Perri O'Shaughnessy - Unlucky in Law

“No.”

“Was this all set up in his will?”

“No. The trust was set up outside the will. So Christina and Alex…”

“Right. Couldn’t let the other kids know. What did he leave them?”

“I don’t know. I never saw Kostya’s will.”

Jaime stopped to think up some new questions for which he already knew answers. He didn’t like fishing. Clearing his throat finally, he decided he had gone as far as he could safely go. “Nothing further.”

“We’ll take the morning recess,” said the judge.

Salas gave the jury a few instructions and they filed out. Wanda went out into the hall. She had shifted the trial toward a new place where both sides wanted to go, but neither knew how to get there without crashing. Jaime gestured to a trial deputy in the audience and held a quick, whispered consult. Nina nodded to Paul, who came up immediately. “Out in the hall-keep an eye on Gabe Wyatt. Don’t let him get away.”

Monday 9/29

AS SOON AS SALAS’S GAVEL WENT DOWN, NINA FLEW OUT THE DOOR. Sandy had left a message, so Nina called her at the Pohlmann office. “Ginger wants to talk to you. She’s driving down with some stuff to show you.”

“Okay.”

“Her ETA is about noon.”

“Tell her to meet me at the courthouse in Salinas.”

Nina went back in and whispered her worst fear to Klaus, who hadn’t budged from the counsel table. “Maybe Stef knew. He was upset at Christina, maybe because of her money from her father. Jaime can insinuate a lot when his turn comes.”

“But it doesn’t explain the hunt for Constantin’s bones,” Klaus said.

His preternatural calm struck her as discordant under the circumstances, which Nina considered dire. “I want to call Alex next. I want to handle that examination.”

“He is mine.”

“You don’t like him, Klaus. He upsets you. That won’t work.” But she saw that she had riled him again. His mood shifts were becoming a big problem. He veered so quickly into anger that she couldn’t see it coming.

“You don’t think I can control my temper? Your attitude tells me that you have as many doubts as that vexatious prosecutor. I wonder why I allowed Mr. Cunningham to hire you.”

“I thought it was you who hired me.” He had hurt her.

There was a pause, during which Klaus pursed his lips and turned his eyes upward. And just as suddenly as it had arrived, his anger departed. He laughed. “Let us join our prodigious forces to get this lying bastard. You may take the lead, but not because I cannot.”

“Thank you, Klaus. So-how do we stop the lies?”

“Don’t try to intimidate him. That makes him stubborn. Ingratiate yourself, and then appeal to his pride,” Klaus said. He didn’t offer any specifics on that topic, though, and by the time the session resumed Nina was reduced to scribbling more diagrams on her legal pad, not notes. Father Giorgi linked to the Zhukovskys; the Wyatt family now linked to Christina and Alex; Alex hiring Stefan; Sergey Krilov linked to Christina; and on top, hanging over them all like a confounding angel, Constantin Zhukovsky. What links did they still not know?

“Call Professor Alex Zhukovsky,” Nina said. The professor was brought in, puffing as though he had just arrived, told he was still under oath, and asked to state his name again.

“Alexis Constantinovich Zhukovsky.”

Klaus gave a great start in the seat next to her. He half rose, his chair falling over behind him, clutching at his chest, trying to speak, his eyes wide and staring.

“Klaus!” Nina cried, half supporting him. The bailiff rushed over and Salas said, “Call nine-one-one,” to his clerk.

“No!” Klaus cried in that silly high old man’s voice that had so disconcerted her in the hall before court. “I am fine, no problem.” The bailiff picked up his chair and Klaus toppled into it. “No problem,” he repeated, waving the bailiff away. He noticed the people from the audience standing, craning their heads, and said, “No show today.” The jury sat back in their chairs and shook their heads.

“Are you sure you can continue, Mr. Pohlmann?”

“Quite sure, Your Honor.” Klaus began to smile, but it still looked like a toss-up as to whether a hearty laugh or unconsciousness would follow. He fanned himself vigorously with a file. “Miss Reilly will examine the next witness.” He leaned over to Nina and whispered, “Listen carefully: European boys are often given the name of their grandfather.”

Nina nodded. She had no idea what he was talking about. His breathing returned to normal and his color was restored, but an impish smile stayed pasted to his face.

She stood up, wet her lips, and said, “Good morning, Professor.”

“For you, perhaps.”

Now, that was not a good beginning, but it told her what she wanted to know, that Alex Zhukovsky knew what had been going on in the courtroom. “Have you engaged in a recent conversation with Wanda Wyatt this morning?”

“Yes.” A scowl.

Aha. “What, if anything, did she tell you about your family?”

“She told me she had married my father. She explained fully.”

Salas’s face darkened. He told the bailiff, “Go see if you can find Ms. Wyatt. I want to speak to her in my chambers over the lunch break. Continue, Counsel.”

“Did this information surprise you?” Nina asked.

“I had no idea.”

“How did you feel about your father, Professor Zhukovsky?”

“I loved him. He was my father.”

“Did you think he was an honest man?”

“On the whole. My father loved telling stories. Anyone could tell you that. But at heart, he was good.”

“You admired him?”

“Yes. He had been through a lot in his life, and had managed to find peace in his later years.”

“You were proud that he was your father?”

“Of course.”

“Where is this going, Counsel?” Salas asked.

“Just one more question along this line, Your Honor,” Nina said, keeping her eyes on Zhukovsky’s eyes, holding him there. “Are you proud of him today? After what you have just learned?”

He hesitated. “I’ll always be proud of him. I don’t know why he kept this from Christina and me, except that we were selfish brats who went kind of nuts when our mother died. But we were children. I feel sure he would have trusted us eventually, had he lived longer.”

“When you hired him to dig up your father’s remains, you had no idea Stefan Wyatt was your half-brother?”

Jaime started to object. He had several grounds for objection, but he changed his mind and choked them off. He had calculated that the answer would only add to the idea in the jury’s minds that Stefan had a definite and strong connection to Christina.

Nina turned back to Zhukovsky, who was ruffling the sides of his cheeks with the backs of his hands, making up his mind once and for all. He knew they could get legally obtained records of his call to Stefan entered into evidence, and he should be worried about perjuring himself further at this point. Salas waited. They all waited.

“You’re right,” Zhukovsky said. “I need to change my testimony in that regard. I just-I was afraid that it could be thought that I had something to do with my sister’s death. I didn’t.”

“It’s about time,” Nina said. A deep fatigue drifted along inside her, tempering the relief. They’d had to keep at Zhukovsky. She had feared he would never capitulate. Jaime could make use of the information, too, as he could with Wanda’s testimony. But they could make no progress, discover no further truth, until this moment when Zhukovsky sat up straight in the box and pressed his eyes shut as if in a moment of prayer.