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I feellike I’m going to lose my mind when I see the police take Mateo away. The only thing that keeps me from losing hope is the drive to make sure he isn’t found guilty. Blaine and Nicoletti are setting him up, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit back and let those assholes win.
I don’t return to work the day that Mateo is arrested. I go home and call Andre instead. I need someone to talk to.
He comes over and I tell him everything. All about me and Mateo, the mystery of the shooting and now this insane plot to pin it on Mateo and his family. Except that it isn’t insane. This kind of frame-up probably works more often than I want to admit.
He doesn’t judge me. He isn’t the type to judge. It’s not who he is. Even so, this conversation is probably stretching it to the limit. I wouldn’t blame him if he just told me I was stupid for getting involved and to get out while I have a chance.
Instead, he orders pizza and settles in to stay with me late into the evening. We bounce back and forth between talking about everything and nothing. I can’t stay off the topic of Mateo for long, even though I’m trying to go along with Andre’s jokes and stories. He knows I need his company while I sift through my own thoughts, and I’ve never been more grateful for his friendship than I am tonight.
I’ve calmed down enough that I know I need to come up with a plan. I might be Mateo’s best chance at staying free. Before Andre leaves, I ask him for a favor.
* * *
Continuing to go into the office is excruciating. I’m really just playing a role right now. Pretending to be the Klein of several months ago. I need to make things look normal. I can’t let anyone at the office suspect what I know or how I know Mateo.
And that means that I have to keep my distance from him, too. I can’t try to contact him. I can’t visit him. It feels awful. I don’t want him to feel like I’ve abandoned him, especially after everything we talked about the morning after he found Elio. I wish I could blow this case up and get him out right away. I think he knows that, but my stomach is in knots anyway.
I come into work each day. I do my best to play my part. And I watch. As Mateo’s trial approaches, I keep an eye out for any documents related to it.
Finally, I see the envelope I’ve been waiting for on Nicoletti’s assistant’s desk. The courier will be by soon to take it to the courthouse.
“Can I check this real quick?” I say to the assistant. Without waiting for a response, I open the envelope and flip through the papers.
She only shrugs in response.
“Oh yeah,” I say, finding the paper I’m looking for. “We’ve added another possible witness.” I grab a pen from her desk and add my name to the witness list. Blaine’s name is, of course, on it already. Under “Subject and Brief Description of Testimony,” I write “witness at the scene of the event.”
I slide the papers back into the envelope and put them back on the desk. I hand the pen back to the assistant.
I go back to my desk and try to look like I’m working, while keeping an eye on the envelope. I want to make sure nobody else opens it again before it gets picked up. Finally, the courier comes to take it, and I breathe a temporary sigh of relief.
There’s just one last thing I need to follow up on before Mateo’s trial.
24
MATEO
The next timeMaurizio comes in to visit me is three days before my trial. I decide to tell him about the visit from Andre.
“We need to call Klein McKenna as a witness,” I say, once the guard closes the door to the small interrogation room we use to meet. “She’s my alibi. She was with me during the shootout. She’ll testify that I didn’t shoot anyone.”
“Klein McKenna?” Maurizio says, trying to recall why he knows that name. “The lawyer at the DA’s office?” He finally remembers. “Why would she testify against her colleague?”
“She and I… have grown close,” I say to Maurizio. I feel idiotic saying it out loud, especially to someone as calculated as Maurizio. He just shakes his head, not convinced. “Her friend visited me,” I continue. “He confirmed that she is willing to be called as a witness and testify that I had nothing to do with it.”
“Her friend told you?” He asks.
“Yes.”
“You didn’t talk to her directly about this?” He raises his eyebrows at me over his steepled fingers.
“No.” I already know what he’s getting at.
“Unless she confirms her testimony directly with you or me, there’s no way we can call her as a witness. Even then I’m doubtful. She’d be committing career suicide.” Maurizio shakes his head again. “It’s way too risky.”
My fists ball up and I grind my teeth. There’s no way I can convince Maurizio to trust Klein. I know it sounds insane.
“We should be able to win this case without that anyway,” Maurizio says. “We’ve got the experts to poke holes all over Roycroft’s testimony. It won’t take much to show that he’s an unreliable witness. How can someone in all of that chaos, someone who got shot in the middle of it, be able to simply identify without a doubt who shot the gun? And why is it not until weeks later that they realize they saw who did it? We stick to the lack of solid evidence on you and we’re good. Anything else is just unnecessarily risky.”
