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“Can you say the same about your husband?”
“Objection, speculation,” said Ellis.
“Sustained,” said the judge. “Mr. Swyteck, you promised you would be brief. If you plan to re-call this witness to the stand later in the case as part of your defense, I suggest you wrap this up and allow the plaintiff to proceed with his case in chief.”
“Just one more question: Imani, have you received any kickbacks from piracy websites for illegally downloaded songs?”
“Absolutely not. That’s ridiculous.”
Jack had made his essential points. Not a bad morning, all things considered.
“That’s all for now,” he said, and he returned to his seat.
The judge directed the witness to step down. She did, with shoulders back and hips moving, more like a Grammy Award winner exiting the stage than a witness leaving the stand. As she walked toward the defense table, her gaze fixed tightly on her lawyer. At first, Jack wondered what silent client-to-attorney communication she might be sending, but as it lingered, the look in her eyes made him feel, in a word, uncomfortable.
“Do you see the way she looks at him?” whispered one reporter to another. They were in the first row of press seating on the other side of the rail, behind the defense table, speaking just loud enough for Jack to hear.
One immediate thought came to Jack’s mind. It was fake. Imani was putting on a show. The fact that he knew it was phony wouldn’t make it any easier to nip this rumor in the bud, before it splashed all over the internet rag sheets. But one thing was certain.
Whatever her explanation, Imani was about to get an earful from her lawyer.
Chapter 4
Judge Stevens announced a lunch break, and Jack whisked Imani from the courtroom. They hurried down the hallway to the only private space available, an empty jury deliberation room. Members of the media were in hot pursuit. Jack closed them out and left Theo outside the door to stand guard. Then he unloaded.
“What the hell did you just do in there?”
Imani took a seat in one of the twelve empty chairs at the table. “What are you talking about?”
“That ‘let’s get a hotel room’ look you threw me.”
“When?”
“Just now! When you stepped down from the witness stand. Don’t act like it didn’t happen. I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Two reporters sitting right behind me were talking about it. In about five minutes, it will be all over the internet.”
She smiled, and checked her phone, surfing. “Looks like it worked.”
“What do you mean, ‘it worked’?”
She laid her phone aside. “Here’s the deal, Jack. It’s your job to handle what happens inside the courtroom. But I control the narrative in the court of public opinion. Outside of this courthouse, I don’t want people talking about the evidence. I want them wondering if the handsome Miami trial lawyer is fucking his superhot client.”
“I’m not okay with that. I’m a married man. How is my wife supposed to react to that?”
“Your wife is smart enough to know it isn’t real.”
“That doesn’t cut it. I won’t allow it.”
“You won’t allow it?” she said, sounding exactly like a pop star who lived by her own rules, no one else’s.
“Let me tell you something,” said Jack. “When I was with the Freedom Institute, most of my clients were guilty. I told them, ‘If we win in the courtroom, don’t hug me. I’m doing a job here.’ Sometimes they broke the rule. They were so happy they weren’t going to be executed, they had to hug someone. At least they were genuine. But you... you’re using me as a prop. Let me say it again: I willnotallow it.”
Imani clearly didn’t like it. “Fine. I’ll have to talk to my public relations manager.”
“And rely on the evidence,” he said. “Which has been good for you so far.”
“So far. But don’t kid yourself, Jack. Not all the evidence is going to be good for me. In fact, some of it is going to be bad. Very bad.”
Jack’s cellphone rang. He wanted to hear more about the “very bad” evidence, but it was Jennifer Ellis on the line, so he answered.
