Chapter 50 Eddie

50

Eddie

I ended my call with Lake in the hallway outside the courtroom. I went inside, sat beside Kate.

‘The People call Ansen Bude . . .' said Castro.

‘Bude is the latent-print expert,' whispered Kate.

‘I was hoping we wouldn't have to deal with this today,' I said.

‘What are we going to do?' asked Kate.

‘Exploit the fact that the latent palm print isn't a match for John. That's our only point, but Bude has an easy out for that line of questioning.'

Kate swore under her breath. I closed my eyes, tried to focus. There had to be a better way. The print was important. Castro would prefer not to call Bude to the stand, but the DNA that matched John came from the print tape itself. He had no choice. The fact that the palm print didn't match John was important. It was a mystery. Juries don't like mysteries.

Something worked at the back of my brain. Something about this print.

Harry knew it was important.

But I couldn't grasp hold of it. Not yet. I had a theory, but it was crazy. And, yet, it just might be the truth.

‘How are we going to beat Castro? What would Harry do?' asked Kate.

I bowed my head. Hearing his name, feeling his absence in the courtroom – it was a gut punch.

Gut punch . . .

‘Harry often thought of cross-examination like boxing. Same tactics . . .' I said.

I thought for a moment.

There was a way.

‘We can't beat him. Not today. Make sure you get permission for the judge to recall the experts. It's going to run like Foreman and Ali in '74. Today, we're going to lose.'

‘Lose?'

‘Lose. And lose badly. We're going to take a lot of punishment from Castro. And we're going to lean on the ropes and rest while we absorb those punches.'

‘And then what?'

‘We lose today. Tomorrow, we're going to take Castro's head off. Look, I've got to go. There's a hitman following Ruby Johnson,' I said. ‘The answers we need for tomorrow are not in this courtroom. You okay to hold the fort?'

‘I can handle it. What the hell is going on in this case?'

‘I think either Ellis or Bale has hired someone to go after Ruby. They know she's the blackmailer. She's got a quarter of a million dollars in a gym bag. She's turned Margaret Blakemore's murder into a nightmare.'

Kate thought for a second, said, ‘Remember what Harry used to say about Einstein? That if someone gave Einstein a problem with only an hour to solve it, he would spend fifty-five minutes defining the real question and then five minutes answering it.'

I didn't follow. Kate saw my confusion and elaborated.

‘What if Ruby isn't just exploiting this situation? What if she created it? She could've planted that gun in the Jacksons' home, then she made the anonymous call. She's the witness. This is all about money for Ruby. It makes sense.'

‘Maybe, but why testify anonymously if she has the money already? Why not just take off? And how did a palm print that isn't John's, but contains John's DNA, get on the murder weapon?'

‘That's the problem,' said Kate. ‘We've spent too long thinking about the answer. We need to go back to the beginning and think about the right question.'

The theory that had been working in the back of my head started to come together. I still didn't have all the pieces for it to make sense. They would come.

I had a lot on my mind. The contract on my life, the meeting with New York's Finest, Angel, Mr. Christmas, Castro, the Jacksons, Margaret Blakemore and – at the center of it all – Ruby Johnson. And my best friend lying in a coma.

‘What are you going to do?' asked Kate.

‘I have to meet Lake. Then Christmas. But, first, I need to make some calls and do some shopping. When you're done for today, and we've had our asses kicked, I want you to reach out to Castro. Tell him we can see which way this case is going and we want to make a deal. Drop a hint that we will talk to our client about second-degree murder, but I need to talk to Castro first and make sure it's on the table if we can convince our man to plead guilty. Tell him to meet me, alone, in the All American Diner opposite the precinct, at seven tonight.'

‘You're going to have dinner with this guy?'

‘I'm not going anywhere near the place. Just tell him to meet me there. Trust me.'