The Beach House

Chapter 56

I WAS ABOUT TO FIND OUT. The inquiry into my brother's death was held in the gymnasium of the Montauk Middle School. They couldn't have picked a worse spot. For years Peter and I used to play Sunday pickup games there. Every Sunday. Walking to my seat with Mack, I could still hear the deep smack of basketballs echoing off the whitewashed cinder block.

As I took a seat, I remembered the very first weekend we ever snuck inside the gym as kids. Fenton got hold of a key, and after stashing our bikes in the woods, we crowded around him as he slipped it into the lock. Miraculously, it fit. We stepped through the small side door into the hushed, voluminous darkness more awed than if we'd just snuck into St. Patrick's Cathedral. Hank found the switch, and the entire trespassed interior, with its gleaming hardwood floor and white fiberglass backboards, lit up like a Technicolor dream.

On the morning of the inquest, at least two hundred folding chairs were set up in long rows across the court. The people who sat in them had all been there before, as either graduating students or proud parents, or both.

Marci had saved Mack and me the last two seats in the front row. I looked around and saw Fenton and Molly, Hank and his wife, an incredible number of friends from town. But not poor Sammy Giamalva, of course. We didn't have to wait very long for the action to begin.

'Hear ye! Hear ye!' proclaimed the bailiff who had driven up that morning from Riverhead. 'All persons having business before the Supreme Court of Suffolk County, please give your attention to the Honorable Judge Robert P. Lillian.'

In his stark black robe, the judge looked like a commencement-day speaker. He entered the gym from the small cafeteria directly behind it and took his elevated seat. Spectatorwise, it may have been a local crowd, but at the business end, the manpower balance tilted heavily in the opposite direction. Sitting shoulder to shoulder at a long, thin table facing the judge were three Nelson, Goodwin and Mickel senior partners, led by none other than Bill Montrose. Sitting behind them, like proud sons, were three of the firm's most promising associates.

At the opposing table sat twenty-four-year-old assistant district attorney Nadia Alper. And four empty chairs. Alper sucked at a jumbo Coke and jotted notes on a yellow pad.

'She doesn't even have a cut man,' observed Mack.

Lillian, a short, sturdy man in his late fifties, informed us from his judicial pulpit that although there was no defendant, the daylong inquest would proceed like a juryless trial. Witnesses would be called to testify under oath; limited cross-examination would be permitted as he deemed relevant. In other words, he was God.

Lillian turned the floor over to Neubauer's legal team, and Montrose summoned one Tricia Powell, a blowsy, dark-haired woman in her twenties.

I had never seen Powell before, and wondered where she fit in.

With Montrose's guidance, Tricia Powell testified that she had been a guest at the Neubauers' Memorial Day weekend party. Near the end of the evening she had strolled down to the water.

'See anyone on your walk?' questioned Montrose.

'Not until I got to the beach,' said Powell. 'That's when I saw Peter Mullen.'

I flinched in my seat. This was the first indication in two months that anyone had seen Peter after his dinner break. It sent a ripple of whispers through the gym.

'What was he doing when you saw him?' asked Montrose.

'Staring into the waves,' said Powell. 'He looked sad.'

'Did you know who he was?'

'No, but I recognized him as the man who had parked my car. Then, of course, I saw his picture in the paper.'

'What happened that night? Tell us exactly what you saw.'

'I smoked a cigarette and started to head back. But as I did, I heard a splash and turned to see Peter Mullen swimming through the waves.'

'Did that strike you as unusual?'

'Oh, absolutely. Not only because of the size of the waves, but also how cold the water was. I had stuck my toe in and was shocked.'

So was I. This woman, whoever she was, was lying her ass off. I leaned toward Nadia Alper and whispered a quick message.

When Montrose finished, Alper got up to question Powell.

'How is it that you know Barry Neubauer?' she asked.

'We're colleagues,' she said, cool as could be. I wanted to go up there and slap her.

'You're also in the toy business, Ms. Powell?'

'I work in the Promotions Department at Mayflower Enterprises.'

'In other words, you work for Barry Neubauer.'

'I like to think we're friends, too.'

'I'm sure you will be now,' said Nadia Alper.

The derisive laughter in the gym was cut off by a sharp reprimand from Lillian. 'I trust, Ms. Alper, that I will not have to ask you again to refrain from editorial asides.'

She turned back to the witness. 'I have a list here of everyone who was invited to the party that evening. Your name isn't on that list, Ms. Powell. Any idea why?'

'I met Mr. Neubauer at a meeting a couple of days before. He was kind enough to invite me.'

'I see, and what time did you arrive?' asked Nadia.

'Unfashionably early, I confess. Seven o'clock, maybe five after at the latest. With all the celebrities, I didn't want to miss a minute.'

'And it was Peter Mullen who parked your car?'

'Yes.'

'You're absolutely positive, Ms. Powell?'

'Positive. He was… memorable.'

Alper went to her desk, grabbed a folder, and approached the bench. 'I would like to submit to the court written statements from three of Peter Mullen's coworkers that evening. They state that the deceased got to work at least forty minutes late. Therefore, it was impossible for him to have parked Ms. Powell's or anyone else's car before seven-forty.'

The crowd stirred again. The whispers got louder. People were clearly angry. 'Do you have any explanation for this discrepancy, Ms. Powell?' asked the judge.

'I thought he parked my car, Your Honor. I suppose it's possible I saw him at some other point in the party. He was very good looking. Maybe that's why his face stuck out in my mind.'

There was so much commotion as Nadia Alper returned to her seat that Lillian had to bang his gavel and ask for quiet again.

'Alper's got some brass,' said Mack in my ear. 'I'd score that round a draw.'

Chapter 57

THIS WAS EXCRUCIATING.

I wanted to be the one handling the cross-examination, objecting to Bill Montrose's every sentence, his blase attitude, even his goddamned blue cashmere blazer and gunmetal gray slacks. He looked as though he was on his way to the Bath Tennis Club as soon as this trifling matter was finished.

Montrose's next witness was Dr. Ishier Jacobson, who had quit his position as Los Angeles County coroner a decade ago when he realized he could do five times as well as an expert witness.

'Dr. Jacobson, how long did you serve as chief pathologist at Cook Claremont Hospital in Los Angeles?'

'Twenty-one years, sir.'