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“A couple of therapists in the city,” Jacobson says.
“Do you recall their names?”
I watch Jacobson’s face now. And then see the hesitation that everybody else in the room sees.
“I can’t remember their names. But what I do remember is that they got me through it at the time.”
“So a couple of the therapists who pulled you back from the abyss, who may be the ones who really saved your life—you can’t recall their names?” Ahearn says. “Interesting.”
“I suppose I could get them if you need them.”
“From where, Fantasy Island?” Ahearn says under his breath.
“Excuse me?” Judge Prentice says.
“I was just saying getting the names of the therapists isn’t necessary,” Ahearn says.
He isn’t so much moving around the room as pacing it, I think.
Working it just the way I do.
“Let’s switch gears,” Ahearn says. “Do you find it interesting, Mr. Jacobson, that you only remember the things that seem to help make you appear more sympathetic?”
“Objection,” I say, just because I need to do something, or anything, to stop his roll. “Argumentative.”
“Sustained,” Prentice says. “Jury will disregard.”
“But Idocontinue to be fascinated by your memories,” Ahearn says. “I mean, wouldn’t you say that it’s awfully convenient that you just now have remembered a prior relationship with the late Kathy Gates?”
Jacobson seems to squirm slightly in his chair.
In this moment, I know the feeling. I’m feeling a little squirmy myself.
“I guess you could call it an inconvenient truth,” he says to Ahearn. “But itisthe truth.”
Ahearn nods. “At the same time, I’m wondering if you also find it interesting that a team of forensic accountants hired by my office to go through Mitch Gates’s finances could find absolutely no evidence of him being in the dire financial straits about which you’ve just spoken?”
“People hide money,” Jacobson says.
“Wait, they hide money they don’t actually have?” Ahearn says. “Where does someone learn how to do that, Mr. Jacobson? The Bernie Madoff school of accounting?”
“You don’t have to be sarcastic,” Jacobson says to Ahearn.
“I’m not being sarcastic. I’m actually just pointing out how full of shit I think you are.”
I don’t get the chance to object before Judge Prentice interjects. “This is your first and last warning about language, Mr. Ahearn.”
“Noted, Your Honor. I just lose my filter sometimes when I’ve found the perfect word to describe something.”
I put a hand to my face, so neither my client, nor the judge, nor the jury, can see me smiling.
“Enough,”Judge Prentice snaps.
“I honestly do apologize, Your Honor,” Ahearn says. He turns to face Jacobson. “So to be clear, you’re saying that Mitch Gates might have hidden money that didn’t exist?”
“I can only tell you whathetold me that night,” Jacobson says. “Mitch said that things had gotten so bad that he didn’t know if he was going to be able to send Laurel to college.”
“Despite renting a Hamptons home for the summer?” Ahearn says.
