David Kessler - No Way Out

“So ordered,” the judge responded.

Sarah Jensen then went through a series of questions to put on record the events that happened afterwards: Claymore running away and driving off, a member of the public calling the police, the medical examination, the DNA sample, the photographs. All of these would be introduced at a later stage. But these questions were to establish foundation for their introduction.

At the end of the sequence of questions, Sarah Jensen looked over at the judge and said “no further questions.”

Then she sat down, trying to look sad or at least solemn, rather than triumphant. Andi noticed that Justice Wagner was looking over at the clock. It was five fifteen. She had done it again! She had timed it perfectly to coincide with the afternoon adjournment. That meant that once again the jury would leave the court with elements of the prosecution’s case locked firmly in their minds. This time it was the girl’s tearful testimony, and they would have the whole night to think about it.

Andi had been sure that Sarah Jensen was going to spin out the direct examination for longer, to wring the maximum amount of detail out of Bethel Newton so as to elicit the maximum amount of sympathy. That would still have left Bethel’s testimony in the jurors’ minds. But somehow it would not have been so damaging if they knew that there was more to come.

But with the direct examination over, the jury would feel free to start forming opinions about the case, and that could only hurt Claymore. The judge started speaking.

“In view of the hour, I think it would be appropriate — ”

“Your Honor,” Alex interrupted leaping to his feet. “I know that we only have a quarter of an hour, but I would like to at least start my cross-examination now — ”

“Is that really necessary Mr. Sedaka?”

“There are one or two points I’d like to clear up right away.”

“Very well.”

“Miss Newton have you at any time, since first making your complaint, contacted anyone involved with the defense?”

Oh very good, thought Andi, plant the idea in the jury’s mind. Even if it all fizzles out, it’ll keep them pre-occupied with it now, so they won’t think so much about her testimony.

Sarah Jensen was on her feet.

“Your Honor, is counsel making any specific allegations? Or is he just trying to cloud the issue with unsubstantiated allegations.”

“Approach the bench!” snapped the judge.

Alex and Sarah approached. Andi hesitated for a moment and then approached, ignoring the forbidding stare of the judge. Only Nick Sinclair stayed in his seat.

“Are you going anywhere with this Mr. Sedaka?”

“Your Honor, my co-counsel has been receiving anonymous eMail messages of an abusive and harassing nature. We wouldn’t for one minute suspect the prosecution of involvement, but this witness is another matter altogether.”

“How do you know it isn’t one of the thousands of whack jobs looking for his fifteen minutes?”

Alex turned to Andi, to let her answer.

“Your Honor, the content of the messages suggests that it’s some one with intimate knowledge of the case.”

“Knowledge that only this witness or some one on the prosecution team would have?”

Andi hesitated for a moment, embarrassed by the truthful answer.

“Well, some of the knowledge… appears to be.. things that not even this witness would know.”

“What do you mean?”

“Private conversations that I’ve had.”

Sarah was shaking her head, smiling with utter contempt. Justice Wagner ignored her.

“So what are you saying? That your office is bugged?”

“I don’t know what I’m saying. It just doesn’t make sense.”

The judge was silent for a few seconds, as if weighing up what she had just heard.

“Well when you do know what your saying, I may revisit the issue and allow the defense to resume this line of questioning. Until then, such questions are out of order.” Andi, was looking at the floor, unable to meet the eyes of either the judge or Alex. “I think we’ll adjourn for now.”

When they had returned to their places, Justice Wagner addressed the jury.

“Members of the jury. You will ignore that last question and refrain from any speculation about it. We will now adjourn until ten O’clock tomorrow morning. The jury are admonished not to form an opinion on this case until they have heard all the evidence and the case has been put to them, nor to discuss this case among themselves or with others or to permit it to be discussed in their presence. Court is adjourned.”

They all stood up as the judge left. But Andi remembered one thing from when Alex had asked the question about contacting anyone on the defense: Bethel Newton had looked absolutely terrified.

Outside, Alex walked over to Andi’s side to speak to her.

“I want to know about these anonymous eMails — including why you didn’t tell me about them before?”

“I’ve had a couple. The first one right after I agreed to serve as co-counsel. The second one came just after I blurted out my statement about the ethnic imbalance in the panel.”

“What did they say, the eMails?”

“Like I said, they were full of abusive language. I can’t remember verbatim, but I’ve saved them. I can show them to you back at the office.”

“You said something about the writer knowing intimate details that not even the victim would know.”

She noticed that he had said “victim” rather than “alleged victim.” He would never have been that careless in Court.

“Whoever sent them seemed to know about things that happened at our private conversations.”

She was watching him carefully as she said this.

“What do you mean ‘ our ’ private conversations?”

“Yours and mine. Things that occurred when you and I were alone together.”

“Such as what?”

“Such as you practically blackmailing me into working with you on the case.”

“I didn’t blackmail you — .”

“That’s the way they described it.”

Andi realized that by classifying this opinion as “intimate knowledge” she was effectively saying that she agreed with that classification of Alex’s action.

“What else did they say?”

“They said I should have resisted your pressure and that I’m a ‘whore’ and Claymore is a ‘nigger scum-bag’.”

“And it was anonymous?”

“More or less.”

“Well what does that — ”

“It was signed ‘Lannosea’”

“Does that mean anything to you.”

“Nothing.”

“Did you look it up?”

“Yahoo and Google. Apparently, she was one of the daughters of the old English queen Boudicca.”

“I assume you did an internet search for other people with the same name?”

“I found four sites where the name came up: two foreign, one meaningless, one that gave the answer — about it being Boudicca’s daughter.”

“Alternative spellings?”

“Loads of results, but mostly foreign.”

“What about tracing the source — of the eMails?”

“They were sent via a webmail account.”

“From what my son told me, I understand they can still trace it through the message header.”

“Yes, but anyone sending this kind of message would probably use a public computer, like in a library or an internet cafe.”

“They might have security cameras at places like that.”

“We’d have to bring in the authorities for that.”

“Okay, let’s hold off on that Andi.”

“The thing I don’t get is how they knew about private conversations.”

Alex was looking at her with a skeptical smile.