William Bernhardt - Capitol Offense

“I did.”

“And you managed to find out which room he was in.”

“It didn’t require Jessica Fletcher.”

“And yet now we learn that all this time you were temporarily insane, under the control of an irresistible impulse. That was one doggone smart, cold, and logical irresistible impulse.”

“Your honor,” Ben said, rising, “I’m sorry, but I must object again. This is nothing but closing argument thinly disguised as questioning.”

“I have to agree with Mr. Kincaid,” McPartland said. “If you have no more real questions, Mr. Guillerman, sit down.”

“I’m sorry, your honor. I’ll move along. I think I’ve made my point.”

Unfortunately, Ben knew that was the truth. He had made his point, and he would make it even more strongly later. “Now let’s talk about this mythical other man you claim you saw at the police station, the one who conspired to force Detective Sentz to… well, to abide by the rules of the Tulsa Police Department. You don’t know his name, right?”

“Right.”

“You can’t describe him.”

“True.”

“No one else saw him.”

“No one else will admit to seeing him.”

“What about Officer Torres? He stuck up for you at other times.”

Dennis lowered his head and frowned. It was obvious this question bothered him. “He said he didn’t know who or what I was talking about.”

Guillerman spread his hands wide. “Doesn’t it seem like someone else should have seen this mystery man?”

“Yes,” Dennis said firmly, “it does. And I think it’s very suspicious that he could be there and no one recalls it.”

“So I guess he was also out to get you? Good thing you didn’t know who he was when you were toting that gun around.”

“Your honor!” Ben protested. The judge reprimanded Guillerman again, but Ben knew all the legal wrangling would have little impact on the jury. Guillerman was scoring his points, slowly, one by one, chipping away at Dennis’s credibility.

“You do understand, do you not, Mr. Thomas, that Detective Sentz was abiding by the written rules of departmental procedure?”

“I know that is technically correct. I also know that he had the discretion to open an investigation if he saw fit. And I believe that most human beings would have done so given the circumstances. The fact that he repeatedly refused to do so is suspiciously-”

“Right, right. I know. The great conspiracy to get you. Or your wife. Do you know of any reason why anyone would want to hurt you and your wife?”

“No. Apparently there was one.”

“But you don’t know what it could possibly be.”

“That’s what I was trying to find out!” Dennis leaned forward in his chair. Veins throbbed on the sides of his head. “That’s why I wanted to talk to Detective Sentz.”

“You mean, that’s why you wanted to shoot him.”

“No! I just wanted to know what happened. I wanted to know why my wife had to die! Is that so much to ask?”

He was shouting now and it didn’t sound good. Ben wished there were something he could do to slow this down, break it up. But there was nothing. A frivolous objection would not help Dennis.

“Let me ask you another question, Mr. Thomas. That whole week she was missing, did you really even want to find your wife?”

Ben closed his eyes. Now Guillerman was being intentionally provocative, taking advantage of Dennis’s agitated state.

Dennis was floored, literally sputtering. “I-I can’t believe you would even ask that. Of course I did. I-I tried everything-”

“Isn’t it true that her car was found less than two miles from your house?”

“As the crow flies. But I didn’t know where she was.”

“You had a week. In seven days you couldn’t find someone who was two miles away?”

“I didn’t know where she was!” Dennis was practically shouting now.

“Are there many roads out there, sir? Out to your place?”

“Only one.”

“So you couldn’t effectively search one road two miles from your home?” Guillerman shrugged. “Of course. Who would think to look there?”

“She wasn’t visible!” Dennis was on the defensive now and he acted like it. He was straining, trying to convince the unconvinceable, which never made for effective testimony. “You couldn’t even tell a car had gone off the road!”

“What if you got out of your car and looked around?” Guillerman asked. “Like the police ultimately did. Didn’t take them long to find her.”

“They knew where to go.”

“Why did you need a cell phone signal to tell you the obvious? That she was probably not far from home?”

“It wasn’t obvious! I didn’t know!”

“I’ll tell you what I think, Mr. Thomas. I think you didn’t want to find your wife. That’s why you didn’t think to look in the obvious place.”

“Noooo!”

“Maybe the real reason you were so angry that day is because the police found her!”

“It’s not true, you-”

“You were mad at her. You wanted to be free of her. That’s why you hit her!”

“Nooo!” Dennis rose to his feet. “I loved my wife! I loved my wife!”

Ben slumped in his seat. It was horrifying. Dennis was melting down right before their eyes.

“Your honor,” Ben said, “could we take a short break?”

“No!” Guillerman barked. “I’m not done. Don’t let this man have another powwow with his attorney. Who knows what they might cook up next!”

“I’m going to allow the cross to continue,” Judge McPartland said.

Guillerman pressed ahead. “You planned this murder, didn’t you, Mr. Thomas? Planned the whole thing from start to finish.”

“I did not! I never-”

“You did your research, found out what you needed, got your gun, tracked Sentz down, and shot him in cold blood.”

“No!”

“You hated him!”

“I never wanted to hurt him!”

“Then why did you hit him?”

Dennis fell silent.

Guillerman continued. “First your wife, then the cop. You have a nasty little temper, don’t you?”

“I never meant to hurt him. I just-I lost control.”

“I believe it. More than once.”

“It wasn’t like that!”

“Didn’t you hit Detective Sentz at the scene of your wife’s accident?”

“Yes, but-”

“Objection!” Ben shouted.

“Overruled,” the judge said in a firm tone that permitted no rebuttal.

“Funny thing to do to someone you didn’t want to hurt,” Guillerman continued. “Logical thing to do to someone you wanted to kill.”

“I just swung-”

“So hard he was scheduled for root canal surgery. Except you killed him before he could get there.”

“I did not want to hurt him!”

“He could’ve pressed charges against you, but he didn’t. He withdrew them. An act of charity that cost him his life.”

“He scraped up the entire right side of my face!”

“You probably wanted to kill him right then and there, but others stopped you, so you waited until he was alone and did it then!”

“That isn’t true!”

Guillerman leaned in for the kill. “And after you hit him, you threatened him.”

“No!”

“Didn’t you scream, ‘There will be a reckoning!’ over and over again?”

“I didn’t mean-”

“Don’t bother lying about it. I have lots of witnesses.”

“I said it, but-”

“And that was a death threat, right? By a ‘reckoning,’ you meant a murder!”

“That is not true!”

“There will be a reckoning, you said repeatedly. And a few days later, there was! You shot Detective Sentz in cold blood!”

“No!” He looked at Ben, as if pleading for help. “No!”