t think the jury liked that?”
“I know damn well the jury didn’t like that.”
“Yeah, well I don’t like it either,” Steve said. “And let me tell you something. I’m not defending you for selling crack. I’m representing you in this murder case. And I’m representing you on the will. But as far as crack goes, if the cops decide to charge you with selling it, you get yourself another lawyer. I’m not defending that.”
“I’ll say. God, you’re like a fucking prosecutor.”
“That’s what you think. Wait’ll a real prosecutor comes after you for crack and you’ll change your tune.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Most people aren’t lucky enough to get a second chance, Jeremy. You’re lucky enough to beat this murder rap, give up that shit and fly straight. Things work out, you’ll have some bucks. Most likely you’ll get a fine and probation on the drugs. You stay straight, you’ll be sitting pretty.”
Jeremy’s face contorted. “How can you talk about that, man? They got me on this murder thing, and I didn’t
