Compelling Evidence (26 page)

"Does she confirm the facts, his alibi?" I ask. "Like somebody wrote a script for her," he says. I fix on him across the desk. "What do you think?"

"I think Skarpellos had a burning need to put a muzzle i Potter's mouth, and the opportunity to do it." He smiles. '@I the lady's lying. Now ask me how we prove it."

I keep my own counsel on this, but I tend to agree with If Hawley had been hired by the Greek to service political p before the scandal began to break, she would have been the alibi on the night of the murder. "For the right price Susan Hawley would willingly allow to be put in her mouth," I tell him. "Among other things," says Harry. "What about Hamilton?"

"No such luck," he says. He looks at me perplexed, entirely surprised.

"No alibi?"

Harry nods. "The only thing going for him is that co questioned him, so he didn't have the opportunity to lie record. If s what I was afraid of.

I've had Harry check Hamilton, the story he gave me the night of our meeting at Talia's, told me he had dinner with friends at the club the night killa

"The club records show he had dinner there, all ri Harry,

'tree nights before the murder, and then again later. They have no record of him at the bar or the res night."

"Maybe somebody else picked up the tab?" I say. "No, they have a roster in the main hall, everybody re arrival and leaving, members and guests.

I checked it. signed in that day."

If Harry can find this, so can the cops. I'm becomin ingly concerned by Tod's indiscretions. The fact that king's ransom in bail for Talia's release now fights neon for Nelson. With no alibi for the nfitight of the becoming too convenient. "You think she's lying to you?" Harry's, Concerned[ a her relationship with Tod. He's wondering if the C, be right. "Wouldn't be the first time that a client lied to sitting there looking at me, like maybe, just maybe : side of the devil in this one.

It's not an unusual position for Harry, or one that bothers him much.

But, I tell him, she didn't kill Ben, with Hamilton or anybody else.

Whether she's lying ... I make a face, like

"Who knowst' ,Tell me you're

not thinkin' with your pecker," he says. I give Harry an exasperated look. He takes umbrage at this. "Save it for the jury." Harry's irked.

‐,You want me to keep you honest," he says. "So humor me."

I wave him on, like go ahead, play your best mind game with me. 11ink about it,". he says.. "You go over to her house and this guy Tod is living there, He bails her outta jail. Sure, maybe it's just that his dick's run away with his head. That's one possibility, The other is, maybe he considers this a good investment," Harry gives me a severe look, like this is not so far‐fetched‐ "If you popped the old man, and Talia knew about it,'how secure would you feet knowing she's in the can, locked up with a case of the screaming meemies? Mmm? How long before she says something go somebody? Wouldn't you want to get her out of there, like Gow?1f I'm looking at him soberly, listening to this line. "And the little handgun," he says. "You did everything but e instructions on his forehead, telling him not to handle the if they found it. And what does Tod do?" Harry brings index finger to his temple to show the calculating thought ss that went into Tod's fingering this gun and smudging all prints. ow we find out he has no alibi. What is worse, he tied to about ic, "What are you saying‐they killed Ben together?"

"It's a possibility," he says. But there's another theory that thinks may be closer to the mark. "Maybe the boyfriend uated. He wants Talia to leave the old man. Suppose she do it. Maybe she can't give up the good life‐the prenuptial and all. So Tod fixes it for her. Suppose, just suppose, she 't know this until after it's all over, until after Hamilton has Potter." Oink about this while Harry watches me. I have my doubts , But for Talia, I have a hard time believing she would s from me. With the travail she has been througb, I don't would have talked," I tell him. "I know her. She would . She would have told me by now."

Talia, with all : Of her whimsy, would never come this far, staring death or 2 prison term in the face without telling me if this were so.

"Maybe," he says. "But think about it. Now she's in a What good does it do to tell you? So you know the truth likely, to help her?"

I follow him on this. Harry, s right. This is not a story we lay on a jury with much success. The fact that Talia, a if woman, had a serious love interest that could motivate would be enough to hang her. The best we could ho 0 that they would view her as an accessory after the fact.

Evi would be a long shot of sizable proportions. "So what are you saying?" I ask him. Mat maybe the lady knows more than she says. May can meet Nelson's terms for a plea bargain after all." Harry's suggesting that we might have Talia roll over Offer him up to the prosecution as her shadowy accompb. "Ifs too convenient:' I tell him. "There's not a shred dence linking him to the crime. The fact that he paid I money?

That's not evidence of murder. The fact that he alibi? Where were you that nightt' I ask him. Harry shrugs, like

"Take your best guess."

"Like half the rest of the city," I say. "No, it won't wash there was hard evidence. Unless Talia could testify that Tt admissions to her, Nelson would never bite:' This leaves the thought of how I would ever approach her on this, to about Tod. "For now:' I say, "Iet's concentrate on the Greek." it, feeling, but something in my bones tells me that Skar. the key. "So what do you want me to do, subpoena the bank rei the firm's trust account?"

"No, we'll wait. We get 'em with enough time to so and confirm our defense, to see if we can prove somet dipping into the trust. But as soon as we go after the. bant Skarpellos will know what we're up to.

He'll start t witnesses. Subtly:' I say. "No overt tampering.‐, The a master of intimidation. Harry nods, as if this is his inclination as well. He s@, I'm going, the old SODDI defense@@"Some Other Du6 Five days after Harry's mission to the club I am again living room confronting her with the facts on Tod, his alibi, his generosity concerning her bail.

"You're doing yourself a disservice," I tell her. "I can't defend you without the truth."

Talia sits in one comer of the couch, looking at me as if I've whacked her with a two‐by‐four brandishing a naff in the business end. Her legs are curled under her, arms folded over bet chest, the classic female defensive posture. She doesn't answer my questions, but instead looks at me forlorn, accusing, that I too should whip her at a time like this.

,,Tomorrow," I say, "we go to see Nelson. You can be sure he'll offer us some kind of a deal. I've got to know whether we should take it. if you're hiding things from me, critical facts that may come out during the trial, then you're hobbling me‐crucifying yourself," I tell her.

She's in a daze. It is often said that you can key the loss of mental faculties to a singular traumatic event@ a fall, an accident, a change of habitat. With Talia, since her incarceration, there has been a conspicuous loss in the powers of concentration, a restless anxiety that is not characteristic. She is slowly unraveling. I move to the couch and shake her a little, not with my hands, but with the tone of my voice, up close in her car. "Do you hear me?" I say. "It becomes more difficult the farther we go. If there's something you haven't told me, now is the time." I can't afford to coddle her. Suddenly she turns on me, coils, and strikes. "You think I did it" she says. "Did you?" To this point I have never asked her this question, Not overtly. We have done little probing cotillions around it, Harry and 1, but never head‐on, squarely presenting the question to Talia. "How can you believe I could do a thing like that, that I could .10 Den?" she says. "What's Tod's part in all of thist' I say. "He's a friend." There's derision in her tone, as if to say e you." @HN 0' to Tali 'lio

"Wj alik

"Good friend." I say. "A

million‐dollar bond. I could use a few that myself." @m@_She gives me the once‐over, up and down, scrambling with her 4rics, surprised that I have discovered her little secret, the deep *Ocket behind her release.

"k I tell her that Nelson too will know this by now, and that at 7At Point we are likely to be confronted with Tod's lack of an alibi'and the fact of their relationship. From the look on her face I can tell that the A‐lj=‐ i these facts has suddenly dawned on her. "It looks bad," I explain to her. "You're living pays for your bail, he has no alibi for the night of the w the cops are looking for an accomplice. Some might Ion, his contribution to your bail is a little investment to silence, to keep you from fingering him as your helper."

I can see in her eyes, like those of a startled fawn, lo scenario has never entered her mind, not until now. "Still," I tell her, "it could be a persuasive jury."

"It was his mother's money," she says. "What?"

"The money for the bail‐it came from his mother. have that kind of money," she says. "But his family is

"Whatever," I say, as if these

details don't really name is on the guarantee with the bondsman; that's all needs to know. That's all he'll care about."

She tells me that the collateral posted for her bail is family trust, Tod's inheritance. "Can't we keep him outbf iff'she says. "He was ‐000

to help me."

"I'm sorry," I say, "but it's what happens when you things from your lawyer. If you'd told me that Tod vev@& to guarantee your bail I would have advised against it."

"And I would still be rotting in the county jail." Her now ablaze, glazed a little by the start of tears. "rod was one who carra" she says.

In her own way, Talia is MRIWIL, I am no better than Cheetarn, that I too welshed on my:,‐' to spring her from jail. Maybe she is right. "Do you think they'll arrest him?" she asks. "It wouldn't surprise me."

More tears extinguish the fire in her eyes. There's t‐@4, here, the kind of anguished expression that often V "Oh God," she says. "How did I get into this? How him into this?"

I think for a moment that she's talking about her the fact that she's charged with murder. Then I realize have another meaning, some more specific dilemma. She looks up at me with big, round, pleading eyes. "He was with me the night Ben was killed" she t.Vk* .00 '00

"I see. So you spun a little yarn for the copst' "I figured they couldn't check it out‐the trip to Vacav she says. I shake my head again, this time looking straight at her wonder of it all. Talia fabricating a story the cops couldn't to protect Tod, and at the same time destroying any ho an alibi. "Later I couldn't tell anyone," she says. Caught in a web of her own deceit, Talia was con with the unshakable theory of a male accomplice. To reve whereabouts was to serve Tod up on a platter to the cops. "It's what we argued about the night you came here about the gun,"

she says. "Remember, when you left the Tod wanted to tell you. I wouldn't let him."

"Hurray for Tod," I say. "Too bad you didn't take his She's back to studying the loops in the carpet, her eyes cast, arms folded, forming a kind of revetment around her

"How did you come by the story, the trip to

Vacavi ask her. It was typical of Talia. This, it seems, was a cover designed for Ben, in case he called looking for her at the According to Talia, the county administrator charged wi ing the estate for taxes had called her. Someone, an fied source, had given the administrator Talia's name and, number as a potential buyer. She was scheduled to go alone, and use the realtor's lockbox key to view the Talia decided she had better things to do. "Instead you went over to Tod's."

She nods. There's just a touch of shame in this ges took the day off. We were going to play tennis." She's lint off her slacks with long, delicate fingernails. "We things," she says. It's her way of telling me that they rolled between all day, round‐eyed lust in the.afternoon. I'm at the window, staring out at the yard, my back

"What do we do now?" she

asks. I give a little shrug. "We go and listen to what Nel offer. If it's good, maybe we take it."

"No," she says, "I won't do it. I won't confess to a didn't commit."

"Noble," I say. "But it may be preferable to the al don't have to draw Talia a picture. I have spoken to h in graphic terms, about how executions are carried out in this state, This conversation, which took place in the county jail, had a purpose: to impress upon her the risk she is running if she continues to insist on a trial, to reject the DA's overtures of a deal. "i can't do it," she says. "I can't Put You on the stand any longer‐,‐ "Why not?"

"So you can tell them you went to

Vacavil]et'l look at her like a child robbed of its innocence. "I can't suborn pedury. On the stand you would be asked where you were that day.

You would be confronted with your statements to the police at the house."

I can tell by her expression that Talia has finally come to understand her dilemma. If I put her on the stand she cannot lie. if she tells the truth she plays into Nelson's hands, she produces her accomplice.

Moreover, she admits that she lied to the Police concerning her whereabouts the night of the murder. I can hear Nelson to the jury: "A woman who would lie to avoid a mere social stigma, the embarrassment of an affair with another man, might also weave tales to cover up murder."

If I am to represent her, Talia can no longer take the stand in hff own defense. She will have to live with her story never given under oath, of a trip to Vacaville that no one can prove, a lie to be Wed under the cloak of constitutional privilege and the right of silence. )Es name is etched deep in gold on the oak plaque next to his Wice door. Duane Nelson has the corner slot, Sam Jennings's old office, with a view to the courthouse across the street. Harry and I we ushered in. I've left Talia at home. I can't trust her judgment. 140W lips, a slip of the tongue, some untimely emotion‐at this each can be fatal. I will call her if we need to confer, in ent that Nelson makes us a deal too good to decline. rises from behind the desk as we enter and extends a hand; smile spans his lean face. He's haggard. The duties of Place are wearing on Duane Nelson. m by surname and he corrects me. :"Duane," he says.