(1969) The Seven Minutes (71 page)

She looked tortured, and he wanted to take her in his arms and soothe her pain and promise her that none of this would be made public. But he could not do it, for it would be a lie. So now this was in the open, and it was there between them.

She was speaking. ‘What else do they know?’ she asked.

‘Just that.’

‘And you’re going to bring it up in court ?’

T have to.’

‘Mike, don’t, please don’t.’

‘Maggie, I have no choice. But I do want to know one thing. I understand Jerry’s condition, that he’s on the borderline of becoming psychotic. Still, why is he so scared about appearing as a witness? I realize it is a horrible thing for him to undergo, but everyone is already familiar with his crime and sickness, so why is his appearance in court a matter of life or death to him? To me that’s the issue.’

She knitted her brow and was silent for many seconds, as if trying to decide what to answer. At last she met Barrett’s eyes. ‘Maybe it all has to do with why I felt that I had to see you tonight, Mike. Because I know you have humanity, an understanding of others, and you have a deep sense of decency. I will tell you this. Jerry isn’t really afraid of going to court and sitting in the witness box in public and being questioned by Elmo Duncan. He knows that he is Duncan’s witness and Duncan will be gentle with him and won’t do him any deliberate harm. It is you he’s afraid of, Mike. It is the crossexamination that he’s in deathly fear of. He senses you must discredit, even destroy him, if you are to have a chance to win your case. That’s the whole truth. He’s afraid of what the defense will do to him.’

‘You still haven’t told me why. Except for making him admit to that first suicide attempt, what other information can I get out of him that isn’t already known by everybody? As for making him admit the first suicide attempt, what is so ghastly about that after everything else - after the rape and its consequences - has been brought out ? It may even gain him sympathy. Exactly why this wild fear of being in court, and of the crossexamination ?’

She was hesitant. ‘I can’t explain, Mike. It’s part of his whole neurotic illness. When you’ve been overwhelmed, put down, your whole life by a dominating parent, you’re not sure any more of what you are, what your value is, if you’re a whole person even. You’ve always been made to feel inadequate. You arrive at a breaking point. Then to be stripped and lashed further and in public by a crossexaminer, to have your worst weaknesses made naked, to be humiliated further, I guess that’s too much. That can break you.’ She paused. ‘Your questions - they would humiliate him, wouldn’t they?’

‘Maggie, a crossexamination is never easy for any witness to handle. Despite that, most people, no matter how frail, manage to weather it and survive intact. For someone like Jerry, I can’t say. I can only say this - knowing him, through you -I won’t be vicious or cruel, not the Grand Inquisitor, not Torquemada. But I will question him, and he will have to answer, since he will be under oath.’

She was silent again, and something was forming behind her eyes. ‘Mike, must you question him? Must you cross-examine him?’

‘If Duncan didn’t bring him into court, I wouldn’t have to. But Duncan is bringing him into court. Duncan is going to examine him. So there Jerry is, and I must cross-examine him.’

‘But you don’t have to do it, do you? Legally, you can waive the crossexamination, can’t you?’

‘Certainly, counsel can always pass, waive the crossexamination, but -‘

She grasped Barrett’s arm with both hands. ‘Then do that, Mike. That’s what I wanted to - to ask of you tonight. Not to cross-examine Jerry. I couldn’t keep him from being forced into court. But he can still be saved, if your side doesn’t go after him. I won’t say do it for me, Mike. I have no right to ask that. But for the boy’s sake, thinking of him, please waive your crossexamination.’

She took her hands from his arm and clenched them tightly, waiting.

It was hard, it was painful, this next gesture, but Barrett shook his head slowly. ‘No, Maggie, I can’t do that. I can’t betray the people who have retained me and are depending on me. I can’t betray Jadway or his book and the freedoms I believe in. Darling, listen to me, and be as reasonable as possible. The District Attorney has had it all his way so far. He’s made a powerful case against Jadway and the book. We’ve been thwarted in our every effort to refute or counteract the case against Jadway. Now he’s going to prove the dangerous influence of Jadway’s work by bludgeoning us with Jerry Griffith. This is our first opportunity to stop him. If we don’t defend ourselves here, then we go under, and the censors win control. If Duncan examines Jerry, I absolutely have to cross-examine him. It’s our last, last hope. If things had gone differently before, or were a little different now, I would certainly consider doing what you asked - waive the crossexamination - because then it might be less crucial.’

She had drawn nearer to him. ‘What - what do you mean, if things had gone differently or were different now? What things?’

He remember Zelkin’s argument to him last night, and he used it for Maggie now. ‘Well, if we’d had Leroux on our side earlier, and the Vogler woman, even that little, I would certainly consider skipping my crossexamination of Jerry, because, as I say, it would be less important. Or even now, if I had one really star witness who could refute Leroux and build up our case for Jadway and the book I might not have to bother with Jerry. But I don’t have that one witness. I don’t have anyone remotely like that, and so -‘

‘Mike.’

He looked up sharply, because the tone of her voice had been so firm.

‘That one witness you need,’ she said. ‘Who could that be -who’d be so important to you ?’

‘Who? Well, I’d say there’d only be one left who would mean anything. And she’d mean everything. I’m speaking of Cassie McGraw. Now, if I had her -‘

‘You can have her, Mike.’

It was so sudden that he almost failed to understand it or to react. He stared dumbly at Maggie Russell.

She was cool and composed, and when she spoke again it was with quiet assurance.

‘I’ll make you a fair trade, Mike. You promise not to cross-examine Jerry Griffith, and I promise to get you to Cassie McGraw - to Cassie McGraw herself, in person.’

Please place your left hand on the Bible and raise your right hand. You do swear that the testimony you are about to give in the cause now before the court will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?’

‘I do.’

‘State your name, please.’

‘Jerry - Jerome Griffith.’

‘Spell the last name, please.’

‘Grif - Griffith …uh…G…uh… G-r-i-f-f-i-t-h.’

‘Please be seated in the witness box, Mr Griffith.’

From his corner of the defense table, Mike Barrett watched the slender young man go to the witness box and nervously sit down in the witness chair. His chestnut-brown hair was freshly trimmed, his eyes (a persistent tic in the left one) darted here and there across the courtroom and avoided the silver microphone before him, his face was pale, and his shoulders were hunched - like a frightened tortoise ready to pull its head inside its protective shell. The tip of Jerry’s tongue constantly licked at his dry lips as he waited for his Charon to start him on the journey across his private River Styx.

Now Barrett’s gaze left the prosecution’s star to take in the overflowing courtroom behind him. He knew that Maggie Russell was present somewhere in that sea of faces, and that her attention was focused not only on Jerry but on Barrett himself. He was conscious also of the presence of Philip Sanford among the spectators directly behind him, and of a grim and determined Abe Zelkin and a worried and anxious Ben Fremont sitting beside him.

He remembered yesterday, a day not of rest but of unremitting restlessness.

He had reviewed everything that Maggie had told him. Every detail of it. He had reviewed and weighed it over and over again.

Incredibly, or perhaps not so incredibly, the legendary Cassie McGraw, mistress of J J Jadway - Cassie McGraw, prototype of the heroine in The Seven Minutes - was alive, very much alive, in the Midwest. She had read of the trial. She had written to Frank Griffith in defense of Jadway. As part-time social secretary, Maggie always saw the family’s mail first, and she had intercepted Cassie McGraw’s communique, had hidden it from Griffith and had kept it hidden for two weeks. Since it was favorable to the defense, Maggie had saved it for its bargaining power. Not to use on Barrett, originally, but on Frank Griffith. Then, fearing that Frank

Griffith had become too fanatic and obsessed to bargain with - too dogmatic to agree to keep Jerry off the stand in return for the destruction of Cassie’s communique - fearing, also, that Griffith might learn about the missive and wrest it from her, she had decided to offer it to Barrett as a last resort, in a last effort to save Jerry.

Barrett had given Maggie no decision on Saturday night.

Throughout Sunday, from waking to sleeping, he had weighed the pros and cons of the proposed trade.

Pro: a living Cassie McGraw as a defense witness would be a sensation. Pro: Cassie’s communique had defended Jadway’s motives and integrity in writing The Seven Minutes and would wipe out the testimony of Leroux and Father Sarfatti and the rest, for Cassie had been Jadway’s alter ego, had known his mind and words first hand, and she alone could be the final voice of truth. Pro: Cassie could wash away the calumnies that had been mounted against Jadway’s way of life and at the same time soften the impression left by his way of death. Pro: Cassie McGraw, now an older woman, by her very appearance in the flesh, the admitted model for the heroine of the book, would be a living exhibit to challenge the charge that her performance in the novel was pornographic and obscene. (After all, who could imagine Whistler’s Mother fucking?)

But there were cons, perhaps few strong ones, but in some ways these were the more compelling.

Con: if Cassie McGraw had defended the book in a_communiqu6 meant for Frank Griffith, why had she not come forward at a subsequent time to vol unteer as a defense witness ? Con: perhaps because she did not look with entire favor upon Jadway’s book or his life? Con: and what if she were to be forced, under oath, not only to confirm but to substantiate the damaging testimony already given by the French publisher and the Vatican priest ? Con: and what if this aging woman’s appearance and speech, instead of giving the lie to Duncan’s picture of a wayward, loose woman, only supported the prosecution’s version of her? Con: in short, what if she had become one of those winking, drinking, foul-mouthed, unkempt, cackling old harridans with dyed hair that one sees not only on mean streets but also at exclusive charity balls? Con: what if the whole trade was a con in itself, the biggest of cons, and was being perpetrated by Maggie on behalf of the Griffith family? Maggie had joked about Griffith’s clumsy attempt to get her to use Barrett, but what if that really were a cover-up? And why hadn’t she at least shown him Cassie’s communique and divulged her exact whereabouts? Was it, as she had said, because she could not get to the evidence on Sunday because Frank Griffith was home that day ? Or was-it that she was as suspicious - well, as wary - of Barrett’s using her as he now was of her using him (meaning she knew that once he learned of Cassie’s whereabouts, he would not have to

honor his part of the trade)? Or Was it that evidence of Cassie McGraw alive simply did not exist?

The cons, the pros. The pros and cons.

The decision had to be made on Maggie Russell’s terms. First Barrett must deliver on his part of the bargain. No crossexamination of Jerry Griffith. Then, within a few hours, Maggie would deliver on her part of the bargain. She would deliver, in effect, Cassie McGraw.

If he delivered, and Maggie delivered, the defense would have more than hope. It would have potential victory. But if he delivered, and Maggie did not, Barrett would have betrayed the trust placed in him by his clients. And not only the defense, but her personally would suffer the bitterest of defeats.

He had not been able to come to a decision yesterday.

And he had not come to a decision this morning.

Once, an hour ago, before the court was called to order, before the prosecution had put Dr Roger Trimble on the stand to testify to the grave trauma Jerry had sustained from his reading of the Jadway book, Barrett had been tempted to disclose Maggie’s offer to Abe Zelkin. Yet he had not been able to bring himself to do this, for he had instinctively known what Zelkin’s decision would be. It would be for a bird in the hand, because Zelkin did not know Maggie, and the whole thing came down to a question of Maggie’s honesty and trustworthiness. Zelkin did not know her and would flatly distrust any ally from the house of Griffith. So the decision was Barrett’s to make alone. He knew Maggie. The decision must be based on his person judgment of Maggie, and this made it doubly difficult. His past judgments of women had been consistently poor, so the question, dear counsel, came to this: Was Maggie Russell all the women he had known in the past, or was she his woman, the first real woman he had ever known?

He could not answer. He could not decide.

And then he realized that he would have to decide and answer very soon. For minutes earlier he had made a last gesture at preventing Jerry Griffith’s appearance. He had objected to the calling up of this witness on the grounds of irrelevancy. The jury had filed out, and he had argued the point with Duncan before the bench. Judge Upshaw had based his decision on Judicial Canon 36, that it was the judge’s function to make-sure that proceedings in court should be so conducted as to reflect the importance and seriousness of the inquiry to ascertain the truth. Since the prosecution was arguing that a bookseller had sold a book injurious to the public, and a member of the public had confessed that he had been driven to crime by that book, then it was indeed in the interests of truth to hear the witness out.

Defense’s objection overruled. Witness would be sworn and permitted to speak.

Thus, the last loophole that would have saved Barrett from making a decision about Maggie’s integrity had been ruled out. He was still left with his terrible choice. He would still have to answer those nagging questions and make his decision quickly, too quickly. Before him already, directly in front of him, exuding the warmest and most ingratiating of manners and wearing his quietest and most friendly suit, stood blond Elmo Duncan, District Attorney of Los Angeles and United States Senator to-be.