Yuki dabbed her lips with a napkin, kissed Cindy’s cheek, and rubbed her engagement ring with her thumb as if making a wish on Aladdin’s lamp. With Cindy’s laughter in her ears, Yuki ran out of the bar.
Chapter 53
YUKI’S WITNESS LOOKED surprised but pleased to find himself the center of attention.
“Mr. White, you own a store called Oldies But Goodies on Pierce?” she asked him.
“Yes, that’s right. On Pierce near Haight.”
“And what do you sell in your store?”
“Lots of different things. Jukeboxes. Musical instruments. Vinyl LPs. Odds and ends.”
“Do you sell guns?”
“Rarely, but yes.”
“In April of last year, did you sell a twenty-two-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun to Mr. Dennis Martin?”
“Yes. He had a license to carry. I checked it and I checked his driver’s license. It was him.”
“Your Honor,” Yuki said, “I’d like to admit this receipt, which documents the sale of a twenty-two Smith and Wesson handgun to Dennis Martin.”
Yuki handed the sales slip up to the judge, who passed it to the clerk, who showed it to Phil Hoffman.
“Any objections, Mr. Hoffman?” LaVan asked.
“None.”
“People’s exhibit number thirty is admitted into evidence,” LaVan said.
Yuki asked, “When did you contact the police, Mr. White?”
“Last week. When I saw the story about this trial in the paper. I recognized Mr. Martin’s picture.”
“Thank you, sir. Your witness,” Yuki said to opposing counsel.
Hoffman stood, walked across the well, and greeted the witness.
“Mr. White, I think you know that the serial number of the gun you sold Mr. Martin is not on the sales receipt. Did you file a transfer of registration, as required?”
“I’m not a gun dealer. I’m in the antiques business. I bought that gun as part of a box lot at an auction last year.”
“So you didn’t comply with the law?”
“Like I just said, I didn’t even know there was a gun in the box I bought for thirty bucks. I’m not a gun dealer. I work alone in the store. Man comes in, sees the gun in the case. He also bought a fountain pen. And a book on electricity from the 1920s. These things are memorabilia. I wrote up a receipt. I didn’t know I had to file anything. Look, I checked his gun license. I don’t think a lot of people with my kind of business would even have done that.”
Stephen White cast his eyes toward Yuki as if to say, “Did I just get into trouble here?”
Hoffman continued his cross-examination.
“So, to be clear, you didn’t write down the serial number of the gun you sold to Mr. Martin on the receipt. Do you have the serial number anywhere?”
“Extremely doubtful.”
“So there’s no way to know if the gun you sold Dennis Martin is the gun that killed him, isn’t that right?”
“I didn’t say I did know.”
“That’s all, Mr. White. Thank you.”
The judge folded his hands on his desk. “Redirect, Ms. Castellano?”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
Yuki opened the folder in front of her, pulled a photograph from the file, and walked toward the witness. This was going just the way she’d hoped it would.
“Mr. White. This is a picture of the murder gun, a Smith and Wesson twenty-two. Is this the type of gun you sold to Mr. Martin?”
“Yes.”
“How many of these guns did you sell in April last year?”
“I sold just the one.”
“How many twenty-two Smith and Wesson guns did you sell in the entire year?”
“I sold just the one.”
“To Mr. Dennis Martin?”
“Yes, exactly like I said. I wrote his name on that receipt.”
“Thanks, Mr. White. I’m finished, Your Honor.”
Yuki kept her expression neutral as she walked back to the prosecution table, but she was doing handsprings in her mind.
White was a very credible witness. He’d checked Dennis Martin’s gun license and driver’s license and he’d positively identified Dennis Martin from his photo. And he’d positively sold Dennis Martin a gun.
It wasn’t proof — but it was damning testimony.
Yuki waited for Stephen White to step down from the box and then called her next witness.
Chapter 54
I STOOD IN THE BACK of the packed courtroom watching Yuki interrogate level-two investigator Sharon Carothers, the CSI who had tested Candace Martin’s hands for GSR less than a half hour after Dennis Martin was gunned down.
I’d known Carothers for about four years and had worked a dozen cases with her, and I had never known her to make a mistake. She went strictly by the book but knew how to look around corners without breaking the rules.
“Ms. Carothers, are you the lead investigator on the Martin case?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Did you test Dr. Martin’s hands for gunshot residue at approximately six-forty-five on the night of September fourteenth?” Yuki asked.
“I did. The test was positive for GSR.”
A woman sitting near the wall broke into a fit of wet coughing that seemed like it would never quit. Yuki waited it out, every last sputter, then asked, “Ms. Carothers, did you ask the defendant if she fired the gun that was found on the scene?”
“Yes, I did. She said she had.”
“And what was her explanation for firing the gun?”
“She had one explanation before I tested her hands and a more detailed explanation afterward.”
“She had two explanations?” Yuki said, turning to shoot Candace Martin a look. Had that look been a gun, it would’ve gone
I was torn, both rooting for Yuki and at the same time feeling compassion and fear for Candace Martin. A lot of people I knew and respected had bet their careers on their belief that Candace Martin had killed her husband. Could they all be wrong?
Why was my gut telling me that she was innocent?
Yuki said to her witness, “Please tell us about those two explanations.”
Carothers turned unblinking eyes on the jury and said, “Before I did the test for GSR, Dr. Martin told me that an intruder shot her husband. After the test, she repeated that an intruder had shot her husband but added that
