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Imani looked confused. “Because it’s murder?” she said, her response somewhere between a statement and a question.
“Yes,” said Jack, jotting on his notepad. “But that raises two possibilities. One, it’s murder, and it violated Shaky’s sense of right and wrong. Or two, it’s murder, and he was suddenly afraid of getting caught. What’s another reason he might have stopped?”
“I don’t know,” said Imani. “Maybe there was no point to it.”
“Pointless, how?”
“If killing pirates deterred music piracy, Shaky got more money from the sale of EML Records. After the sale went through, what was the point?”
“Except that the sale didn’t close for almost six months after the murder of Tyler McCormick. A second murder with an explicit warning to pirates during that six-month period could have brought down piracy and benefited him financially. So that doesn’t fly.”
“Then I’m out of ideas.”
“Let’s think in terms of explanations that could implicate you,” said Jack.
She seemed uncomfortable with the suggestion. “Like how?”
“Again, I’m thinking like the prosecutor here. I might argue that Shaky stopped because you knew about it, and you told him to stop.”
“That’s not what happened.”
“Not saying it was. But right now, the prosecutor has testimony that you were the first person to say music pirates should be gibbeted, even if it was a joke. For all we know, he’s fully aware that Tyler McCormick was stalking you, and he plans to spring that on Monday. Where does that lead him?”
“I don’t know. Where?”
“A husband killed a man who was stalking his wife, or he had him killed, which is plausible. The two of you are left with a dead body on your hands. Instead of dumping the body in the Everglades, you implement the ‘plan’ you came up with—if only half-seriously—on that boat in the Caribbean. You gibbet the body, which becomes step one in a bigger plan to deter music piracy.”
“But there’s no step two.”
“You and Shaky lost your nerve. It was one thing to gibbet Tyler McCormick to cover up the murder of a stalker. It’s a very different thing to actually go out and murder someone just for pirating music.”
“You make it sound so calculated.”
“Not my first rodeo,” said Jack.
Hannah knocked lightly on the doorframe and entered the kitchen. “Jack, I have that research you wanted.”
Jack introduced Hannah to his client. Her work for the institute was separate from his practice, but he often called on her for trial support. After Paxton’s testimony, he’d asked her to identify historical places in the Caribbean known for the gibbeting of pirates.
“If we can show you’ve never been to any of the places known for gibbeting,” Jack told his client, “that gives us another angle to undercut Paxton’s testimony.”
Hannah took a seat at the table and reported her findings. “Keep inmind that before Parliament gave the British colonies the power to put pirates on trial, any pirates captured in the Caribbean had to be sent to London for trial and execution. Before 1700, the gibbeting of pirates was near the Tower of London on the Thames River. So even though this was prime territory for the likes of Captain Kidd, Jean Hamlin, Stede Bonnet, Tempest Rogers, Bartholomew Sharp, and Black Sam Bellamy, there aren’t that many actual historical records of gibbeting in the Caribbean.”
“That’s helpful,” said Jack. “That narrows the possible number of places that this alleged conversation about gibbeting could have occurred.”
“One of the most famous spots is Port Royal in Jamaica,” said Hannah. “Calico Jack Rackham and his entire crew were hanged at Gallows Point and their bodies were gibbeted at the entrance to the port.”
“I’ve never been to Jamaica,” said Imani.
“Good,” said Jack. “What else you got, Hannah?”
“Right up there with Port Royal is the group execution of ten pirates in December 1718. That was in the Bahamas.”
“I’ve been to the Bahamas,” said Imani.
“When?” asked Jack.
“Long time ago. With Shaky.”
