James Patterson - 12th of Never

Keith Herman agreed to the terms and agreed to meet Chester in twenty-four hours—“same time and place, and I’ll bring the stuff.”

The video brightened as Herman opened the door and got out of the car. When he was alone, Meserve spoke through his microphone to the cops in the surveillance van. “Did everything come in clear?”

The screen went dark and the lights came up in the courtroom. Yuki stood beside her witness and said, “Lieutenant Meserve, did you meet with this man again to receive the down payment and photos?”

“I was there, but he failed to show,” Meserve said. “Later that day, my snitch informed me that someone had ratted me out. The deal was blown and so was my cover.”

“Did you have enough to charge the suspect?”

“I didn’t have his full name, so I couldn’t do anything but sweat. Even if I’d known him, no money changed hands, which woulda made an indictment impossible.”

“Did you believe that he intended to have his wife and child murdered?”

“Without a doubt.”

“That’s all I have, Your Honor,” Yuki said.

John Kinsela’s expression was unreadable, but he revealed his agitation by jingling the coins in his pockets.

He said, “Lieutenant Meserve, you didn’t know the defendant’s name. He didn’t give you any money or pictures of the targets, and he didn’t give you a gun?”

“No.”

“So he hadn’t committed any crime?”

“That’s correct.”

“And you don’t know if he was looking for a hit man or if he was trying on an idea he never intended to go through with, or even if the man in your vehicle was my client.”

“Objection. What is counsel doing, Your Honor? He seems to be arguing his case, not questioning the witness.”

“Sustained. Stop doing that, Mr. Kinsela, or you will be fined.”

“I’m sorry, Your Honor. I don’t have any other questions. This witness has completely satisfied my curiosity.”

“Ms. Castellano. Redirect?”

Yuki stood and addressed the witness from her table.

“Lieutenant Meserve, when did you learn the full name of the man who tried to hire you to kill his wife and daughter?”

“On March first of last year, when Jennifer Herman’s dismembered body was discovered.”

“The man who contacted you about two weeks earlier, on February twentieth, and ordered a hit on his wife and child: Is he sitting in this courtroom?”

“Yes.”

“Will you point him out?”

Keith Herman showed no emotion as Meserve pointed a finger at him as if it were a loaded gun.

“The defendant. That’s him. I’m positive.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant. You may step down.”

Chapter 33

AFTER THE UNDERCOVER cop stood down, Yuki introduced Lesley Rohan, a strikingly attractive and wealthy friend of Jennifer Herman’s, who told the court that Jennifer had been afraid of her husband.

“Jennifer was sitting at my dining table, shaking her head and crying. She told me that if anything happened to her, I should call the police and tell them that Keith did it,” said Rohan. “Jennifer’s arms were bruised and she had a black eye. I suspected for a long time that Keith was abusing both Jennifer and Lily.”

“Objection,” said Kinsela. “Speculation, Your Honor.”

The judge said to the court reporter, “Ms. Gray, please strike the witness’s last sentence. Thank you. Just tell what you know, Ms. Rohan. Not what you think.”

“I’m sorry, Judge Nussbaum.”

“Please go on, Ms. Castellano.”

Yuki said, “Ms. Rohan, did Jennifer ask you to do some-thing for her?”

“Yes. She asked me to take pictures of her and keep them safe.”

“Your Honor, I’d like to introduce these photos of Jennifer Herman, dated February fourth of last year.”

After the pictures were entered into evidence and Yuki was sitting at the prosecution table, Kinsela addressed Ms. Rohan.

“Do you know for a fact that those bruises were put there by Keith Herman?”

“Jennifer told me he did it.”

“But do you know that Mr. Herman inflicted those bruises on Jennifer? You didn’t see him do it, did you?”

The witness squinted. She looked like she’d been struck across the face.

“No. But why would Jennifer lie?”

Kinsela said, “We just don’t know. Do we?”

Yuki called Ty Crandall from the sanitation department, who told the jury about finding the bags of human remains and that ever since he found them he no longer could sleep through the night. Although he was healthy, he had resigned from the city at half pension.

Kinsela had no questions for the sanitation man.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Roy Barclay testified that he had examined the body parts that had been parceled into the eight construction-grade garbage bags. He said that the parts were conclusively from the body of Jennifer Herman.

Barclay told the jury that he had determined the cause of death to be a bullet fired through the left eye at close range, the manner of death to be homicide, and that the time of death would have been within eight hours of the discovery of the parts. He sent the bullet to his ballistics department.

Kinsela asked, “Did the bullet match a gun in the national ballistics database?”

“No. It’s consistent with four or five firearms.”

Kinsela thanked the witness and had no other questions.

After the forensic pathologist stepped down, Judge Nussbaum called for a lunch recess. Nicky and Yuki had sandwiches at her desk, buttoned up every detail, and when they returned to the courtroom one hour and twenty minutes later, Yuki called her star witness, Lynnette Lagrande.

Lagrande was critical to the prosecution’s case. And because she had been photographed by the press, and because Mr. Herman had a reputation for having witnesses threatened, terrified, and possibly killed, Yuki had kept her witness in a safe house with 24-7 security for the last two months.

Now the bailiff called her name.

As if they were at a church wedding, as if the organ music had just begun, the jurors, the attorneys, and the audience in the gallery turned as one to watch Lynnette Lagrande come up the aisle.

Chapter 34

YUKI, LIKE EVERYONE else in Arthur R. Nussbaum’s courtroom, watched Lynnette Lagrande come through the wooden gate in the bar, which separated the gallery from the judge, jury, and prosecution and defense tables. She was wearing a black-and-white print dress with a high collar and a hem that hit midcalf. The thirty-year-old woman was so stunning that the simple dress only enhanced her spectacular figure.

Lagrande swore to tell the truth, then took her seat and crossed her legs at the ankles. When she moved her wavy black hair away from her eyes, she revealed her beautiful, heart-shaped face.

Yuki walked up to the witness and asked, “Ms. Lagrande, what kind of work do you do?”

“I teach first graders at John Muir Elementary School. I’ve had this job for four years and I love it.”

“Are you acquainted with the defendant?”

“Yes, I am.”

Lagrande didn’t look at Keith Herman, but he fixed his sharklike eyes on her.

“How did you come to meet Mr. Herman?” Yuki asked.

“Two years ago, Lily Herman, Mr. Herman’s daughter, was in my class. I met him one day when he came to pick her up after school.”

Under Yuki’s questioning, Lagrande described the course of her relationship with the defendant: parent-teacher conferences, accidental meetings in town, then a lunch with Mr. Herman that turned romantic and was the start of a liaison that had continued for more than a year.

“How would you characterize your feelings for Mr. Herman at this time last year?”