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“No to what?”
“No, I’ve never seen him get into a fight.”
“So no hint of violence.”
“No.”
“So it was just the one time you said you couldn’t keep silent about, being a good citizen? Correct?”
“Correct.”
“Taking a step back,” I say, “you have to know how damaging to your friend your previous testimony is. You saying he threatened to kill one of the people for whose murder he is now on trial.”
“Objection.” Ahearn almost sounds weary. “Leading the witness.”
Prentice surprises me here.
“Overruled. You can get your own chance to lead on cross, Mr. Ahearn. I’ll allow it.”
I like to keep moving during cross-examination. Keep the moment active. Less static. Now I walk over to my right and stand in front of the jury box. Looking at the jury members as I shrug. Back to my witness.
Who’s about to really become mine.
“I have this columnist friend,” I say, speaking more to the jury than to Hennessy.
I stop.
“Crazy, right? Columnists having friends?”
I get smiles. Hear a few chuckles.
“And this friend tells me all stories come from somewhere,” I say. “And once they do, he’s always telling me, my columnist friend, you then have to ask yourself a question: who does that story help?”
From behind me, Hennessy says, “Are you asking me that?”
I turn back to him. “No. That’s not my question. But this is: won’t a conviction for my client ultimately help you more than somewhat?”
Before Hennessy can answer, Ahearn shouts out another objection. “Calls for a conclusion.”
“Sustained.”
I blow right through the stop sign.
“I’ll rephrase,” I say. “Mr. Hennessy, isn’t it true that if my clientisconvicted, not only would your business improve but it also would give you a lot more time to screw around with his wife?”
Forty-One
I FINALLY HAVE TOyell at Rob and Claire Jacobson as a way of getting them to stop yelling at each other.
We’re in the attorney room we’ve used before. One I now point out to them isn’t soundproofed, even if the happy couple is acting as if it is.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” Claire Jacobson says, wheeling on me. She adds, “You bitch.”
“Thanks for noticing,” I say.
“Well,” Rob Jacobson says, “it takes one to know one, right?”
Claire continues to deny, at the top of her voice, that she is having an affair with Gus Hennessy, despite what I’ve told her and my client about Gus Hennessy pulling into their driveway in his convertible one night and not leaving until morning.
