Trial Junkies

— 51 -

"Your Honor, the prosecution calls Ms. Nadine Overman to the stand."

Hutch, Matt and Andy exchanged glances as the court deputy crossed to the witness room door, opened it a crack and ducked his head inside.

"Here we go," Andy murmured. "Judas is in the building."

Gus leaned toward him. "This woman is a friend of yours, right?"

"Depends on your definition."

Hutch ignored the exchange. He was thinking instead about Abernathy's trial strategy. First, he had presented the lead investigating detective who, despite Waverly's expert cross, had provided two key pieces of evidence that wouldn't be forgotten-the sweatshirt and the phone calls. This was followed by Jenny's secretary, who further hammered home the importance of those calls, then Raymond Hardwick, demonstrating that Ronnie had had ample opportunity to make them.

Now it was Nadine's turn, and she would provide direct evidence against Ronnie's character, proving-in the minds of some, at least-that Ronnie had been hostile toward Jenny.

Hutch figured the forensic testimony would follow, confirming the origin of the blood on the hoodie, as well as digging deeper into the question of the dog hairs. And even though Waverly had managed to point out that those hairs could have come from just about anyone, the jurors were likely to believe the simplest explanation:

That they had originated with the killer.

And that killer was Ronnie.

It was a carefully constructed case full of circumstantial evidence, and by the time Abernathy was done, the jurors wouldn't even remember or care that Detective Meyer was a misogynist pig, or that Ronnie and Carlene Harding had never met face to face, or that Raymond Hardwick had claimed that his one-time employee was not a biter.

Hutch had been hopeful the last couple days, especially in light of Frederick Langer's activities, but the creep hadn't yet made an appearance today. If he'd been scared away, if he was in the wind, Hutch doubted they'd ever find him again.

And now, with Danny Tillman's questionable suicide hanging over them, it was clear that whatever force of nature was coming after Ronnie might very well win.

Hutch was drawn from his thoughts as Nadine emerged from the witness room looking considerably better than she had three nights ago. Her eyes were clear, her hair neatly coiffed, and she was dressed in business wear, a tailored pants suit that said power executive.

But as she crossed to the stand, Hutch noted that she was fighting a case of the nerves. He'd seen stage fright before, had even suffered from it a few times himself, and he knew it when he saw it.

Not that he could blame her. Whatever she might be feeling about Ronnie, she was about to betray a woman she had once shared a room with, someone she had called a friend. And that couldn't be easy.

She didn't look at Ronnie as she passed the defense table, and Ronnie continued staring at her hands, her demeanor unchanged. It wasn't until Nadine was sworn in and seated in the witness box that they made brief eye contact-

— and Hutch saw something he hadn't expected to see in Nadine's eyes.

Sympathy.

He saw sympathy.

But before he could process what this might mean, Abernathy was on his feet and moving to the podium.

"Good morning, Ms. Overman, I appreciate you taking the time from your busy schedule to testify today. Can you tell the jury what it is you do for a living?"

Nadine glanced apprehensively at the jurors, then seemed to steel herself, finding her center. "I'm the CEO of Overman Associates, a real estate development firm here in Chicago."

"And what was the nature of your relationship with the victim in this case? Jennifer Keating?"

"We were friends," Nadine said. "Close friends. But we also had a professional relationship."

"Can you tell us more about that?"

"I'm in the middle of a project that involves the acquisition and development of a large parcel of land in Evanston. I hired Treacher and Pine to oversee the legal details and Jenny was handling the contracts."

"So is it to fair to say that you were in regular communication with Ms. Keating?"

"Yes," Nadine said. "We spoke by phone several times a week and had dinner or lunch together at least twice a month."

"And how long did you know Ms. Keating?"

"We went to high school together. Then college. We lived in the same dorm during our freshman year, then moved into a house near campus."

"This was a house on Miller Street, correct?"

"Yes," Nadine said.

Hutch thought about the first time he'd seen Jenny and Nadine walk into that house. He had passed up the opportunity to dorm and had lived there during his freshman year with Tom and Monica and several other students whose names were lost to him now.

When those students had decided to find other lodgings, the vacancies were filled by Ronnie, whom Hutch had met in a philosophy class, Andy and Matt, who had previously dormed together on campus, and finally Jenny and Nadine, the last to answer the want ad posted on the student housing website.

Hutch had just stumbled out of bed when he saw them from his second-story window, crossing with the landlady, Mrs. Kastner, toward the front door. He was standing in his boxer shorts, looking down at them, when Jenny suddenly glanced upward and caught his gaze.

This was nearly ten years ago, but Hutch could still remember the moment. The slight catch his throat as they made eye contact.

It was like one of those film noir moments, where the beautiful woman emerges from the haze or the staircase or the alleyway, so perfect in every way that any man watching is suddenly re-evaluating his life, asking himself, how can I have that?

Who do I need to kill to have that?

But Hutch hadn't been forced to kill anyone. Within a month, he and Jenny were madly in love and a game of musical roommates was played until they were sharing a room. There was some resentment at first-from Ronnie and Nadine in particular-but they all managed to grow past it and their time in that house became something special. Magical.

Oh, how things had changed.

"Isn't it true," Abernathy said to Nadine, "that you also lived with the defendant at that time?"

"Yes. We shared a room for nearly three years."

"So I'd imagine you came to know Ms. Baldacci quite well."

"Sometimes better than I wanted to," Nadine said and several people laughed.

"What about her relationship with Ms. Keating back then? How would you characterize it?"

"Objection," Waverly said. "I don't see how events of nearly a decade ago have any bearing on today's proceedings."

"I'm merely attempting to provide the jury with some historical background, Your Honor."

"Or color their judgment," Waverly said.

"I'm going to allow it," O'Donnell told them. "I'm sure the jury is capable of evaluating the testimony and deciding for themselves what is and isn't pertinent to the matter at hand."

Abernathy thanked the judge and went on. "You can answer the question, Ms. Overman."

Nadine hesitated. "Could you repeat it?"

"Yes, of course. How would you characterize Ms. Baldacci's relationship with Ms. Keating when you were all living together in the house on Miller Street?"

Nadine took a moment, Hutch knowing that she was about to paint Ronnie as a jealous bitch.

But then she surprised him.

"Fairly typical," she said. "They were friends."

Abernathy seemed surprised as well. "Can you elaborate?"

"Their relationship was the same as everyone else's in the house. They had their close moments, they had their spats, but so did Jenny and I. We were college students-on our own for the first time in our lives-thrown together in a living situation that wasn't always ideal, but was often wonderful."

Hutch could see by Abernathy's expression that Nadine had just strayed from the script.

"Did Ms. Baldacci ever show any animosity toward Ms. Keating?"

"Of course," Nadine said. "She was always a little envious of Jenny's relationship with Hutch." She paused. "That's Ethan Hutchinson, one of our roommates. But then I was envious, too. I think we all were, in a way. They had something special that the rest of us were still searching for."

Hutch didn't look around, but he was certain that several of the people in the gallery were staring at him now. Some of the jurors as well.

Looking a bit concerned by her response, Abernathy pressed on. "Was there ever a moment during that time that you yourself felt threatened by the defendant?"

Hutch assumed he was talking about the late night incident with the air gun, one that would surely paint Ronnie a little crazy, but Nadine simply said, "No."

And that was the moment Hutch knew that something had changed. That Nadine had finally come to her senses. Somehow the message had gotten through to her that her old roommate couldn't possibly have done what she was accused of. That, despite any problems they may have had between them in the past, there was no way Ronnie could be a killer. It was the very same evolution that he and Tom and Monica had gone through.

Hutch didn't know when she had come to this realization. It could very well have been when she and Ronnie made eye contact here in the courtroom, but he suspected that Tom may have called her and told her about Frederick Langer. And that alone may have been enough to get her to reevaluate her feelings.

Abernathy looked like a man who had just been hijacked by pirates. "Ms. Overman, did you not tell me in a recent conversation about an incident with a-?"

"Objection, Your Honor. Leading the witness."

"Sustained."

Abernathy checked his notes, then said, "Ms. Overman, do you recall a time back then when the defendant possessed a weapon?"

"A weapon?"

"A gun," Abernathy said. "Or, more specifically, an air gun."

Waverly was on her feet now. "Objection. Your Honor, I don't really see the point to this testimony."

The judge eyed the ADA. "Mr. Abernathy?"

"I'm simply trying to establish a pattern of behavior that the defendant engaged-"

"And how does a single incident form a pattern?" Waverly asked.

Abernathy glared at her. "It has to start somewhere, doesn't it?"

"All right," O'Donnell said. "Everyone calm down. The objection is overruled. I'm going to allow Mr. Abernathy to proceed. But only with caution."

"Thank you, Your Honor." Abernathy turned to Nadine. "While you were living in that house together, sharing a room, did Ms. Baldacci ever possess an air gun?"

"Only for a day or two," Nadine said. "It belonged to her boyfriend and he forgot it one night."

"And did she ever threaten you with that gun?"

"No," Nadine said. "She didn't."

Abernathy stared at her, his frustration clear. "You're under oath, Ms. Overman."

"Which is why I'm telling the truth," she said.

Her ability to lie so easily was surprising to Hutch. Or had she been lying to him the other night? She certainly wasn't under oath at the time. Had he been right when he'd accused her of exaggerating the incident out of grief?

Abernathy didn't look happy. "So you're saying that the statement you made to me not two months ago was a lie?"

"Objection. Facts not in evidence."

"Sustained."

Abernathy made a show of his irritation, then glanced again at his notes, taking the time to regroup. "Ms. Overman, approximately six weeks ago you called my office and asked to speak to me about the case at bar, did you not?"

"I did," Nadine said.

"And as a result of that call, we agreed to meet at the Ballinger Restaurant in Wicker Park, did we not?"

"We did."

"And did we indeed meet?"

"Yes," Nadine said.

"And what was the topic of conversation during that meeting?"

"It mostly centered around a phone call I received from Ronnie Baldacci about a month before Jenny was murdered."

Abernathy looked relieved. "And can you tell us about that call?"

"I was at home, going over some paperwork for the Evanston development when Ronnie called my cell phone. We hadn't spoken in quite a while, so I was surprised to hear from her."

"And what did she say to you during this call?"

"Well, a lot of it was incoherent. She was obviously drunk."

Abernathy gave her a tight smile. "Tell us about the coherent parts."

"The gist of it had to something to do with a play she'd attended a couple nights before. During intermission she had run into Jenny and I got the impression that the two of them had gotten into a fight over Ronnie's custody case-although this was all coming out in bits and pieces. I had to decipher it as I went along."

"Did Ms. Baldacci threaten you or Ms. Keating during this call?"

Nadine thought about this. "She definitely called me a few names, but I'm not sure any of it could be considered a threat."

"What sort of names?"

"To be honest, I don't recall. The usual assortment, I guess. Like I said, she was drunk."

Abernathy's jaw clenched. "Your Honor, may I have the court's permission to treat this witness as hostile?"

O'Donnell blinked at him. "She seems to be answering your questions openly and honestly, counsel. Request denied."

"But her answers aren't consistent with what she-"

"Objection," Waverly shouted. "How many times do we have to go over these phantom statements my colleague keeps crowing about?"

O'Donnell raised a hand at her. "Calm down, Ms. Waverly, I'm well aware of the problem here." He turned to Nadine. "Ms. Overman, I'm sure you know of the consequences of perjury."

"Yes, Your Honor."

"So is it your contention that the statements you made two months ago to Mr. Abernathy were untrue?"

"Yes," Nadine said.

"Would you mind explaining why you made false statements to an officer of the court in the middle of a murder investigation?"

Nadine looked at Ronnie now, and in that moment seemed to be speaking to her, rather than the court. "My only excuse is that I was extremely upset about losing one of my best friends, and in my grief, I said things to Mr. Abernathy that were either overstated or untruthful. And if that means facing some kind of charge, then so be it. I'm not about to lie under oath."

Abernathy looked as if he were about to burst a blood vessel. "With all due respect, Your Honor, I have to strenuously object to-"

"Stop right there, counsel. It's sounds to me as if you got the answer to the question you've been trying to ask for the last several minutes. I'm sorry if it isn't what you wanted to hear. Now, unless you have anything further, I'd suggest you call it a wash and wrap this up."

Abernathy was silent for a very long time, no doubt weighing his options. Then he heaved a defeated sigh. "I'm done with this witness, Your Honor."

"All right. Ms. Waverly?"

"No questions, Your Honor."

"Very well, then. Ms. Overman, you're excused."