Perri O'Shaughnessy - Unlucky in Law

“I called into the station and made contact with Detective Banta. She said she would take over. I stayed and secured the premises until she and other officers from Homicide arrived about half an hour later.”

“And then?”

“And then I wrote up my report, went off duty, and went home.”

“Thank you, Officer Millman. I have nothing further,” Jaime said.

“We’ll take our lunch recess,” said the judge, with the usual words to the jury. Stefan, looking flushed, was led into the back room where the guard would give him his lunch. Klaus and Nina stood up.

“The flashlight-I’m going to do a computer search during lunch,” Nina said, feeling unable to avoid the presence of an elephant in the courtroom.

“You think I made a huge mistake there, don’t you, Miss Reilly?”

“It’s unheard of not to try to suppress traffic-stop evidence in a traffic case,” she blurted.

“You think I’m senile?” Klaus said. “You think I didn’t give the matter due consideration?” He wore an expression as proud and sure of itself as an American flag. “Well, I am old but my mind is intact. I didn’t judge it to be necessary.”

Nina stashed the files in her case. When the courtroom emptied, they left, Klaus in the lead, Nina following behind his erect posture and immaculate suit.

Wednesday 9/17

WEDNESDAY MORNING KLAUS CROSS-EXAMINED OFFICER MILLMAN, who diverged not a whit from his testimony. Nina fed Klaus a list of questions about the flashlight search, and he read them through reading glasses, putting them to the witness as she requested, along with a few of his own thrown in for good measure. For now, he behaved like a lamb, modulated and meek, but Klaus was no lamb. He never broadcasted his strength in advance but saved his power for the attack, or at least he always had in the past. She hoped to see it again during this case when they needed it most.

Nina had tracked down her flashlight case, which turned out not to be so significant. A flashlight search was legal anywhere an occupant of a vehicle could reach within it. Millman and Jaime must have read the case, too, because Millman practically quoted it line for line. Yes, Stefan could have reached into the back seat of his small car. Yes, Millman had merely flashed the light through the window. No, he did not insert the flashlight inside the vehicle.

After another brief but heated argument out of the hearing of the jury, Salas ruled that the search came under the Plain View Doctrine. That was that, until the time came for appeal, if Stefan was convicted. They had lost the skirmish, but at least they had belatedly got onto their horses and come out jousting, which protected the issue for appeal, and peripherally, but seriously, might protect the firm from a malpractice claim.

What a close call. Klaus should have raised the issue long ago, but now they were in the middle of a trial, which was a bad time for self-flagellation.

At lunch, Klaus placed his napkin neatly in his lap and stuck it to her again, suggesting she take the cross-exam on Kelsey Banta.

“I’m not prepared, Klaus,” she said patiently. “We should keep with the plan that you handle it.”

“Of course I am ready and able to do that,” Klaus said. He put a leaf of lettuce into his mouth. He went on eating while Nina chewed on second thoughts.

“Are you tired?” she asked.

“No.”

Why was he doing this to her? To conserve his energy? Because he sensed his powers were fading? Did he believe she might do a better job? She decided he wouldn’t ask if he didn’t need her. “If you really need me, I can do it if you give me your notes right now.”

Without a word, Klaus passed over his legal pad. “Detective Banta,” said the tall slanted letters at the top of the page. What followed was a concise outline of topics to be covered in Klaus’s superbly angular Germanic handwriting.

Nina began feeling better. “But-if you want me to take a witness and it’s not an emergency or something-can you please let me know the night before? I could use more time to plan.”

Klaus set down his fork and wiped his mouth with his napkin. “Look here,” he said. “Do you know what happens when a lawyer sits up all night memorizing old testimony and reports and concocting long lists and so forth?”

“What?”

“She sacrifices the ability to listen to the testimony as it comes from the witness’s mouth. She is so busy checking off items, thumbing through exhibits, flipping through paper, she hears nothing.”

“I prepare,” Nina said. “That’s the way I practice law.”

“Then it is time to jump to a higher level,” Klaus said, “where you demonstrate your mastery of law, not your practice of it. When Detective Banta speaks, don’t look at your notes. Don’t think about the next thing she might say. Open up to fresh ideas. What does she tell you with her body, her voice, and only last of all, her words? When does she exaggerate? Watch her when she skids over a topic. Note statements in her direct testimony that don’t sound right. Go straight to those things and follow them to where they lead.”

“What about this outline you prepared?”

He tapped on it, and she read it. It was unlike any notes preparing for testimony Nina had ever seen. Five topics in capital letters were followed by brief notes in the present tense that summarized the night Stefan Wyatt was arrested and Banta’s subsequent activities:

1. STATION

Millman leaves and Banta takes over suspected homicide. Wyatt in an interview room asleep in a chair waiting for his lawyer (Mr. Turk, who got there at 9 A.M.). Stefan is booked and searched. Medal found and tagged.

2. CEMETERY

Arrives 7:00 with her partner-still pretty dark (fog)-backhoe has encountered a thick clump of black trash bags lying on top of an older coffin. She gets in, wearing gloves, opens the bag, and sees the victim-secures premises-calls investigative team and D.A.’s office. Calls Alex Zhukovsky again for permission to open coffin-inside, body has been removed. Takes statements from cemetery security, checks for ID, finds none, calls in medical examiner and forensics team.

3. STATION

Returns to station and meets Alex Zhukovsky-he’s in a very upset state (still doesn’t know it’s his sister). Takes statement re: his father, Constantin’s, burial. Shows Alex the bones and he says clothes are those his father was buried in-but medal is missing-describes the medal of St. George.

4. MORGUE

The medical examiner, Susan Misumi, calls to say Christina’s body has been taken to county morgue. Banta takes bones and Alex to morgue where he IDs Christina and breaks down.

5. CHRISTINA’S APARTMENT

Banta and partner now go to Christina’s address on Eighth. (Alex gave key. Unable to attend.) They enter. See very little sign of anything at first. Prelim tests for blood on kitchen floor are positive. Find glass. They bring Forensics in. Talk to D.A. Sandoval and decide to hold Stefan on suspicion. Alan has been to station. Then they go off-shift.

“That’s it?” Nina said.

“Jaime always asks his questions chronologically,” Klaus told her. “He is as reliable as the annual monsoon floods in Bangladesh. As for what Detective Banta will have to say on these matters, you will have to listen to find out.”

The bill arrived. He pulled out the firm’s credit card, leaving a whopping tip on the slip of paper. Bantering with the waiter, he seemed completely relaxed, completely unconcerned. Nina watched, wondering.

Klaus had handled the Millman cross adequately. Maybe he was okay after all, a memory lapse here or there as you would expect from an elderly person, but what about the opening statement? What about the Banta cross? Was he doing this to her on purpose, trying to train her as though she were fresh out of law school?