When I got to court, he’d already taken the bench.
“Ms. Knight, I’m aware that I came out a few minutes early, but that doesn’t excuse you for being ten minutes late.”
“I’m very sorry, Your Honor. We had an unexpected…arrival at the office that delayed us. It won’t happen again.” I wasn’t about to tell him we were held up by a bunch of flowers.
“See that it doesn’t. And that goes for all of you. I won’t hesitate to impose fines. I will not have my staff or the jury waiting for attorneys. Now, speaking of juries, we should set the date for the start of jury selection. Tricia, what’s the sixty-day date?”
Terry moved quickly to the lectern. “Excuse me, Your Honor, but the defense is requesting a start date within the next three weeks.”
“Ms. Fisk, this is a life without parole case. There is a great deal of evidence, based on what I’ve seen thus far, and the juror questionnaires will take at least a week to read. Are you sure you can be ready in so short a time?”
“Absolutely, Your Honor.”
“People?” he asked.
Damn her. It’s always easier for the defense to give an early start date, because they don’t have to go first, and they don’t have to present any evidence at all. I would’ve preferred a little lead time, if only to make sure there was nothing more that could be done, but that was a luxury I’d have to forgo.
“We can do it, Your Honor. But we’re still testing evidence that was seized from the houses and cars of Mr. Averly and Mr. Powers, and we won’t have all our results in before trial starts. So as long as the defense is willing to go without having all the results, I’m fine with it.”
“She’s right, Ms. Fisk,” the judge said. “You won’t be heard to complain about not having enough time to retest or prepare for evidence that comes in during the trial if you insist on going that soon.”
“Understood,” Terry said.
“And, Your Honor, the People have filed a discovery request on the defense,” I said. “We haven’t received anything as of today.”
“Defense?” the judge asked. “You have an obligation to turn over your witness list and any evidence you intend to introduce.”
Terry stepped away and gave Wagmeister the lectern. “We’re working on it, Your Honor,” Wagmeister said. “As of this moment, we don’t know who our witnesses will be and there is no evidence to turn over.”
Defense 101. They get around the rule that requires them to turn over a witness list by not making one, and they avoid turning over witness statements by never putting anything in writing. So much for reciprocal discovery.
Terry moved back to the lectern. “I’d like to be heard on another matter.”
The judge nodded. “Proceed.”
“I’m not asking for a gag order, but I do think it’s inappropriate for the prosecution to be telling their life stories to tabloid magazines to garner sympathy with the public, and, of course, the jury pool.”
It was a sleazy low blow. But if it had to be done at all, it should be in chambers, not out in open court, where the press could eat it up.
I should’ve kept my cool, but I was too furious. “That is absolutely outrageous, Your Honor! No one on the prosecution side has spoken to any tabloid reporter. Nor would any of us tell personal stories of any kind to anyone, for any reason!”
Terry squared her shoulders and jutted her chin out. “I wonder what Andrew Chatham would say to that?”
“Enough,” the judge declared. “I will not have exchanges between the lawyers like this. Ms. Fisk, if any prosecutor makes comments about the case or any of the lawyers, you have reason to bring it to my attention. But I will not waste court time listening to complaints about the publication of someone’s life story. If Ms. Knight saw fit to share that with a reporter, it will be her problem to deal with. Not mine.” The judge fixed each of us with a stern glare. “Now, do we have any legal business to address?”
We both said there was nothing further. The judge set a pretrial date to discuss jury questionnaires and set the trial date three weeks out.
I said nothing until Declan and I were back in my office with the door closed.
“That friggin’ sleaze!” I said as I swatted a flower out of the way and sat down. “And that nasty little shit Chatham!”
“You said he didn’t write the article about you, though.”
“His name wasn’t on it, but he must’ve told Terry he ‘talked’ to me-”
“But all you said was ‘No comment.’”
“He didn’t have to tell her that-”
A knock on the door interrupted my flow.
“Rachel? You need to come out here.”
It was Melia. I nodded to Declan and he opened the door.
“What is it, Melia?”
“You need to see this.” She gestured for us to follow and ran back down the hall toward Eric’s office.
She turned on the television. “I recorded it,” Melia said. She replayed the footage for us.
Terry was standing on the courthouse steps, encircled by reporters. “Of course the prosecution leaked that story to the Inquisitor. They know the public thinks they have no case, so they’re trying to win everyone over. This is a completely transparent ploy.”
A reporter asked excitedly, “Then you think she made the story up? That it’s all a lie?”
“No. But putting out a story like this only shows that Rachel Knight’s desperate, and she’ll stop at nothing to win this case.”
“Are you going to ask that Ms. Knight be recused?” said another reporter.
“I don’t want to waste the time. Mr. Powers is anxious for his day in court. He’s an innocent victim of an unscrupulous frame-up, and we are going to prove it!”
The news cut away to a health insurance commercial and Melia turned off the television. “That’s all there was,” she said.
It was enough.
60
The moment my office door swung closed, Declan exploded. “That woman is a classless, lying menace! Just because she’d sell stories to the tabs, she thinks everyone else is as tacky as she is. We’ve got to call a press conference. We’ve got to tell them it’s not true-”
“No.” I was just as steamed as he was, but I had experience with this kind of trash talk and knew better. “That’s just what she wants. The minute we answer this garbage, we give her exactly what she’s looking for: a sideshow that discredits the prosecution and deflects attention from her guilty client.”
“But won’t Andrew Chatham back you?”
“Who knows? And even if he did, it’ll just look like he’s protecting his source: me.”
Bright spots lit up Declan’s cheeks as he set his jaw. “I want to beat the crap out of her.” He looked at me with consternation. “I don’t know how you can be so calm about this, Rachel.” He sat down heavily and stared at the floor.
I smiled. “Truth? The first few times I got knocked around by the defense, it made me insane. Matter of fact, I once got so mad at a defense attorney, I offered to dismiss the case against his client if he’d do the time.”
“Back when you were a baby DA in Misdemeanors, right?”
“Try three years ago on a double homicide.”
Declan shook his head and we both laughed.
My cell phone played “Killer Joe.” “Bailey’s heard the news,” I told Declan.
“Frame-up?” she demanded. “Why the hell would we give a rat’s ass about this friggin’ clown?”
“In case you didn’t notice, Terry said a lot of other ridiculously stupid-”
“That garbage about you selling your story-people who’re dumb enough to buy that line aren’t going to make it on the jury anyhow. But this noise about a frame-up-”
“What makes you so sure she’s pointing the finger at us? Remember how many times we heard Russell’s people say that everyone in the industry could be a suspect? They’ve got practically a whole city’s worth of straw men they can prop up.”