Page 76 of Witness 8

Kate knew to pause, let the jury take a good look at John. She wanted them to adjust their thinking – to take a different angle on what was in front of them. This wasn’t a guilty man who had been caught by the system – this was someone who has been wronged and has paid for it dearly.

‘Now, John Jackson needs you, members of the jury. His life, his career, has been destroyed by these false allegations and at the end of this trial we will ask you to give him his life back. The evidence that Mr. Castro outlined is all disputed, and you will understand by the end of this case how forensic evidence doesn’t always tell the full story. Speaking of stories, that is something very important to bear in mind. The prosecution want you to answer the who, where, when and how questions. But they don’t want you to think about the most important question of all. Why? Why would John Jackson kill his neighbor? There is no answer to that question for two reasons. First, the prosecution have no connection between John Jackson and the victim in this case. They can’t tell youwhybecause they don’t know.They don’t know because John Jackson didn’t kill Margaret Blakemore. He had no reason to harm her. But someone else did. Someone with motive who is not sitting in front of you today . . .’

‘Objection, Your Honor,’ said Castro.

Kate turned round, genuinely surprised. It was relatively unheard of for a prosecutor to object to a defense opening statement. The judge called for both parties to approach the bench.

‘What is the meaning of this?’ asked the judge.

‘My apologies, Your Honor. I had to object. Defense counsel was misleading the jury.’

‘What?’ was all Kate could manage.

‘I will give Miss Brooks the benefit of the doubt. I don’t think she did it deliberately. Maybe she hasn’t had time to read our latest filing,’ said Castro.

Kate felt a chill on her neck.

‘What filing?’ asked Judge Zell.

‘We have filed a motion for witness anonymity . . .’

Kate’s mind flashed on Castro’s hushed conversation before the judge entered the room. His ADA must’ve hit send on the electronic filing right before the judge came into court. Kate left the judge’s bench, retrieved her iPad from her desk and came back. Sure enough, she’d received a copy of the prosecution motion. They’d held it back on purpose, making sure she wouldn’t see it until after her opening statement, so they could interrupt her, ruin the opening of her case.

‘What is this?’ asked the judge.

‘Your Honor, the prosecution have obtained new evidence from a witness who will only testify anonymously. They are fearful of retribution from the defendant, and we believe this witness qualifies for anonymity. This witness will tell the jury exactly why John Jackson murdered Margaret Blakemore.’

31

Eddie

‘Could I have two organic eggs – poached – lightly toasted sourdough toast and a cup of hot water with a slice of organic lemon, please?’

The server squinted at Lake, pursed her lips together and gathered her thoughts before replying.

‘We don’t do poached,’ she said.

‘What about boiled?’ asked Lake.

‘We got a grill and a hotplate. You can have scrambled, fried or raw,honey.’

The wordhoneycame out of the waitress’s mouth, for sure, but it sounded an awful lot likeasshole.

‘For the sake of my sanity, he’ll have fried eggs. I’ll have the pancakes and lots of coffee, please, ma’am,’ I said.

‘Same,’ said Bloch.

The waitress gave me a nice smile, gathered our menus and disappeared with the order. We’d been up most of the night. I’d crashed at Bloch’s place, found Lake there. They’d been spitballing and working all the angles. It was coming up on seven in the morning. I needed food, coffee, a shower and then it would be time to meet Kate after the mid-morning recess. She said she could handle the opening statement on her own. I wanted to be there, for support if for nothing else, but it was more important right now to try to figure out what the hell was really going on behind this case.

‘I can’t get my head around all of this,’ I said. ‘I get the feeling there’s a whole other story going on that I can’t see. We have two murders on or connected to this street. We have Margaret Blakemore, but there’s no link to John beyond the murder weapon turning up in his home. Then Alison’s mother, supposedly killed by their maid who got caught stealing and Esther reported her family to ICE. I know Kate thinks Althea planted the gun, but Althea has no connection to Blakemore.’

Lake said, ‘There’s no connection between Althea and Bale, nor Ellis either.’

Bloch said, ‘I get that Althea had a motive to kill Esther Hanson, but why dump her apron, with her DNA and the victim’s blood on it in the trash at the victim’s home? That seems dumb to me. And yet there were no other forensics found in the house so far to link Althea to that address. Could be the same person who killed Blakemore? All I know is the killer wanted Althea arrested for murder,’ said Bloch.

I leaned back in the booth, let that roll around in my head. The waitress brought coffee and Lake’s hot water with lemon. I thanked her and she smiled at me then shot a dirty look at Lake as she left.

‘How would the killer know to pin the murder on Althea? How would they know Esther reported Althea’s family to ICE?’ I asked.