“Gambling.”
“On what?”
“Frankly, a long shot.”
“Why are you doing that?”
Steve smiled grimly. “Because there’s nothing else to bet on.”
After the jurors had filed in and been seated, Judge Wallingsford addressed them. “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Yesterday, the witness Marcie Keller, completed her direct examination. The defense has no cross- examination of her and that witness has been excused. At this point, the witness Phil Danby has been recalled for further cross-examination.
“Mr. Danby, I remind you you are still under oath.
“Mr. Winslow. Mr. Fitzpatrick. Let us proceed.”
Steve Winslow stood up, crossed in to the witness. He began his cross-examination almost conversationally, as Dirkson had done with Marcie Keller. “Mr. Danby, you testified, did you not, that you saw the defendant, Kelly Clay Wilder, on the afternoon when she left her employment with Milton Castleton, is that right?”
“Yes, it is.”
“You further testified that while you spoke to her on the phone several times, you had not seen her since that day until you saw her here in court. Is that right?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Is it, Mr. Danby? I don’t think that’s true. I put it to you that you saw the defendant, Kelly Clay Wilder, on June twenty-eighth, the day David Castleton met his death. Is that not a fact?”
“No, it is not.”
“You didn’t see the defendant on that day?”
“No, I did not.”
“Really, Mr. Danby? Didn’t you testify that on June twenty-eighth you were present at a meeting between David Castleton and his grandfather in Milton Castleton’s apartment?”
“Yes, I did.”
“I believe you referred to it as a strategy session, programming him for his meeting with Kelly Wilder?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“What time did David Castleton leave the apartment?”
“Six-thirty. As I’ve already testified.”
“And after David Castleton left for his appointment with the defendant, what did you and Milton Castleton do then?”
“Mr. Castleton was tired from the meeting and went off to bed. I went home to my apartment.”
“You live alone, Mr. Danby?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Then you can’t verify that, can you?”
Danby shrugged. “I see no reason why I should.”
“You know, Mr. Danby, I personally find that rather strange. Your going home, I mean. You knew David Castleton was going to be meeting with the defendant. You were eager to find out the defendant’s name, address, what she was up to. There was no reason to assume David Castleton would be able to get that out of her. I wonder why you would choose to go home and leave that entirely up to him.”
“There’s nothing strange about that,” Danby said. “It simply wasn’t that important. We wanted to know what the defendant was up to, yes. But you have to remember, a settlement had already been made. This woman obviously intended to cause trouble of some kind or another, but as far as we were concerned, we’d taken care of it. We’d primed David to handle it. There was no reason to assume it was so important it couldn’t be entrusted to him. Now, if you don’t want to take my word for it, ask Milton Castleton and he’ll tell you the same thing. I did not involve myself personally at that point because it simply wasn’t that important.”
Steve smiled. “It may not have been that important to Milton Castleton, but I submit, for reasons unknown to him, it may have been that important to you. You testified that you left Milton Castleton’s apartment and went straight home that evening?”
“Yes, I did.”
“I put it to you that you didn’t. Is it not a fact that after you left Milton Castleton’s apartment you went straight to the singles bar on Third Avenue and staked it out from across the street?”
“No, it is not.”
“I think it is. I think you arrived there shortly after David Castleton did. I think you looked through the window and saw him at the bar engaged in conversation with Marcie Keller, the woman who testified yesterday on the witness stand.
“Which of course puzzled you. David Castleton was there for a particular purpose, and he wouldn’t be paying attention to any young woman unless she was the one coming on to him. Be that as it may, I think you then retreated from the window and continued to watch the bar from across the street. I think you were there when the defendant, Kelly Clay Wilder, showed up. You saw her go in, and you saw her and David Castleton come out.
“I think you tailed them to the restaurant Gino’s, waited outside while they had their dinner and then tailed them back to his apartment.
“Where you ran into a strange situation. Two detectives were staking out the place. They didn’t see you because you saw them first and took pains to see that they didn’t.
“And how did you spot them before they spotted you? For that matter, how did you spot them at all? Very simple. Because one of the detectives happened to be the young woman you had already seen talking to David Castleton in the bar. So you knew what they were, and you knew who they were there for. So you stayed out of sight, watched and waited.
“And what happened? An hour later the defendant came out alone and walked back to her apartment. The detectives followed. You followed right behind. The defendant walked back to a brownstone apartment house and went inside. The detectives took up positions, staking it out. Minutes later, a light on the second-floor front window came on. You figured that was the best you could do. With the detectives watching, you couldn’t get close enough to read the bell. Not without being seen. But you noted down the address.
“What did you do then? You went straight to David Castleton’s apartment. He was surprised to see you, of course. He hadn’t known you would be tagging along, because that wasn’t part of the plan. I don’t know what you told him, but probably something like his grandfather had sent you as an afterthought. At any rate, you told him you’d been there, tailed the defendant to her home and found out where she lived. You still didn’t have her name, but now at least you had her address.
“You gave him that address. You told it to him and had him write it down. That was the address on the folded piece of paper in his pants pocket. That’s why he had only her address and not her name.
“Then you questioned him. How did it go? What had he found out? What did she want?
“What he said floored you. It was the worst of all. Exactly what you had feared. This woman had proof that Herbert Clay wasn’t guilty of the embezzlement. The proof was a computer disk of a memo, which you thought had long since been erased from the files. But here it was, come back to haunt you.
“David Castleton showed it to you. Put the disk in and called it up on the computer. And there it was. The missing memo from Herbert Clay.
“David Castleton was very excited about it. He was glad you were there. He couldn’t wait to tell everyone. He was going to tell his grandfather first thing in the morning.
“Which was something you simply couldn’t allow.”
Steve paused, looked up at the witness. “And that’s when you shot him, isn’t it, Mr. Danby?”
Phil Danby appeared completely unruffled. If anything, his face showed the trace of a faint smile. “I most certainly did not.”
“Oh, yes, you did. You shot him with Herbert Clay’s gun. The gun you found two years ago when you supervised the cleaning out of Herbert Clay’s desk, as you have already testified. It was right there, where Herbert Clay said it was. You found it and you took it. Probably well before his trial. You’d already framed him for embezzlement, but if that didn’t come off you wanted to be prepared to frame him for something else. I’m sure you never dreamed at the time it would eventually be used to frame his sister.”
Steve smiled. “Which is ironic, Mr. Danby. Because you didn’t
