Case of Lies

“She said she had to do it to get my testimony.”

“And she’s not trying to get any money from you regarding this incident, is she?”

“Not that I know of.”

“You and she are good buddies?”

“I like her all right.”

“Stayin’ at her house, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“You’re workin’ together to get some money from the Ace High Lodge?”

Elliott looked surprised. “No, I don’t want any money.”

“But you’re helping her, to get her off your back so you can go home?”

“It’s about my friends at this point.”

“Feel guilty about them dying, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because it was probably my notebook he was after. Like I said.”

“You feel guilty about rushing the robber, don’t you?”

“Not really. Maybe a little.”

“Sure you do,” Betty Jo said. “I would.” She paused and took a sip of water.

“Did you at any time see the motel clerk, Meredith Assawaroj, during this incident?” she went on.

“No, ma’am.”

“Did you at any time see the owner of the motel, James Bova, during this incident?”

“No, ma’am, unless he was the man in the mask.”

Betty Jo showed him an eight-by-ten photograph. “Defendant’s Three,” she said. “Now, I will represent that this is a recent photograph of James Bova.”

She passed another print to Nina.

“I’ll stipulate that this is Mr. Bova,” Nina said.

“Did you ever see this man? Have you ever seen this man?”

“Not unless he was the man in the mask. As I said.”

“I will represent to you that Mr. Bova is just over six feet tall. Counsel?”

“We can verify that later,” Nina said.

“I believe you said that the man in the ski mask was of medium height, is that correct?”

“It was dark. I would say he wasn’t unusually tall or short.”

“In your mind, is someone over six feet tall medium or tall in height?”

“I guess tall,” Elliott said. “I’m five-eleven and I consider myself tall.”

“So this man was not tall?”

“I didn’t notice that he was unusually tall.”

“How much did this man weigh? The robber in the mask?”

“I would say he was on the ski

“Ski

“I guess so.”

“You don’t have to guess,” Nina said.

“I didn’t notice anything unusual about his weight.”

“I will represent to you that Mr. Bova weighs two hundred and twelve pounds. Do you consider that ski

“Not really.”

“You grappled with this man?”

“I bumped him and hit at his arm, and the gun went flying.”

“So you had physical contact with him?”

“Yes. He was hard-he worked out. That’s about all I could say.”

“Come on,” Betty Jo said. “You can do better than that. When you came into contact with him, was he taller than you?”

“I had my head down.”

“Did he weigh more than you? What do you weigh?”

“One seventy-four.”

“Did he weigh more than you?”

“I’d say so. Yeah, I was wrong. He wasn’t really ski

Betty Jo didn’t like that answer. She moved on.

“After the shots, how much time elapsed before you heard the screaming of the motel clerk?”

“Does he know if it was the motel clerk screaming?” Nina interrupted.

“How long before you heard a woman screaming?” Betty Jo went on.

“Seconds.”

“How many seconds?”

“I had time to run almost all the way to my room. Approximately forty seconds, forty-five seconds.”

“She must have been very close, right?”

“Pretty close. I heard later she was at the Internet cafe next door.”

“Never mind what you heard. So you had attracted a lot of attention at Prize’s, wi

“The pit boss was getting too interested.”

“You had made thirty-five thousand dollars at one five-dollar-minimum table?”

“At two tables.”

“Other people were watching you? Guests of the casino?”

“Sure. It was time to leave.”

“Did you ask for any security to carry this large amount of cash?”

“No, we were staying just across the street.”

“Did you make any efforts to avoid being followed?”

“He didn’t have a duty to do that,” Nina said.

Betty Jo said, “He might have. He was a pro in a dangerous business. If you can sue him to bring him here, I may as well sue him, too.” Elliott didn’t look too happy at this.

“Did you? What did you do to protect yourself from robbery?”

“There were three of us.”

“Anything else?”

“Tried to keep a low profile.”

“That didn’t work out, though, did it?” Without waiting for an answer, Betty Jo said, “You were standing right at the vending machine when this man appeared?”

“Yes. We were. Silke had just put in the money.”

“Defendant’s Four. Photo of the area around the vending machine.” The transcriber pasted an identification label on the photo and returned it to Betty Jo, who passed it to Elliott.

“How many ways in and out are there from this area?”

“Two. The street side, and the parking-lot side.”

“Three actually, aren’t there? Look again.”

“Oh, the staircase.”

“You weren’t boxed in, were you? If he came one way, you could run another way? You did run another way? And got away safely?”

“Yes.”

“The two people on the balcony-you saw them?”

“Just for a second.”

“You didn’t see the woman get shot?”

“No, I was ru

“The police report doesn’t mention any third shot. Where were you for the first two shots?”

“Going toward him.”

“And you say he shot in the air? Think he was trying to scare you?”

“You don’t have to guess,” Nina said again, but Elliott answered, “Yes.”

“And when you heard the third shot your friends were ahead of you, and had already run into their rooms? You were almost at your ground-floor room?”

“Yes.”

“So why would he fire a warning shot?”

Elliott stared at the table. “I’ve wondered about that, how it happened. He must have noticed them after he picked up the gun again. He must have just shot straight at them.”

“Excuse me,” Nina said. “Just to clarify the record, you’re speculating, right?”

“It just seems logical. We weren’t there anymore.”

“Okay,” Betty Jo said, “I want to suggest something to you. And I want you to search your heart and remember you’re under penalty of perjury, even if you’re not in court today. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“I suggest that there were a total of two shots, as Meredith Assawaroj told the police. Wait just a minute. I suggest that you were struggling with this bad guy, this robber with a gun, and you lifted his arm up, trying to get the gun, and the gun went off and hit the lady.”

“There were three shots, I know that much. I don’t care what the police reports say. And after the second shot, I saw them crouched up on their balcony.”

“Were you facing the robber?”

“Yes.”

“So he had his back to that balcony?”

“Yes.”

“You’re the one facing the balcony, struggling over a gun.” Betty Jo raised her arm and said, “I’ve got the gun and you’re going for it. You push my arm back and it goes off.”

“Objection,” Nina said. “Lack of foundation, calls for speculation, misstates the testimony. Counsel is testifying. Just for the record.”

Betty Jo said, “You want to get at the truth or not? Let’s end this here. This boy made a mad rush at an armed robber, and in the struggle an i

“Objection,” Nina said. In depositions, alas, there was no judge to rule on objections and make the lawyers behave; one could only object for the record. It would have to be sorted out later.

“Is it my turn?” Elliott said. “I looked her in the eyes as I turned and ran, and she was alive, crouching in a corner, watching.”

“How do you know she wasn’t hit?” Betty Jo said. She had a loud clear voice and she talked like a school principal. Elliott had a hangdog look. A guilty look, even, but so would anybody subjected to Betty Jo. Nina was worried at the beating Elliott was taking, but she couldn’t help appreciating the other lawyer’s style. “Well? She could have just been shot, couldn’t she? Crouching there in the corner, poor little thing, while you macho boys slugged it out and the shots went a-flyin’. How far away was she?”