The Innocent Woman

39

“I don’t like it.”

Steve Winslow leaned back in his desk chair and looked over at the doorway where Tracy Garvin stood, her glasses folded up and her hands on her hips. “I beg your pardon?”

“What you’re doing in court. The stuff with the answering machine.”

“What about it?”

“It’s all wrong. She heard the message. I know she heard the message. You know she heard the message. The cops know she heard the message. She admits she heard the message.”

“Not to them.”

“I know, not to them.” Tracy said. “That’s how she lied to them. And that’s why you’re doing what you’re doing. But it just isn’t right.”

“Why not?”

“Because it isn’t true.”

“Tracy, everything a lawyer argues in court isn’t necessarily true. If my client came to me and said the guy’s a slimeball and she popped him one, she’s still entitled to a defense and I would still make the same cross-examination.”

“Bullshit.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You would not. You wouldn’t even touch the case.”

“That’s neither here nor there.”

Tracy’s mouth fell open. “What do you mean, it’s neither here nor there? It’s the whole thing I’m talking about. You’re an idealistic moron who wouldn’t defend a guilty client. That’s where you’re coming from. Straight out of a storybook, but there you are. All right, I accept that. But here you are in court trying to prove black is white. Trying to prove something you know isn’t true.”

“So?”

“How do you justify that?”

Steve shrugged his shoulders, spread his hands. “My client is innocent. Anything I can do to demonstrate that has to be right.”

“This doesn’t demonstrate a thing.”

“Oh?”

“All it does is obscure a point you happen to know is true.”

Steve smiled. “Tracy, I’m finding it hard to follow your logic.”

“Oh? I thought I was being perfectly clear.”

“You are. Just not terribly logical.”

“Oh yeah?”

“No offense meant. But do you recall on the night of the murder when I sent Amy Dearborn uptown to take a cab back?”

“Of course.”

“The reason I did that was so I would be able to argue in court against a fact that you and I happen to know is true-the fact that she actually arrived at the office at around eight o’clock.”

“Yes, of course.”

“Which is what the prosecution is attempting to prove with this answering machine bit.”

“I know.”

“So why is questioning the answering machine evidence any different?”

“Because it’s stupid,” Tracy said.

“Oh?”

“Arguing that the light could have stopped blinking because the machine was turned off and on again. Even if that’s true, you think there’s one juror in the courtroom will actually believe it did?”

“They don’t have to believe it did. They just have to believe it could. Reasonable doubt, that’s what we’re establishing here.”

“I’m glad you think so,” Tracy said. “For my money, you’re beating a dead horse.”

“Thanks for your support. But I happen to be up against it in this case, and the fact is I’m going to take this answering machine stuff and run with it as far as it will go.”

The phone rang. Steve scooped it up.

“Steve, Mark.”

“What you got Mark?”

“Bad news. The light stays on.”

“What?”

“The blinking light. You switch the machine off, the light goes off. You turn it back on, it comes on blinking.”

“Shit.”

“Same thing if it’s unplugged. You plug it back in, it starts blinking again.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I got the same make, same model, just like you said. And it’s a total washout. The light blinks. I’m sorry, but there you are.” Taylor exhaled. “Best I can tell, it would take a sledge hammer to make the damn thing stop.”