Steve Martini - Double Tap

“That’s not the point. The question is, did you have a motive?”

“No.” He shakes his head. “I liked her. Why would I want to kill her?”

“We could try a stipulation,” says Harry. “Admit that they had sexual relations. Specify the number of times this occurred. Try to sanitize it. Make it sound like an accountant’s audit report and hope we can glaze over the eyes of the jury. Try to keep the tape out of evidence.”

“I haven’t seen the tape, but I can’t imagine it’s all that bad,” says Ruiz.

“Fancy yourself a porn star, do you?” Harry quips.

“No, no. It’s nothing like that. I guarantee you, there’s nothing kinky on the tape unless somebody dubbed it in.”

“You’re thinking the federal government again?” Harry asks. “Do they have a federal office that does that kind of thing?”

“Come on, gimme a break,” says Ruiz. “We had a fling. A romp in the hay. I didn’t love her. She didn’t love me. Two adults, we enjoyed the moment. She went her way, I went mine. That’s all there was to it.”

“The problem is, she’s dead,” I say, “and somebody killed her.”

“But I didn’t do it.”

“Yeah, well, put that aside for the moment,” says Harry. “The more immediate problem is that videotape no doubt captures only a brief period in time when, as you say, the two of you were enjoying the moment. When passion was at its height, shall we say. That’s what the jury is going to see, and what they’re going to remember, not the rational attitude of two sober and mature adults after all the hedonism was over.” Harry pauses. “That leaves a lot of room for imagination. And therein lies a lot of room for mischief on the part of the wily prosecutor. Ordinarily I’d say they might not get the tape in, being as it’s so prejudicial. But in this case,” Harry reasons, “I might make an exception, because it may be the best evidence. In fact it may be the only evidence to substantiate their theory that you had an affair with the victim.”

“Ordinarily I’d say you’d be right,” Ruiz says, “but in this case. .”

“What?” Harry sits up straight. “You’re not gonna tell us you had an audience!”

“Not in so many words. But somebody did see us.”

“Who?”

“Chapman’s executive assistant. Gal by the name of Karen. I suspect that’s how the cops got the tape. I don’t know, but I suspect she probably gave it to them after the murder. She might have thought I had something to do with it.”

“Can’t imagine that,” says Harry. “Your gun being used, your holding over in the house with her, doing security.”

“You don’t think it’s looking too good,” says Ruiz.

“Let’s just put it this way: I don’t think anybody would have to threaten me to get me to drop out of the case.”

“You think Kendal took a hike because he didn’t believe he could win?”

Harry gives him a look that concedes the point.

Ruiz takes a deep breath and sighs.

“Let’s change gears for a moment. What is your marital status?” I ask.

“Why?”

“Are you married?” In the eyes of many jurors, cheating on his wife would compound the problem.

“Divorced,” he says.

“How long?”

“Almost six years.”

“Children?”

“Two. A boy and girl. My son is twelve, my daughter is seven. I don’t want them involved in this.”

“Children sitting in the courtroom can be a big plus,” says Harry. “They don’t have to be there every day.”

“You heard me: the answer is no. Besides, their mother is not gonna let you or anybody else put them through that.”

“What about your wife?”

“Ex-wife. Tracy is remarried. She was young when we got hitched. Military life did us in. I was always gone. Not that she wasn’t faithful, but you know how it is: she got lonely. I was away from home for months at a time. After a while it seemed like we didn’t even know each other anymore. She’s not gonna come sit in a courtroom, I can tell you that. And she’s not gonna let the kids do it. It’ll be hard enough what they see on television. If I know Tracy, she’ll be pulling the plug on the set and canceling the newspaper subscription to keep them from seeing it.”

“Well, at least you didn’t have any ties at the time keeping you away from Chapman,” says Harry. “That’s something.” Harry makes the best of little favors.

“I have to admit, Madelyn wasn’t what you would call discreet,” says Ruiz. “I mean, she didn’t tell the world or wear a sandwich board with pictures. But she didn’t lock her office door, either. I guess her attitude was she owned the place, so if people didn’t like it they could quit.

“The secretary walked in on us.” Ruiz is talking about Chapman’s executive assistant. “What can I say? We both moved pretty quickly to cover up, but the secretary has to have seen what was happening. She walked in, looked, turned, and walked out. She seemed to look right through me like I was part of the furniture. Maybe she was just stunned. I don’t know.”

“So it was the secretary who must have told the cops about the tape?” I say.

“I don’t know,” says Ruiz. “My guess is word would have gotten around pretty fast. I didn’t know the camera was there. If it was being monitored we had a live audience. If not, somebody would probably have seen it sooner or later. Like I say, it was only the two times. The first time she came on strong and I backed away. Nothing really happened. Not that anyone is going to believe me. Then the tape. Then her personal security detail was canceled, my assignment changed, and the problem went away. Or at least I thought it did.”

“Why did she cancel security?” I ask.

“Beats the hell out of me. Maybe she was frustrated.”

“As far as you know, did she have affairs with anyone else?”

“She had guys over, if that’s what you mean. I mean, she wasn’t trying to hide the fact. Whether they were friends, business acquaintances, whatever. Don’t know their names. But several times they spent the night bouncing off the walls down the hall. I heard ‘em. So did the guy on the detail with me.”

“Problem is, that cuts both ways,” says Harry. “If he knew she was having affairs with other men, it could have fueled jealousy. It feeds right into their theory.”

Harry is right. But it also provides other suspects, other men who might have had a reason to kill her if they saw something they wanted bad enough slipping away.

“A couple of times she had us escort her to parties. You know, business things. On the way home she’d want to stop at this club downtown. We’d sit at one table, she’d sit at another. Guys would come up and talk to her. If she wasn’t interested she’d nod toward us and tell the guy that the bulge under our armpits wasn’t swollen lymph nodes and the fucker would vanish like vapor. When she got the one she wanted we’d all head home, my partner or I driving while she and her new friend did warm-ups in the backseat.”

“Sounds like the security detail didn’t cramp her sense of privacy,” I say.

Ruiz laughs. “The fact she had an audience probably added a whole new dimension as far as Madelyn was concerned.”

“And, of course, you didn’t mind?” I ask. “I mean, you didn’t feel in any way jilted?”

“What? That I wasn’t being used like a mechanical bull anymore? No. I grant you she was a good-looking woman, but as far as emotions were concerned, anything with Madelyn had all the depth of a kiddie pool. She could have gotten the same thing from a mannequin.”

We change the subject. “What do you know about the Information for Security program?” I ask.

“You know I signed a piece of paper when I went to work at Isotenics. It was given to me by my supervisor at Karr, Rufus. It said I wouldn’t discuss any what they call ‘proprietary information’ that I might have overheard when I was on duty. So I don’t know if I’m supposed to tell you.”