Parnell Hall - The Anonymous Client

Fitzpatrick stood up. “No questions, Your Honor.”

Graves nodded. “The witness is excused.”

Kemper got up and left the stand.

The jurors, who had waited all day to see only that, found it funny. Some began to giggle.

Judge Graves gave them a few minutes to blow off steam, then banged the gavel. When the court was quiet, he said, “Mr. Dirkson. Call your next witness.”

Dirkson stood up. He looked at the jury. Then at the defense table. Then back up at the judge. His smile was rather smug. “The People rest, Your Honor.”

Fitzpatrick heaved his bulk around the small conference room in the courthouse like an angry whale.

“Son of a bitch!” he said. “Son of a fucking bitch!” He poured himself a glass of water and gulped it down. “I don’t need this,” he said. “My specialty is corporate law. I’ve got myself some juicy plum clients. Chief among them, Phillip Harding. He dies, and I inherit his daughter. She inherits a murder. Suddenly I’m in court. But even then I’m all right, because I’ve got a genuine, first-class, made-to-order red herring, scapegoat, fall guy, to take the rap. Only he turns out to be the attorney for my client’s lover, and suddenly I’m fucked. Suddenly I’m in court with a smug-ass district attorney who just wants to play games with me. ‘Your Honor, I rest my case.’ Jesus Christ, he hasn’t made a case. What the hell’s he doing resting now?”

“It’s good move,” Steve said. “If we don’t put on a case, he’s given the jury enough to convict. If we do put on a case, he’s still got a whole bunch of witnesses left for rebuttal.”

Fitzpatrick threw up his hands. “What case? We have no case. You talked to Marilyn Harding. You know what she’s like. We don’t dare put her on the stand.”

“No argument there.”

“It’s a no-win situation. If we don’t put her on the stand, she’s a dead duck. If we do put her on the stand, Dirkson will tear her apart.”

“All right,” Steve said. “What’s your plan?”

Fitzpatrick stared at him. “Plan? What plan?”

“All right. What’s Dirkson plan?”

“What you just said. It depends what we do. If we don’t put on any defense, we’ve lost. If we put Marilyn on the stand, he’ll tear her apart.” Fitzpatrick shrugged. “If we try to make a case without putting her on the stand, it’s like you said. He’s got a whole bunch of witnesses saved up for rebuttal.”

“Right. And what’s he gonna hit us with?”

“Everything.”

“Yeah, but pick one. What’s he gonna hit us with?”

Fitzpatrick pursed his lips. “Best guess, the Phillip Harding murder. He alluded to it in his opening statement, hasn’t mentioned it since. I’d imagine if we make any showing at all, if we manage to swing the sympathy of the jury in the least, he’ll come back at us with that. He’ll bring in the Phillip Harding murder and try to poison the minds of the jurors with the thought that Marilyn is a habitual killer.

“Yeah,” Steve said. “That’s what I think too. And if he does, what are you going to do?”

Fitzpatrick looked at him in surprise. “Fight it, of course. Try to keep it out of the record. Once Dirkson gets that in the minds of the jurors, we’re sunk.”

“Right,” Steve said. “And what do you think Dirkson expects you to do?”

Fitzpatrick frowned. “What is this, twenty fucking questions? You wanna make a point, make it. Frankly, your Socratic method’s getting to be a pain in the ass.”

“All right. Sorry. Look, we agree Dirkson’s going to try to bring in the Phillip Harding murder. You plan to fight it. You think Dirkson doesn’t know that? Of course he does. And if he knows it, he’s prepared for it. You saw how many precedents he cited in opposition to my motion? Well I’ll bet you a nickel he’s got twice as many to cite to back up his contention that evidence of a prior crime may be introduced to show motivation. And you know what, I think he’s probably right.”

“So,” Fitzpatrick said, “you’re telling me we’re fucked before we start.”

“No, I’m not,” Steve said. “I’m telling you what Dirkson has in mind. The way I see it, Dirkson has certain expectations. If we fulfill those expectations, we’re playing right into his hands.”

“So?”

“So, we can’t do that. We can’t play this conservative and conventional. This is a situation that calls for heroic measures. We gotta throw the game plan away. We’ve got to get off the defensive and on the attack. The hell with what Dirkson expects. Let’s rock the son of a bitch in his sockets. Hit him where he least expects it, get the jury interested, and then give ’em a show.”

Fitzpatrick frowned. “I don’t know how to do that.”

“I do.”

Judge Graves said, “Is the defense ready?”

Fitzpatrick rose. “We are, Your Honor.”

“Does the defense wish to make an opening statement?”

“We do.”

“Very well. Proceed.”

Fitzpatrick glanced dubiously down at Steve Winslow who was seated beside him at the defense table.

Steve gave him the thumbs up sign and grinned. “Give ’em hell,” he murmured.

Fitzpatrick managed a twisted smile. He straightened up, set his jaw, and strode out into the center of the courtroom.

“Your Honor,” Fitzpatrick said. “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. We expect to prove that the defendant, Marilyn Harding, is the victim of a conspiracy. An insidious conspiracy by person or persons unknown. Or I should say, by persons unknown at the present time. We expect to prove that this conspiracy against Marilyn Harding is based only upon the accident of her birth. Marilyn Harding was born into a wealthy family. She is a wealthy woman. As such, she is a target for certain unscrupulous individuals. And she has been used as a target in this case.

“Moreover, we expect to prove that this conspiracy is not limited to Marilyn Harding, but extends to the entire Harding family.”

Fitzpatrick raised his voice. “We expect to show by competent evidence, that Phillip Harding, father of Marilyn Harding, was murdered on the thirteenth of last month!”

There were gasps from the spectators in the courtroom.

Dirkson, startled, rose to his feet. His mouth was open, so great was his surprise. He blinked twice, and slowly sat down again.

“We shall prove this,” Fitzpatrick went on, “not by inference or innuendo, but by the autopsy report prepared by the medical examiner himself. We shall prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Marilyn Harding’s father, Phillip Harding, was cold-bloodedly and ruthlessly murdered.

“After proving that, we shall then show how the conspiracy against the Harding family shifted from Phillip Harding to Marilyn Harding, his principal heir. You have heard, from the lips of the prosecution’s own witnesses, how Marilyn Harding was being followed by private detectives. Now, has the prosecution attempted to show you who hired those private detectives? Or to show why those private detectives were hired? You know the answer. And the answer is, no they have not.

“But the defense expects to answer those questions. The defense expects to show that those private detectives were hired to follow Marilyn Harding as part of an ongoing conspiracy against the Harding family in general and against Marilyn Harding in particular. We expect to show that Marilyn Harding was cleverly and insidiously manipulated into the position in which she finds herself today. That she was systematically framed for a murder. That she has been tricked into a position that would seem on the surface, indefensible.

“Well, ladies and gentlemen. The defense intends to dig beneath the surface. We intend to fill in the gaps in the story left by the prosecution. We intend to show how a web of lies and deceit has framed this defendant for a crime that she did not commit.