The Hearing

'Your honor, excuse me.' Hardy found it difficult to believe that Torrey had the brass to speak up and interrupt at this juncture, but the man's arrogance apparently knew no bounds. He didn't wait for the judge's acknowledgment, either, but went straight to his point. 'The court ought to know that I talked to Elaine about this problem several weeks ago, just after her first time at Logan's when, in fact, she did run across the check receipts by mistake. She knew she had no legal reason to have seen them. She came to me because we used to be friends.'

'More than friends,' Freeman corrected mildly.

Torrey shrugged that away, although Pratt once again seemed to take it almost as a blow. 'The point is I've got the notes of that meeting in my minute file. You're welcome to send somebody up and check right now. So there wasn't anything to cover up. And just for the record, your honor, I'm aware of what it looks like, but Dash isn't the world's best bookkeeper and his secretary… In any event, the money was payment for personal gambling debts-'

Hardy couldn't restrain himself. 'Oh, for the love of God…'

But Hill held up a hand, spoke up. 'This is eighteen thousand dollars we're talking about, Mr Torrey.'

'Yes, your honor.' He hung his head briefly in a show of embarrassment or contrition. 'I've spoken to Ms Pratt about it. We've decided I ought to seek some counseling.'

Hill's expression curdled in distaste, but he wasn't going to pursue this line any further. 'Well, as I've said, Mr Torrey, you'll have ample opportunity to bare your soul and transgressions over the coming weeks. But, Mr Hardy, this does bring me back to my topic.' He inhaled deeply. The fact is that we're here to determine if the evidence says that your client ought to go to trial for Ms Wager's murder. The evidence,' he repeated solemnly. 'And I must tell you that to this point the evidence remains overwhelming, simply overwhelming against Mr Burgess. I trust you haven't lost sight of that.'

'No, your honor.'

'So you wish to continue with your case in chief? If you want to make a motion to relieve the DA and substitute the AG, I'll hear it. But I still haven't heard anything casting doubt on Mr Burgess's guilt.'

'We have a few more witnesses, your honor, yes.'

The Cadaver wasn't even sure that he'd heard right. Certainly, he conveyed to everyone in the room his belief that no one Hardy could call would make any difference to the evidence already arrayed against Cole. But it was still a capital case and the prosecution had proven itself inept and possibly – hell, probably – venal if not pathetic. If Pratt lost a slam dunk of a case like this after making it a political barn-burner, it would serve her right. Maybe she'd learn something, although Hill doubted that very strongly. 'All right,' he said to Hardy at last. 'But they'd better be talking about evidence in the Wager murder case. Keep them on point or I'll dismiss them out of hand. Am I making myself clear?'

'Yes, your honor,' Hardy said.

As he answered questions about his rank and professional duties, Paul Thieu sat upright in the witness chair – confident, alert, professional, cooperative. Hardy knew that he had not slept a wink in more than twenty-four hours, yet his eyes were clear, his face shaved, his coat and slacks crisply pressed. The man was a marvel.

And now it was time to get to the meat of it. 'Sergeant Thieu, as a homicide inspector, can you explain how you are involved in this case before the court today?'

'Sure. Another inspector in the detail, Ridley Banks, has been missing now for over ten days. The presumption is that he has met with foul play. One of the witnesses in this case, Gene Visser, admitted on the stand here that he'd talked to Inspector Banks, apparently on the night he disappeared. We believed that meeting concerned the murder of Elaine Wager, but we didn't know exactly why Inspector Banks had asked for it. Based on that, and since Mr Visser was the last person to see him, I requested a search warrant on Mr Visser's place of business.'

'And what were you looking for?'

'I guess the best answer is anything we could find that might relate to this meeting, including documentary evidence to verify whether it actually took place and how long it lasted.'

'Inspector Thieu, when did you conduct this search?'

'Well, we began this morning at around seven o'clock, and I believe it's still going on.'

'Thank you.' Hardy turned and walked back to the defense table, under which he'd placed the cardboard box from the Solarium. Reaching down, he pulled out a large ziploc bag which contained a gun and brought it forward.

The gallery, seeing what it was, began its buzzing again, and kept it up as Hardy got to the stand. He raised his voice slightly. 'Now Sergeant Thieu, do you recognize this gun?'

Thieu took it, looked at the evidence tag, checked inside, and nodded. 'Yes, sir, I do.'

'Would you please tell the court about it?'

'This is a Glock.38 automatic that we found in the course of our search of Mr Visser's office in the lower left hand drawer of his desk.'

Hardy was aware of an increase in the noise behind him, but it abruptly ceased when Pratt's voice cut through it, objecting. 'The murder weapon in this case has already been entered in evidence. What's the significance of introducing this new gun?'

Hill looked the question at Hardy, who responded, 'Your honor, the provenance of the murder weapon in this case has been a critical issue from the begi

'But this new gun is not the murder weapon.'

'No, that's true. But as your honor will see with my next witness, it bears on it.'

'All right, I'll allow it. Go ahead.'

Hardy took a breath, blew it out in a rush of relief, and had the Glock entered into evidence as Defense J, and excused the witness. Pratt chose not to cross-examine.

Hardy stole a glance back out over the bar rail. The tension in the gallery was, he thought, palpable. Logan and Visser were sitting next to one another in the first row on the prosecution side. There wasn't a soul in the courtroom who wasn't aware of their earlier testimonies yesterday and today; Glitsky had whispered to him at the break that he had had them both reminded by the door bailiff as they attempted to leave earlier today that they were still under subpoena. If they needed so much as to go to the bathroom, another bailiff would be happy to accompany them.

Jonas Walsh sulked in an aisle chair on the prosecution side, three rows from the back and another four behind Muhammed Adek and some of his friends.

On Hardy's side, Clarence Jackman and the three musketeers sat midway back, along with Treya and Glitsky, Gina Roake, a few other R & J associates. As Logan had left the stand at the begi

Now Hardy looked down at his client, gave him a small confident nod, and called his next witness. The defense calls Officer Gary Bellew.'

Like Thieu, Bellew was a policeman, but the similarity between the gung-ho, brilliant Vietnamese homicide inspector and the young, surly custodian of the gun room of the evidence locker ended there. Bellew's uniform hadn't been cleaned or pressed in days and he needed a haircut, but then before this morning, he had had no warning that he would be appearing as a witness. More instructive was Bellew's obvious resentment at his presence in court today. He seemed to project a defensive attitude, that somehow whatever he was made to disclose would turn out to be his fault. And, Hardy knew, in this he wasn't all wrong.