Perri O'Shaughnessy - Case of Lies

“Seconds.”

“How many seconds?”

“I had time to run almost all the way to my room. Approximately forty seconds, forty-five seconds.”

“She must have been very close, right?”

“Pretty close. I heard later she was at the Internet cafe next door.”

“Never mind what you heard. So you had attracted a lot of attention at Prize’s, winning all that money?”

“The pit boss was getting too interested.”

“You had made thirty-five thousand dollars at one five-dollar-minimum table?”

“At two tables.”

“Other people were watching you? Guests of the casino?”

“Sure. It was time to leave.”

“Did you ask for any security to carry this large amount of cash?”

“No, we were staying just across the street.”

“Did you make any efforts to avoid being followed?”

“He didn’t have a duty to do that,” Nina said.

Betty Jo said, “He might have. He was a pro in a dangerous business. If you can sue him to bring him here, I may as well sue him, too.” Elliott didn’t look too happy at this.

“Did you? What did you do to protect yourself from robbery?”

“There were three of us.”

“Anything else?”

“Tried to keep a low profile.”

“That didn’t work out, though, did it?” Without waiting for an answer, Betty Jo said, “You were standing right at the vending machine when this man appeared?”

“Yes. We were. Silke had just put in the money.”

“Defendant’s Four. Photo of the area around the vending machine.” The transcriber pasted an identification label on the photo and returned it to Betty Jo, who passed it to Elliott.

“How many ways in and out are there from this area?”

“Two. The street side, and the parking-lot side.”

“Three actually, aren’t there? Look again.”

“Oh, the staircase.”

“You weren’t boxed in, were you? If he came one way, you could run another way? You did run another way? And got away safely?”

“Yes.”

“The two people on the balcony-you saw them?”

“Just for a second.”

“You didn’t see the woman get shot?”

“No, I was running for my room when I heard the third shot.”

“The police report doesn’t mention any third shot. Where were you for the first two shots?”

“Going toward him.”

“And you say he shot in the air? Think he was trying to scare you?”

“You don’t have to guess,” Nina said again, but Elliott answered, “Yes.”

“And when you heard the third shot your friends were ahead of you, and had already run into their rooms? You were almost at your ground-floor room?”

“Yes.”

“So why would he fire a warning shot?”

Elliott stared at the table. “I’ve wondered about that, how it happened. He must have noticed them after he picked up the gun again. He must have just shot straight at them.”

“Excuse me,” Nina said. “Just to clarify the record, you’re speculating, right?”

“It just seems logical. We weren’t there anymore.”

“Okay,” Betty Jo said, “I want to suggest something to you. And I want you to search your heart and remember you’re under penalty of perjury, even if you’re not in court today. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“I suggest that there were a total of two shots, as Meredith Assawaroj told the police. Wait just a minute. I suggest that you were struggling with this bad guy, this robber with a gun, and you lifted his arm up, trying to get the gun, and the gun went off and hit the lady.”

“There were three shots, I know that much. I don’t care what the police reports say. And after the second shot, I saw them crouched up on their balcony.”

“Were you facing the robber?”

“Yes.”

“So he had his back to that balcony?”

“Yes.”

“You’re the one facing the balcony, struggling over a gun.” Betty Jo raised her arm and said, “I’ve got the gun and you’re going for it. You push my arm back and it goes off.”

“Objection,” Nina said. “Lack of foundation, calls for speculation, misstates the testimony. Counsel is testifying. Just for the record.”

Betty Jo said, “You want to get at the truth or not? Let’s end this here. This boy made a mad rush at an armed robber, and in the struggle an innocent bystander was accidentally killed, and it’s hard for him to admit.” She turned back to Elliott. “You seem like a nice boy.”

“Objection,” Nina said. In depositions, alas, there was no judge to rule on objections and make the lawyers behave; one could only object for the record. It would have to be sorted out later.

“Is it my turn?” Elliott said. “I looked her in the eyes as I turned and ran, and she was alive, crouching in a corner, watching.”

“How do you know she wasn’t hit?” Betty Jo said. She had a loud clear voice and she talked like a school principal. Elliott had a hangdog look. A guilty look, even, but so would anybody subjected to Betty Jo. Nina was worried at the beating Elliott was taking, but she couldn’t help appreciating the other lawyer’s style. “Well? She could have just been shot, couldn’t she? Crouching there in the corner, poor little thing, while you macho boys slugged it out and the shots went a-flyin’. How far away was she?”

“Fifty to sixty feet. Forty feet on the horizontal, ten feet up. The square root of two hundred and sixty.” He took out his calculator. “Fifty-two point zero-zero-six feet. That’s an estimate.”

“Can you swear to me under penalty of perjury that she wasn’t hit when you looked at her for that split second?”

Elliott shook his head.

“Speak up!”

“I can’t be positive.”

“There wasn’t any third shot. Nobody else heard it but you, Elliott. All you have to do is admit it and you can spare us all a world of misery. Haven’t you had enough misery already?”

“Objection,” Nina said. “That question is irrelevant, incompetent, and immaterial, and the rest is just badgering.” Her objection went into the record, but Betty Jo could ignore it here, and that’s exactly what she did. Silke had heard a third shot, but Silke couldn’t attest to that anymore. Dave couldn’t remember, and Raj was dead, too.

Elliott placed his hands on the table, palms down, and looked at them. “I don’t know anything anymore,” he mumbled. “I can’t go on. I don’t feel well.”

Betty Jo had the audacity to lean across the table and pat his hand. “Just tell us the truth, now, honey.” She gave Nina such a glare that Nina didn’t pipe up with another objection. Her suspicion was fair. She was trying to get at the truth. Elliott wasn’t Nina’s client, after all.

Maybe Betty Jo was right. Maybe Elliott had done just what she said. Nina couldn’t prove differently. Hard to believe Elliott could lie, though.

Elliott wasn’t lying now. He wasn’t saying anything.

“Two shots or three shots?” Betty Jo said, waiting expectantly.

“Three shots.”

Betty Jo threw down her tablet, stood up, and said, “I won’t sit here and listen to this bucketful of lies any longer.” She picked up her Hermès briefcase and walked out.

“Whew,” Sandy said. The transcriber raised her eyebrows and said to Nina, “Now what?”

“We’re finished,” Nina said.

Wish was waiting in the outer office to take Elliott back to the house. He didn’t mind being the babysitter as long as he had access to Nina’s computer and phone at the cabin. But Elliott said, “I’m slept out. I have to do something.”

“It’s better for you not to go out until your flight tomorrow,” Wish told him. “Nina?”

“What do you have in mind?” Nina said.

“I want to play some cards. Wish can come.”