Chapter 26
“Are you sure, kid?” That was all she asked me. I stood on Jeanie’s porch a few hours later. She invited me in but somehow I couldn’t take her up on it. The longer I had with her one-on-one, the harder it would be for me to keep a poker face and not tell her what was on my mind.
Jeanie was the person I would have normally used as a main sounding board for a problem like this. How could I protect both my brother and my client when doing so would damage both of them?
If this were anyone else, she would have said I told you so. This is exactly why lawyers shouldn’t represent family members. Why certain ethical rules exist in the first place. I walked right into this with my whole chest.
Hubris would be my downfall. It was me believing everything Katy and Joe said about me. She wanted the best lawyer in town. I had been the exact worst choice for everyone.
“I’m sure,” I said.
She didn’t ask any questions. Jeanie seemed to know instinctually not to.
Because she knew me about as well as anyone did.
I was just fifteen the first time she came into my life.
She had saved my life by saving my family.
By keeping us together when the state was determined to pull Matty and Vangie into foster care and an uncertain future.
Eric was right. Jeanie loved Joe as if he were her own son.
She would fight to the death for him. For all of us.
If she knew what I knew, she couldn’t serve Katy as we both vowed to do.
“Okay,” she said. “Does Katy know?”
“I thought I’d head to the jail next,” I said.
Jeanie nodded. “Miranda called me too. It’s bad, Cass. If Katy really said those things to someone, Quick’s got his motive. If he finds this source of Tallon Shipley’s, he’ll want to put them on the stand.”
“He’ll want worse than that,” I said. “He’ll use it as a way to cross-examine Katy without me putting her on the stand.”
“Maybe I should go with you,” she said. “In fact, you don’t have a choice. I’m coming. We’ll go first thing tomorrow morning. I need some time to get my head straight. If I’m taking the lead on this case, maybe you shouldn’t be talking to her anymore at all.”
“I have to at least tell her I’m withdrawing face to face. But you’re right. We’ll go together.”
“Good,” Jeanie said, all business. “Pick me up at eight. And bring me two cups of coffee. Black.”
I saluted her. I was about to thank her again. To hug her. But Jeanie knew her assignment. There would be time for personal feelings later and forever. She was firmly Katy’s lawyer now. The more we talked about it, the less effective she might be.
She gently closed her front door. I pulled my jacket around me. Early July, and we’d had an odd cold snap. It would only get up to sixty-five tomorrow, then be in the mid-nineties by the end of the week.
Katy hadn’t expected to see us both. When I told her Jeanie would helm her defense, she didn’t seem surprised.
That alone raised a red flag for me. Had Joe already gotten to her?
Had they been in communication all along?
He swore to me he’d stay away from her. But I felt I couldn’t trust anything he told me anymore when it came to this woman.
Jeanie played the snippet from Tallon Shipley’s podcast with the anonymous witness.
Katy’s face changed color at least four times.
First white, then red, then purple. Now, she settled into a mottled pink.
She pulled at her hair, then her sleeve.
A tear fell from her left eye. She had a myriad of physical reactions, but never once did she deny the story this witness had to tell.
“Who did you tell this to?” I asked.
Katy shook her head.
“You know what?” Jeanie said. “Maybe I don’t want to know. Did you say it? Did you say those things? Is that all true?”
“I didn’t kill Tom. They’re making it sound like I was only interested in his money. That’s not true. She’s twisting my words.”
“Did you know Joe was having financial difficulties? If this witness talked to Addison Quick too …”
Jeanie turned to me. “You know. Cass, I think you better step outside. Let me talk to Katy alone from now on.”
“But I …”
“I’ll meet you back at the office,” Jeanie said. Katy looked shocked. I wasn’t. Jeanie was right. I couldn’t have this both ways. I couldn’t take point on interviews with Katy. I was sitting there asking her questions about Joe, both direct and indirect. I hadn’t even learned my own lesson yet.
“I’ll be waiting,” I said.
“Cass …” Katy started.
“You’re in good hands,” I said. Then I turned my back on her and knocked on the door, alerting the deputies that I was ready to leave.
Jeanie spent another half hour with Katy.
I waited in my office. Back home, Eric was busy packing up the files and whiteboards I’d kept in my make-shift war room.
Later, he’d bring everything into Jeanie’s office and set it up for her.
Mercifully, Emma was off the whole week doing final prep for the bar exam.
It was a good excuse, but also good timing.
None of us needed her here while Katy’s trial was ongoing.
“You okay?” Miranda asked as I passed her desk.
“I honestly don’t know how to answer that,” I said.
“Is there anything you can talk about, honey?”
Miranda already knew I’d benched myself from court this week. Both she and Jeanie were smart enough to know the one reason I would choose to do something so drastic. They would never ask me a direct question about it, but had to know it involved Joe.
For his part, I had three missed calls from him.
I had half a mind to block his calls. I had a voicemail from Vangie.
Her sisterly spidey senses must have tingled.
She left a message wanting to know what was going on with me and Joe.
She threw in a few colorful words about Katy as well.
I deleted the message. Some days, I knew how much easier life might be if I were an only child.
“Not really,” I answered Miranda. “But thanks for asking.”
“You know,” she said. “You should think about taking the rest of the week off too. You look like you could use it.”
“I still have to run this practice,” I said. “Why don’t you give me the rest of Jeanie’s docket? I can pinch-hit for her.”
“There’s no need,” she said. “I pushed everything off until next week or longer.”
“I don’t know what we’d do without you, Miranda. You’re not allowed to ever let us try.”
She rolled her eyes at me and pointed to a plate of pastries she’d brought back from Sweet Delights.
I took a strawberry Danish and disappeared into the bowels of my office. Twenty minutes later, Jeanie walked in.
“I have terms,” she said.
I folded my hands on my desk and gestured for her to have a seat. “Okay.”
“There can’t be a halfway on this. Either you’re in or you’re out. I don’t want to send mixed messages to Katy, Addison Quick, or most especially, the jury.”
“Agreed.”
“But I have to ask you something. I probably shouldn’t. But here I go.”
“If you probably shouldn’t,” I said. “Then don’t. That will have to be my term.”
I could guess her question. Had my opinion on Katy’s guilt or innocence changed?
Truthfully, I wasn’t sure anymore. I had my doubts from the beginning.
And yet, everything Eric and I discussed still resonated.
I could think of no good reason my brother would lie about where he was the morning of Tom Loomis’s murder.
Not unless Katy were actually the one protecting him.
Except, the Joe I knew would have never allowed that. He would never have let someone he cared about … the de facto mother of his only child, no less … take the fall for something he did. Certainly nothing of this magnitude. Katy was facing life in prison.
I knew Jeanie could see my thoughts swimming across my face. It made her go still.
“All right,” she said. “Don’t ask, don’t tell. We’ll both have to live with it for the duration.”
“I think so.”
“Are you sending me to the wolves?”
My heart twisted. “No. Jeanie, no. Nothing’s changed in terms of the defense strategy I would use.
Dr. Wall is ready to take the stand first thing Monday morning.
He’ll testify about the effects of alcohol and sleeping pills.
Katy’s toxicology is already admitted. Then you’ve got the WLAN station manager.
She knows about Maisy Carmichael, or Sugar Bear.
We … you can reinforce all the leads Sharon DePaul refused to go down. ”
“That still leaves Katy herself,” she said. “This is what I mean, Cass. It’s all or nothing. The decision on whether to have her testify rests with me now.”
“I would never stand in your way. That’s between you and Katy.”
“So, nothing you know … whatever your reasoning for doing this is … it wouldn’t impact your decision to put Katy on the stand?”
Could I answer that? I had no idea whether Katy knew about Joe’s lie. I had no true idea whether he was involved or not. Would Katy say something on the stand that could implicate Joe?
Lord. Jeanie was right about everything. There could be no halfway for me.
“I’ll say it again. The decision whether to put Katy on the stand or not is between the two of you.”
So be it. This was the price of Joe’s lie and how it compromised me. If Jeanie decided Katy’s testimony would help her, then she should put her on the stand no matter the risk to Joe.
“My immediate problem is Tallon Shipley’s anonymous source,” Jeanie said.
“They’re real?” I said. My head started to pound.