“Don’t worry about him. First of all, I’m sure Cisco took care of the drugs Marco planted. Second, we have the video. Nobody’s going to lay anything on Stratton Sterghos. He’s lying on a beach somewhere in Florida and four grand happier.”
“Four grand! Where did that come from?”
“I used my own money.”
“Mickey, you better not be tapping Hayley’s college fund. That would be all you need to have go wrong with her.”
“I’m telling you, I didn’t.”
She didn’t respond and she didn’t seem mollified, probably because she could tell I was lying. But I had more than a year before I needed that money to pay for college.
I checked my watch and then looked at the slowly moving river of steel in front of me.
“See if you can get over and get off at Alvarado,” I instructed. “We’re never going to get there at this pace.”
“Whatever.”
It was her annoyed tone again. She was still fuming about my being ten minutes late for pickup. Or maybe about where I had been that made me ten minutes late. Or maybe it was a holdover from our angry words the day before. Whichever didn’t matter. I missed Earl. He never added any tone to his commentary. He never got lost and he knew better than to sit in the middle of an unmoving freeway when I was due in court.
“What if Marco Polo hadn’t worked?” Lorna asked.
“What do you mean?”
“What if they hadn’t zeroed in on Stratton Sterghos? What would have happened then?”
I thought for a moment.
“We had other strategies,” I finally said. “And I’m not doing too bad as it is in trial. Only one day of defense and I was chipping away at the DA’s case. We’re in pretty good shape without this.”
I nudged her bag again with my foot.
“But now . . . everything changes.”
“Let’s hope.”
34
Somehow, I made it into Department 120 at one minute before nine. Forsythe was already at his table, with Lankford sitting dutifully behind him in his seat against the rail. At the defense table Jennifer Aronson sat alone. There had been no need for the deputies to bring La Cosse out from lockup, because the jury wasn’t coming out until after the hearing on the amended witness list.
I traded looks with Lankford before pulling out my chair and sitting down.
“I thought you weren’t going to make it,” Jennifer whispered to me in a panicked tone.
“You would have done fine. But listen, things have changed since last night. I need to handle this. I’m sorry, but there isn’t enough time to explain the change in strategy. Things have happened.”
“What things?”
Before I could answer, the court clerk noticed that all attorneys were present and told us the judge wanted to discuss the new witness list in chambers. We got up and the clerk opened the half door to her corral, which gave us access to the hallway behind the courtroom.
Judge Leggoe had been expecting two lawyers. She saw Jennifer and told me to pull a chair over from a conference table to the arrangement in front of her desk. We sat down in front of her, Jennifer between Forsythe and me. I had smoothly grabbed the chair on the right so the judge would be looking at me on her left.
“I thought it better to hold this hearing in chambers so maybe we can speak a little more freely,” Leggoe said. “Rosa, we can go on record now.”
She was talking to the court reporter who sat off the rear left corner of the judge’s desk with her steno machine in front of her. I noticed that the judge didn’t go on the record until after making her comment on her desire to keep the media away from the court business at hand.
I could have objected to the in-camera hearing but I didn’t think it would get me anything and it certainly would not score me any points with the judge. So I went along to get along, even though I felt Jennifer staring at me and waiting for me to object. As a general rule, it is better for the defendant to hold hearings in open court. It guards against public suspicions that backroom deals are being made and information is being hidden.
The judge named all those present for the record and proceeded.
“Mr. Forsythe, I assume you’ve had time to study the defense’s amended list of witnesses. Why don’t we start with your response?”
“Thank you, Judge. My investigator and I have had barely enough time to review the list of names. And, Your Honor, calling it an amended list is a misnomer. Adding thirty-three names is not amending. It is reinventing and it is unreasonable. The state can’t be expected to—”
“Your Honor,” I said. “I need to interrupt Mr. Forsythe here because I think the defense can offer a compromise that will cut through a lot of this and might even make him happy.”