The Way of Grace (Miller's Creek Novels) (29 page)

Dismissed again.
S
till dazed
, Grace
stumbled to her desk
,
struggling with her thoughts
. Was
the information accurate
or was something else at play here
?

She
considered her
options all during lunch,
and an idea took root
.
T
he sp
are key to Andy’s office hung
from a cup hook in her bath
room. It wouldn’t hurt
to visit hi
s office early one morning
to check his files. It wasn’t like
she was actually breaking in, because s
he had a key. And she wasn’t doing it to steal anything. It was all about her attempt to reach the truth.
If she found nothing it would only
help her case against
Elena.

A few minutes before two, Grace
returned to
the courtroom. As she took a
seat,
she gaz
ed to where Andy stood talking
to David
’
s
dad and some other man
.
Where had she him
before?

Elena joined her at
the table
.
“Told you so.”

Grace frowned. “W
hat?”

“About And
y and his powerful friends.
T
he other m
an standing wit
h them is
John
Dempsey, Attorney General for the State of Texas.”

Her
eyebrows shot up
. That’s why he looked so familiar. Were Elena’s
suspicions
true?

At that moment, the judge entered and
turned their way.
“Ms. Delgado, you may now cross-examine the witness.
”
H
e looked
at David.
“Mr. Simmons, as you take the stand,
I’ll remind you that you’re still under oath.”

The defendant strolled to the stand and
sat
.

Like a miniature tornado,
Elena
whisked toward him
, a light blue legal folder
in her hand
s
.
“Mr. Simmons, according to your
depo
sition, you got off work at six-thirty
on the evening of December
twelfth
. Is that correct?”

“It wasn’t
really
work
. I was
voluntee
—”

“And what time did you get home?”
She cut him short while she scanned the document.

“I got back to my room at—”

“When you say
room, are you referring to a
dorm room?”

Goo
d question. T
he jury
needed to know
David Simmons was wealthy and used to getting his own way, in spite of his reference to volunteer work.

“No ma’a
m. I share a house with Greg Johnson
.”

“Do you own this house?”

He shook his head. “No, my parents do.”

Grace stole a quick look at Simmons’ parents. His mother was reportedly a doctor and his father worked for the State Department in some sort of advisory capacity.

“D
oes Mr. Johnson
pay for
his housing?”

“Objection.”
Andy rose to his feet
. “I fail to see how my client’s roommate situation h
as anything to do with the case
.”

Elena stood her ground. “Your Honor, I’m trying to show that the defendant has the means to buy friends.” She glared at Andy.
“And possibly their testimonies.”

Andy
ignored
her
. “Prejudicial,
Your
Honor.”

Judge Clark didn’t answer for a moment. “
Ms. Delgado, you need to watch it. Defense o
bjection overruled. I’ll allow this line of questioning to continue.
At least for the moment.”

“Thank you, Your Honor.” Elena looked back at David Simmons. “Does your roommate pay for his room and board?”

“No.” For a brief moment, David’s expression changed ever so slightly, but he quickly brought it under control.

Elena studied
the file
. “According to the police report, you and Mr. Evans were downtown near the old train depot around eleven-thirty that evening. Is that correct?
”

His eyes flashed
fire
for a
moment
. “It i
s.”

Simmons
was clearly not accustomed to
being questioned. Grace
consider
ed
this aspect
of his personality.

The prosecutor
trained her gaze
on
Simmons,
a lion
ess
poised for the kill. “Mr. Simmons, if what you say is true—if Scott Evans is the one who should be held responsible for the death of Michael Bed
ford—please explain why you’
d put yourself in the position of taking responsibility for this crime.”

Her tactics to wear him down were working.
He
fidgeted
,
a cage
d animal
searching for escape
. “Like I said earlier, Scott
y
had been drinking, and he’d had too much. We di
dn’t know Michael was
gonna
die. I didn’t want Scott
y
to get in trouble, so when the cops got there I told them I was the one driving.”

Elena l
aughed out loud, a haughty snort followed by
a derisive look.
“Interesting story, but for now I’ll go with it.
When exactly did you realize Michael Bedford was dead?”

“
I don’t know.”

She slammed her hand against the l
ectern. “Y
ou’re under oath, Mr. Simmons? Didn’t you intentionally
run him over
?”

“Objection!”
Andy’s eyes shot fire as he hopped
to his feet.
His chair
slid across the floor and crashed into the railing.

“Sustained.
This is the last warning you’ll receive
, Ms. Delgado.
You’re getting mighty close to contempt.
”

El
ena pursed her lips
in an apparent effort to bring her
emotions under control. Her gaze
rest
ed
on the
research
Grace had given her earlier.

Her
eyes widened. Su
rely Elena wouldn’t use it until she’d given the defense time to prepare.

The petite attorney
moved to the table and picked
up
the
research
. “Mr. Simmons,
would you please explain
a similar incident you were involved in during high school?”

A smattering of voices
tittered across the courtroom as David Simmons paled and
Andy catapulted to his feet. “Your
Honor, this is
new evidence and information
I wasn’t made privy to. But s
ince Ms. Delgado brought it up, I hereby request a mistrial based on irreparable prejudice to the defendant and his case.
”

Grace’s heart jumped to her throat. No
,
this couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t end this way. Not unt
il someone was held accoun
table for Michael Bedford’s death
.

Judge Clark nodded, clearly frustrated at the turn of events.
“Counsel for
both
parties, approach the bench.”

All eyes focused on the judge and the
attorneys, though their words were inaudible. A few minutes later,
Elena and Andy
made their way back t
o their respective places. T
he judge
faced
the jury. “
Due to
substantial and irreparable prejudice to the defendant, David Simmons
, I hereby declare a
mistrial
sua
sp
onte
. The rule of jeopardy will attach, so
this case may not be retried
.
Case dismissed.
”
He pounded the stand with his gavel for a final time
and strode from the room
.

Bile rose in Grace’s throat. Ju
stice had been defeated, f
irst in Mama’s case and now
this one. If David Simmons was guilty, he’d just gotten away with murder.

W
ithin a minute
of dismissal
Harry Bridges,
the
DA
,
approached the table
, his eyes honed in on Elena
.
“
My office on Monday morning
.”
He pivoted on one foot and stormed out of the courtroom.

Elena paled, her
mouth drawn up in a tight bow.
She turned on
Grace. “This is
your fau
lt. Why didn’t you tell me
you didn’t pass on t
he information to the defense?”
She didn’t wait for an answer, but
picked up
her things and left.

A cold sweat broke out
on Grace’s
scalp. Elena
was
the type to turn this around on her to protect her own neck.
Still reeling from all that
transpired
,
sh
e made her way back to the office
in a daze. Work proved
impossible between
thoughts
of losing her job and
fear
Andy could be
involved with the wrong people.
Much l
ater
,
her work finally complete,
she glanced up f
rom her computer
to find the office empty and the
sky
dark.

H
eart he
avy, she gathered her belong
ings,
donned her coat,
and locked
the office door
, dreading the thing
she needed to do. Each step to
ward
the old pickup seemed to make her plan more tedious and costly.

As she approached
the truck
, bathed in a pool of light
from a street lamp,
a
distinct
voice
sounded from nearby.
A
voice with a
British acc
ent.
She
moved
to the shadow of a building and
glanced
toward
the voice
,
struggling to see in the
darkness
.

Jason
and Elena leaned against her
boss’s
shiny red sports car, oblivious to her presence
and
deep in conversation
.

Num
erous
questions
let loose
inside
, but one
stood out from the rest.
Why had Elena
warned her
away from the attorneys of Tyler, Dent
,
and Sn
odgrass
when she had no intention of following her own admonition?

12

T
he alarm rang way
too early, and
Grace silenced it quickly
. The last thing she needed
at two a.m.
wa
s for Papa to awaken and ask
what she was up to. She slipped from between the warmth of the bed covers, and
tiptoed across the icy floor in her sock feet.

A few minutes later
, dressed in a black
sweat suit and tennis shoes with
her hair pulled back
in a ponytail, s
he wiggled her finge
rs into
black mittens.
As quietly as possible
,
she
made her way past Papa’
s bedroom and out the back door.
T
he freezing
temps
momentarily stole her breath as she
began her jog into
Miller’s Creek to Andy’s office, hoping with everything in
side her that she woul
dn’t find a thing.