William Bernhardt - Dark Justice

Secrets. The word carved out a hollow space in Ben’s chest. He didn’t like the sound of that at all.

“Would you say Mr. Zakin was a dedicated environmentalist?”

“Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And then some. He was always pushing. Always urging us to do a little more.”

“A little more … what?”

Rick shifted his weight. He was still studiously not looking toward defendant’s table. “Well, Zak’s favorite line was ‘It’s not enough to talk the talk. You gotta walk the walk.’ ”

“Walk the walk,” Granny echoed. “And what exactly did that mean?”

“It meant take action. It’s true. People in the environmental world tend to gripe a lot about everything that’s wrong, but they’re hesitant to do anything about it. But not Zak. He was always ready to take action to promote the cause. He was willing to do anything. Absolutely anything.”

“Like planting bombs?” Granny suggested.

“Objection,” Ben said. “Leading.”

Judge Pickens waved his hand in the air, as if he thought this objection was the most trivial annoyance in the world. “Sustained,” he said wearily.

Granny amended her question. “What kind of action was he advocating?”

“Tree spiking. Sabotaging cars and equipment. And planting bombs.”

“Mr. Zakin advocated bombs?”

“Oh hell, yeah. Man, he was the expert on the subject. He could tell you all about what kind of ingredients to get to make a certain kind of bomb. Where to get them. How to make a small, contained implosion or a large, widespread explosion. Apparently he’d done a lot of bomb work in the past. Green Rage had never been involved in that sort of thing before. But as soon as Zak was on board, he started pushing for it.”

“Were the other members receptive to this idea?”

“A few were. Hotheads like Al Green. But most of us thought it was too dangerous. Sure, we want to save the forests, but despite what people say, we really aren’t willing to put trees before people.”

Granny adopted a level, earnest tone. “Mr. Collier, I need to ask you another question-a very important question, so please think carefully before answering. Do you know if George Zakin has ever planted a bomb?”

Rick didn’t hesitate a moment. “Oh, yeah. I know he has.”

“Do you know if he planted the bomb that killed Dwayne Gardiner?”

Again no hesitation. “I’m certain of it.”

“And why is that?”

Rick turned to face the jury before answering. “Because he told me he was going to do it.”

A gasp pealed out from the back of the gallery. More audible murmuring and whispering followed. Judge Pickens banged his gavel on the bench, but a good half a minute passed before he brought the courtroom back to silence.

Granny didn’t hold back. “And why would he want to plant a bomb? To further the environmental cause?”

“Nah.” Rick’s lips turned down at the edges. “To get Dwayne Gardiner.”

The air in the courtroom seemed to become thick, heavy, as if everyone and everything were suspended in time.

“Let me make sure I understand you, Mr. Collier. Are you saying Zakin planted the bomb with the express intention of harming Mr. Gardiner?”

“I think so, yeah.”

“And why would he want to do that?”

Rick glanced up at the judge, the jury, out into the gallery-almost everywhere except at Zak. “Because he was sleeping with Gardiner’s wife.”

If the reaction in the courtroom had been audible before, it was near deafening now. Several people-reporters, probably-leaped to their feet and headed out the back doors to spread the word of this major new development. Whispering and gossiping went from a buzz to a roar. Judge Pickens pounded his gavel furiously, threatening to clear the courtroom, trying to restore order.

Ben took advantage of the momentary chaos to have a short, curt conversation with his client. He was so angry he could barely speak. “You told me you didn’t know Gardiner,” he said bitterly. “You said you had no connection to him.”

“But I didn’t!” Zak said, imploringly. “I never met him till that night in the bar. It was his wife -”

Ben placed his hand on his forehead. This was just hopeless.

As soon as the courtroom was quiet enough for her to proceed, Granny did so. “And how do you know Mr. Zakin was having an affair with Lu Ann Gardiner?”

“He told me,” Rick replied. “Hell, he told me frequently. I gotta tell you, Zak may be a great environmentalist, but when it comes to women, he’s kind of a pig. Of the chauvinist variety.”

“How do you mean?”

“He was constantly trying to pick up women, in some of the sleaziest ways you can imagine. He’d lie, cheat, steal-whatever it took.”

“And is this how he attracted the attention of Mrs. Gardiner?”

“More or less, yeah.”

“How do you know?”

“I was there when it happened. I was in the bar when he first picked her up.”

“And when was that?”

“Oh, about three weeks before the murder. Apparently they really hit it off, ’cause they were banging away”-he stopped, looked up at the judge-“oh-excuse me. They were, uh, engaging in, uh, carnal relations every chance they got. Zak was having a great time. Till the angry husband found out.”

“And when was that?”

“Just before the murder. Zak found out when Gardiner met him outside the bathroom at Bunyan’s.”

“Were you there?”

“No. But Zak told me all about it. Told me Gardiner was acting real weird, almost crazy-like. Said he threatened Zak, so Zak threatened back.”

“Was Mr. Zakin disturbed by this encounter?”

“Very. Zak has a short temper, and he was having too much fun with Lu Ann to give her up. So he started thinking of ways to put the husband-Gardiner-out of the picture.”

“To put him out of the picture-permanently?”

“That’s what I think happened, yeah.”

“And why do you think that? Did you see him plant the bomb?”

“Unfortunately, no. But I did see him leave camp that night with a full backpack. In retrospect, I realize the bomb was probably stuffed in there. And he left with something else-the Sasquatch suit.”

“That’s a lie!” Zak hissed in Ben’s ear.

Granny blinked. “The Sasquatch suit?”

Rick nodded. “Right.”

“Did that belong to Green Rage or to George Zakin?”

“Well, actually, there were two of them. We had one when Zak came, but he didn’t think it looked real enough, as if he was an expert on what Bigfoot really looks like. So he bought his own.”

“And why would he leave with the suit in the middle of the night?”

“Zak loved running around in that costume, hovering around the periphery of campsites, trying to bait poor suckers into calling in Bigfoot sightings. He had this idea that if enough of those calls came in, the Forest Service would have to take them seriously. And if the forest was identified as the habitat of an endangered species, logging would have to stop.”

“That’s a lie!” Zak shouted, springing to his feet.

Pickens pounded his gavel furiously. Ben grabbed Zak’s arm and pulled him back into his chair.

“Mr. Kincaid-” Pickens started.

“I’ll take care of it, your honor.” He gave Zak a look that spoke volumes. Stay in your seat and shut up!

Granny continued. “What time did Mr. Zakin leave the Green Rage campsite?”

“It was a little after midnight.”

“And do you know when he returned?”

“Sure. I was still up. It was around two in the morning.”

“Two in the morning,” Granny repeated. “Shortly after the murder. Thank you, Mr. Collier. No more questions.”

Ben looked up and saw every face in the courtroom, including those in the jury box, staring his way. But they weren’t looking at him-they were looking past him, at Zak.