William Bernhardt - Capitol Murder

Loving hurriedly tossed some money on the table, pulled a card out of his wallet, and slid it across the table to Shalimar. “Here’s my number. Call me tomorrow.”

“You’ll ask Amber if she knows anything about Beatrice?”

“Promise. I’ll tell you anything we learn.”

Daily was obviously anxious. “I’ve got to go.”

“I know. I’m coming with you.” Loving slid out of the booth. “Thanks for talking with us.” He gave her a wink. “Look forward to working with you, Buffy.”

Despite the fact that Loving was already halfway across the coffeehouse, Shalimar rose to her feet. “Don’t call me Buffy!”

Even though it broke protocol as well as one of his primary rules for courtroom decorum, Ben had to talk to his client. He leaned over and whispered into Glancy’s ear. “Is any of what she said true?”

“Abso-fucking-lutely not,” Glancy shot back. “I’ve told you before. The only time I left the conference room was when I went to the restroom. And I wasn’t gone more than ten minutes.”

“Just asking.” Ben rose. He wondered if Christina might not be a better choice to cross this witness. He would be forced to tread the line between being firm and appearing to beat up on a helpless young woman. But thanks to his prior objection, the witness was his now, whether he liked it or not.

“Point of clarification, Miss Craig. Did you ever see the faces of the two people who were allegedly in the hideaway?”

“I never saw their faces, no, but I think it’s obvious-”

“To be blunt, ma’am, I don’t care what you think. I want to hear what you know. Did you see their faces?”

Shandy grasped that the tone of the questioning had changed and resigned herself to answering questions succinctly. “No.”

“Were you able to positively identify either of them?”

“I’d never met Veronica Cooper. But I thought the male voice sounded a lot like Senator Glancy.”

“Whom you had just met that morning, right?”

“Well, yes.”

“And what does that mean exactly, when you say you ‘thought it sounded like him’?”

“Well, the voice was low and deep. Kinda slow talking.”

“That would be true for half the men over thirteen on this planet.”

“It’s not just that.” She began fidgeting with her well-shaped fingernails, which Ben could only take as a good sign. “I thought he had sort of an Oklahoma accent.”

Ben wasn’t giving any ground. “And what exactly would that be? Like how I talk?”

“Well… I don’t really hear it in your voice.”

“Why not? I’ve lived in Oklahoma almost my entire life.” Of course, he was educated at a private school in a big city, but for that matter so was Todd Glancy.

“No, it was more like the senator talks. Kinda slow and… you know. Drawn out. Lots of extra syllables.”

“Give me an example.”

Shandy glanced toward Padolino, obviously hoping he could bail her out, but there was nothing he could do. “Well… like when he said ‘forever.’ It was more like he was saying, ‘Fuhr-eve-uhhhh.’”

“And that’s supposed to be Oklahoma? It sounds more like Gone With the Wind. ”

“Your honor,” Padolino said. “He’s badgering this poor girl.”

Herndon shook his head. “They don’t call it cross-examination because it’s supposed to be fun. You may continue, Mr. Kincaid.”

“It would be fair to assume that anyone engaged in an intimate encounter might speak slowly and dramatically, don’t you think?”

“Well…”

“And you said you could barely hear the voices. The fact is, you couldn’t positively identify either of the two people involved. Not then and not now.”

“But I’m sure it was Senator Glancy and that poor girl. Why do you think I followed him in the first place?”

“Good question. Why did you?”

“Because I knew Veronica Cooper was in the building.”

Now Ben was confused. “I thought you said-”

“I said Senator Glancy told me she hadn’t come in that day. But he was lying. I’d asked the front desk clerk about her when I entered the building and he told me she was there. Well, that’s no surprise-we all know she was there now. But why would Senator Glancy lie about it? Unless maybe he was planning to meet her in secret.”

“Move to strike,” Ben said. “Supposition without foundation.”

Herndon inhaled heavily, then said, “Sustained.” Which was surely his way of saying that although Ben was technically correct, he couldn’t see that it made much difference.

“You use the word lie in pretty cavalier fashion, ma’am. Is it possible that Senator Glancy didn’t know she was in the building? That she didn’t report in to his office?” That was what Glancy had told Ben.

“Then why would she come?” Shandy asked, exasperated. “She couldn’t work for him if he didn’t know she was there.” Her voice dropped a notch. “And she couldn’t blackmail him or have sex with him, either.”

“Your honor!” Ben protested, but the judge was already on it.

“Miss Craig, you know what is and is not permitted on the witness stand. You will confine your testimony to what you have seen and heard.”

“Yes, your honor.”

“I won’t tolerate any more such remarks, particularly not with testimony of this importance. Do that again and I’ll have you removed from the courtroom.”

“Yes, your honor. Sorry.”

Herndon leaned back, obviously still angry. But there wasn’t much he could do to such a contrite witness. “The jury will disregard the witness’s last statement. You may proceed, Mr. Kincaid.”

Ben tried to salvage what little he could. “You keep saying you ‘followed’ Senator Glancy. But that isn’t really accurate, is it?”

“I don’t understand.”

“Well, you said yourself that you didn’t see him leave. You only guessed what door he exited through. You can’t ‘follow’ someone if you don’t actually know where they are.”

“I thought I knew. And I proved I was right when I found him.”

“Found someone, ” Ben insisted, but even to himself he was sounding increasingly desperate. “All you can say for sure is that Senator Glancy left and you found someone in his hideaway. If he in fact just went to the men’s room, you weren’t following anyone, right? You discovered someone.”

“I don’t think that’s what happened,” she said sullenly.

Ben decided to let it drop. He’d made his point, and she was never going to agree with him. “Miss Craig, why didn’t you say anything about this when it happened?”

“I did.”

Ben did a double take. “Miss Craig, I’ve probably seen you almost every day for the last five months, and you never once-”

“I’m not talking about you. Why would I tell you? You work for-” She looked at Senator Glancy with such contempt it was palpable. “-him. I went to the police.”

Ben turned slowly toward Padolino. “You told the police all this? Months ago?”

“Yes,” she said.

“But you continued to work for Senator Glancy.”

“They asked me to. Just in case I might see or hear something incriminating.”

“You were-you-” He looked back at Christina, searching for help. He’d never encountered anything like this in his entire career. “You were an undercover mole in the senator’s office?”

“If you want to put it that way.”

Ben looked at her harshly. “Miss Craig, did the police-or anyone in the prosecutor’s office-instruct you to withhold what you knew from me?”

“Absolutely not. They said I didn’t have to volunteer anything. But they told me that if you asked, I had to tell what I knew.” She paused, her eyebrows rising. “As it turned out, you never asked. Neither you nor your partner nor any other member of the defense team asked if I knew anything about Senator Glancy’s relationship with Veronica Cooper.”