'Whadaya doing, Jake, just throwing shit on the barn door, seeing what'll stick?'
'Your breakfast conversation is most appetizing.'
I didn't know where he was heading. He drained the coffee, and the waiter materialized silently with more from a silver pot. At the next table Fat Benny was offering the commissioner preferred stock in a cable television franchise.
'Just thought you should know,' Socolow said, 'I been at the morgue all night with MacKenzie…'
'The way you look, you're lucky they let you out.'
He ignored me. 'We got two stiffs out of surgery yesterday. Both had succinylcholine IVs as part of the anesthesia, and guess what?'
I didn't have to guess. No traces of succinic acid or choline. I figured Socolow would bust his balls to recoup after MacKenzie's debacle. Just didn't think he could do it so fast. Now I pictured him dashing from hospital to hospital, praying for patients to die in the OR, maybe pulling the plug in the ICU.
'As a personal favor, in a spirit of fairness,' he went on, 'I'll tell you about my rebuttal witness, an internal medicine guy. Feingold, head of the department at Jackson. He says a karate chop can't bust the aorta. No way. Too much padding in the abdomen, what with the fat and the stomach and all those organs.'
'Kind of you to share your strategy with me, Abe. But we both know you can get Irv Feingold to say anything. I been around the rosy with him in two malpractice cases. Now, you didn't bring me here to talk about how strong your case is. What's up?'
He squinted at me through tired eyes. I smeared a large glob of butter on a heated cinnamon roll. Nearby, Fat Benny was extolling the virtues of a garbage compacting plant located upstream of a drinking well field.
'Jake, you know I'm fair. Tough, sure. But fair.'
'Uh-huh,' I mumbled. No use insulting him. If he had an offer, I would listen. Then I could insult him.
'We may have overcharged Salisbury,' he said softly.
'Go on,' I said.
'You know how juries are. Anything can happen. Hell, they can come back with Murder One and recommend death. Puts Crane in a tough spot.'
'To say nothing of my client.'
'Or they could compromise and recommend life.'
'Yeah, and they could come back with a big fat NG.'
He shook his head. 'I'm not going to argue with you, Jake. Here it is. He pleads now to Murder Two, we agree to ten years. He'll be out in thirty-nine months.'
It didn't take long to think about it. 'No deal. A felony conviction, he loses his ticket to practice. Besides, he's not guilty. I won't plead him to jaywalking.'
Socolow's jaw muscles tightened. 'Jake, you're between the dog and the fire hydrant. If it's Murder One, even if no-go on death, it's twenty-five years minimum mandatory, you know that.'
I knew that. And I knew that Abe Socolow was right about juries. You can never tell. I would tell Roger about the plea offer and let him decide. But I knew his answer. Ididn't kill Philip Corrigan! It was still ringing in my ears.
'Sorry, Abe. Just dismiss the case and go away. If not, we'll take a verdict from the jury box.'
'I'll see you in court,' he hissed.
'In about thirty minutes,' I said.
'The state calls Mr. Sergio Machado-Alvarez.'
Now there was a surprise, Socolow trying to catch me off guard. Bringing the Karate King in now, figuring we hadn't had much time to work on the karate chop angle. Figuring right.
Socolow's direct examination was brief, first describing Sergio's job as the family's driver and boat captain. Brought Mrs. Corrigan to the hospital the night of October 14 to check on her husband. Clever. Blunt the jury's surprise when I show he was there shortly before the fatal aneurysm.
Sergio went through it matter-of-factly. Mr. Corrigan was fine when they saw him, sleeping peacefully. No, he never saw the doctor in the room, must have come by later. Such a shame, que lastima, the boss dead, a good man. Then he corroborated Melanie's testimony about being attacked by Roger after the malpractice trial. Pulling up on his chopper in front of the Corrigan home, he saw the defendant, tires screaming, tearing out of Gables Estates. The senora showed him the beginning of a bruise under the eye. She was wailing that the doc struck her.
'Objection, hearsay,' I sang out. 'Move to strike.'
'Denied,' the judge declared firmly, pleased he could handle that one solo. 'Excited utterance exception to the hearsay rule.'
Socolow went on. 'Did you ever speak to the defendant about this assault?'
'Nunca. I wouldn't say nothing to him. I told the senora, I mess him up she want. She says, no. She too kind.'
'Did the defendant ever say anything to you about Mr. Corrigan when he was still alive?'
'Si. He tell me Mr. Corrigan not pay enough attention to his wife, he lose her, one way or another.'
'Your witness,' Abe Socolow said.
I stood up and moved close to the witness stand. I kept my back to the jury and gave Sergio my best mean- and-nasty look. If we were playing poker, he saw my mean-and-nasty and raised it to cruel-and-vicious. Good. Let the jury see a hard guy up close. Too bad he was wearing a suit, covering up those slabs of muscle and malice. His shirt collar was buttoned too tight, and he kept craning his neck toward the ceiling and pulling at the collar as if to let out the steam.
'Mr. Machado, have you ever been convicted of a crime?'
He shrugged his rhinoceros torso. 'No big deal.'
'May we assume that's a yes?'
'Si, sure. A crime, if you want to call it that.'
'What do you call possession of illegal drugs?'
He snorted a little laugh. 'Steroids, man. Solamente steroids. Possession without a prescription. Everybody I know does steroids.'
'I'm sure they do. But you were convicted, were you not?'
'Yeah, sure. But I got no joo-dification.'
'How's that?'
'My first offense. They didn't joo-dify me.'
'The court withheld adjudication?'
'Si, what I say, I got probation. I got the half-a-david with me.'
He had lost me. He drew a crumpled legal-size paper from his back pocket, and sure enough, there was an affidavit from the clerk of the criminal court attesting that one Sergio Machado-Alvarez had been placed on probation, adjudication withheld.
Socolow was reading it over my shoulder. 'Objection! This is not proper impeachment. That's not a conviction under Section ninety point six-ten. Move to strike.'
The son-of-a-gun knew his statute numbers. And he was right. You can attack the credibility of a witness by showing a prior criminal conviction, but without an adjudication of guilt, it doesn't count.
I treaded water. 'Your Honor, this is not, strictly speaking, impeachment of credibility. Mr. Machado's familiarity with the implements of steroid abuse has a direct bearing on the guilt or innocence of Dr. Salisbury.'
'Tie it up quickly, Mr. Lassiter,' Judge Crane ordered, turning his profile to the television camera.
I moved even closer to the witness stand. 'You freely acknowledge being a user of anabolic steroids, do you not?'
'Sure, makes me big.'
'And smart, too,' I cracked, trying to rile him.
Abe Socolow was having none of it. 'Your Honor, please admonish Mr. Lassiter not to be argumentative.'
'All right, both of you. Let's get on with it.'
I walked to the rear of the jury box. Let them focus on Sergio, forget about me. 'How long have you used steroids?'
