Breach Of Promise

Nina said, “Genevieve, I’ve seen a case turn before on the leadership abilities of one angry man…”

“This one won’t. We’re smarter than he is.” Genevieve slammed a notebook shut as if to put an end to all further discussion on the topic. “Now, moving right along…”

They spent most of the afternoon and evening chewing peppermints and nuts going over what had happened, with very little time to plan for the next week, where Riesner would take the reins and redirect the case. And whenever she had a moment to stop and think, the mistake of allowing Clifford Wright to sit up there came back to Nina like a hard plastic tag in her clothing, rubbing at her until her skin hurt.

Sunday, Andrea and Matt invited Nina and Bob along for a day at the beach. Nina said no at first, wanting to sleep late, study her notes, and give Bob a chance to get over his bug, but Andrea came up the stairs to her room, pulled the quilt off of her, and set Hitchcock on her. Packing up her paperwork into her briefcase, Nina agreed to come if they would just sit her at the table with her work. Well, hadn’t she just spent a lunch hour in her office sitting around with the others, commiserating about how they never got out?

At Pope Beach, where Lake Tahoe spread a frothy navy-blue all the way to the horizon, they laid out towels in the warm May sunshine. Nina stripped off her layers of clothes right down to her suit. Putting her head on her briefcase, she promptly fell asleep.

Next thing she knew, something cold and wet had landed on her back and seemed to be snaking its way down. Leaping up, she screamed.

“It’s just a wet ball, Mom, geez,” said Bob, picking up what looked like an exploded rubber star.

She touched her back. “Was that Hitchcock slobber on that ball or lake water?” she asked.

“A little of both.”

So she had to clean herself off, didn’t she? In she went, plunging headfirst into the icy cold snowmelt, followed by Hitchcock, Bob, and his cousins Troy and Bria

Bob made faces at his cousins until the two cars finally parted ways around Pioneer Trail.

“I know I’m not supposed to leave it all until Sunday night,” Bob confessed, “but I’ve got a lot of make-up homework I didn’t finish yesterday.” He leaned across the seat to put his head on Nina’s shoulder.

“You’re not the only one,” said Nina.

Bob fell asleep before they got home, and Nina watched the lights of the town coming up along Highway 50, one by one, color by color. To distract herself from falling back into the tired groove of worrying about the trial, she tried to drift off into her greedy little fantasy in which she would plunk down a million for her own personal castle. There she would sip brandy and enjoy a view of the glitzy casinos burning like candles across the lake.

But the fantasy made her anxious. What was happening? Why did she have the feeling things were spi

Paul was right. They were all being affected by the Markov money. Riesner, Winston, Genevieve, even Nina were behaving like wild kids at a birthday party. The first blows had been struck on the piñata. They had glimpsed the prize through cracks in the cardboard, and it was making everyone flail and thrash against each other willy-nilly. God, it was a wonder nobody had been killed yet.

21

Winston’s cross-examination of Mike Markov took up most of Monday. He hit all the high points and all the low points, and only a few times did he sound impatient. Nina watched him and continued to learn from him.

She saw, for instance, how this sophisticated African-American lawyer from L.A. managed to persuade the white, mostly working-class jury to identify with him. He would drop in little personal references, that he was middle-aged, that he had a bad back, that he liked tea first thing in the morning instead of coffee, that his mother was ailing and in a nursing home. The references were so fleet that Riesner never had a chance to object, but the jurors were affected. Gradually they began to see their father, their uncle, their brother. They warmed to Winston. They wanted him to do well.

Winston had another ability she admired. He took his time. The topic at hand would be fully explored, and Winston didn’t seem to care if a juror was fidgeting or if the subject was tedious. Nina was always ru

He underplayed all the way through the testimony, almost to the end, a strategy Genevieve had suggested that would keep sympathy for Mike at a minimum. Only once did Winston allow himself to show negative emotion.

“Mr. Markov, are you telling us that you used no threats to get this woman you had lived with for years to sign away all her rights?” he said late in the afternoon, allowing frustration to enter his voice.

“I never threatened her.”

“She was afraid you would leave her if she didn’t sign, wasn’t she?”

“I don’t remember anything like that.”

“You never said you were going to walk out and she would never see you again if she didn’t sign?”

“No."

“You didn’t say words to the effect that, ’Sign this now, and I promise you, we’ll get married soon’?"

“No, I didn’t."

“Then why draw it up in the first place? If it wasn’t because the two of you were talking about marriage in some way, why?"

“Because I wanted the lines drawn between her and me. Things weren’t going so well between us. But I never said I was leaving."

“Seven years you had been together at that point. Do you think you had to tell her? She could tell it from your frown, from the way you touched her, from your voice, couldn’t she?"

“Objection."

“Sustained."

“Now all this happened thirteen years ago. How much had the business appreciated in value in those thirteen years between the time she signed the agreement and the time you separated, would you say?"

“Objection. Irrelevant.” Rebecca was on duty today.

“Overruled."

Mike shook his head, smiling. “Well, since we were down to a few thousand dollars, I’d say it’s appreciated quite a bit."

“You think she would have signed the agreement if she’d had any idea in thirteen years it would be used to cheat her out of a hundred million-”

“Objection! Argumentative."

“Withdrawn,” said Winston. “Let me put it this way. It’s fair to say, isn’t it, that she thought she was signing away a claim to a few thousand dollars?"

“At that time, yes."

“She continued to live with you on the same basis, and continued to work with you in the business?"

“As I’ve said."

“Why didn’t you give her a copy of the agreement?"

A shrug. “She never asked for one."

“Why didn’t you folks go to an attorney so she would know she was signing away her future?"

“Objection."

“Sustained."

“Why,” Winston asked, his voice rising, “did you never talk with her about it again?"

“It just never came up."

“You knew she thought it had been thrown out long ago, didn’t you?"

“Not at all."

“You knew she depended on you, relied on you, to be fair with her?"

“I was fair."

“Fair! You really think you have the right to use that word?” asked Winston, coming as close to rolling his eyes out of sight of the judge but in full view of the jury as he could manage.