The Lincoln Lawyer

“I was.”

“If you looked for no other explanation because you believed the word of Ms. Campo, is it safe to say that this whole case relies upon her word and what she said occurred in her apartment on the night of March sixth?”

Booker deliberated a moment. He knew I was leading him into a trap of his own words. As the saying goes, there is no trap so deadly as the one you set for yourself.

“It’s not just her word,” he said after thinking he saw a way out. “There is physical evidence. The knife. Her injuries. More than just her word on this.”

He nodded affirmatively.

“But doesn’t the state’s explanation for her injuries and the other evidence begin with her telling of what happened?”

“You could say that, yes,” he said reluctantly.

“She is the tree on which all of these fruits grow, is she not?”

“I probably wouldn’t use those words.”

“Then what words would you use, Detective?”

I had him now. Booker was literally squirming in his seat. Minton stood up and objected, saying I was badgering the witness. It must have been something he had seen on TV or in a movie. He was told to sit down by the judge.

“You can answer the question, Detective,” the judge said.

“What was the question?” Booker asked, trying to buy some time.

“You disagreed with me when I characterized Ms. Campo as the tree from which all the evidence in the case grows,” I said. “If I am wrong, how would you describe her position in this case?”

Booker raised his hands in a quick gesture of surrender.

“She’s the victim! Of course she’s important because she told us what happened. We have to rely on her to set the course of the investigation.”

“You rely on her for quite a bit in this case, don’t you? Victim and chief witness against the defendant, correct?”

“That’s right.”

“Who else saw the defendant attack Ms. Campo?”

“Nobody else.”

I nodded, to underline the answer for the jury. I looked over and exchanged eye contact with those in the front row.

“Okay, Detective,” I said. “I want to ask you about Charles Talbot now. How did you find out about this man?”

“Uh, the prosecutor, Mr. Minton, told me to find him.”

“And do you know how Mr. Minton came to know about his existence?”

“I believe you were the one who informed him. You had a videotape from a bar that showed him with the victim a couple hours before the attack.”

I knew this could be the point to introduce the video but I wanted to wait on that. I wanted the victim on the stand when I showed the tape to the jury.

“And up until that point you didn’t think it was important to find this man?”

“No, I just didn’t know about him.”

“So when you finally did know about Talbot and you located him, did you have his left hand examined to determine if he had any injuries that could have been sustained while punching someone repeatedly in the face?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Is that because you were confident in your choice of Mr. Roulet as the person who punched Regina Campo?”

“It wasn’t a choice. It was where the investigation led. I didn’t locate Charles Talbot until more than two weeks after the crime occurred.”

“So what you are saying is that if he’d had injuries, they would have been healed by then, correct?”

“I’m no expert on it but that was my thinking, yes.”

“So you never looked at his hand, did you?”

“Not specifically, no.”

“Did you question any coworkers of Mr. Talbot about whether they saw bruising or other injuries on his hand around the time of the crime?”

“No, I did not.”

“So you never really looked beyond Mr. Roulet, did you?”

“That is wrong. I come into every case with an open mind. But Roulet was there and in custody from the start. The victim identified him as her attacker. He was obviously a focus.”

“Was he a focus or the focus, Detective Booker?”

“He was both. At first he was a focus and later-after we found his initials on the weapon that had been held to Reggie Campo’s throat-he became the focus, you could say.”

“How do you know that knife was held to Ms. Campo’s throat?”

“Because she told us and she had the puncture wound to show for it.”

“Are you saying there was some sort of forensic analysis that matched the knife to the wound on her neck?”

“No, that was impossible.”

“So again we have Ms. Campo’s word that the knife was held to her throat by Mr. Roulet.”

“I had no reason to doubt her then. I have none now.”

“Now without any explanation for it, I guess you would consider the knife with the defendant’s initials on it to be a highly important piece of evidence of guilt, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes. Even with explanation, I would say. He brought that knife in there with one purpose in mind.”

“You are a mind reader, are you, Detective?”

“No, I’m a detective. And I am just saying what I think.”

“Accent on think.”

“It’s what I know from the evidence in the case.”

“I’m glad you are so confident, sir. I have no further questions at this time. I reserve the right to recall Detective Booker as a witness for the defense.”

I had no intention of calling Booker back to the stand but I thought the threat might sound good to the jury.

I returned to my seat while Minton tried to bandage up Booker on redirect. The damage was in perceptions and there wasn’t a lot that he could do with that. Booker had only been a setup man for the defense. The real damage would come later.

After Booker stepped down, the judge called for the mid-morning break. She told the jurors to be back in fifteen minutes but I knew the break would last longer. Judge Fullbright was a smoker and had already faced highly publicized administrative charges for sneaking smokes in her chambers. That meant that for her to take care of her habit and avoid further scandal, she had to take the elevator down and leave the building and stand in the entry port where the jail buses come in. I figured I had at least a half hour.

I went out into the hallway to talk to Mary Alice Windsor and work my cell phone. It looked like I would be putting on witnesses in the afternoon session.

I was first approached by Roulet, who wanted to talk about my cross-examination of Booker.

“It looked to me like it went really well for us,” he said.

“Us?”

“You know what I mean.”

“You can’t tell whether it’s gone well until you get the verdict. Now leave me alone, Louis. I have to make some calls. And where is your mother? I am probably going to need her this afternoon. Is she going to be here?”

“She had an appointment this morning but she’ll be here. Just call Cecil and he’ll bring her in.”

After he walked away Detective Booker took his place, walking up to me and pointing a finger in my face.