He was an ordinary man. Physically, he was neither attractive nor repellent. If she’d met him on the street, she would have stared through him as if he didn’t exist. In other circumstances, the only way a man like that would have come into her circle was as a patient, but circumstances were different.
She was tempted. All she would have had to do was go to the door. Call to him through the speaker. Invite him into her home. She could have taken his hand and fulfilled his fantasy with a night unlike any he’d ever experienced. Sex meant nothing to her, but she knew it would have meant everything to him. For the price of giving up her body, she would have asked only one thing.
Hang the jury.
He would have done it, too.
Instead, she let him go.
Janine knew she should call Archie to have Juror #5 swiftly and quietly removed from the case, but she didn’t do that. He might yet be her salvation. She wondered if a man who was in love with her could really believe that she would shoot her husband in cold blood.
25
‘Mr. Skinner,’ Dan asked at trial when Nathan was sworn, ‘did you engage in a sexual relationship with the defendant, Janine Snow?’
‘Yes, I did.’
‘How did this affair begin?’
‘Last spring I was doing part-time night security at the hospital where Janine practices. We got to know each other. One thing led to another.’
Nathan Skinner cocked his head with a little smile, as if it were simply nature’s way that two attractive people would fall into bed together. His magnetism would be felt by the women on the jury. Stride realized that Nathan was on his best behavior. Dan had probably counseled him to keep his ego and arrogance in check.
‘How long were the two of you involved?’
‘The relationship began in May. It ended in early December.’
‘Who ended it?’ Dan asked.
‘Janine. I think Jay found out and forced her to break it off.’
Archie Gale stood up. ‘Objection — speculative.’
‘Sustained,’ Judge Edblad ruled.
‘Mr. Skinner, were you acquainted with Jay Ferris?’
‘We knew each other, but neither of us would say we were friends.’
‘Can you explain?’
Nathan sighed, as if the dispute were nothing but a rueful part of his past. ‘I used to be employed by the Duluth Police. Unfortunately, I was on a vacation in the Wisconsin Dells and got pulled over by the local cops while I was very, very drunk. It was stupid. Stupid to be driving while drunk — and stupid to say the things I did to the police. I used offensive racial language that I really regret. As I say, I was drunk.’
‘What happened next?’
‘Mr. Ferris got a tip about my arrest, which was filmed by a dashboard cam on the police vehicle. He wrote a column about it — several columns, actually — calling for my dismissal from the Duluth Police. Ultimately, I lost my job.’
‘When was this?’
‘This was back in February of last year.’
‘Do you blame Mr. Ferris for being fired?’ Dan asked.
‘Back then? Sure. I was mad at him and mad at the world. I even took a swing at him in a club a couple weeks later. I felt like he was trying to make an example of me, but you know what? He was right. I deserved it. Like I said, I was stupid.’
If Nathan was acting, Stride was impressed with his performance.
‘Was your affair with the defendant an act of revenge against Jay Ferris?’ Dan asked.
‘I guess it started that way. After a while, though, we enjoyed each other’s company. I think Janine needed someone to talk to.’
‘Objection — speculative,’ Gale interrupted.
‘Sustained.’
‘During the course of your relationship, did the defendant offer her impression of her marriage to Jay Ferris?’
‘Yes, she told me she wanted a divorce.’
‘Did she express any opinion to you about the likelihood of obtaining a divorce?’
‘She said it would never happen.’
‘How exactly did she phrase it?’
‘She said Jay wanted to own her like a slave. She said she didn’t believe she would ever be able to get away from him while he was still alive.’
Murmurs rippled through the courtroom, and Judge Edblad quieted the crowd. Dan waited.
‘Mr. Skinner, did you ever have a conversation with the defendant about guns?’ Dan asked.
‘Yes, I told her that I knew Jay owned a gun.’
‘How did you know that?’
‘When I had the altercation with Jay, he showed it to me.’
‘Did the defendant express surprise at the news that Jay owned a gun?’
‘No.’
‘Did you say anything else to her about it?’
‘Yes, I said she should be careful in case Jay found out about us.’
Stride waited for the bomb to drop and for a new wave of whispers through the courtroom. Gale, who knew exactly what was coming, waited for it, too. Stride thought he saw a ghost of a smile on Dan’s lips.
‘What did the defendant say?’ Dan asked.
‘She said maybe she should get a gun, too,’ Nathan said. ‘She asked me if I knew how she could get one off the books.’
Archie Gale stood up, well aware that he had a disaster on his hands.
‘Mr. Skinner, how much money do you make in your current job?’ Gale asked.
‘Objection — relevance,’ Dan interjected.
‘Your honor, Mr. Skinner has testified that he lost his job with the Duluth Police because of the actions of Mr. Ferris. It’s relevant to know the specific impact this had on his financial situation.’
‘The objection is overruled,’ Judge Edblad announced.
‘I make minimum wage,’ Nathan said, and some of his casual confidence seeped into bitterness. He didn’t like to be humiliated.
‘Did you lose your house to foreclosure because of your loss of income?’ Gale went on.
‘Yes.’ It was more like a hiss.
‘Do you have substantial credit card debt?’
‘I don’t know about substantial—’
‘More than fifteen thousand dollars?’
‘Yes.’
‘Is your current financial situation directly attributable to your dismissal from the Duluth Police?’
‘Yeah, I guess.’
‘So is it fair to say you hated Jay Ferris for what he did to you?’
‘I suppose so, but that was a long time ago.’
‘The economic consequences are still very real to you today, though, aren’t they?’
‘Yes.’
‘You testified that you got to know Dr. Snow because you were doing part-time security work at her hospital, is that right?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you ask to be assigned to work at St. Anne’s?’
‘I–I don’t remember.’
‘Shall I call your boss and subpoena your employment records so we can confirm it?’ Gale asked.
‘Okay. Yes, I heard about an opening there, and I asked to get it.’
‘Why?’
Nathan was silent.
‘Mr. Skinner,’ Gale went on, ‘did you go after that position with the specific goal of seducing Dr. Snow into an affair?’
‘It may have crossed my mind,’ Nathan admitted.
The body language from Janine Snow at the counsel table was eloquent. She oozed scorn. It was easy to see similar reactions on the faces of the women on the jury. For all his attractiveness, there was a dark side to Nathan Skinner.