Chapter 35
Eddie
‘Miss Karim,’ I said, ‘are you lying to this jury because someone paid you, or are you lying because the district attorney’s office forced you?’
‘Mr. Flynn!’
The judge answered my question.
Riley had sprung out of his chair to object, but he wasn’t as fast as Judge Tanner. He stood there now, mute, as if he was surprised by the judge’s outburst.
‘Before you accuse this independent witness of lying under oath, I presume you have strong evidence to put before this court to back up such a serious allegation,’ said the judge, sending tiny cannonballs of spit from her mouth that sailed over the bench and then were lost from sight before they hit the polished wooden floor.
I looked at Harry.
His expression changed, his eyebrows crowded in a frown and as he lowered his head he shook it from side to side, almost in disbelief.
The judge had either been leaned on or was bought and paid for by Julian Vanderpool. Didn’t matter which, we were now in serious trouble. It’s hard to build a defense for your client when the judge refuses to let you pick up a single brick.
With Judge Tanner staring at me, and getting angrier by the second while she waited for an answer, I thought about how I should play this.
Having to make massive tactical adjustments in seconds in a murder trial during cross-examination is sometimes called thinking on your feet.
But it’s much more than that. It’s like trying to adjust an invasion plan in the middle of a battle.
The judge’s eyebrows sat almost at the top of her head while she waited for an answer.
She was expecting me to say no, not yet. Not at this time. Some delaying tactic.
‘Of course I have evidence, Your Honor,’ I said.
Her eyebrows stayed put in a look of incredulity.
‘Have you shared this so-called evidence with Mr. Riley?’ she asked.
‘He shared it with me,’ I said. Then, before she could say anything else, I shot the next question at the witness.
‘Miss Karim, let’s start again. You made a call to 911 on the night of the murder, correct?’ I asked.
‘Yes,’ she said.
I held up the document Harry had given me, so the jury could see it in my hand.
‘The dispatcher recorded that conversation,’ I said, and slapped the page down on my desk. Harry was already handing me the second document. Again, I held it above my head.
‘When the police responded to your call, you spoke to Officer Garcia, and he recorded what you told him about hearing raised voices. Do you remember talking to him that night?’
‘Yes, I do,’ she said.
I slapped that down, took the next document, brandished it for the jury.
‘And during the initial investigation, you spoke to Detective Ben Larkin and he recorded your statement. Do you remember talking to him?’
‘Of course,’ she said.
I gathered all three documents, asked that they be handed to the witness.
‘Is that your signature at the bottom of that statement?’ I asked.
She gazed at the document, said, ‘Yes, that’s my signature.’
‘In total, Miss Karim, you spoke to three different people in law enforcement, the dispatcher, Officer Garcia and Detective Larkin, and they recorded everything you said. In none of those statements did you mention that the raised voices you’d heard were both female. Correct?’
She stared blankly at the pages in front of her.
‘I’m not sure. I think I did,’ she said.
‘You think you did. So, Miss Karim, are you telling this jury that all three of those officers can’t do their jobs properly, that they are all three so incompetent that they forgot to include that crucial piece of information?’
‘No, but I think I might have mentioned it.’
‘You think you might. A minute ago, you thought you had. Now you’re only speculating?’
‘I can’t recall exactly what I said.’
‘Well, you signed that witness statement as being an accurate and true account of what you told Detective Larkin. Were you lying when you made that declaration?’
‘No way. I wasn’t lying. Everything I told the police is the truth,’ she said.
‘I think that’s right. All three statements record the truth. But right now you’re lying to this jury. You’re embellishing your testimony to suit the prosecution’s case. Isn’t that right?’
‘I’m just telling the truth.’
I took a breath. Let the witness sit with her denials for a moment. A natural pause, to indicate I was moving on to another point.
Really, I was formulating the next question in my mind, making sure it was perfect.
Of course, there’s no such thing as the perfect question.
There’s only the perfect answer.
This question was bait. I knew the answer already. Miss Karim was smart, and she would give the smartest answer she could.
‘Hearing raised female voices from the victim’s apartment wasn’t the only thing you lied about. You didn’t tell the dispatch officer, or Officer Garcia, or even Detective Larkin that the defendant was having a hard time with her boss’s wife, did you?’
Even before I could finish the question, I saw the wheels turning in the witness’s mind. It was written all over her face. At first, some apprehension, then the answer came to her and she just waited to deliver it.
Harry leaned forward. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Riley gripping his pen in his fist.
‘I wasn’t lying about that. When I spoke to those officers, I didn’t think Molly having a hard time with her boss’s wife was relevant,’ she said with some satisfaction.
Having delivered her answer, she nodded and smiled.
Riley relaxed his grip on the pen.
It was a plausible and accurate explanation. The smart explanation.
Or so they thought.
‘I see, so it wasn’t relevant because the police didn’t have a suspect at that time, right?’
‘Right,’ said Miss Karim.
‘So you accept that your testimony today is materially different to the statements you gave the police on previous occasions?’
‘Well, yes, but I explained that.’
‘Of course you did. You explained that you changed your testimony once the police arrested Vanessa Vanderpool, right?’
‘Well, I . . . I don’t think of it that way, I mean . . .’
‘Miss Karim, all three statements you gave to the police were made before my client was arrested, correct?’
‘Yes.’
‘So you altered your testimony today to suit the prosecution’s case against my client?’
‘Objection, Your Honor,’ said Riley, leaning over the desk, his pen in his hand like a dagger he wanted to stick in my back.
The judge was giving him her full attention.
She was going to sustain his objection, no matter what I said.
She didn’t want the rails coming off this prosecution so soon.
‘This is not the way this happened, Your Honor. Mr. Flynn is misrepresenting the facts to the—’
I cut off Riley before he could get the objection sustained.
‘Your Honor, if Mr. Riley wants to testify, he can get on the witness stand any time he likes, but there’s no need. He already has this witness lying for him in order to make his case.’
The jury heard that. I could tell by the squeak of the old mahogany jury chairs. They make that sound when a juror moves, usually leaning forward or swaying back. Any activity like that from the jury is good.
It means they’re listening.
‘Objection sustained. The jury will disregard Mr. Flynn’s last statements and his last question. We’ll take a short adjournment. I want counsel in my chambers, right now. That means you, Mr. Flynn.’
It’s difficult to gauge how well a trial is going. There are so many little indicators, but often they don’t add up to much.
When I saw Harry smiling, and a thick vein pulsing in Riley’s red throat, I took it as a good sign. If the prosecutor’s blood pressure was higher than mine, then either the DA needed to change their diet and exercise or things were going well for the defense.
Even though Judge Tanner had told the jury to ignore the last exchange with the witness and the DA, they wouldn’t forget it. People are always more swayed by something they see or hear that just so happens to be something they weren’t supposed to see or hear.
A small victory with the first witness.
I had a bad feeling there wouldn’t be many more victories in this case. Even this tiniest of wins would come with a heavy price.
And the judge was about to collect.