“Let me go down to my office and see what I can do.”
“I don’t trust you, Minton.”
“Well, if you want what’s best for your client instead of a cheap headline, you’re going to have to trust me for ten minutes.”
I looked away from his face and acted like I was considering the offer. Finally, I looked back at him. Our faces were only two feet apart.
“You know, Minton, I could’ve put up with all your bullshit. The knife and the arrogance and everything else. I’m a pro and I have to live with that shit from prosecutors every day of my life. But when you tried to put Corliss on Maggie McPherson in there, that’s when I decided not to show you any mercy.”
“Look, I did nothing to intentionally -”
“Minton, look around. There’s nobody here but us. No cameras, no tape, no witnesses. Are you going to stand there and tell me you never heard of Corliss until a staff meeting yesterday?”
He responded by pointing an angry finger in my face.
“And you’re going to stand there and tell me you never heard of him until this morning?”
We stared at each other for a long moment.
“I may be green but I’m not stupid,” he said. “The strategy of your whole case was to push me toward using Corliss. You knew all along what you could do with him. And you probably got it from your ex.”
“If you can prove that, then prove it,” I said.
“Oh, don’t worry, I could… if I had the time. But all I’ve got is a half hour.”
I slowly raised my arm and checked my watch.
“More like twenty-six minutes.”
“Give me your cell number.”
I did and then he was gone. I waited in the vestibule for fifteen seconds before stepping through the door. Roulet was standing close to the glass wall that looked down at the plaza below. His mother and C. C. Dobbs were sitting on a bench against the opposite wall. Further down the hallway I saw Detective Sobel lingering in the hallway.
Roulet noticed me and started walking quickly toward me. Soon his mother and Dobbs followed.
“What’s going on?” Roulet asked first.
I waited until they were all gathered close to me before answering.
“I think it’s all about to blow up.”
“What do you mean?” Dobbs asked.
“The judge is considering a directed verdict. We’ll know pretty soon.”
“What is a directed verdict?” Mary Windsor asked.
“It’s when the judge takes it out of the jury’s hands and issues a verdict of acquittal. She’s hot because she says Minton engaged in misconduct with Corliss and some other things.”
“Can she do that? Just acquit him.”
“She’s the judge. She can do what she wants.”
“Oh my God!”
Windsor brought one hand to her mouth and looked like she might burst into tears.
“I said she is considering it,” I cautioned. “It doesn’t mean it will happen. But she did offer me a mistrial already and I turned that down flat.”
“You turned it down?” Dobbs yelped. “Why on earth did you do that?”
“Because it’s meaningless. The state could come right back and try Louis again-this time with a better case because they’ll know our moves. Forget the mistrial. We’re not going to educate the prosecution. We want something with no comebacks or we ride with this jury to a verdict today. Even if it goes against us we have solid grounds for appeal.”
“Isn’t that a decision for Louis to make?” Dobbs asked. “After all, he’s -”
“Cecil, shut up,” Windsor snapped. “Just shut up and stop second-guessing everything this man does for Louis. He’s right. We’re not going through this again!”
Dobbs looked like he had been slapped by her. He seemed to shrink back from the huddle. I looked at Mary Windsor and saw a different face. It was the face of the woman who had started a business from scratch and had taken it to the top. I also looked at Dobbs differently, realizing that he had probably been whispering sweet negatives about me in her ear all along.
I let it go and focused on what was at hand.
“There’s only one thing the DA’s office hates worse than losing a verdict,” I said. “That’s getting embarrassed by a judge with a directed verdict, especially after a finding of prosecutorial misconduct. Minton went down to talk to his boss and he’s a guy who is very political and always has his finger in the wind. We might know something in a few minutes.”
Roulet was directly in front of me. I looked over his shoulder to see that Sobel was still standing in the hallway. She was talking on a cell phone.
“Listen,” I said. “All of you just sit tight. If I don’t hear from the DA, then we go back into court in twenty minutes to see what the judge wants to do. So stay close. If you will excuse me, I’m going to go to the restroom.”
I stepped away from them and walked down the hallway toward Sobel. But Roulet broke away from his mother and her lawyer and caught up to me. He grabbed me by the arm to stop me.
“I still want to know how Corliss got that shit he was saying,” he demanded.
“What does it matter? It’s working for us. That’s what matters.”
Roulet brought his face in close to mine.
“The guy calls me a murderer on the stand. How is that working for us?”
“Because no one believed him. And that’s why the judge is so pissed, because they used a professional liar to get up there on the stand and say the worst things about you. To put that in front of the jury and then have the guy revealed as a liar, that’s the misconduct. Don’t you see? I had to heighten the stakes. It was the only way to push the judge into pushing the prosecution. I am doing exactly what you wanted me to do, Louis. I’m getting you off.”
I studied him as he computed this.
“So let it go,” I said. “Go back to your mother and Dobbs and let me go take a piss.”
He shook his head.
“No, I’m not going to let it go, Mick.”
He poked a finger into my chest.
“Something else is going on here, Mick, and I don’t like it. You have to remember something. I have your gun. And you have a daughter. You have to -”
I closed my hand over his hand and finger and pushed it away from my chest.
“Don’t you ever threaten my family,” I said with a controlled but angry voice. “You want to come at me, fine, then come at me and let’s do it. But if you
He slowly nodded and a smile creased his face.
“Sure, Mick. Just so we understand each other.”
I released his hand and left him there. I started walking toward the end of the hallway where the restrooms were and where Sobel seemed to be waiting while talking on a cell. I was walking blind, my thoughts of the threat to my daughter crowding my vision. But as I got close to Sobel I shook it off. She ended her call when I got there.
“Detective Sobel,” I said.
“Mr. Haller,” she said.
“Can I ask why you are here? Are you going to arrest me?”
“I’m here because you invited me, remember?”
“Uh, no, I don’t.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“You told me I ought to check out your trial.”
I suddenly realized she was referring to the awkward conversation in my home office during the search of my
