The Fifth Witness Part 52

Trying to keep her momentum, Freeman swooped in for the kill.

"Your Honor, may I approach the witness with a doc.u.ment?"

"You may. Are you going to mark it?"

"People's Exhibit Nine, Your Honor."

She had copies for everybody. I leaned close to Aronson so we could read it together. It was a copy of an internal investigation report from ALOFT.

"Did you know about any of this?" Aronson whispered.

"Of course not," I whispered back.

I leaned forward to focus on the examination. I didn't want a first-year lawyer tsk tsk-tsking me over a gigantic vetting failure.

"What is that doc.u.ment, Mr. Driscoll?" Freeman asked.

"I don't know," the witness responded. "I've never seen it before."

"It is an internal investigation summary from ALOFT, isn't it?"

"If you say so."

"When is it dated?"

"February first."

"That was your last day of work at ALOFT, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was. That morning I gave my supervisor two weeks' notice and then they erased my login and fired me."

"For cause."

"For no cause. Why do you think they gave me the big check at the door? I knew things and they were trying to shut me up."

Freeman looked up at the judge.

"Your Honor, could you instruct the witness to refrain from answering my questions with his own questions."

Perry nodded.

"The witness will answer questions, not pose them."

It didn't matter, I thought. He had gotten it out there.

"Mr. Driscoll, could you please read the paragraph of the report I have highlighted in yellow?"

I objected, stating that the report was not in evidence. The judge overruled, allowing the reading to proceed subject to a later evidentiary ruling.

Driscoll read the paragraph to himself and then shook his head.

"Out loud, Mr. Driscoll," the judge prompted.

"But this is all complete lies. This is what they do to-"

"Mr. Driscoll," the judge intoned grumpily. "Read the paragraph aloud, please."

Driscoll hesitated one last time and then finally read.

" 'The employee admitted that he had purchased the software packages with a company requisition and then returned them after copying the copyrighted materials. The employee admitted he has been selling counterfeit copies of the software over the Internet, using company computers to facilitate this business. The employee admitted earning more than one hundred thousand-' "

Driscoll suddenly crushed the doc.u.ment with both hands into a ball and threw it across the courtroom.

Right at me.

"You did this!" he yelled at me, following his pitch with a pointed finger. "I was fine in the world till you showed up!"

Once again Judge Perry could've used a gavel. He called for order and for the jury to return to the deliberations room. They quickly filed out of the courtroom as if being chased by Driscoll himself. Once the door was closed the judge took further action, signaling the courtroom deputy forward.

"Jimmy, take the witness to the holding cell while counsel and I discuss this in chambers."

He got up and stepped off the bench and quickly slipped through the door to his chambers before I could mount a protest over how my witness was being treated.

Freeman followed and I detoured to the witness stand.

"Just go and I'll get this over. You'll be right back out."

"You f.u.c.king liar," he said, anger jumping in his eyes. "You said it would be easy and safe and now look at this. The whole world thinks I'm a f.u.c.king software thief! You think I'll ever find work again?"

"Well, if I had known you were hijacking software I probably wouldn't have put you on the stand."

"f.u.c.k you, Haller. You better hope this is over because if I have to come back here, I'm going to make up some s.h.i.t about you."

The deputy was leading him toward the door that led to the holding cell next to the courtroom. As he went I noticed Aronson standing at the defense table. Her face told the story. All her good work of the morning possibly undone.

"Mr. Haller?" the court clerk said from her corral. "The judge is waiting."

"Yeah," I said. "I'm coming."

I headed toward the door.

Forty-seven.

Four Green Fields was always dead on Monday nights. It was a bar that catered to the legal crowd and it usually wasn't until a few days into the week that lawyers started to need alcohol to dampen the burdens of conscience. We could've had our pick of the place but we took to the bar, Aronson sitting between me and Cisco.

We ordered a beer, a cosmo and a vodka tonic with lime and without the vodka. Still smarting from the Donald Driscoll fiasco, I had called the after-hours meeting to talk about Tuesday. And because I thought my two a.s.sociates could use a drink.

There was a basketball game on the TV but I didn't even bother to check who was playing or what the score was. I didn't care and couldn't see much further than the Driscoll disaster. His testimony had ended after the blowup and finger pointing. In chambers the judge had worked out a curative address to the jurors, telling them that both the prosecution and defense had agreed that he would be dismissed from giving further testimony. Driscoll at best had been a wash. His direct testimony certainly set up the defense contention that Louis Opparizio had brought about the demise of Mitch.e.l.l Bondurant. But his credibility had been undermined during cross-examination and his volatile behavior and enmity toward me didn't help. Plus, the judge was obviously holding me responsible for the spectacle and that would probably end up hurting the defense.

"So," Aronson said after her first sip of cosmo. "What do we do now?"

"We keep fighting, is what we do. We had one bad witness, one fiasco. Every trial has a moment like this."

I pointed up to the TV.

"You a football fan, Jennifer?"

I knew she had gone to UCSanta Barbara for her undergraduate degree, then Southwestern. Not much in the way of collegiate football powers.

"That's not football. That's basketball."

"Yeah, I know, but do you like football?"

"I like the Raiders."

"I knew it!" Cisco said gleefully. "A girl after my own heart."

"Well," I said. "When you're a defense lawyer you have to be like a cornerback. You know you're going to get burned from time to time. It's just part of the game. So when it happens you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and forget about it because they're about to snap the ball again. We gave them a touchdown today-I gave them a touchdown. But the game's not over, Jennifer. Not by a long shot." gave them a touchdown. But the game's not over, Jennifer. Not by a long shot."

"Right, so what do we do?"

"What we've planned to do all along. Go after Opparizio. It comes down to him. I've got to push him to the edge. I think Cisco's given me the firepower to do it and hopefully his guard will be down because we've had Dahl telling him it's going to be a walk in the park. Realistically, right now, I think the score is tied. Even with Driscoll blowing up, I'd say we're either tied or maybe the prosecution's got a few points up on us. I've got to change that tomorrow. If I don't, we lose."

A somber silence followed until Aronson asked another question.

"What about Driscoll, Mickey?"

"What about him? We're done with Driscoll."

"Yeah, but did you believe him about all the software stuff? Do you think Opparizio's people set him up? Was all of that about him stealing software made-up lies? Because now it's out in front of the media."

"I don't know. Freeman did a smart thing. She coupled it with something he wouldn't or couldn't deny-stealing the test. So it all sort of flowed together. Anyway, it doesn't matter what I believe. It's what the jury believes."

"I think you're wrong. I think that what you believe is always important."

I nodded.

"Maybe so, Jennifer."

I took a long sip of my anemic drink. Aronson then went in a new direction.

"How come you stopped calling me Bullocks?"

I looked at her and then looked back at my drink. I shrugged.

"Because you did so well today. It's like you're all grown up or something and you shouldn't be called by a nickname."

I looked past her at Cisco and pointed.

"But him? With a name like Wojciechowski, he's got his nickname for life. And that's just the way it is."

We all laughed and it seemed to relieve some of the pressure. I knew alcohol could help with that but it had been two years now and I was strong. I wouldn't slip.

"What did you tell Dahl to go back with today?" Cisco asked.

I shrugged again.

"The defense is in disarray, they lost their best shot with Driscoll when Freeman destroyed him. Then the usual, we don't have anything on Opparizio and testifying will be like cutting b.u.t.ter left out on the counter. He's supposed to call me after he talks to his handler."

Cisco nodded. I continued in another direction.

"I'm thinking Opparizio is the way to end it. If I can get what Cisco has gotten for me to the jury in questions and his answers, and I push him to the nickel, then I think I'll just end it there and Cisco, you won't testify."

Aronson frowned like she wasn't sure that would be a good move.

"Good," Cisco said. "I won't have to wear the monkey suit tomorrow."

He tugged at his collar like it was made of sandpaper.

"No, you have to wear it again, just in case. You have another shirt like that, don't you?"

"Not really. I guess I'll have to wash this tonight."

"Are you kidding me? You only-"

Cisco made a low whistling sound and nodded toward the door behind me. I turned just as Maggie McPherson slipped onto the open stool next to me.

"There you are."

"Maggie McFierce."

She pointed to my drink.

"That better not be what I think it is."

"Don't worry, it's not."

"Good."

She ordered a real vodka tonic from Randy the bartender, probably just to rub it in.