“These are my observations.”
“These are your fantasies.”
“Objection!”
“Let’s move on.” Judge Brock obviously didn’t like to rule on things because inaction cut down on points to appeal.
“And now we move on to your fourth and final factor. Put that slide up, please. Okay, we have a little angularity on two of the letters, on the lower loops, right before they start to loop upward.”
“Where the forger wanted to stop.”
“You certainly are deep into the mind of this mythical forger, aren’t-”
“Objection!”
“Move on.”
“I’d like a ruling.”
“Sustained.” That’s more like it, Nina thought. At least a tiny semblance of real law practice endured.
“So the forger wanted to stop? To just make a straight line instead of a lower loop?”
“Correct. That is demonstrated by this stoppage, this angle here, for example.”
Nolan smiled. “It was hard for this speculative person to duplicate the evidence of Ms. Reilly’s huge appetite for life, her sexual vigor?”
“Objection!” Jack roared.
“She’s the one reading palms,” Nolan said.
“Counsel, restrain yourself,” Judge Brock said, his voice as affectless as ever, still attempting to demonstrate that he was a mere shell of a man, a nonpartisan vehicle for justice, in contrast to Nolan, who now openly flaunted the instincts of a starving she-wolf.
“That’s what you testified, isn’t it? The so-called forger is practical and money-oriented, not much of a lover, I take it. He was faking it, right? But according to you no one could ever accuse Ms. Reilly of faking it.”
“Your Honor, Counsel’s sarcasm isn’t getting us anywhere and is squandering the court’s valuable time,” Jack said. Nina bristled at his mildness. In good old Judge Milne’s court back at Lake Tahoe, the bailiff would be carting Nolan off to the tank, high heels kicking, on a contempt citation. Not only was Nolan assassinating Nina’s character, she was indulging in jokes at her expense, trivializing the whole proceeding as unworthy of serious attention. She wanted Nina clapped quickly into the stocks so the outraged townspeople could hurl rotten eggs at her.
“How much of your conclusion is based on court-approved techniques of questioned-documents analysis, versus graphology, Mrs. Gleb?”
“It is all relevant and important.”
“You can’t separate the two?”
“There is no separation. Let me say to you, Madam Attorney, that any examiner who tells you he isn’t using his intuition in the examination isn’t doing his job.”
“Right, intuition. I have nothing further for this witness.”
“You may step down.”
Mrs. Gleb left in a cloud of expensive perfume.
Jack had told Nina he tried out two other examiners before trying Mrs. Gleb, who had seemed so-so unperfumed back then. After examining the document, these alternative experts both admitted the likelihood of forgery, but had refused to stake their reputations on it.
Nina looked at the gigantic, swooping strokes of her handwriting, naked and eager on the screen. She looked down at her legal pad, at the notes she had been taking this morning with their huge lower loops everywhere. She turned the page hastily.
“We will take a final short break. You have one more witness on the Vang matter, is that right?” Judge Brock asked Jack.
“Yes. Mrs. See Vang,” Jack said.
“All right. We’ll take her then.”
Outside in the general waiting area, Mrs. Gleb cornered them before they could escape. “Know one thing,” she said. “I am right in what I say. You must ignore the mean-spirited sarcasm, as I’m sure the judge will do.”
“Thanks for coming, Mrs. Gleb,” Jack said. “We appreciate it.”
“Right is on your side, darlings, and what’s more practical, I’m there, too. Call me if there’s anything more I can do for you. I’m at the Marriott until the weekend.”
26
T HE BREAK ALLOWED just enough time for mutual recriminations.
“Why couldn’t you control her better?” Nina said to Jack as soon as they were on the next floor down and out of earshot. “She had some important points to make that had nothing to do with my voracious sexual appetite! I’m sure she signs her name with giant capitals, the better to express her inflated ego.”
“I talked to her at least three times on the phone. I saw a summary of what she would testify. She never mentioned those lower loops. Sometimes they do get carried away up there on the stand, as you well know.”
“You should have seen it coming. She’s flamboyant. I could see that right away. An expert should be conservative.”
“Hey, we owe her. Remember, we couldn’t get any other expert, and the truth is, she has a fantastic reputation in spite of Nolan’s vivisection, and she didn’t come off as badly as you make out. The forger used the same ink as you, the same paper, and wrote just a few words. There was no signature, and the fact is, nobody else had the guts and confidence to stick his neck out.”
“Graphology,” Nina said. “Sorta like astrology, right? I’m sure Judge Brock is having a private yuk in his chambers right now over that testimony. So how are we doing, Jack? Are we burying me alive? Because that’s how it feels.”
“Put aside your insecurity. Zip that lip and sit tight. We attack this thing point by point. Commit that to memory. Let’s go back in.”
Nina didn’t want to return to court and be a good girl. She was sick of Jack telling her what to do and irritated to trigger-finger sensitivity by her perpetual state of fury. She had abuse heaped up in her throat, backlogged. Jack deserved further tongue-lashing if she was to deliver him the conventional and complete client reflex.
She breathed four deep breaths, her mother’s advice from childhood for fending off tension and anger, and went back into the chamber of horrors, where the formidable Dr. Pell waited at the door.
The former FBI man, with his dark hair and devilish air, bore a remarkable resemblance to the actor Andy Garcia. He kept his testimony earnest, succinct, and, well, Nina had to admit it, fair. To keep the issues straight and so that he could get back to work in Quantico, they had taken him out of order.
Gayle Nolan held the floor. Pell had brought his own set of slides, but he didn’t talk about loops. He testified merely that nobody could tell if the last sentences were forged or not, as the forensic evidence was insufficient and the sample too short for an examination of the phrasing. “There are no smoking guns,” he said. “No misspellings, no obvious variances from the preceding writing.”
“So the writing is consistent with the writing in the rest of the document?” Nolan asked.
“Yes, it’s consistent. But-”
“There is therefore no evid-”
“Objection,” Jack said. “Let the witness finish. He was stopped before he could complete his answer.”
“Did you wish to add to your answer?” Judge Brock said.
Ignoring Nolan, who clearly did not want him to continue, Dr. Pell said, “Yes. I have to add that while it is consistent, that does not mean that I can conclude that this sample is indeed the handwriting of the defendant. It’s consistent, but then a passable forgery will be consistent. I simply don’t have enough to go on. I can only say that there is insufficient evidence to conclude these nineteen words were forged.”
“There is no evidence that this is a forgery, Dr. Pell,” Nolan said. “None. Is that correct?”
“That is correct.”
Jack cross-examined Dr. Pell, making sure he reiterated his inability to draw a conclusion either way. So far, Pell had not injured them fatally and Jack kept it that way, sticking to his own agenda, making his points without allowing any wiggle room. Apparently Nolan had had the same trouble they had finding an unequivocal opinion.
Dr. Pell stepped down, leaving them all understanding that there was no way expert testimony would prove whether or not Nina had written the final words.