Total pages in book: 179
Estimated words: 173733 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 869(@200wpm)___ 695(@250wpm)___ 579(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 173733 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 869(@200wpm)___ 695(@250wpm)___ 579(@300wpm)
He covers his face with his hands, and he’s trembling. “I love her.”
I walk to the conference table and press my hands to it, angry now. “A woman and her unborn child are dead. Do you really love a woman who would kill them?”
He opens his eyes. “I don’t know that she did it.”
“Don’t you? And you know what? If you let her get away with it, you are just as evil as she is. In fact, I’m not sure I can even do the closing. Maybe I should hand it to my co-counsel.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Do you have proof that she killed Jennifer?” I press.
“No. Yes. Maybe. I found something last week.”
“What?”
“In her purse. There was a necklace that Jennifer always wore. I saw it in her purse, but it doesn’t mean she killed her.”
“Tell the police.”
“I will,” he assures me and he sounds like he means it.
“And get the fuck away from her before you end up dead, too.” I push off the desk and exit the room, entering the one across the hall. I don’t rehearse my closing that I’ve beaten to death. I call Cat.
Chapter twenty-nine
Cat
The short break is over at eleven, and I swear I’m so nervous for Reese that I feel like I’m the one about to deliver a closing. I have to force myself to sit, and when Reese finds his way to his table and his eyes meet mine, that connection between us is more powerful than ever. He lets me see the nerves that no one else in this room can see, and I watch them transform into hard determination. Somehow, in that brief moment, a million words pass between us without one spoken.
The court is called to order, and Dan takes center stage. His closing is a short twenty minutes, but despite this conciseness, at its conclusion, I can say that it is far better than I expected. He uses words like “dead baby” and “young woman kept from motherhood.” He talks about the brutal hit to her head as she was pushed to her death. And the real kicker that he plays on over and over: A rich, powerful man who didn’t want his business and his life destroyed by a pregnant mistress. A rich, powerful man that didn’t know the baby wasn’t his.
I’m feeling pretty worried until Reese stands up. He speaks for forty minutes exactly in what is a powerful, intelligent delivery of the critical points. He recaps the key points about no evidence and details the only evidence in the crime: Fingerprints on a door that could have been left at any time.
“If I,” Reese says, “visited the victim two days before her death, should it be assumed I killed her? Is that the way you would want our justice system to work if you or your loved one was innocent and sitting on the stand? Let’s talk about reasonable doubt. Did the prosecutor prove to you that my client put his fingerprint on that door the day the victim died? If not, if you aren’t sure he was there that day, that’s reasonable doubt. If you have reasonable doubt, you must acquit.”
He ends his statement with a list of suspects. “If you have any inclination to believe one of these people I’ve presented as suspects killed the victims, then you also have reasonable doubt about my client. Reasonable doubt equals acquittal. Guilty until proven innocent is another country. This is America. Here we are innocent until proven guilty.”
The jury is attuned to him, listening, nodding, scribbling notes. I didn’t see them doing that with Dan. By twelve, all eyes are on the judge. “The jury foreman has spoken on behalf of the jury and asked that they begin deliberations this afternoon rather than Monday morning, in hopes they can end their sequestration. We will reconvene at four thirty, at which time we will either read a verdict or adjourn for Monday morning.” He bangs the gavel.
When I would exit the courtroom with the rest of the crowd, a bailiff catches me. “This way, miss.” I follow him to a private hallway, and it’s not long before I’m in a private office with Reese, who immediately kisses me.
“Well?” he asks.
“It was as brilliant as I knew it would be.”
His hands settle on his waist under his jacket. “Did you watch the jury?”
“You had them.”
“Dan?”
“Not like you. And you ended the trial. You have this. What do Elsa and Richard think?”
“I don’t debrief with my team. I don’t want opinions when I can’t change history.”
But he asked for mine. “Where is Nelson Ward?”
“With my team. He forbade me from entering. He has his panties in a wad over Kelli.”
“After all you’ve done for him, he forbade your entry?”
“Fuck him. I defended the hell out of his ass.” He puffs out a breath. “Let me go check with my team and let’s get some air. I need air.”