Chapter 14
Seventy-two hours before opening statements, Hayden Simmons sat in my office worrying a long beaded necklace between her fingers. She had an opened envelope on her lap when I walked in.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” I said. “Do you need something? Coffee? Juice? Have you eaten?”
“I’m okay,” she said, but didn’t look it.
I hadn’t seen Hayden in a few weeks but she was much thinner.
Her hair hung lifeless around her face. Her forehead had broken out.
She tried to cover it with thick makeup that was too dark for her pale complexion.
This nineteen-year-old girl looked forty today. I feared it would only get worse.
I sat down behind my desk. “Thanks for coming in. I just wanted to touch base with you and answer any questions you might still have heading into Monday.”
She shook her head. “I just want to get this over with.”
“I spoke to your grandparents a couple of weeks ago. Did they tell you that?”
Hayden looked down. “It’s awkward with them. My grandma tries to stay in contact. But we don’t talk about anything real. It’s just surface stuff. She asked me how I’m doing in school, if I need anything.” Hayden let out a bitter laugh.
“I can’t imagine how tough this has been on you, Hayden. But you know you’re doing the right thing.”
She picked the envelope up off her lap and reached across my desk to hand it to me. Frowning, I took it from her.
“That was delivered the day before yesterday,” she said. “A man came to my work. I thought he was putting in his coffee order but he came behind the counter and put that in my hand. My boss saw. My coworker.”
I recognized the court caption across the top. Erin Luke had filed for a restraining order against her own daughter. I skimmed it.
“This is only a petition,” I said. “It’s not a court order. This means the judge wouldn’t grant it without a hearing.”
I read the bottom of the form. A hearing had been set for two weeks from now, smack in the middle of the trial.
“Have you had contact with your mom?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No. I’ve tried to call her. Text her. She blocked my number. I asked my grandma to give her a letter from me but she said she didn’t feel comfortable getting in the middle.”
Anger bubbled through me. This smacked of a Bennett Cutler tactic, though he wasn’t the one who’d signed the petition. Erin Luke had done that presumably on her own.
“She wants to make it illegal for me to talk to her?” Hayden asked.
“This is a stunt,” I said. “This is so Bennett Cutler can ask you about it on the witness stand. An attempt to poison the jury’s impression of you. As much as you can, I need you to not let this rattle you, Hayden.”
“It’s not her,” she said. “My mom wouldn’t think to do this on her own.”
“Probably not.”
“I feel like such an idiot. There are so many things that I should have picked up on over the years. It’s only in the three months since I’ve been out of that house that it’s starting to be clear.”
“What things, Hayden?” I asked.
“The way my dad manipulates my mom. My grandparents. He decides everything. Always has. My mom has always just deferred to him. Never argues with him.”
“Have you ever seen him get physically violent with your mom?” I asked.
“No. Not like that. It’s been more subtle.
She goes to him for everything. She doesn’t keep her own bank account.
She’s never worked outside the home. She did some online medical data entry for a while but when that started taking up her time, my dad made her quit.
I don’t know why I never really questioned any of it.
God. He does that. He just takes over. I’ve lived my whole life with him in charge. Until now.”
I wanted to be careful not to put words in Hayden’s mouth. I couldn’t afford anyone thinking I’d coached her. This case would greatly hinge on how well she could stand up to Bennett Cutler’s cross-examination.
“If I asked you about that on the stand, do you think you could give specific examples?”
“Of how he manipulates her? Yes. I just never thought anything of it. I didn’t know any better.
But my mom doesn’t have friends of her own.
Everyone they socialize with are people my dad is friends with.
People he works with. That shopping trip she took when I found the box in the basement?
She was with two wives of my dad’s friends.
And she called my father practically every hour while she was gone.
That was the first time I can remember her going somewhere without him.
My mom has lived in and around Waynetown her whole life.
She went to high school here. But she doesn’t keep in touch with any of her old friends.
For as long as I can remember, she never has. ”
The more I knew about the Simmons family dynamic, the more I realized Ellie Luke had only been Jamie’s first victim, not his last.
“What about your grandparents?” I asked. I would not tell Hayden what they’d said about her. If they took the stand, she’d hear it soon enough. Let her reaction be genuine. Let the jury see it for themselves.
“They worship the ground my dad walks on. Even my grandpa. He runs every financial decision by my dad. When I was little, I remember going over there watching him balance their checkbook. If there was something in the house that needed fixing, my grandpa would call my dad and he’d call the plumber or the furnace guy.
Whatever. It’s like they’ve all been children and he’s the parent.
I don’t know why I never questioned it.”
“Hayden, you’ve been a kid yourself this whole time. Why would you question it?”
“That’s what my therapist says,” she said.
“How’s that going?”
“I don’t know. It’s hard. I cry a lot. But my shrink has been helping me realize how oppressive my household was growing up.”
“It’s going to take time,” I said. “You need to be gentle with yourself. None of this is your fault, Hayden.”
“I know. At least I think I know. I just don’t see how my mom and grandparents are ever going to understand who my dad really is.”
“As hard as it is,” I said, “you’re going to have to accept that it’s not your job to make them.”
She smiled. “My therapist said that too. She reminds me of you.”
“Thanks. I think.”
“I just … I’m sorry. I can’t help wondering if I’ve done the right thing. If I’d have just left that box where it was. If I’d just packed my things, moved away, never said what I believed. Just gone no contact sooner. Maybe that would have been better.”
“Do you really believe that?”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “No. I guess I don’t. He hurt Aunt Ellie.”
Hurt. That’s not how she described it before. I knew Cutler would capitalize on her phrasing if that’s what she said on the stand. Hurt doesn’t mean killed.
Hayden looked at me. “I know what he’s capable of now. Even if my family doesn’t. They can’t admit what he is because then they have to admit how wrong they’ve been. That they’ve let him control them. Then their whole lives since Ellie died is a lie.”
“It’s so much, Hayden. And you’re carrying the weight of it on your own.”
“What about that?” she asked, pointing to the petition.
I looked over Hayden’s shoulder. I could see out into the hallway. A familiar face had just walked in. Caro had thrown her arms around her. I quickly suppressed my own smile.
“I can’t get directly involved with this,” I said. “I’m still the prosecutor. But if you don’t want to go to the hearing on your own, I can recommend someone to go with you.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
I wanted to tell her it would be okay. Not to worry. But those would be empty words. There was no precedent for what Hayden Simmons would face. Though she looked frail, I knew this girl had a spine of steel. She would need it.
I walked Hayden down the hall to the employee exit. I didn’t want her leaving the building through the lobby. Though I hadn’t seen any when I came in this morning, I couldn’t promise there wouldn’t be a reporter or two lurking out there.
“I’ll see you Monday,” I said. “If anything comes up over the weekend, you call me.”
I gave her a hug. It seemed appropriate. Hayden choked back a sob. I watched through the window until Hayden got into her car. Then I started back toward the empty office beside mine. I’d turned it into my trial prep room. Caro had taken our visitor there.
She stood in front of my whiteboard, hands on her hips.
“Kenya,” I beamed. She turned around. Kenya Spaulding, my former boss, looked radiant in wide-legged red pants and a black blouse. Her gold bangles rattled as she threw her arms wide and pulled me into a hug.
“You’re a sight for sore eyes,” I said.
“I had a feeling you could use a cheerleader,” she said. She wore her hair piled high on top of her head, her intricate braids looped tightly into a spiral.
“I could use a lot more than that,” I said. We were alone, but Kenya stepped around me and closed the door.
“How’s it really going?” she asked.
“How much do you know?”
“Only what I’ve read on the news. I talked to Caro a bit. She says you’re holding up just fine.”
“I don’t know. This case isn’t as strong as I want it to be.”
“They never are.”
“Do you remember much about this one?” I asked.
“Ellie Luke,” she sighed. “No. This one predates me by a few years. I mean, I’d heard of it. Gus Ritter’s great white whale. How’s he holding up?”
Kenya must have read something in my face. “Geesh. That bad?”
“No. I don’t know. I’m worried about him. I won’t lie. He’s wound pretty tight with this one. And Jamie Simmons’s defense lawyer isn’t messing around.”
“He’s gonna try to filet Gus on the stand,” she said.
“Exactly.”
“Well, don’t count Gus out just yet. He can be abrasive one on one, but you know how good he is in the witness box.”
“This one’s different, Kenya. Gus blames himself for it.”
“There was no physical evidence tying this Simmons guy to the murders twenty-two years ago. He wasn’t on anyone’s radar. The family led Gus to somebody else. He can’t think any of this is his fault.”
“You know Gus,” I said.
“Yep. Poor guy. I’ll check in on him. See if I can give him a pep talk.”
I smiled. “Like the one you’re giving me? Come clean. Was it Caro’s idea?”
Kenya grinned.
“I knew it,” I said. “Is she that worried about me?”
“Not worried. Just making sure you remember that you’re Mara Effing Brent. You’ve got this.”
“I don’t know. That’s the truth. Most of this is going to fall on Hayden Simmons’s nineteen-year-old shoulders. If she shuts down, this whole case does.”
“Was that her walking out when I came in?”
“Yes.”
Kenya whistled low. “She looks terrible.”
“Her whole family turned their backs on her. They’re too invested in believing Dane Fischer really killed Ellie. Jamie Simmons has been manipulating them all for twenty years. Grooming them to believe he’s this hero. The guy who took control and pulled them out of their grief.”
“Wow. That poor kid. I can’t even imagine. She’s solid though? She’s not going to change her mind?”
“No. She sees her dad for who he is. I think Cutler’s afraid of her.”
I had the copy of Erin Luke’s petition. I handed it to Kenya. She scanned it.
“She’s seeking a restraining order against her own daughter? This is sick.”
“I know. Cutler put her up to it just so he could ask Hayden about it on the stand.”
“And you’ll object and Judge Saul will sustain it.”
“Probably,” I agreed. “But Cutler’s whole case will be painting Hayden as disturbed. I’ve got her in touch with the Silver Angels. They’re looking out for her. She’s in therapy and I think it’s helping. But she needs someone else in her corner.”
“You have someone in mind?”
I smiled. “You think you could find the time to take her on as a client? Handle the hearing on that petition for her?”
“It’s gonna go nowhere,” she said. “Has Hayden been in contact with her mother? Has she threatened her?”
“No.”
“Then this is easy,” Kenya said, waving the petition.
“You’ll do it?”
“I’ll do it.”
“That’s fantastic. I’ll get word to her to expect a call from you.”
“I assume you want me to do this pro bono?”
“I never assume with other people’s money. I just know Hayden doesn’t have much. She’s been thrown out of her parents’ house. She’s living in an apartment the Silver Angels helped her find. They’re helping her with her rent for now.”
“It’s okay,” Kenya said. “I’m happy to do it. Sounds like this kid could use as many friends as she can.”
“Thank you,” I said. “That’ll give her … and me … peace of mind.”
“What about you?” she asked. “Are you ready for this?”
I looked at the whiteboard. “I don’t know. I mean, of course I am. It’s just … this isn’t a slam dunk. Not by any means. Simmons is a monster. Of that I’m sure. He kept souvenirs from the crime scene, from Ellie Luke’s body.”
“Then he married a souvenir,” Kenya said, wrinkling her nose in disgust. “Lord, Erin Luke could have been her sister’s twin.”
“It’s disturbing. But that alone doesn’t prove murder. Everything I have is circumstantial. I don’t have a confession. I don’t have definitive physical evidence tying him to the actual killing.”
Kenya smiled. “And I know you’ve gotten convictions on less. If anyone can pull this off, it’s you. I for one can’t wait to watch.”
“You’ll be there?” I asked.
Kenya put her hands on my shoulders. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed her strong presence in this office. It led me to another question. The big one. The county needed her … I needed her … to run for office again. To get back where she belonged in the corner office next to us.
“I’ll be here if you need me,” she said. “I’ll be your good luck charm. And I’ll back Hayden Simmons.”
Relief flooded me. Stress I hadn’t realized I’d been holding released. At the same time, I knew how big a battle I had in front of me. And Bennett Cutler may very well have more ammo.