A Fool for a Client (38 page)

*     *

Thomas was a pro and he aimed for the chest, to maximize the chance of hitting something if the target moved as he fired and to give himself the chance to fire a second time to finish off the job.
With Thomas, executions were always a two shot affair, unless the subject was already a captive, and it was always the second shot that was fatal.
But this time the first shot did not have the desired effect.
In truth Declan had recoiled slightly, but it was more in shock than anything else and a fraction of a second later he turned his body to improve his firing position, pulled out the silenced handgun and squeezed the trigger.

Thomas saw something happening, saw a movement of some kind under the jacket as the gun came out and Declan fired off the fatal shot.
But his body failed to react as quickly as his mind would have liked.
By the time he realized that he had to realign his aim for Declan
’
s head, he felt the bullet from Declan
’
s gun rip into his guts and another into his heart.
It was as if the breath within him were let out of a huge puncture hole.
And then the lights faded.

*     *

Declan dragged the body into the cubicle from which he had emerged and held it up in such a way that as soon as he let go and slipped out, the body would fall again
st the door holding it closed. O
f course if anyone looked underneath, they would see the body. But in the Big Apple the golden rule was to mind ones own business.

He looked at his watch and realized that it was time to go back to the courtroom.
He had another meeting, this one scheduled by appointment.
And he had every intention of keeping it.

The judge had decided early in this case to take advantage of Justine
’
s refusal to engage in legal wrangling to assist in expediting the case and clearing up the backlog that tends to build up of judge
’
s dockets in the crime-ridden cities of the
United States
.
Accordingly he resolved not to postpone his summation until the following day.
It was still only three O
’
clock and he felt confident that he could summarize the legal issues clearly and concisely.
When the court reconvened after the twenty minute recess that followed the prosecutor
’
s closing argument, he turned to the jury and addressed them in a slow, but commanding and authoritative voice.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you have heard the People
’
s case and you have heard the evidence presented by the defendant.
It is not my task to repeat or to summarize the evidence already presented to you, nor to help you to identify which parts of the evidence are most important or most relevant.
It is my function to direct you as to the
law
.
You and you alone are the judges of the facts.

“I must caution you however that on matters of law you must take your directions from me and from no other source.
You must not be guided in any way by preconceived notions that you may have got from books or movies or TV shows or friends.
Whatever prior assumptions you may hold on matters of law you must put completely out of your minds, just as you were admonished at the outset of this trial to put aside any preconceived notions you may have inadvertently acquired as to the facts of this case.

“After I have given you directions as to the law you will retire to consider the facts and then apply the law as I have explained it to you to the facts as you determine them to be.

“The defendant is charged with murder in the second degree.
First degree murder, which has since been ruled an unconstitutional category, concerns the murder of police and peace officers and need not concern you.
But second degree murder is only one of a number of four categories of homicide which you must consider, the others being criminally negligent homicide, second degree manslaughter and first degree manslaughter.”

Abrams looked visibly frustrated.
The judge knew that by stating the articles in the order in which they appeared in the state Penal Law he was, in effect, encouraging the jury to convict on a lesser charge.
In other murder cases that came before him, he invariably worked his way along the list in the other direction, from murder to negligent homicide.
Sometimes he even neglected to give a preliminary list and simply defined them one by one, starting with murder.
He knew that he was telling them to convict on a negligent homicide charge, and he knew that Abrams also knew.
What was harder to admit to himself was his motive.

“Under section 125.10 of the New York Penal Law,
‘
A person is guilty of criminally negligent homicide, when with criminal negligence, he causes the death of another person.
’
I will explain the legal definition of criminal negligence in due course.

“Under section 125.15,
‘
A person is guilty of manslaughter in the second degree when he recklessly causes the death of another person,
’
or
‘
when he intentionally causes or aids another person to commit suicide.
’

“Under section 125.20,
‘
A person is guilty of manslaughter in the first degree when with intent to cause serious physical injury to another person he causes the death of such person or of a third person; or, with intent to cause death to another person, he causes the death of such person or a third person under circumstances which do not constitute murder because he acts under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance as defined in paragraph (a) of subdivision one of section 125.25.
’

“I shall explain this further in due course.
But first I must continue the relevant paragraph.
‘
The fact that homicide was committed under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance constitutes a mitigating circumstance reducing murder to manslaughter in the first degree.
’

“Under subdivision one of section 125.25
‘
A person is guilty of murder in the second degree when with intent to cause the death of another person he causes the death of such person or of a third person.
’

“We now come to the affirmative defence provided for in paragraph (a) that I mentioned earlier.
According to this paragraph, murder is reduced to manslaughter if
‘
The defendant acted under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance for which there was a reasonable explanation or excuse, the reasonableness of which is to be determined from the viewpoint of a person in the defendant
’
s situation under the circumstances as the defendant believed them to be.
’
”

“Under subdivision
two
of section 125.25, a person is guilty of second degree murder when
‘
Under circumstances evincing a depraved indifference to human life, he recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to another person, and thereby causes the death of another person.
’

“These then are the four categories of homicide which you are charged to consider.”

The judge then went into detail, describing the meaning of criminal negligence and the elements of homicide in general.

“...for example, in the
People versus Jarvis Stewart
it as held that
‘
the prosecutor must, at least, prove that the defendant
’
s conduct was an actual cause of death, in that it forged a link in the chain of causes which actually brought about the death
’
.”

Abrams smiled.

“But there is a further requirement, as stated in
People versus Kibbe
, that
‘
the defendant
’
s actions must be
a sufficiently direct cause
of the ensuing death before there can be any imposition of criminal liability

“However, as the Stewart decision pointed out
‘
direct
’
does not mean the same as
‘
unaided
’
.
Indeed it was held in People versus Kane that if ”felonious assault is operative as a cause of death, the causal co-operation of erroneous surgical or medical treatment does not relieve the assailant from liability for homicide.
’
It is for you to decide whether the defendant
’
s actions constituted felonious assault.

“Similarly in the case of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania versus Eisenhower
a persuasive analogy which the New York Court of Appeals cited approvingly in both the
Stewart
and
Kane
decisions,
‘
the prisoner cannot escape by showing that death was the result of an accident occurring in an operation which his felonious act made necessary.
’
Again it is for you to decide whether or not the defendant
’
s original actions constituted such a felonious act.

“Also note that the wording there is
‘
made necessary
’
not
‘
caused
’
.
It is for you to decide whether the defendant
’
s actions made the events at the hospital
necessary
.”

The smile had all but vanished from Abrams face.
The judge was coming as close as he dared to telling the jury that Justine might not be guilty of homicide at all.

“If in the light of the foregoing you are satisfied that the defendant is
legally
responsible for causing the death of Sean Murphy then you must proceed to consider the question of intent.
Specifically, You must, if you get to this stage consider whether it was the intent of the accused to kill Sean Murphy, to cause him serious injury, to cause him simple injury or to frighten him...

*     *

“...and now ladies and gentlemen of the jury you will retire to consider your verdict.”

Justine sat calmly as she watched the jury
filing out. There was no tension left in her now.
Throughout the trial she had been like a coiled spring the force holding her together being her story, her truth and her desire to tell it.
But now that she had released it and let it unwind the tension inside her was gone.
Awaiting her fate held no fear for her.
It was waiting to be heard that had been her only jail.

The bailiff led Justine away, to await the verdict in a holding cell a few storeys below.
She was silent, almost catatonic, as the door slammed behind her, leaving her alone in a cold room of stone walls and iron bars.

But when she closed her eyes she was no longer in a grey cell but in a warm carpeted corridor, a nine year old
girl walking towards her father
’
s bedroom.
He had just been through one of his violent rages, but it had burnt itself out and he was now in that mood of sombre depression when he could safely be approached.
There was nothing he liked more than the gentle hand of his daughter stroking the back of his head at these moments, and in a perverse way it gave Justine pleasure to give him this comfort, knowing that she was close to him and that he loved her.

He was sitting on the edge of the bed with when she entered the room, holding a gun in his hand.
He raised the gun to his right temple not seeing her.
She wanted to cry out, to scream at him to stop.
But she just stood there frozen, as if she was watching the playback of something that had already happened seven years ago, something that was impossible to stop.

He squeezed the trigger.
The explosion merged with Justine
’
s wail of anguish as blood and brain tissue splattered her dress.

*     *

For Declan, it was a time of great tension.
The body in the washroom could be back at any minute. Even now, Declan didn
’
t know who it was.
It could have been an IRA hit man, but it could also have been an agent of the British.
Whoever it was, they would send others.
But more to the point, in the meantime he knew that if the body was found, everyone who had been at the trial would be a suspect.
And he already had that arrest record and the scheduled court appearance.

He never really knew who had set him up for the arrest.
It was obviously a setup.
But he couldn
’
t figure out the purpose.
If it had been to get him into jail so he could be killed, then why was no effort to kill him made when he was in custody.
It could be because he made bail so quickly.
But he had been free for a while.
Why was the attempt only made less than an hour ago?