JO01 - Guilty or Else (21 page)

You wait and see.”

The hearing started. Bobbi managed to get through the first thirty-minutes without looking my way. I watched as she presented a few witnesses: the cop who had arrived first at crime scene testified as to what he’d discovered. The medical examiner told the cause of death, which was consistent with a murder, and the arresting police officer explained how and why they had arrested Rodriguez.

There was nothing new, nothing that wasn’t in the police report. I couldn’t object to the evidence or the manner in which Bobbi presented it. I just sat there and waited for the People to call their new witness: Rodriguez’s cellmate.

“Your Honor, we had a witness that we planned to call, but in light of recent developments we decided to save him for the trial.” Bobbi shot a glance at me that could have frozen Dante’s Inferno. “At this time, the People would like to make a motion.”

“Go ahead,” the judge said.

“The People move to have Mr. O’Brien removed as counsel for the defense, for cause. It’s obvious that he is incompetent and—”

I bolted out of my seat. “Your honor, Miss Allen knows nothing about my competence. I passed the bar—”

The judge waved his hands in front of him. “Let her finish. You’ll get your turn.”

“He’s not only incompetent, but he tried to bribe a witness. Falsify evidence—”

“That’s absurd and you know it,” I shouted at Bobbi.

“O’Brien, I told you let her finish,” the judge said in a stern manner.

“I’ve filed a complaint with the State Bar and turned over the facts to the Long Beach Police Department. They’re doing a full-scale investigation.”

Through clenched teeth, I said, “You did that behind my back. Didn’t wait to hear my side.”

Bobbi turned my way and hissed her reply. “You lied to me. You’ve been seen with your friends in the Mafia.”

The judge stood. “Counselors, direct your arguments to the bench.”

Bobbi faced the judge. “Your honor, he’s been seen with gangsters.”

“I’m a criminal lawyer, for chrissakes, who do you expect me to be seen with?”

She whipped around. “You go to their disgusting bust-out parties, prostitutes, hoodlums.”

“They aren’t that disgusting. The food is great, and I didn’t see any prostitutes. But I only went once, to see my client.”

“Joseph Sica? Your client?” She smirked. “The kingpin of the Mafia? Ha, bet me. He’d hire an idiot like you?”

Judge Koito stood and pounded his gavel. “Allen, O’Brien, approach the bench.”

“I’m an idiot? If I’m an idiot why did you ask me out?”

“That’s a lie! You called me in the middle of the night!”

“It was eight-thirty.”

The gravel banged again. “One more word out of you two and I’ll—”

“You deceived me! Told me all those lies.”

“That’s it,” the judge said, “you’re in contempt, Miss Allen.”

Bobbi shifted her attention to the judge. “I want a restraining order. I want to file it right now.”

“Approach. Both of you. Now!”

Bobbi darted around the table and started for the bench. I yelled at her back, “You don’t need an order. I wouldn’t get near you for all the tea—”

“Enough. That’s enough! O’Brien you’re in contempt too. I want to see both of you in my chambers.” The judge flew down from the bench and rushed to the door.

He stopped and pointed his gavel at the bailiff. “Ed, escort these people to my chambers. If they give you any trouble, arrest ’em.”

We went peaceably; no one was cuffed. They took Rodriguez back to the holding cell and we were escorted to the judge’s chambers. Bobbi sat in a maroon leather armchair that faced the desk. I could almost feel the heat of her slow burn as she sat with her hands folded primly in her lap, her mouth clamped shut. I paced behind Bobbi and waited for Judge Koito to enter the room. Ed the bailiff guarded the door.

The judge’s absence had to be a ploy. He was giving us a cooling-off period, time to calm down and reflect on why we were here. The hearing was not about us. It was obviously much more important than Bobbi and me. We were just a couple of idiots who were acting like teenagers. I felt like a schoolboy who’d been sent trembling to the principal’s office to wait for his parents to pick him up and administer punishment. No television for a week. It didn’t matter to me. My TV was on the fritz.

Standing behind her, I leaned in close to Bobbi’s ear and whispered, “You didn’t even wait to hear my side of the story.” Her body quivered slightly, but she didn’t turn around.

“You’re just like all the rest, just using me,” she whispered back.

“I trusted you, and you set me up.” I walked away from her.

The door opened and Ed snapped to attention. “All rise,” he shouted.

Judge Koito entered and gave Ed a dismissive wave. “That’s not necessary, Ed, we’re not in court. Everyone sit down.”

I sat next to Bobbi in the only other chair in the room, close enough to smell her perfume, a light and sunny fragrance. She squirmed a little and leaned as far away from me as she possibly could without leaving her seat. The judge sat behind his desk.

“Before we begin, I want to warn both of you, if you speak out of turn or to one another without directing your remarks to me, you’ll spend the night in jail. Is that clear?”

I nodded. Bobbi raised her hand, the school kid routine. Hey, maybe she brought an apple.

“Yes, Miss Allen?”

“Your Honor, I’d like to apologize for my behavior in your courtroom this morning.”

“Accepted, but you’re still in contempt. Before I establish the fine, we’ll see how it goes here and now. Do you have anything to say, Mr. O’Brien?”

“Nope.”

“Okay, now let’s get started. The remainder of the hearing will be held in here and the record will reflect only the outcome. Do you both agree to that?”

After Bobbi’s apology, it would’ve been hard for her to disagree with Judge Koito. As for me, if I were going to be excoriated, no way would I object to it happening in his chambers, instead of open court. Would’ve been okay with me to hold the thing in the toilet. We both agreed, and nodded.

“Fine. Now, I’ll ask the questions and the appropriate party will respond.”

Bobbi raised her hand again.

“Yes?” Koito said.

“May I bring my assistant in here? He has my files.”

“No,” he answered and turned to the bailiff. “Ed, go tell Miss Allen’s assistant that he’s dismissed. We won’t need him.”

Ed left the room.

I noticed that Bobbi sat a little straighter and tried, without success, to hide her anger. She folded her arms tightly across her chest and rocked almost imperceptibly back and forth.

Judge Koito pulled his chair closer to his desk. “Miss Allen, I have a few questions for you. Mr. O’Brien, you will keep your mouth shut until I’m through and then I’ll ask you to respond.”

“Agreed,” I said.

“Regarding the motion to remove Mr. O’Brien, have criminal charges been filed by your office pursuant to this matter, Miss Allen? Just answer yes or no.”

“No, Your Honor.”

“Has the State Bar reviewed the case and recommended any disciplinary action?”

“Not yet, but they will.”

Judge Koito pounded his hand on his desk. “Yes or no.”

“No.”

“The motion is denied.”

Bobbi started to raise her hand, pulled it down, and jumped up instead. “Your Honor, I have grounds.”

“Sit down,” the judge said. “Mr. O’Brien is an attorney, licensed by the state to practice law, and until that fact changes, he shall remain on the case. Miss Allen, when we go back into the courtroom, I strongly recommend that you withdraw your motion.”

Bobbie sat down and kept quiet.

“Mr. O’Brien, I don’t know what you may or may not have done, but that’s not why we’re here today. Do you have anything else to add pertaining to the case at hand?”

“Yes.” I pointed at Bobbi. “Miss Allen, I’m told, has an alleged jailhouse witness. She cut a deal with him to falsely testify that my client has confessed to the crime.”

Bobbi shot out of her chair again. “Judge, I won’t sit here and be accused of suborning perjury. Mr. O’Brien knows full well that I—unlike him—would not pull that kind of stunt.”

“I know nothing of the kind. I want the witness’s name, and I want to know what you offered him in return for his outrageous and mendacious statement,” I said.

“That’s enough, both of you. Mr. O’Brien, if you want any information from the prosecution, I suggest that you serve the proper discovery requests. Miss Allen, you will turn over to the defense any and all evidence required by law, including all witness statements. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Your Honor,” we both said in unison.

The judge glanced at Bobbi and then at me. “Anything else?”

“Bail,” I said.

“Denied,” he said.

We paraded back into the courtroom. Bobbi withdrew her motion on the record and Koito officially denied the bail request. The trial date was set for Monday, October 2. Judge Koito fined us both fifty dollars for the contempt citation, and admonished Bobbi, telling her the fine was personal. It was not to be paid by the district attorney’s office. He didn’t need to give me the same lecture. He knew I had to pay my own bills. Nothing more was said about Bobbi’s restraining order.

I loitered in the courtroom, scribbling on a yellow pad. I wanted to avoid getting into the elevator with Bobbi when she left the building. I didn’t think I could’ve handled that; might have said something I would regret. After she left, I went to the bank of payphones on the first floor.

C H A P T E R 
31

“Rita, I’m just checking in.”

“How’d the hearing go?” she asked. “Like we expected?”

It was noisy in the hallway. I put the phone between my jaw and shoulder and tried to close the booth door, but the handle snapped. A bailiff, hands on his hips, glared at me. I shrugged.

“Yeah, guess so.”

“I’m sorry, Boss, but hang in there, you’ll win at the trial.” I heard her sigh.

“Thanks, Rita. Any calls?”

“Yeah, a cop from Long Beach. Said his name’s Detective Farrell. What’s this all about, Jimmy?”

I knew what it was all about, but I wanted to talk to the guy before I discussed it with Rita. “I’ll call him later and find out,” I said.

My next call was to Sol. I told him about the hearing, about the meeting with Hodges, and the call from Detective Farrell.

“Don’t worry. It’s a scam. You can beat these charges.”

“It’s basically my word against Vogel’s, but I did give him some money.”

“You gonna tell them that?”

“If I’m under oath I’ll have to, but Ron Fischer is the most important thing to worry about. We have to find the pilot fast. I desperately need his testimony.”

“I’m working on that right now. We have a lead and I’m waiting for a call back. It’s lunchtime. Let’s meet at Rocco’s. If the call comes in, I’ll have them transfer it to my table. We’ll go over everything there.”

“I’ll head over right now.”

“One more thing.”

“Yeah?”

“I had your apartment swept for bugs, too. Your phone was tapped.”

I racked my brain trying to remember what calls I’d made from my home phone. It depressed me to realize I hadn’t talked to anyone in the last couple of weeks.

Shortly after one o’clock, I entered Rocco’s. Lively music came from the bar. The piano player, a short cocoa-skinned man wearing an Afro, had a voice like steel wheels rolling on a gravel road, but he was spunky and the crowd loved him.

An unruly queue had formed in front of André, customers vying for tables. As I approached the dining room, he noticed me and gestured with his hand to follow him to Sol’s booth.

“Mr. Silverman hasn’t arrived yet,” André said. “His secretary called and said he would be here soon.”

I slid into Sol’s booth. Janine appeared, whisked away the reserved placard, and asked if she could bring me anything.

“Yes, thanks. A Coke, and a telephone,” I said.

Janine returned in a few moments with the phone. She plugged it in and a busboy rushed over with my Coke. I dialed the Long Beach Police Department. “This is O’Brien. I’m returning Detective Farrell’s call.”

“I’ll have to patch you through. It may take a few minutes.”

While waiting, I listened to the piano music that drifted into the dining room from the bar. The guy was righteous on the piano, but I wasn’t sure about the rest of his shtick. He had a way of taking popular songs, jazzing up the music, and altering the lyrics. He massacred “Alone Again, Naturally.” He sang with style, but he changed the words to “Alone Again, Ralph.” I didn’t know why everyone laughed.

“This is Farrell,” a listless voice said.

“Detective, I’m O’Brien. You wanted to talk to me.”

“Yeah, need to get your side of the story on the tampering complaint. The D.A.’s hot on this. I already talked to Vogel, said you tried to bribe him.”

I hesitated. I wanted time to think this through. I actually did bribe the guy, but only to get off his ass and look at the hidden meter, not to falsify evidence. But I had to figure exactly how to approach the problem.

I took a sip of my Coke. The gang in the bar was getting boisterous, the music louder. The piano player sang, “I’m in the nude for love”—riotous laughter followed.

“You there, O’Brien?”

“Detective Farrell,” I said, “I think you should drop the case.”

“Drop the case? I told you the D.A.’s all over me about this. What are you, some kind of nut?”

“Yeah, I’m a lawyer.”

“Hey, if you don’t want to talk to me, I’ll just file the report.”

“I’ll talk and tell you why you should drop this thing, now.”

“All right,” he sighed. “I’m listening.”

“First of all, it’s my word against Vogel’s.”

“You’re saying you didn’t give him any money?”

“That’s the point—I gave him forty dollars in cash, a service charge for the labor. I wanted him to unfasten a panel on the plane, check for an additional hour meter, then return the aircraft to its original condition.”

“A service charge?”

“Yeah, it looks like Vogel decided to pocket the cash, not turn it over to his employer. He’s trying to cover up a petty embezzlement. I paid Vogel to examine the plane for variations in the time flown and the time logged. That’s all— information useful for research purposes.”