12th of Never

Chapter 60

YUKI HAD JUST about gotten a grip on the astounding fact of Lily Herman’s reappearance when John Kinsela called his first witness.

“The defense calls Gary Goodfriend.”

Yuki said, “What?” just loud enough for Nicky to hear. Her associate shrugged and looked at her with big eyes, as surprised as she was that their witness had been called by the opposition.

Yuki watched as the gun dealer who had sold Keith Herman a gun passed her chair on his way to the witness stand. He was wearing the same fringed buckskin jacket he’d worn when he was a witness for the prosecution, but the swagger was gone now that he’d gone over to the other side.

Goodfriend swore on the Bible and took his seat. Yuki looked directly at him, but he avoided her eyes.

Kinsela jingled coins in his pocket as he asked his witness, “Mr. Goodfriend, did you call my office yesterday afternoon?”

“Yes. I did.”

“And why did you call me?”

“Because I was having a whatchamacallit—guilty conscience.”

“Will you please tell the court what you told me?”

“I told you that I don’t really remember if it was Keith Herman who made that comment about having a rug rat problem, or if it was some other customer.”

“But you testified that it was Keith Herman.”

“I misremembered,” Goodfriend said now. “I definitely sold Keith Herman a gun. I’ve got the yellow copy of the sales slip. But like I said, I sold thirty guns that weekend. There was a lot of talking all around. It was noisy. It was a trade show, you know. And, what I’m thinking now is that I got confused.”

Kinsela said, “So to be clear, you’re retracting your earlier testimony. You no longer believe that Mr. Herman wanted to kill his daughter.”

“That’s right.”

“Thank you for coming forward, Mr. Goodfriend. That was an act of good citizenry.”

The judge said to Yuki, “You’ve got some questions, Ms. Castellano?”

“Just a few, Your Honor.” Yuki struggled for composure. No good to let Kinsela see that he’d rattled her. She relaxed her face and smiled.

“Mr. Goodfriend, I want to understand the timeline of your memory reversal.”

“Okay. Sure.”

“Last week you swore on the Bible that Mr. Herman had made a comment that you took to mean that he wanted to shoot his child.”

“Uh-huh. But that was then.”

“You realize that either that statement or the one you just made is a lie. Do you know that perjury is a felony?”

“I wasn’t intentionally telling a lie. I just remembered it one way and then, yesterday, I remembered it a different way.”

Yuki sighed. “You also stated that you believe that Mr. Herman is a violent person. Have you been threatened?”

“Mr. Herman is in jail.”

“I understand that, Mr. Goodfriend. Did anyone put pressure on you to retract your testimony?”

“The only one that put pressure on me is you.”

“Me?”

Yuki was dumbfounded. What was this guy saying? She hadn’t been sure of him when he contacted her, but he had checked out as a legitimate gun dealer, with no record of any kind. His testimony had been good for her case because he had described the defendant’s violent personality for the jury.

Goodfriend said now, “When I came to you and said I thought the defendant had made a threat, you said, ‘Are you sure?’”

“Yes, and you said you were.”

“Well, I wanted to be sure because of you putting pressure on me to get it right. I thought I was sure. Now I’m not sure anymore.”

“So maybe your original memory was wrong. Or maybe your original memory was correct?”

“Huh?”

“Your Honor, I’m done with this witness. I reserve the right to charge him with perjury once I determine if he has even the most basic grasp of the truth.”

Kinsela snorted from across the room.

The judge said to Yuki, “Duly noted,” and told Gary Good-friend that he could step down.

Nussbaum looked at the big white-faced clock over the exit door, then said, “Seems like an appropriate place to adjourn for the weekend.”