William Bernhardt - Capitol Murder

It seemed everyone wanted to hear Senator Glancy testify. What could he possibly say in light of the horrific charges that had been leveled against him?

Glancy was escorted into the courtroom and Ben followed close behind. “Ready to go, slugger?” he said, laying a hand on Christina’s shoulder.

“As I’ll ever be.” Christina took several deep breaths, trying to steady herself, as she watched the bailiff enter through the rear door and call the court to order.

Let the games begin.

“Senator Glancy, we’ve all seen the video and we’ve heard the testimony of various witnesses. Were you in fact having an affair with Veronica Cooper?”

“Yes,” he answered. He looked at the jurors levelly, composed, soft-spoken. Earnest, but not so much so that he seemed to be trying too hard. Like his wife, Christina observed, he knew how to handle himself, how to communicate to an audience. Which was only to be expected from a politician of his experience, she supposed. “If you can call it that. We had sex on several occasions. I thought I was the only one; I didn’t know about all these other men, or her involvement with these clubs and… vampires, or whatever they are. And I certainly did not know about her drug addiction.”

“What are your feelings now about your relationship with Ms. Cooper?”

“I deeply regret it. And I want to publicly apologize, not only to the people in this room but to all my constituents, for my conduct. What I did was wrong, inexcusable. I made a terrible mistake. And I am sorry.”

Padolino rose to his feet. “Move to strike the witness’s apology, if that’s what it was. Irrelevant.”

“Sustained,” Herndon replied.

“Would you have acted differently if you had known about her addiction?”

“Of course. I would never have engaged in a relationship with someone who might not be in her right mind. I would’ve tried to get her some help.” He heard some audible scoffing from the prosecution table. “You know, these people have tried to portray me as some sort of predator, someone who wanted to hurt Veronica. Nothing could be further from the truth. I was trying to help her. Several of the other applicants for her job were more qualified, but I knew that Veronica had a troubled past, a bad childhood, an absentee father. Dirt poor, raised in one of the worst neighborhoods imaginable. I was trying to help her, to give her a chance to better herself. I didn’t plan the intimate relationship. It developed over time. We worked a lot together, spent many long hours together… and it just happened.” He paused. “She was obviously not a virgin when the affair began, and it in no way affected our work. And I might add, what we did was entirely consensual. In fact, she was the initial instigator. Even in that video, awful as it is, I think you can see that she was ready and willing to have sex.”

That’s enough of that, Christina thought. Move on.

“I don’t want to sound self-righteous,” Glancy continued, still maintaining his cool, measured tone, “but this really is a case of no good turn going unpunished. If I had forsaken Veronica for one of those spoiled rich kids that usually get these positions, none of this would ever have happened.”

Christina tried the Ben trick-watching the jury out the corner of her eye. Were they buying any of this? Too soon to tell.

“The detective who previously testified indicated that in the months preceding Veronica Cooper’s death, you had romantic liaisons with other women as well.”

“And in most of those cases, he’s wrong.” Glancy raised his chin, adding a bit of strength to his demeanor. “That’s so typical of a detective. Anytime they see a man and a woman enter a room together alone, they assume there’s going to be hanky-panky. I find his assumptions sexist and offensive, particularly in this day and age. I notice he didn’t claim to have seen anything through a window, even though he appears to be a career Peeping Tom. What he saw, for the most part, was business meetings. I am a workaholic-anyone who knows me can tell you that-and I often work late into the night. Sometimes that work involves meeting people, and sometimes those people are women. Is that a surprise when there are so many female professionals in DC these days? Sometimes those meetings are in hotels, especially when the guests are out-of-towners, but we’re talking about places like the Watergate, not Motel 6. I mean, honestly-if I wanted to have an affair with someone, would I go to a hotel? In this town? Of course not. Everyone here knows me on sight. I never did that with Veronica and I would never do it with anyone else.”

“I noticed you said most of the detective’s accusations were untrue,” Christina said, anticipating Padolino’s cross. “Was there an exception?”

“One, yes.” He lowered his head and seemed supremely ashamed. “A one-night stand. With another Senate employee. I am not going to give her name for obvious reasons. But I have told my wife about it. We’ve discussed it and come to terms with it. I’ve agreed to get some help. As soon as this trial is over-if I’m able-I plan to obtain counseling for sex addiction. Or maybe it’s power addiction, I don’t know. Whatever it is, I understand that I have a problem, and with my wife’s help I’m going to overcome it.” He raised his hands. “And that’s the way it should be. This is a family matter. It’s private, or should be, even when it involves public figures. It’s really nobody else’s business.”

Christina paused, letting the jury soak that in. She knew he wouldn’t change any minds in the press gallery, but it was just possible he might speak to one of the jurors-especially any who might’ve had an affair themselves, or who’d had a secret revealed they’d just as soon had stayed private.

“I appreciate what you’re saying, Senator. But I’m afraid there is one other matter I have to ask you about. One other woman. One of the prosecution witnesses, Steve Melanfield, the lobbyist who admitted he was a political opponent of yours, claims to have seen you engaged in a sexual act with a woman named Delia Collins.”

“Absolutely untrue,” Glancy said defiantly. “I met with Ms. Collins on many occasions. My heart bled for her. She had a terminal illness, but she just couldn’t accept her fate. She was chasing after all these quack miracle cures-you can’t believe how many leeches there are taking advantage of people who have been diagnosed with terminal illnesses. She wanted her insurance company to pay for these treatments. I understood where she was coming from, but if an insurance company gave in to that once, they’d soon have a landslide of similar claims. Everyone’s premiums would go up. The companies might well go bankrupt.”

“To be specific,” Christina said, drawing him out of politics and back to the case, “Mr. Melanfield testified that he saw you in your office receiving sexual favors from Ms. Collins.”

“He’s wrong,” Glancy replied. “And as I recall, he admitted he never saw my face. I don’t know what he saw or indeed if he saw anything at all. But I know this-it wasn’t me.” He stopped, lowering his eyes. “I would never have taken advantage of that dear, strong woman. I was devastated a few months later when I read that she had succumbed to her illness.”

Well, they had pretty well covered sex, Christina thought. Now could they possibly talk about the murder?

“Senator Glancy, your wife has testified that when she learned of the existence of the videotape, she gathered funds for the purpose of paying off Ms. Cooper. And she also says she told you about her plan. Is this true?”

“It is. But I disagreed with her actions. I didn’t want to pay the woman a cent.”

“Why not?”