Page 28 of Fifty-Fifty

He turned away from me in a huff, dragged out a chair and sat down.

The oval conference table seated ten. Four on one side, four on the opposite side. One at either end. A door at the rear of the room opened and in came Wesley Dreyer. He had a slow, confident stride, thin lips and receding hair.

Genetic male-pattern baldness must have kicked in for Wesley in his early twenties. What remained up top had been carefully combed even though it looked thin almost to the point of transparency. He wore a different suit to the one he had on this morning at Sofia’s arraignment. This one was pale blue, with a similarly colored shirt and a navy tie.

‘Sit down, please, gentlemen, and lady,’ said Dreyer, careful to acknowledge Kate with a polite nod.

Dreyer pulled out the chair at the head of the table. I walked around the table and took a position opposite Levy and his team. Before he sat down Dreyer unbuttoned his jacket, smoothed down his tie and gracefully put his ass in the chair. He could’ve been a ballet dancer. From his jacket pocket he took a fountain pen, unscrewed the top and began making careful notes in a flowing script on a legal pad. He wrote down who was in the meeting, swept his arm up

in front of his face and noted down the time from his Citizen watch. He then put down his pen, adjusted his cuffs just so, and carefully laced his fingers together.

Some of his movements, although graceful, had a reptilian feel. Like a snake coiling itself, ready to strike.

‘I’ll be brief, and I won’t repeat myself so you may want to take notes,’ said Dreyer.

Kate, Scott and Levy had pens at the ready, hovering over their legal pads which had the name of the firm embossed at the top of their pages in gold lettering.

I folded my arms, sniffed and waited. Without moving his head, Dreyer’s eyes slotted to the left, locking onto me. While the others had their heads down, ready to write, I kept eye contact with Dreyer. Anything I could do to unnerve a prosecutor was mandatory in my playbook. It didn’t seem to work. Dreyer looked right back at me like he was holding aces and he knew I had a pair of eights.

‘Trial will be in January. We have most of the evidence and we have motive.

You already have basic discovery, which I hope to complete soon. All I’m waiting for are full reports from forensics and a witness statement from the deceased’s lawyer, Mr. Modine. I’m already in possession of the preliminary forensic results. You’ll get the full reports in time, but the short version is I have forensic evidence linking both of your clients to the murder. And only your clients.’

‘What do you mean by only our clients?’ said Kate.

Soon as she’d said it, Levy tutted, and Kate looked down at her legal pad, swallowed. Levy didn’t appreciate his staff speaking up in a meeting with a prosecutor. I thought it was a fair question. One that instantly came to my mind.

Kate had good instincts. I liked her. With Levy, it didn’t matter that she had asked a good question, it was the mere fact that she had the audacity to open her mouth at all.

‘Well, Miss Brooks, I would ask that any questions you have you keep to the end of the meeting, but I’ll take this one now since you’ve asked,’ said Dreyer, not looking at Kate. Instead he looked at Levy as if to acknowledge Levy’s seniority. ‘Your clients were both arrested in the property. No one else inside.

The medical examiner puts the time of death around the same time as the 911

calls. We’re not looking for any other suspects – forensics link your clients not only to the scene, but the murder.’

Kate wrote down the answer, and lowered her shoulders to the desk, as if to appear as small as possible. She mouthed a ‘sorry’ to Levy who rolled his eyes

and put his index finger to his lips. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t worth the time and energy; if I worked for Levy I would have put my fist through those fat lips a long time ago.

I thought about this new information and how it fit with Sofia’s story. Frank’s house was practically a mansion. Lots of rooms over three tall floors. It’s entirely possible Sofia and Alexandra could both be in the house at the same time and be unaware of each other’s presence.

‘One, or both, of your clients murdered the victim. In that case, considering the forensics and the prosecution witnesses, this will be a joint trial. There’s an overlap in all of the evidence,’ said Dreyer.

A joint trial in a case like this is a prosecutor’s wet dream. With two defendants blaming each other, it’s likely the jury believes neither of them and both will get convicted. If one of them pulls off a miracle and manages to persuade a jury they’re innocent, the other defendant takes the hit. It guarantees the prosecutor a win – no matter what.

Levy shot first.

‘There’s no chance in hell you’re getting a joint trial. When one defendant is implicating the other, the criminal code and case law dictates we split the trials.

Mr. Flynn doesn’t have to call his client to testify, and if he chooses not to then it’s a violation of my client’s constitutional right to face her accuser. It’s unfair.

It’s a no to a split trial – right off the bat. Is that clear?’ asked Levy.

If he was rattled by this, Dreyer didn’t show it.

He pulled at the cuffs of his shirt again, making sure they protruded from the bottom of his jacket sleeves, before picking up his pen and noting down Levy’s

objection.