“I’m sorry, then.” He folded his hands in his lap and looked down. “I can’t answer that question, either.”
“Zak?” Ben didn’t know what to do, what to say. In all his years he had never encountered anything like this. “Zak, this is critical. You have to answer.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t and I won’t.”
The hell with subtlety. Ben cut to the highlight of his outline. “Zak, did you plant a bomb for the purpose of killing Dwayne Gardiner?”
He did not look up. “I’m sorry. I can’t answer.”
The buzz in the courtroom was growing audible and distracting. Everyone in the gallery seemed just as mystified as Ben.
“Well, look,” Ben said, “you’re on the stand, and you’ve sworn to tell the truth. So you don’t have the option of silence. Answer the question.”
Zak shook his head. “I won’t.”
“I insist.”
“I’m sorry, no.”
Ben looked up at the bench. “Your honor?”
Judge Pickens leaned forward. He was obviously just as confused as everyone else. “Son, you’re on the witness stand. You have to answer the question.”
“I’m sorry. No disrespect intended. But I won’t answer.”
Pickens’s chest swelled. “Son, I don’t think you understood me properly. I didn’t ask you-I told you. Answer the question!”
“No. I won’t.”
“I will find you in contempt of court!”
“You can’t make me answer,” Zak said, looking away. “I’m taking the fifth.”
Judge Pickens’s lips parted. “Are you telling me,” he said finally, “that you’re taking the fifth-when your own lawyer is asking the questions?”
“That’s right. I won’t answer. Should I go?”
The buzz in the courtroom was building into a roar.
“Zak,” Ben said urgently, “this is your last chance. You must answer.”
“No.” He rose to his feet. “Can I go now?”
Judge Pickens’s mouth was still gaping. “I–I don’t-” He turned. “Madame Prosecutor, you can still attempt to cross, if you wish.”
“I don’t see the point,” Granny said. “I think it’s clear to everyone what’s happened here. Let’s just wrap the trial up and let the jury do its work. Let justice be done.”
Zak was excused from the bench. “Anything else from the defense?” Judge Pickens asked.
Ben couldn’t believe it. His entire defense consisted of a theory that fell apart, an alibi witness who had lied, and a defendant who took the fifth.
His mind raced, grasping for something, anything, that he could possibly put before the jury. But nothing came. He had played every card in his hand.
There was no point in stalling. Whether he liked it or not, he had nothing else. “No, your honor, the defense rests.”
“Very well. We’ll resume in fifteen minutes for closing arguments.” Pickens banged his gavel, and the courtroom went into an uproar.
Ben was still at the podium trying to make some sense of what had happened. Everyone in the courtroom seemed befuddled-judge, jury, spectators.
Everyone except the prosecutor. She didn’t seem particularly confused, Ben noted. And she had rattled off that little speech about justice like a pro. Almost like it had been rehearsed.
Zak was off the bench and had returned to defendant’s table. “Zak,” Ben said, “I want to talk to you!”
Zak wouldn’t look at him. “I don’t want to talk to you. Deputy?” He motioned for his escort. “Take me back to my cell.”
“
He ignored Ben. The deputy hauled Zak toward the back door, leaving Ben in his wake.
Ben stood in the courtroom feeling utterly lost. What the hell was going on here?
He felt someone brush against his shoulder. It was Christina. “Do you understand what just happened?”
“No,” Ben said grimly. “But I know what the result will be.”
Chapter 66
Granny spent almost an hour systematically reminding the jury of the enormous body of evidence pointing toward George Zakin. The fingerprints. The footprints. The eyewitness testimony. Zak’s history with explosives. The personal grudge between victim and accused. The threat made just before the murder.
And she also pointed out that Zak had lied-that he had initially denied knowing Gardiner, denied planting the bomb. That he had bragged about the murder to a fellow prisoner. That he had put a former lover on the stand to lie for him. And even though she didn’t specifically mention it, no juror could possibly forget Zak taking the fifth, refusing to talk to his own lawyer. “With all the evidence that’s before you,” Granny argued, “can you honestly say that there is any reasonable doubt about what happened? We all know what happened. Let justice be done. Find George Zakin guilty of murder in the first degree.”
When it was his turn, Ben wasn’t sure what to say. He did his best to conjure up some wisp of reasonable doubt, but he had the strong sense that no one was buying it. Molly’s testimony had been a hard blow for the defense, but Zak’s performance had created a barrier he just couldn’t get around. How could he explain it? He didn’t understand it himself. All he could do was avoid the subject. And there were few things more pathetic than a closing argument that avoids the subject weighing most heavily on the jurors’ minds.
When arguments were completed, Judge Pickens reviewed the lengthy jury instructions. He dismissed the jurors, but instructed them to be back in the courtroom at nine to begin deliberations.
Nine A.M., Ben thought. We’ll have the bad news before lunch.
Ben left the courtroom feeling more depressed than he ever recalled feeling in his life. Despite everything, his gut still told him Zak had not committed this murder. So why was he so determined to be convicted for it?
Ben parted with Christina. There was no more work to do; best that they both had some quiet time to brace themselves for the disaster that was surely coming.
Outside his hotel, on the street, Ben saw Maureen. She appeared to be waiting for him. “Hiya, Mo. How are you?”
“Stiff as a board,” she answered. “I’ve spent the day with my arms stuffed in concrete barrels.”
“What, still? After what happened to Doc?”
“We have no choice.” Ben peered into her red, tired eyes. “It’s not like I wanted to. But those damn loggers are still trying to get into the forest. They weren’t taking a holiday to mourn Doc’s death. So we couldn’t either.” She turned slightly. “You can’t believe the day I’ve had.”
Ben almost smiled. “This hasn’t exactly been a red-letter day for me, either.”
“Trial didn’t go well?”
Ben averted his eyes. “I’m afraid it … it doesn’t look too good for Zak at this point.”
“Oh,” she said, barely audibly.
“I’m sorry I don’t have better news for you.”
“The whole group seems to be falling apart. Despite everything, our effort is failing. I can feel it. And I’m worried about Al.”
“Al? What’s wrong with him?”
“It’s Doc. Al was right there when it happened, you know. Right beside him. Al’s been uptight since the kidnapping, the whipping …” She shook her head. “But now he’s over the brink. It’s like something snapped inside him. I was chained to his barrel today, so I got to hear him rant for hours.”
“What was he saying?”
