My heart lurches.
“Why do you think he did that?” Livy asks.
Portman opens his hands, palms upward, as though the answer were obvious. “Leo Marston believed in the necessity of civil rights legislation. At no small risk to himself, he worked to help us enforce that. The man was a hero.”
Livy nods thoughtfully. “How did you first become aware of the charges made by Penn Cage against Leo Marston?”
“Leo contacted me in Washington by telephone on the day the charges were printed in the local newspaper. We spoke at length at that time, and several times subsequent.”
So much for the phone records. Livy’s strategy is all too clear. She plans to undercut what little documentary evidence I have before I can present it.
“What was the substance of those conversations?” she asks.
“Judge Marston expressed anxiety that this sensitive case was being dragged through the media, and that his reputation was being damaged.”
“You called the Payton case a sensitive case. Why is that?”
Portman adopts a pose of paternal concern. “I’m afraid I can only speak indirectly to this issue. As I’ve stated to the press, our file on Delano Payton is sealed on the grounds of national security interest. It has been for thirty years. Earlier this week the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to maintain the sanctity of that file.”
“Please tell us anything you can about the case.”
Portman nods agreeably. “The Payton case involved a veteran of the U.S. Army, a man who served in Vietnam. J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI director at that time, felt that the details involving this man, if released during the Vietnam conflict, might damage national morale, particularly the morale of line troops in Vietnam, where racial problems had become an issue.”
He has to be talking about Ike Ransom.
“But the Vietnam War has been over for more than twenty years,” Livy points out. “Why is the file still sealed?”
“As I said, I can’t speak as fully to this issue as I would like. I’m sorry Mr. Cage has seen fit to exploit this case in his bid for publicity or revenge, or whatever it is.”
Livy pretends to be intrigued by this aside. “Have you had experience with Mr. Cage in the past?”
“I had some dealings with him when he was an assistant district attorney in Houston, Texas. I found him to be highly partisan, and indeed an unstable sort of man for that type of job. He actually killed the brother of a man he tried for murder, and the facts of that incident were never satisfactorily explained. I think the citizens of Texas were well served when he left that job to pursue a career in which a vivid imagination is an asset, not a liability.”
I feel like throwing my pen at Portman, just to break up the rhythm. He and Livy are like tennis pros giving an exhibition match, sleek and practiced, the volleys perfectly timed, every shot a winner.
“One final question,” she says. “As one of the agents who originally investigated the Payton murder, what do you think of the allegation that Leo Marston was somehow involved in that crime?”
A superior smile touches Portman’s lips. God, he’s enjoying this. “I find the notion utterly preposterous. The fact that we are sitting here today discussing it is a travesty of justice.”
“Thank you, Mr. Director. Your witness.”
I would prefer to cross-examine Portman after I have presented my case, but I cannot let his slurs against me stand unchallenged. Nor can I be sure that Portman will even stick around Natchez after he leaves the stand. I rise but remain at my table.
“Mr. Portman, you and I were involved in a jurisdictional dispute over the extradition of a murderer from Texas to Los Angeles, California, where you were a U.S. attorney. Is that correct?”
“Broadly.”
“Where was that murderer ultimately tried and convicted?”
“Houston, Texas.”
“Thank you. You also stated that I killed the brother of a man I tried for murder. That trial ended in a conviction, did it not?”
“Yes.”
“And wasn’t the man I convicted also the subject of our jurisdictional dispute?”
“He was. But-”
“Was I charged in the shooting of his brother?”
“Not to my knowledge.”
“Your Honor, I have further questions for this witness, but I would prefer to examine him during the presentation of my case.”
Seeing Franklin gearing up to explain to me why the director of the FBI cannot be expected to sit around at my beck and call, I add, “I hope to recall Mr. Portman before the end of the day.”
Judge Franklin turns to Portman with a solicitous smile. “Will that impose an undue hardship on you, Mr. Director?”
“I can be available until the end of the day, barring an unforeseen emergency.”
“Very well. You are temporarily excused.” Franklin turns to the defense table. “Mr. Sims, does the plaintiff intend to call further witnesses?”
Blake Sims leans across Leo’s massive chest and holds a whispered conference with Livy. She listens, then shakes her head. They want this show to close as quickly as possible.
“Your Honor,” says Sims. “Reserving the right to call rebuttal witnesses, the plaintiff rests.”
Judge Franklin looks at her watch. “This phase of the trial has taken much less time than I anticipated. Let’s take a ten-minute break, and then Mr. Cage will present his defense.”
As the jurors file out, I turn and look for Caitlin. She’s sitting with my parents. She slides along the bench, then comes up to the bar behind my table. I can tell by her face that she doesn’t have good news.
“No word from Stone?”
“Nothing. I’m sorry. You’d better drag out the testimony of every witness you have.”
“I hate to do that. Juries always sense it.”
“I don’t think you have a choice.”
What a comfort. The ten-minute recess lasts about two minutes, and then I’m on my feet again, doing what I have done countless times in my life: presenting a murder case. I do not stall for time. I do not equivocate. I present it just as I’d planned.
My witnesses come and go like commentators in a documentary. Frank Jones admits he lied about being alone in the Triton parking lot; his ex-wife describes finding the soiled stockings in their car; Betty Lou tearfully places Ray Presley at the crime scene (earning points with the jury for testifying against her own interest), then describes Presley’s subsequent threats and brutal harassment; Huey Moak’s expert testimony establishes that Payton’s car was destroyed by C-4, proving the evidence “discovered” by Presley was planted; and Lester Hinson testifies that he sold C-4 to Ray Presley in April 1968. All this testimony runs like a Swiss watch.
And therein lies the problem.
Neither Blake Sims nor Livy rise once to cross-examine my witnesses. They don’t even challenge Huey Moak’s credentials. Every time I tender a witness, Sims waves his hand from the table and says, “No questions, Your Honor.” Their strategy is simple. They’ll happily let me prove Ray Presley guilty of murder. And they will probably let me draw connections between Presley and Ike Ransom, if I can. As long as I can’t link Presley or Ransom to Leo Marston, I am fulfilling the scenario painted in Sims’s opening statement. The Payton murder was a race crime, committed by a racist. In his closing argument Sims will probably laud my efforts to find justice in this terrible tragedy. But to suggest any nefarious link between such men and Leo Marston must indicate some secret malice toward Marston on my part.
My dilemma is simple. Either I begin the long, laborious task of building circumstantial links between Presley and Marston, which will last well into tomorrow and bore the jury to tears (not to mention sabotage my opportunity to cross-examine John Portman in this lifetime), or I can question Portman now, do what damage I can, and pray that Dwight Stone descends from the heavens like the deus ex machina of my dreams. Without Stone’s testimony as a fulcrum, I can’t force Portman to help my cause. But by forcing him to lie, I can set him up for a later fall on
