Chapter 68
Unlike at the start of Mrs. Dunham’s testimony, the courtroom now was entirely silent. Beau Lee thought for a moment about something he heard his mother say when he was a little boy: It was so quiet you could hear a rat piss on cotton. Everyone was hanging on Corrine’s every word.
“I had gone into the garage to gather the holiday decorations because I wanted to give my two sons the best Christmas that I could even if I had to do so by myself,” Corrine said.
“That’s when I saw he’d taken out an old safe we bought when we first got married.
I used to keep money in it when I was working.
When we had the boys, Jack forbade me from working.
He said there was no reason for his woman to work since he was the provider and had a good job. ”
“Tell me about the safe,” Beau Lee said. “What did you find?”
“I figured out what the combination was and opened it thinking I’d find evidence that he’d been cheating on me. Maybe gifts he planned to give his new woman—”
“Objection! Your Honor, this is all hearsay,” DaSilva said, making one last plea to prevent whatever grenade Mrs. Dunham was about to drop.
“Clearly Mrs. Dunham is a woman scorned. While I understand, that is still no reason for her to be able to sit here in this courtroom and cast aspersions on the entire Chicago Police Department. Her qualms with Officer Dunham are a private matter. For Christ’s sake your honor, what could she possibly offer to show that the other officers and their reports were false? ”
Beau Lee interjected, “Judge, I think Mrs. Dunham can answer Mr. DaSilva’s question. Please let her proceed for just one more minute to answer that question.”
“The objection is overruled. You may answer his question, Mrs. Dunham.”
Corrine took a deep breath and looked straight up at Beau Lee.
“If they were telling the truth that Mr. Montrose did not have his wallet on him the night that he was shot, then how did it end up in my husband’s safe in our garage,” she concluded as she paused to open her purse and retrieved a ziplock bag that had a wallet and papers in it.
The courtroom erupted. Rocky raised her hands up to the heavens and whispered, “The truth will set us free.”
The judge struck her gavel. “Order in the courtroom.”
“Mrs. Dunham, what is in this ziplock bag?” Beau Lee asked.
“Mr. Montrose’s wallet and a letter from Teddy Briscoe to Jack telling him how to protect the blue wall from those people.”
The courtroom was buzzing. Reporters were posting every word that Corrine uttered in real time.
Alvarez took a picture of that moment in her mind of Mrs. Dunham handing the wallet to Beau Lee Cooper from the witness box with the judge looking down and the words above the courtroom awning reading “We Who Labor Here Seek Only Truth.” Alvarez realized at that very moment that they were making history.
Judge Lambert struck her gavel and said, “Order in the court! Order in court.”
Word of what was happening in the courtroom was making it around the city, the country, and the world.
News teams were gathering out in front of the courthouse; cameras were being set up.
Banks of microphones. Beau Lee Cooper was no longer scaling Chicago’s unclimbable wall.
He was dismantling that wall brick by brick.
Jack chose then to take his leave.
“Your Honor,” Beau Lee said, calling out. “I don’t think Officer Dunham should be allowed to leave the courtroom.”
The judge looked up and asked the bailiff to apprehend Jack.
“If anything, Jack Dunham should be arrested for domestic violence,” Beau Lee said, and then pointed toward Corrine. “We heard the evidence in this courtroom today along with ocular proof.”
A bailiff took custody of Jack and put him in handcuffs.
Beau Lee made eye contact with Capes, who had received the call from Corrine earlier in the trial. “As a critical member of my team likes to point out, ocular proof will always be the thing. I tip my hat to him.”
Jack cried out, wrestling against the bailiff. “Corrine! How could you do this to me? Corrine?” While the bailiff pulled him away, he screamed louder. “How could you do this to me to help these people? How could you do this to our family?”
Corrine responded calmly. This was something she had thought about for a long time. “No, Jack, you did this to our family.”
“These people,” Harpo said, echoing Jack, and shook his head. “We are nothing to him.”
“I hope he has a long time to choke on his words ‘these people,’ ” Jamillah said, as she shook her head in disgust about how nefarious people could be.
Corrine was devoid of emotion as she watched her husband being taken away in handcuffs.
Beau Lee said to the judge, “I have no further questions for Mrs. Dunham. I pass the witness.”
The judge looked at DaSilva and Dillard, who sat at their table looking startled and spent. “Mr. DaSilva, Ms. Dillard, do either of you have any questions for Mrs. Dunham?”
DaSilva shook his head. “We have no questions.”
Beau Lee walked to the witness stand and took Corrine’s hand to help her down. “You don’t have to suffer any more abuse from him. Neither physical nor mental.”
Judge Lambert looked out at the chaotic courtroom. She banged her gavel and demanded, “I need quiet in this courtroom!”
When the frenzy finally cooled, the judge made an announcement. “Based on the evidence presented by Mrs. Dunham, I am inclined to grant a directed verdict in favor of defendant, Hollis Montrose. Does the State have any objections to the court’s ruling?”
DaSilva looked at Dillard, who gave a barely perceptible shake of her head. “The State has no objections,” he said.
“Then this case is dismissed. Mr. Montrose, you are a free man and this court is adjourned.”
There were adulations and hallelujahs throughout the courtroom with hugs of congratulations.
Beau Lee walked over to DaSilva and Dillard and shook their hands.
“Right is right,” Beau Lee said. “Mr. Montrose is an innocent man. Now the city of Chicago needs to do the right thing.”
DaSilva nodded in agreement. Beau Lee felt it symbolic that the two of them had acquired a mutual respect for each other. Beau Lee appreciated that DaSilva wasn’t a sore loser and recognized the merit of the court. It seemed as if there was hope for the healing to begin.