Silence followed Marcus back to his seat. He endured the congratulatory pats from Charlie and Alma, though their hands burned like branding irons. He could not face the jury, not until Logan had approached the podium and demanded their attention.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I am sorry we are here. Sorry we have taken your time and the court’s time. Sorry we have dragged us all through this charade for the sake of a lost and forlorn cause. The plaintiff’s lawyer has constructed the worst possible kind of case. He has played upon the emotions of two distraught parents and tied us all up with cords of convoluted lies, creating knots of empty half-truths.
“A good case is like a jigsaw puzzle. When things go right, the plaintiff’s lawyer should stand up in the beginning and tell us how the puzzle will look at the end. Then we should watch the pieces being set in place, one by one, as the witnesses are presented. Afterward, in what’s called the summation or closing argument, the plaintiff should be able to describe the finished scene.
“Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this has not happened in our case. The puzzle is not complete. The picture is blurred, distorted. The pieces of evidence are mismatched. In fact, I would go so far as to say that we have not arrived at what could be called a real picture at all.
“Let’s begin here by listing some of the words we’ve heard the plaintiff’s attorney bandy about.” He lifted a printed board and set it on the easel by the lectern. “All right. There was the word document. You remember how the lawyer sitting over there used it? He said he would present documentary evidence. That’s our second word printed right here, see it? Evidence. Then the third word, an accusation of collusion. It gets worse, because then comes the word abuse, and after that prisoners of conscience. And finally there was the word he used to describe the missing woman. Remember that one? Upstanding. That’s what he said.”
Logan left the board and turned his full attention to the jury box. “Now let’s take a moment and remember what the experts said about all this so-called evidence. If you’re going to look anywhere to decide whether or not there really is any culpability, wouldn’t you look to the experts? Of course you would. And what did the experts tell you? That there was no substantive evidence that pointed to New Horizons’ being directly involved. None.”
He used his silver pen like a wand, punching the air, prodding the jury to pay attention and believe him. Above all, believe him. “Most importantly, we have the woman herself. Someone who has gone out of her way to look for trouble. She has made a profession of standing in harm’s way. She protested continuously. She disliked the Chinese government. Why? Who knows? Whatever the reason, we know for certain that Gloria Hall went looking for trouble. Sadly, she probably found it. Is that my clients’ fault? No!
“What the plaintiff’s lawyer has failed to prove is how New Horizons’ business relationship with a Chinese factory could be tied in any way to such nasty words as collusion and prisoners of conscience. Let me remind you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, that New Horizons Incorporated runs ninety different operations, more than two dozen of them overseas, employing over thirty-seven thousand employees in nineteen different countries.” Instantly he held up his hand. “Not that this issue is minor. Not at all. The possibility that Gloria Hall might be missing is terrible. We all hurt for her and for her parents. But ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the opposing counsel has not offered a shred of concrete evidence to tie New Horizons to Gloria’s Hall disappearance. Can anyone tell me why these companies would endanger such a lucrative operation by kidnapping a visiting student? Where is the motive?” He paused a moment, then jerked his shoulders in a humorless laugh. “Does this entire supposition seem as ludicrous to you as it does to me?”
Logan left the podium and began a tight little victory parade before the jury box. “Up to this point, our trial has not been about seeking truth at all. Instead, we have watched as the plaintiff has taken an upstanding North Carolina firm, one that employs four thousand people right here in this great state. A company that is in the process of expanding their operations and adding another two thousand employees. A company that supplies more eastern North Carolina families with incomes than almost any other firm. And how do we thank them? By sitting here and watching the plaintiff’s lawyer smear their name in the dirt. By tarring and feathering the senior executives. Is this the way we treat our corporate citizens? Threatening them with baseless slurs on their reputation?
“This has been a wet-spaghetti kind of lawsuit, the crudest kind of case. A wet-spaghetti suit is one where you take whatever you can get your hands on and toss it at the ceiling. Whatever sticks makes up the plaintiff’s case. What doesn’t, well, who loses? Who pays? The answer, I am sorry to say, is a lot of people. In this case, those who are injured are my clients. A fine North Carolina company that has never had any dealings with this Chinese group-”
Marcus was on his feet. “Objection, Your Honor. This is in direct opposition to the defense’s prior judicial admission.”
“Sustained.”
But the silver pen was already out and weaving its spell before the judge had spoken. “Yes. All right. Let me rephrase that. The judicial admission has shown that there was some commercial relationship. But what we have also shown is that these relations were nothing like what the plaintiff has claimed. You see how a wet-spaghetti lawsuit works? They claim this. We show that it is something else entirely. They say, But wait, if the one is true, then the other is as well. Do you see? Of course you do. Yes, the judicial admission was that New Horizons had some relation to Factory 101. Yes. But we have not seen any evidence whatsoever that ties the North Carolina firm to responsibility for the acts that have brought us all together. Let us be perfectly clear about that, ladies and gentlemen: New Horizons is on trial here for the disappearance of Gloria Hall in China. And for that there is no evidence. None.”
He used both arms to fight the air, since Marcus was too far away to be grappled with personally. “Wrap this up in the personal tragedy of the plaintiff’s lawyer, who is desperately trying to jump-start his own life, and what do you have? A mess that should never have entered this courtroom. You remember what I said before introducing my own witnesses, ladies and gentlemen of the jury? I said we would go after the truth. And the truth is that the plaintiff’s lawyer has failed on all counts. There are neither credible witnesses nor physical evidence tying New Horizons to any wrongdoing. This is a political matter that belongs in the diplomatic realm. And we have an opportunistic lawyer at the helm of a ship headed toward destruction.”
Logan dropped his arms, patted the sides of the podium, gathered himself for the final blow. “The last point I want to leave you with are the words from our very own United States Attorney General. This incredibly powerful and busy woman came here of her own volition to speak with us, simply because she found this trial so vital to our country’s interests. She said something very important, and I want to draw your attention to this. She said this trial was a mistake from the beginning.” He leaned across the podium, his entire body clenched with the purpose of driving home the point. “I commend this expert intelligence to you. I ask that you consider this very seriously. The Attorney General could not have been any more definite or direct when she told us that this case should never have come to trial.” He nodded his conclusion. “Let’s wrap this up, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Let’s shut this circus down and allow all of us to return to the real world. Thank you for your time and for your patience with this miserable excuse of a trial.”