A pall fell over the courtroom. “Klaus,” Nina whispered.
“A moment, Your Honor.” Klaus walked unsteadily back to her.
Nina handed him a sheet of legal paper. He read it, nodded. “Thank you,” he said with great dignity, and asked Wanda Wyatt, “Which of the four children found out?”
Judge Salas looked sharply at Wanda. Nina heard murmurings in the audience.
“Tell us,” Klaus said, gathering steam again, like an aged locomotive that has just had a fresh load of coal dumped into its boiler.
“Gabe saw me looking at something Constantin gave me,” Wanda said. “Crying over it, if you must know.”
“Now we are getting somewhere. What was this something?”
“A copy of a photo from a book. Constantin as a boy, dressed in a sailor suit.”
“Acting as page to the last tsar, Nicholas the Second.”
“So he always said.”
“He must have come from a good family.”
“Yes. He told me they were nobility but they all died during the revolution.”
“Your son Gabriel caught you weeping over this picture, and so you told him the truth at last.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Several months ago.”
“Do you remember exactly when?”
“No.”
“You told him, although you risked losing your monthly stipend?”
“Gabriel missed having a father, more than Stefan ever did.”
Sitting beside Nina, Stefan winced. His mother had hurt him many, many times with her opacity, Nina suspected.
“Gabe is so like his father in his character and his appearance,” Wanda went on. “I used to look at him, seeing Kostya’s nose, Kostya’s eyes. He deserved to know. I didn’t want to keep it from him anymore. The unfairness of it-it eats at your soul, Mr. Pohlmann. I started thinking, I should tell him. He would have an example, he would understand himself better if he knew.”
“So you told Gabe.”
“And it did help him,” Wanda said. “Now he knows that he comes from a good family.”
“And then Gabriel told Stefan? Or did you?” Klaus said. No, no, no. That wasn’t what they wanted to elicit, that Stefan knew! In spite of her resolve to remain impassive, Nina flinched. Jaime loved it. He shuffled papers, cleared his throat, and practically did the rhumba to make sure the jury paid special attention to the answer.
But the answer didn’t help him after all. “No one told Stefan,” Wanda said. “I swear it. Gabe promised he wouldn’t tell.”
Stefan whispered to Nina, “And I swear my mom can tell the truth when she really wants to.”
One of the new school of lawyers who prefer to save their feet, or maybe don’t think on them very well, Jaime didn’t rise from his chair for the cross-examination. Bad sign, all that relaxation. Klaus drank water, smacking his lips, his job done, well done, as far as he was concerned.
“What astounding news that would be for a person to hear-that he had two siblings and an entirely different family history. How do you know Gabriel didn’t rush off to share this information with his brother?”
“I asked him not to. I couldn’t see the point in confusing Stefan with information that wasn’t relevant to his life. And Stefan had a girlfriend. He’s not the type to keep secrets. He would tell her.” His mother didn’t even give Stefan a nod of recognition when she said these hurtful things, she just continued blithely on. “Gabe swore he wouldn’t tell Stefan. He keeps his word.”
“You considered the information not relevant, eh? Well, it’s certainly relevant today,” Jaime said.
“Objection! This is improper,” Nina said. “Not a question.” She sputtered on for a bit, hoping to soften a little of the harm he had done.
“Sustained.”
“Now, Mrs. Wyatt,” Jaime said. “Mr. Zhukovsky purchased a small annuity for the support of you and his children. Did he leave you anything else?”
“A small souvenir or two.”
“Nothing valuable?”
“No.”
“Was this all set up in his will?”
“No. The trust was set up outside the will. So Christina and Alex…”
“Right. Couldn’t let the other kids know. What did he leave them?”
“I don’t know. I never saw Kostya’s will.”
Jaime stopped to think up some new questions for which he already knew answers. He didn’t like fishing. Clearing his throat finally, he decided he had gone as far as he could safely go. “Nothing further.”
“We’ll take the morning recess,” said the judge.
Salas gave the jury a few instructions and they filed out. Wanda went out into the hall. She had shifted the trial toward a new place where both sides wanted to go, but neither knew how to get there without crashing. Jaime gestured to a trial deputy in the audience and held a quick, whispered consult. Nina nodded to Paul, who came up immediately. “Out in the hall-keep an eye on Gabe Wyatt. Don’t let him get away.”
24
AS SOON AS SALAS’S GAVEL WENT DOWN, NINA FLEW OUT THE DOOR. Sandy had left a message, so Nina called her at the Pohlmann office. “Ginger wants to talk to you. She’s driving down with some stuff to show you.”
“Okay.”
“Her ETA is about noon.”
“Tell her to meet me at the courthouse in Salinas.”
Nina went back in and whispered her worst fear to Klaus, who hadn’t budged from the counsel table. “Maybe Stef knew. He was upset at Christina, maybe because of her money from her father. Jaime can insinuate a lot when his turn comes.”
“But it doesn’t explain the hunt for Constantin’s bones,” Klaus said.
His preternatural calm struck her as discordant under the circumstances, which Nina considered dire. “I want to call Alex next. I want to handle that examination.”
“He is mine.”
“You don’t like him, Klaus. He upsets you. That won’t work.” But she saw that she had riled him again. His mood shifts were becoming a big problem. He veered so quickly into anger that she couldn’t see it coming.
“You don’t think I can control my temper? Your attitude tells me that you have as many doubts as that vexatious prosecutor. I wonder why I allowed Mr. Cunningham to hire you.”
“I thought it was you who hired me.” He had hurt her.
There was a pause, during which Klaus pursed his lips and turned his eyes upward. And just as suddenly as it had arrived, his anger departed. He laughed. “Let us join our prodigious forces to get this lying bastard. You may take the lead, but not because I cannot.”
“Thank you, Klaus. So-how do we stop the lies?”
“Don’t try to intimidate him. That makes him stubborn. Ingratiate yourself, and then appeal to his pride,” Klaus said. He didn’t offer any specifics on that topic, though, and by the time the session resumed Nina was reduced to scribbling more diagrams on her legal pad, not notes. Father Giorgi linked to the Zhukovskys; the Wyatt family now linked to Christina and Alex; Alex hiring Stefan; Sergey Krilov linked to Christina; and on top, hanging over them all like a confounding angel, Constantin Zhukovsky. What links did they still not know?
“Call Professor Alex Zhukovsky,” Nina said. The professor was brought in, puffing as though he had just arrived, told he was still under oath, and asked to state his name again.
“Alexis Constantinovich Zhukovsky.”
Klaus gave a great start in the seat next to her. He half rose, his chair falling over behind him, clutching at his chest, trying to speak, his eyes wide and staring.
“Klaus!” Nina cried, half supporting him. The bailiff rushed over and Salas said, “Call nine-one-one,” to his clerk.
“No!” Klaus cried in that silly high old man’s voice that had so disconcerted her in the hall before court. “I am fine, no problem.” The bailiff picked up his chair and Klaus toppled into it. “No problem,” he repeated, waving the bailiff away. He noticed the people from the audience standing, craning their heads, and said, “No show today.” The jury sat back in their chairs and shook their heads.
“Are you sure you can continue, Mr. Pohlmann?”
“Quite sure, Your Honor.” Klaus began to smile, but it still looked like a toss-up as to whether a hearty laugh or unconsciousness would follow. He fanned himself vigorously with a file. “Miss Reilly will examine the next witness.” He leaned over to Nina and whispered, “Listen carefully: European boys are often given the name of their grandfather.”
Nina nodded. She had no idea what he was talking about. His breathing returned to normal and his color was restored, but an impish smile stayed pasted to his face.
She stood up, wet her lips, and said, “Good morning, Professor.”
“For you, perhaps.”
Now, that was not a good beginning, but it told her what she wanted to know, that Alex Zhukovsky knew what had been going on in the courtroom. “Have you engaged in a recent conversation with Wanda Wyatt this morning?”
