Phillip Margolin - Fugitive

“I’ll let you continue, but I will cut you off if I conclude you’re fishing.”

“Your Honor, Mr. Rose can cut me off by pleading the Fifth,” Amanda shot back.

Judge Gomez considered what Amanda had just said. Then she turned to the witness.

“Miss Jaffe is correct, Mr. Rose. If at any time you believe that your answer to Miss Jaffe’s question would be an admission of criminal wrongdoing, you are permitted to assert your Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate yourself. Do you understand that?”

“I do,” Rose answered as he sat up straight in the witness box and smoothed out his suit jacket. “But I have nothing to hide, Your Honor.”

“Very well. You may continue, Miss Jaffe.”

“Did Mr. Pope order you to kill Charlie Marsh when Mr. Marsh left the courthouse after his bail hearing?”

“No.”

“Did he threaten to kick you out of your position at Mercury Enterprises if you didn’t murder Charlie Marsh and Sally Pope?”

“No.”

“But he was briefing you about Mr. Marsh’s case?”

“No, he wasn’t.”

“Do you remember being interviewed by Kate Ross, my investigator, the day before Mr. Marsh flew back to Portland?”

“Yes.”

“Toward the end of the interview she asked you if you were still mad at Mr. Marsh.”

“Yes.”

“And you said that was water under the bridge and you asked her to tell Mr. Marsh that you had no hard feelings when she saw him the next day.”

“So?”

“How did you know Mr. Marsh was flying into Portland the next day?”

“I…I don’t know.” Rose eyes shifted nervously. “I must have heard it on the news.”

“Mr. Marsh flew to Portland on a private jet. His arrival time was a tightly held secret. The media knew nothing about the flight until the day after Ms. Ross interviewed you. That’s when a reporter for World News tipped them off. Mr. Marsh was in New York before he flew to Portland. I can produce everyone in New York who knew Mr. Marsh’s flight plans. They will swear under oath that they did not reveal this information to you.

“Aside from my father, Kate Ross, and me, Karl Burdett was the only Oregonian who knew when Mr. Marsh would arrive. If you knew the date, the information could only have come from Mr. Burdett or from someone he told, like his biggest contributor, Arnold Pope Sr., a man with a burning interest in the case of the man who allegedly killed his son. So, I ask you again, did Arnold Pope brief you about Mr. Marsh’s case?”

“Objection,” Curry shouted. “This line of questioning is totally irrelevant to these proceedings. Miss Jaffe doesn’t have a shred of evidence to support her accusations.”

“I might have an eyewitness,” Amanda said, “if Mr. Pope thought that Mr. Rose killed his son.”

“What!” Rose shouted.

“You told Kate Ross that you were at your car in the parking lot of the Westmont when Arnold Pope Jr. was shot, but Ralph Day will testify that you were in the crowd watching Delmar Epps fight with one of the security guards. The gun that was used to shoot the congressman was large and unwieldy and Mr. Epps usually kept it in his waistband. If Mr. Epps was carrying the gun and the gun fell out when Mr. Epps was fighting, you could have grabbed it.”

“Why would I want to kill Arnold Pope Jr.? I’d never met the man.”

“What if you didn’t mean to kill him? What if you meant to kill his wife, Sally Pope, who had dumped you and refused to talk to you shortly before the shooting? What if you aimed at Sally Pope and killed her husband by mistake? If that happened, you could have tossed the gun away after you killed the congressman. Then you could have lied to Mr. Pope and told him that you refused Sally Pope’s request to kill her husband and you could have agreed to testify against the woman Mr. Pope hated. If Mrs. Pope went to prison the police would stop looking for the congressman’s killer. If Mr. Pope gained custody of his grandson a very wealthy man would be in your debt.”

“Objection!” Curry shouted. “This is pure speculation. Miss Jaffe is making a jury argument in a criminal case. She’s supposed to be asking questions in a custody matter. Her entire line of questioning is irrelevant.”

While Curry was talking, Rose stole a look at Arnold Pope. The old man was leaning forward, his eyes riveted on the witness. Beads of sweat formed on Rose’s brow.

“I’m inclined to agree, Miss Jaffe,” Judge Gomez said. “Your allegations are very serious and I won’t let you pursue them unless you can assure me that you have very strong evidence to support them.”

“May we have a minute, Your Honor?” Frank asked.

“Go ahead,” the judge said.

Frank leaned close to his daughter so no one would hear what he said.

“Amanda, do you have a shred of evidence that Rose killed Junior?”

“I never accused him of killing Pope. I just asked a lot of questions beginning with ‘what if.’”

“You can’t just toss around accusations of murder like that. I think you should drop this line of questioning.”

“Don’t worry, Dad. I’ve accomplished what I wanted to achieve.”

Amanda stood up. “I don’t have any further questions of Mr. Rose,” she told the judge.

“I think this would be a good time to recess for the day,” Judge Gomez said.

Amanda sat down and watched Tony Rose hurry out of the courtroom. Then she shifted her gaze to Arnold Pope, whose eyes were following Rose’s retreating back with a look of pure hatred. Several rows behind Senior, a black man stood up and worked his way toward the door to the courtroom. Amanda’s heartbeat accelerated. Then she calmed down. She’d thought the man was Nathan Tuazama but Tuazama did not wear tortoiseshell glasses.

“Do you really think Rose murdered Sally?” Liam O’Connell asked as the courtroom emptied out. He looked stunned.

“Someone wanted Charlie and Sally dead and that person went to great lengths to have them killed. The only person I can think of who would hate them that much is Senior. He couldn’t do the job himself but he could have forced Rose to do it. If Rose were kicked out of Mercury Enterprises he would lose a fortune, and he’s skilled enough as a marksman to have made the attempt on Charlie at the courthouse.

“The day I told Karl Burdett that Charlie was returning to Oregon, he copied his file. No one in the DA’s office knows anything about that copy, so who did he give it to? The only person who would be that interested would be Senior.”

“And you think Pope told Rose when Marsh was flying in?” O’Connell asked.

“Who else would Burdett have spoken to?”

“Will the police arrest Rose?”

“Not unless they dig up more evidence,” Amanda said as she packed the last of her papers in her attaché case and headed out of the courtroom. “You can’t get an indictment with guesses.”

“That was straight out of Perry Mason,” Dennis Levy said as soon as Amanda stepped into the hall.

“Except Rose didn’t break down and confess. In real life, Dennis, witnesses deny, deny, deny, no matter how much evidence you throw at them.”

“Then why did you cross-examine him like that?”

“To create doubt in the judge’s mind about Senior’s suitability as a guardian and to drive a wedge between Senior and Rose that might be useful at Charlie’s trial.”

“Would you give me an exclusive interview about the custody case? If I write this up now I can get my story in this week’s edition of World News .”

“Sure, Dennis,” Amanda said as soon as Liam and Frank were out of earshot. “I wanted to talk to you about the photograph from the Dunthorpe seminar, anyway.”

Dennis turned pale. “What photograph?”