'To tell the truth, I am. I had some hope of winning the motion to keep out the hearsay, but the blood spatter motion was a real long shot!'
'Does this mean that the case is over? That I'm free?'
'Technically, the charges still exist. But Riker's choice is to appeal or dismiss and ...'
Garrett stopped. Bearing down on them was Lamar Hoyt, Jr.
'This isn't over, bitch!' he screamed in Crease's face. 'I'm contesting the will and I'm gonna sue you civilly for wrongful death.'
'Get away from my client,' Garrett commanded.
'Shut up, you . . .'
Suddenly, Junior was up on his toes with his left arm cranked behind his back in a hammerlock. Applying the pressure was a tall man with a swimmer's wide shoulders and narrow waist. Long black hair swept across his forehead. His blue eyes looked sleepy and his thick black mustache was shaggy. The man did not look angry and he sounded unexcited when he said, 'Come on, Junior. Let's calm down here.''
'Ah, ah,' Junior managed as the man pressed his arm toward his shoulder blade and beyond.
'I don't want to hurt you,' the man said, 'but I can't have you threatening the senator and Ms. Garrett.'
'Let go! Ah!' Junior gasped. His face was cramped with pain and Garrett thought he was going to cry.
'If I let go, will you behave?'
'Yes!'
'Okay,' the man said as he released some of the pressure on Junior's arm. 'Now, I'm taking you at your word and I'm going to let you go. When I do, I want you to head out of here as fast as your fat legs will carry you. If you're lying to me, I'll break both your arms. We on the same wavelength?'
'Yeah! Yeah! Let me go.'
The man released Junior and took a step back. Junior grabbed his shoulder and bent forward.
'On your way. Let's not dawdle,' the man said.
Junior glared, but kept his mouth shut and headed for the elevators.
'Thank you, Jack,' Ellen Crease said calmly. She had not blinked during the encounter with Junior.
'My pleasure,' the man said, flashing her a boyish smile.
Mary Garrett had noticed the man sitting in the back of the courtroom throughout the hearing. She had assumed that he was a policeman.
'Mary, this is Jack Brademas,' Crease said. 'He's the head of security at Hoyt Industries. Jack's been protecting me since I learned about the money that was paid to Martin Jablonski.'
'Pleased to meet you, Mr. Brademas.'
'Jack, please. Especially after that coup you just pulled off in court. Was Judge Quinn's ruling as good for the senator as it seemed?'
'Better,' Garrett answered. 'For all intents and purposes, this case is over.'
[3]
'Ced, this is Lou Anthony. I just got back to my desk and there was a note to call you. What happened at the hearing?'
'Quinn fucked us, Lou.'
'How?'
'He suppressed everything. The blood spatter evidence, Fargo's statements about what Hoyt told her. Everything.'
'All the evidence?' Anthony repeated as if he could not believe his ears.
'Everything he could suppress, he threw out.'
'Jesus. Where does that leave us?'
'In outer fucking space without a ship. Quinn gutted our case.'
'Can't you appeal?'
'Sure, but it would be useless. The court of appeals can reverse a judge who misinterprets the law, but Quinn based his decision to suppress the blood spatter evidence on his personal evaluation of your credibility. The court can't review that.'
'What do you mean, my credibility?'
'He said you were a liar, Lou. That's as plain as I can say it.'
'He what?'
'He said you lied under oath when you testified that you did not intentionally pressure James Allen to let you into the bedroom.'
'But I didn't. I mean, I persuaded the guy, but I never leaned on him. We just talked.''
'That may be what really happened, but Quinn put it on the record that you are a liar. The court of appeals cannot reverse a decision that rests on a judge's evaluation of the credibility of a witness, unless there is no evidence in the record to support the finding.'
'I wouldn't lie under oath. You know that.'
'I know it, Lou, but everyone who reads Quinn's opinion is going to think otherwise.'
[4]
While she was driving home, Karen Fargo caught the end of a news story about Ellen Crease's case, but she did not hear enough to let her figure out what had happened. Fargo turned on the television as soon as she walked into her house. The case was the lead story. A reporter was talking about Richard Quinn's dramatic decision while the screen showed a triumphant Ellen Crease waving to supporters from the courthouse steps.
'I want to thank all of the people who had faith in me during these dark days,' Crease told the reporters who were massed around her. 'I loved my husband. Losing him to senseless violence was a great blow, but being accused unjustly of murdering someone you love is the cruelest blow. I thank God for Judge Richard Quinn's courage.'
'Will you continue to campaign, Senator?' a reporter shouted.
Crease stared directly into the camera. Her mouth was set in a grim line. When she spoke, there was no doubting her determination.
'I have never stopped campaigning. The Republican Party should not be represented by a man who is soft on crime, for gun control and sympathetic to the liberal forces in our society that would pervert the values that have made America the greatest country on earth. I represent the true values of our party, and the voters will validate that statement in the May primary.'
The screen was suddenly filled with a picture of Benjamin Gage dressed in a tuxedo with his beautiful wife on his arm entering the Benson Hotel to attend a fund-raiser.
'Senator,' asked a reporter from Channel 6, 'what is your reaction to Judge Quinn's ruling in Ellen Crease's case?'
Gage halted. He looked serious and thoughtful.
'Ken, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on Ellen Crease's criminal case. However, I do feel that it would be ironic if Ms. Crease was to have her case dismissed on one of the technicalities that she so frequently derides in her speeches. It would also be unfortunate for the voters if the public was deprived of a clear resolution of the murder charges against Ms. Crease because of the suppression of the evidence that the State believes will prove its allegations.'
'So you do not feel that justice is being done in Senator Crease's case?'
'Now, Ken,' Gage answered with a patient smile, 'you know better than to put words in my mouth. I will leave the business of solving Lamar Hoyt's murder to the police. My job is to represent the people of Oregon in the United States Senate.'
Gage turned from the reporter and entered the hotel. The reporter made a closing comment, but Karen Fargo did not hear him. She was concentrating on the man who followed Senator Gage into the Benson. He was tall, good-looking, dressed in a tuxedo, and he had a jagged scar on his right cheek. Fargo only had a moment to study him, but he definitely looked like the man who had offered her money and a job if she would tell the police about her involvement with Lamar Hoyt. Did the man work for Senator Gage? She wondered if the film footage showing the man with the scar would be aired again at eleven. She decided to watch the late news so she could be certain about what she had seen.
The phone rang. Fargo switched off the set and picked up the receiver.
