Michael Connelly - The Fifth Witness

“That’s right.”

“And you remain president of ALOFT, don’t you?”

“Yes. I still run the company. I just have bosses now.”

He tried a smile but most of the working stiffs in the courtroom didn’t see the humor in the comment, considering the millions he had taken out of the deal.

“So you are still intimately involved in the day-to-day operations of the company?”

“Yes, sir, I am.”

“Mr. Opparizio, was your personal take in the sale of ALOFT sixty-one million dollars, as reported by the Wall Street Journal ?”

“They got that wrong.”

“How so?”

“My deal was worth that amount, but it didn’t come to me all at once.”

“You get deferred payments?”

“Something along those lines but I don’t really see what this has to do with who killed Mitch Bondurant, Mr. Haller. Why am I here? I had nothing to-”

“Your Honor?”

“Hold on a moment, Mr. Opparizio,” the judge said.

He then leaned forward over the bench and paused as if to contemplate something.

“We’re going to take our morning break now and counsel will join me in chambers. The court is in recess.”

Once more we followed the judge back into chambers. Once more I was going to be the one put on the spot. But I was so angry at Perry that I went on the offensive. I stayed standing while both he and Freeman took seats.

“Your Honor, with all due respect, I had a certain momentum going out there and taking the morning break early is killing it.”

“Mr. Haller, you may have had plenty of momentum but it was taking you far away from this case. I have bent over backward to allow you to present a third-party defense but I am beginning to feel I’ve been had.”

“Judge, I was four questions away from bringing it all back home to this case but you just stopped me.”

“You stopped yourself, Counsel. I can’t sit up there and let this go on. Ms. Freeman’s been objecting, now even the witness is objecting. And I’m looking like a fool. You’re fishing. You told me and you told those jurors that you would not only prove that your client didn’t commit the crime, but that you would prove who did. But we are now five witnesses into the defense case and you are still fishing.”

“Your Honor, I can’t believe-look, I am not fishing here. I am proving. Bondurant had threatened to cost that man out there sixty-one million dollars. It is obvious and anyone with common sense sees this. And if that is not motive for a murder then I guess I-”

“Motive isn’t proof,” Freeman said. “It’s not evidence and you obviously don’t have any. The defense’s whole case is a charade. What’s next, you name everybody Bondurant was foreclosing on as a suspect?”

I pointed down at her in the chair.

“That wouldn’t be a bad idea. But the fact is the defense case is not a charade and if allowed to continue my examination of the witness I will get to the evidence very quickly.”

“Sit down, Mr. Haller, and please watch your tone when you are addressing me.”

“Yes, Your Honor. I apologize.”

I sat down and waited while Perry brooded over the situation. Finally, he spoke.

“Ms. Freeman, anything else?”

“I think the court is well aware of how the prosecution views what Mr. Haller has been allowed to do. I warned early and often that he would create a sideshow that had nothing to do with the case at hand. We are well past that point now and I have to agree with the court’s assessment that all of this makes the court look foolish and manipulated.”

She had gone too far. I could see the skin around Perry’s eyes tighten as she stated that he looked like a fool. I think she’d had him in her hand but then lost him.

“Well, thank you very much, Ms. Freeman. I think at this time I’m inclined to go back out and give Mr. Haller one final chance to tie it all in. Do you understand what I mean by final chance, Mr. Haller?”

“Yes, Your Honor. I will comply.”

“You’d better, sir, because the court’s patience has drawn thin. Let’s go back now.”

Out at the defense table I saw Aronson waiting by herself and realized she hadn’t followed me into chambers. I sat down wearily.

“Where’s Lisa?”

“In the hallway with Dahl. What happened?”

“I’ve got one more chance. I have to move things up and go in for the kill now.”

“Can you do it?”

“We’ll see. I’ve got to run out to the facilities before we start again. Why didn’t you come into chambers?”

“No one asked me to, and I didn’t know if I should just follow you in.”

“Next time follow me in.”

Courthouse designs are good at separating parties. Jurors have their own assembly and deliberation rooms, and there are aisles and gates to separate opposing parties and supporters. But the restrooms are the great equalizers. You step into one of these and you never know who you will encounter. I pushed through the inner door of the men’s room and almost walked right into Opparizio, who was washing his hands at the sink. He was bent over and looked up at me in the mirror.

“Well, Counselor, did the judge slap your hands a little bit?”

“That’s none of your business. I’ll find another restroom.”

I turned around to leave but Opparizio stopped me.

“Don’t bother. I’m leaving.”

He shook his wet hands off and moved toward the door, coming very close to me and then suddenly stopping.

“You are despicable, Haller,” he said. “Your client is a murderer and you have the balls to try to cast the blame on me. How do you look at yourself in the mirror?”

He turned and gestured toward the line of urinals.

“This is where you belong,” he said. “In the toilet.”

It all came down to the next half hour-maybe an hour at the most. I sat at the defense table, composing my thoughts and waiting. Everyone was in place except for the judge, who remained in chambers, and Opparizio, who was smugly conferring with his two attorneys in the first row of the gallery where they had reserved seats. My client leaned toward me and whispered, so that not even Aronson could hear.

“You have more, right?”

“Excuse me?”

“You have more, don’t you, Mickey? More to go after him with?”

Even she knew that what I had already trotted out was not enough. I whispered back.

“We’ll know before lunch. We’ll either be drinking champagne or crying in our soup.”

The door to the judge’s chambers opened and Perry emerged. He called for the jury and the witness to return to the stand before he was even seated on the bench. A few minutes later I was back at the lectern, staring down Opparizio. The restroom confrontation seemed to give him renewed confidence. He adopted a relaxed posture that announced to the world that he was home free. I decided that there was no sense in waiting. It was time to start swinging.

“Now then, Mr. Opparizio, continuing our discussion from before, you have not been completely truthful in your testimony today, have you?”

“I have been completely honest and I resent the question.”

“You lied from the start, didn’t you, sir? Giving a false name when sworn in by the clerk.”

“My name was legally changed thirty-one years ago. I did not lie and it has nothing to do with this.”

“What is the name that is on your birth certificate?”

Opparizio paused and I think I saw the first inkling or recognition of where I was going with this.

“My birth name was Antonio Luigi Apparizio. Like now but spelled with an A. Growing up, people called me Lou or Louie because there were a lot of Anthonys and Antonios in the neighborhood. I decided to go with Louis. I legally changed my name to Anthony Louis Opparizio. I Americanized it. That’s it.”