Don Winslow - California Fire And Life

"And murder his wife?"

Casey launches up. "Objection!"

Jack says, "It's hard to reach the conclusion that the fire was intentional and the death accidental. There is also forensic evidence to indicate that she was dead before the fire broke out."

"Which is probably beyond the scope of this inquiry tonight," Mallon quickly tells the jury. "Suffice to say that a coroner has ruled that Mrs. White died as the result of an overdose of drugs and alcohol."

And thank you very much, Your Honor, Jack thinks.

Mallon gives Jack a dirty glance, because Pam Vale's death was supposed to be out-of-bounds. Jack gives him an innocent look but he's thinking, Fuck you — Casey brought it up in his opening and he's not playing by the rides, so I'm not playing by the rules. In fact…

"Mr. Casey told the jury we accused his client of murder," Jack says. "We didn't — we're not the police — but I thought the jury should know why we denied the life insurance claim."

"You're out of order, Mr. Smith," Mallon says.

"Sorry."

Jack looks over at Casey, who is working, albeit none too hard, to suppress a smile.

The jury is grooving on this little spat. Winging happy numbers back to the observation room.

Mallon says, "Ms. Peters, if you would continue your direct…"

"Gladly," Peters says. "Let's talk about opportunity."

She says this giving Jack a look like. Get back on the leash, claims dog. He does, and she leads him through his testimony on whether White had the opportunity to set the fire.

Jack takes the jurors through the points on the locked doors and windows, the burglar alarm not going off, the time it would have taken White to drive from his mother's house, set the fire, and drive back.

Then Peters asks, "Did you talk to White's mother about his whereabouts that night?"

"Yes."

"What did she tell you?"

"That her son was home watching a movie that night, and that she saw him at her house during the time the fire was being set,"

"Did you believe her?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"The guard at the gate told me he saw Mr. White come back in at 4:45 a.m.," Jack says.

To a little ahhhh from the jury.

"And the combined weight of all the other evidence argued against her alibi," Jack says. "She had a vested interest in protecting both her son and her own home, which Mr. White had mortgaged to raise capital to cover other debts."

"Any other points on opportunity?"

"The dog."

"The dog?"

She looks at him with feigned puzzlement. The jurors don't — their puzzlement is genuine.

Jack looks at them and explains the whole thing about the dog. He finishes with, "I came to the conclusion that Mr. White let the dog out before setting the fire."

Peters can't help herself. "He loved his dog more than his wife?"

"Objection."

"Sustained."

"Did you consider whether there was anyone else who had the opportunity to set this fire?" Peters asks.

"No facts came to light to indicate that there was anyone else," Jack answers.

"Did you reach a conclusion as to the issue of opportunity?"

"Yes."

"What was your conclusion?"

"That Mr. White had sufficient opportunity to have either set the fire or known that the fire was going to be set."

"Earlier, you testified about there being three elements necessary to deny a claim based on arson," Peters says. "Do you recall that testimony?"

He does and she knows he does. She wants the jury to recall it before she goes on.

"I do," Jack says.

"Did you reach a conclusion whether those three elements were sufficiently proved so that you could reasonably deny Mr. White's claim?"

"I did."

"And what was your conclusion?"

Jack says, "Based on the totality of the facts we learned, I concluded that there was sufficient evidence to deny the claim."

"Beyond a reasonable doubt?"

"I don't know if I could describe it in those words," Jack says. "Let me just say that I'd have to be damn sure."

"And were you 'damn sure' that Mr. White was involved in this fire?"

Jack looks at the jury.

Says, " Damn sure."

"No further questions. Thank you."

Goddamn Billy breaks into applause.

Turns back to the corporate mucks and points to the monitor.

Solid 10s across the board.

Jack Wade had killed.

Paul Gordon is making his case in front of Judge John Bickford.

Actually, he's not so much making his case as he is leaving his case, the case in question being a Halliburton attach with twenty K in cash inside.

See, they're seated at this banquette at the Rusty Pelican in Newport Beach, and Gordon has the case underneath the table by his leg, and he and Bickford are discussing an element of the law.

"I'll be filing suit against Cal Fire and Life," Gordon's telling him. "You're going to get the case."

"If it comes up in my rotation," Bickford says.

"It will come up in your rotation," Gordon says.

The assigning judge having been on three fishing trips down on the Mexican coast on Gordon's boat. Fishing trips, Dodgers tickets, a "legal seminar" in Italy compliments of Gordon's firm… the case will get assigned where it's supposed to get assigned.

Gordon says, "Tom Casey's going to come whining to you about a discovery issue involving a claims adjuster's prior record. He'll ask you to exclude all discovery prior to the adjuster's handling of the file in suit."

"And?"

"And I'd like you to consider denying that motion."

Bickford sips his scotch. He's sixty-five years old, retirement looms, and judges do not make the kind of money, say, plaintiff's attorneys do. Mrs. Bickford has skin cancer…

Bickford asks, "Are you writing me a brief?"

"It's in the case."

"How many pages?"

"Twenty."

Bickford sets his glass down. "That's not very long."

"Standard," Gordon says.

"But this is a big case for you, Paul," Bickford says. "I would think you'd want to write more. Nail down every point."

"Twenty's always been good enough in the past," Gordon says. Like, Don't jerk me around at this stage of the game. I own you, you old bastard.

"The past," Bickford says, "is a fleeting dream. An insubstantial thing."

Like twenty large of my money is now insubstantial? Gordon asks himself.

"You know," Gordon says, "you might be right. Maybe another judge will catch this case."

Bickford sighs. It's one thing to acknowledge yourself a whore. To acknowledge yourself a cheap whore is yet another level of self-abasement. And yet the money is needed.

"Twenty pages should be adequate to make a persuasive argument," Bickford says.

"Thank you for your consideration," Gordon says. He finishes his drink and gets up. He doesn't have the case with him when he walks out.

Judge John Bickford orders another scotch. Sits for a long time and watches the boats bob against their slips in the harbor.

He remembers when he believed in the law.

"You're a good claims investigator, aren't you, Mr. Smith?"

Tom Casey's first question in his cross-examination of Jack.

A question known in the cross-exam business as an "entry question." Which, just like an entry wound, can be small and even painless.

And it's the smart move, Jack thinks, which is just what you'd expect from Casey. It's smart not to attack me right away, because the jury likes me right now, and Casey doesn't want to antagonize them by attacking me too soon. So he'll lay back and set the trap.

"I hope I'm a good claims adjuster," Jack says.

Cross-exam witness rule number one: Try to answer in complete sentences, not just yes or no. Rule number two: Use your own language, not the lawyer's.

Casey taught him this stuff over the years. That the lawyer's real purpose in a cross-exam is for the lawyer to testify, and just get the witness to nod and shake his head like one of those bobble-head dogs in the rear window of a car.