least he had been, up until the time of Tannenbaum's death.
As he had with Alan Manheim, Burke began by having Smythe make it clear that he'd never had a key to either Barry's apartment or Samara's town house. Then he asked him if he'd ever had a dispute with Tannenbaum, or if Tan nenbaum had ever accused him of any wrongdoing.
MR. SMYTHE: Absolutely not. I mean, as would be the case with any two people who worked to gether on financial matters for sixteen years, we had our occasional differences of opinion as to how to do certain things. But it was never more than that. I loved Barry like a brother, and I'd like to think he felt the same way about me.
Pardon me while I vomit, thought Jaywalker. But from the look Judge Sobel shot his way, he realized he must have done more than just think it. Jaywalker's wife used to accuse him of snorting out loud whenever he wanted to register his dis approval of something but didn't want to come right out and say so. Perhaps he'd snorted just now, though he hadn't been aware of doing so. Evidently it was becoming an un conscious habit, like a tremor or a facial tic. Maybe it was the first sign of dementia, of early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
God, how he needed to get out of this racket.
Burke had Smythe describe his duties as Tannenbaum's accountant, and they were extensive-not only in their breadth, but in the depth of trust they revealed. Smythe ran his employer's personal finances far more than Manheim had. He kept track of receipts and expenditures, balanced the books and juggled half a dozen bank accounts. He enjoyed full power of attorney to sign his employer's name to leases and other contracts. When a check went out over Barry Tannenbaum's name, chances were William Smythe had actually signed it, a fact well known and condoned by all of Tannenbaum's many bankers.
Aside from his I-loved-him-like-a-brother speech, Smythe came off as a genuinely likeable witness. Unlike Manheim, he'd had no reason to fear retaliation at the hand of Barry Tannenbaum. And had he been inclined to steal any of Barry's riches, he could have done so easily enough, with the simple stroke of a pen.
On cross-examination, Jaywalker decided against at tacking Smythe and in favor of adopting him as his own witness. There remained only two names on Tom Burke's witness list, one of which Jaywalker recognized as a hand writing expert. He figured that the other one had to be someone from the company who had written the insurance policy on Barry Tannenbaum's life. It made sense that Burke would wind up his case with his evidence of motive-in other words, leaving best for last. Samara had assured Jaywalker over and over again that while she rec ognized her signature on the application and conceded that the funds for the premium appeared to have come out of her checking account, she'd known nothing of the policy until Jaywalker himself had broken the news to her.
Maybe Smythe knew something about it.
MR. JAYWALKER: Mr. Smythe, you've described how you enjoyed complete access to Barry Tannen baum's books and bank accounts. Did you have simi lar access to Samara's account?
MR. SMYTHE: In a way, albeit indirectly.
Albeit? In all his years of practice, Jaywalker had never before heard a witness utter the word. It struck him as so bizarre, in fact, that he wondered if it might not have some hidden significance. In a lesser trial, he would have chosen to play around with it a little, to see if he couldn't at very least make the witness seem patrician, removed from the real world inhabited by the jurors. But he decided to let it pass and focused instead on the other interesting word Smythe had used in his answer.
MR. JAYWALKER: What do you mean by indirectly?
MR. SMYTHE: In a technical sense, Mrs. Tannenbaum's account was held jointly with her husband. Either of them could make deposits or write checks. Although the way it turned out in practice, Mr. Tannenbaum made all the deposits, and Mrs. Tannenbaum wrote all the checks.
A ripple of knowing laughter from the jury box. Samara the freeloader, the sponger. Not a good image.
MR. JAYWALKER: So did you occasionally sign checks for Samara?
MR. SMYTHE: Yes, if you choose to look at it that way. I prefer to think that I was signing them on behalf of Mr. Tannenbaum, in order to cover some of his wife's expenses.
MR. JAYWALKER: And in the same vein, did you from time to time present Samara with documents for her to sign?
MR. SMYTHE: I did.
MR. JAYWALKER: What sorts of documents?
MR. SMYTHE: Oh, tax returns, driver's li cense renewals, health insurance claims, credit card contracts. That sort of thing.
MR. JAYWALKER: In other words, when there were agencies or entities involved who wouldn't be expected to be comfortable accepting your signature in place of hers?
MR. SMYTHE: That's a good way of looking at it.
MR. JAYWALKER: And would you characterize Samara as having been extremely diligent in reading through each of the items you presented for her sig nature, or somewhat less than extremely diligent?
MR. SMYTHE: Somewhat less.
A couple of chuckles from the jury box. Samara the airhead, the bubble-brain. Fine with Jaywalker.
MR. JAYWALKER: In fact, there were lots of times when she'd indicate in one way or another that she didn't want to be bothered and left the reading of the fine print to you. Is that fair to say?
MR. SMYTHE: Yes.
MR. JAYWALKER: And even a lot of the large print?
MR. SMYTHE: Yes, again. Except in the case of tax returns. Those I always made her read before I permitted her to sign.
MR. JAYWALKER: Because the law compels you to, right?
MR. SMYTHE: And because it's the right thing to do.
Jaywalker walked over to the prosecution table and asked for the original of the life insurance policy applica tion. It had a tag on it indicating that Burke had had it premarked as People's Exhibit 9. Jaywalker removed the tag and handed the document to the court reporter, asking her to re-mark it as a defense exhibit.
Prosecutors hate it when you do that.
MR. JAYWALKER: Mr. Smythe, I show you what's been marked Defendant's A for identification and ask you if you recognize it.
MR. SMYTHE: Yes. Mr. Burke showed it to me some time ago.
MR. JAYWALKER: And what do you recognize it as?
MR. SMYTHE: It's an application for an in surance policy on Mr. Tannenbaum's life. And it ap pears to have been signed by Mrs. Tannenbaum.
MR. JAYWALKER: And the defense stipulates that in fact it was.
THE COURT: Mr. Burke?
MR. BURKE: So stipulated.
What else could Burke do? Jaywalker had not only co-opted his second-best exhibit, a runner-up to the murder weapon itself, now he was stealing Burke's thunder by conceding that the exhibit bore Samara's signature. Out of the corner of his eye, Jaywalker could see Burke scratch ing a name off his witness list, no doubt that of the hand writing expert. Now, completing his trifecta, Jaywalker offered the document into evidence as Defendant's A. Burke could do nothing but mutter, 'No objection.'
MR. JAYWALKER: Isn't it a fact, Mr. Smythe, that Samara signed this document only because you placed it in front of her and asked her to?
MR. SMYTHE: That is absolutely not the fact.
MR. JAYWALKER: Yet you've told us that that exact thing happened rou tinely, didn't you?
MR. SMYTHE: It happened.
