Barely Legal

84

Judge Buckingham looked down at the defense table. “Mr. Fisher is not in court?”

“No, Your Honor,” Stone said. “Mr. Fisher was unavoidably detained. I will carry on in his absence.”

“Very well. Bring in the jury and return the witness to the stand.”

When that had been done, Stone Barrington stood and approached the witness.

“Have you consulted your notes, Detective Kelly?”

Kelly looked smug. “Yes, I have.”

“And can you tell us who advised you that David Ross would be at the party?”

“No one.”

Stone frowned. “No one? Then why were you at the party?”

“I was told there would be drugs at the party. I was sent there to make an arrest.”

Stone frowned. Herbie had told him to accept the answer and quit, but he couldn’t let that statement go unchallenged. “Detective, I have been over the transcript and I am certain that you testified that you were at the party because you were acting on intel that David Ross would be there selling drugs. Not just anyone, but David Ross specifically. Do you recall making that statement? We can have the transcript read back, if you need to refresh your memory.”

Clearly, Detective Kelly was prepared for the question. He was quite unruffled. “I’ll take your word for it,” he said magnanimously. “If I made that statement, I was mistaken. The intel was merely that drugs were being sold at the party, and a major source of narcotics would be there. It turned out the major source of narcotics was David Ross, but we didn’t know it until we caught him selling drugs.”

Stone blinked. The answer to the question had made things ten times worse. A major source of narcotics, indeed. He could object and get most of the answer thrown out on the grounds of being conclusions on the part of the witness and assuming facts not in evidence, but that would just underline the testimony for the jury. It didn’t matter if it was in the record. They’d heard it, and the damage was done.

“You were mistaken when you said that you were acting on intel that David Ross would be selling drugs at the party?”

“That’s right.”

“You realize you were under oath?”

“I wasn’t lying. I misspoke.”

“Are you claiming you accidentally committed perjury?”

Detective Kelly was unruffled. “It’s only perjury if you make a false statement knowing it to be false. When I made that statement I thought it was true. It was only after I was asked to research it that I realized I was mistaken.”

Stone smiled. “So you studied up on the laws of perjury. I thought you might have.”

“Objection, Your Honor,” ADA Grover said.

“Sustained.”

“And what other portions of your testimony are you hazy about?”

“Objection.”

“Overruled.”

“I’m not hazy about any of it. I misremembered one thing I’d been told. I am absolutely certain about what I saw and did.”

“Uh-huh,” Stone said. “Then I hate to ask you about what you were told, but who told you there would be drugs at the party?”

“The duty officer.”

“And who would that be?”

“Sergeant O’Hara.”

“Sergeant O’Hara told you there would be drugs at the party?”

“That’s right.”

“How did he know?”

“Objection. Hearsay.”

“Sustained.”

“No further questions,” Stone said, and sat down.

There was a stunned silence in the courtroom. A spectator giggled. A juror nearly applauded.

The witness, clearly prepared with a litany of answers, looked like a student who had crammed all night only to have the teacher cut him off before he could dazzle the girls in class with his knowledge.

Judge Buckingham recovered first. He turned to the prosecutor. “Mr. Grover. Any redirect for this witness?”

The ADA clearly didn’t know. He hesitated a moment, suspecting a trap, then said, “No questions, Your Honor.”

“The witness is excused,” Judge Buckingham said. “Call your next witness.”

“The prosecution calls Julie Parker.”

Ms. Parker was an attractive young woman dressed in loose-fitting business attire that tended to deemphasize her figure. Dressed as a hip young college student, Stone figured, she would be enticing indeed.

ADA Grover asked a few preliminary questions establishing that she was an undercover narcotics agent, Stone stipulated her qualifications, and they were off to the races.

As the direct examination started, Mookie slipped out and made the call.

Taperelli was not pleased. “That’s not good.”

“Mr. Fisher is doing what you asked,” Mookie said.

“Yeah, but he’s not there.”

“No, but Stone Barrington is, and he’s taking a dive. He let the detective go.”

“What’s his game?”

“No game. He’s throwing in the towel.”

“I don’t like it.”

“What’s not to like? It’s exactly what you wanted.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t expect to get it. Not that easily. And we don’t know where Mr. Fisher is.”

“I wasn’t tailing him this morning. There was no need. He had to be in court.”

“But he’s not there.”

“No.”

“So there was a need.”

“Maybe. We don’t know why.”

“That’s why you should have been tailing him like I’d asked. I need to know what he’s up to. I have people asking me who want to know why he’s not in court. What am I supposed to tell them? That we lost track of him because Mookie didn’t think there was a need to keep tabs?”

“So what do you want me to do?”

“Stay in court. If he shows up, let me know. This case needs to be wrapped up today.”