Chapter 105
YUKI CASTELLANO STARED down at her notes. Scribbles only she could decipher on a simple yellow legal pad. This morning’s trial had yet to begin. It was still early and there weren’t many people in the courtroom. She was trying to concentrate. It was difficult. Crazy difficult.
Yuki had already presented medical and tactical experts to explain exactly what a wound like that did to a human body. All she had to do now was get Roberto Paz on the stand to tell the story of the incident himself.
Yuki turned her head and was surprised to see her husband standing in the gallery. He was decked out in a sharp blue suit with a yellow striped tie. She stood up from the prosecution’s table and walked to where Brady stood next to the low oak divider.
“I didn’t think I’d see you upright for at least a day.” She stepped through the swinging gate and gave her husband a kiss on the cheek. “What brings you around here after being up all night?”
“Can’t I support my wife?” Brady waggled his eyebrows and added, “I also wanted to get a look at this defense attorney, Angela Torres. You made her sound like the devil incarnate.” He glanced over at the attorney, who was chatting with one of the bailiffs near the empty jury box.
“She sure don’t look like the devil to me. ” He grinned.
Yuki slugged her husband in the arm. All that did was make him laugh.
When she’d punched him, she’d dropped her pen on the floor.
She bent down to pick it up and noticed a small pistol Brady kept on his left ankle.
He called it his “backup” gun. A holdover from his days working in Miami.
He’d once had a pistol jam on him. His backup pistol was the only thing that saved his life.
She stood up and said to him quietly, “You’re not supposed to have a gun in the courtroom. Even if you’re a cop.”
“I didn’t even realize it. I locked up my duty weapon downstairs and forgot all about my backup. The security guard let me through his station. The line for the magnetometer was too long. Don’t rat me out.”
Two of the beefy patrol officers who’d been following the trial stepped through the door and headed for their spots at the front of the gallery. They both stiffened when they saw the Homicide lieutenant standing there.
Brady said, “Relax, boys. Just like you, I’m here to get a look at the defense attorney.”
Just then, a door at the side of the courtroom opened. Bailiffs uncuffed the defendants and led them into the courtroom. Elio Huerta was the first. He was dressed in his usual charcoal-gray suit.
Yuki looked at Brady and said, “It’s almost showtime.”