Mistletoe and Murder in Las Vegas (14 page)

E
arly in the
afternoon of the second day of trial, Jim, AKA Mustang, took the stand. After asking Jim to read out loud the letter he wrote the DA, she tells the jury that Jim lied in that letter because Dita had been in North Carolina visiting family on the date he claimed she flew back to Florida to teach incendiary techniques to the eco-terrorist group.

Sitting at the defense table, Mike received a fax on his smartphone: The airlines travel itinerary that he had requested days ago. He can’t believe what he’s reading—it was supposed to support Dita’s assertion that she cancelled her plane flight from North Carolina to Florida but instead shows that she flew to Florida on the date Jim claimed in his letter.

Mike looked over at the prosecution’s table where the DA, smirking, is showing his smartphone screen to a deputy DA who nods and smiles. Shit. They must have received the same itinerary. Mike’s stomach dropped. Joanne once said this very issue was the Achilles heel of the case, and she was right. This is dagger to the heart of Joanne's case. After Joanne finished her questioning with Jim, the DA will cross-examine him, then show this itinerary to the jury to prove that Jim has been telling the truth all along that his girlfriend, Dita, secretly flew to Florida for an Animal Freedom Party meeting. The DA would likely request Mike’s or even Joanne’s phone, as additional documentation in the courtroom is always subject to it being entered as evidence, after which the DA would verify that the defense received this same fax while they had the floor yet failed to mention it.

The DA, renowned for his vicious tactics, might even accuse the Joanne of knowingly concealing evidence in front of a judicial body, the jury, which is a felony.

From there, everything would crash and burn. Dita would be found guilty, the judge could charge Joanne with concealing evidence, which could ultimately mean the loss of her law license, a career that is her life’s passion

Mike can’t let this happen.

He tried to get Joanne’s attention, but her back was to him as she told the judge she had no further questions for Jim. As the judge asked if she has any other witnesses, Mike knows there are seconds before the DA takes the floor. Years ago he hadn't acted in time to save Paula’s life…he must act now.

Mike stood. “One more witness, your honor."

The judge asked Joanne if that’s correct. Surprised, she looked at Mike who subtly pointed at himself. He can almost hear her questioning thoughts. Why are you doing? You’ll be required to state your name, and every reporter in the room will be jotting it down. She looked at the judge, who was obviously contemplating the pros and cons of Mike identifying himself on the stand. To her surprise, he nods his go-ahead for Mike to take the stand.

Mike knew what he’s risking, but it would be worse to spend years regretting that he hadn't acted in time to save Joanne’s career and Dita’s freedom. This way, Joanne can share the itinerary before the DA does. It wasn't going to be pretty, but at least she would look honest to the jury, and the DA couldn't accuse her of committing a felony. Afterward Mile will dig for more facts, see if the airlines made a mistake.

Mike wrote down two words—
travel itinerary
—on a piece of paper, and handed it to Joanne as he walked to the stand.

A
fter Mikes takes
the oath from the judge and states his name, Joanne cautiously asks him what he knows about a travel itinerary. He testifies that a few minutes ago he received Dita’s airline travel itinerary that documents her flight arrangements to Florida on the same date Jim testified she was with him and other Animal Freedom Party members.

Joanne, forcing herself to stay calm, agreed that Dita had made an airline reservation, but she had cancelled it. Mike turns the screen of his smartphone for her to see and points out an airline notation that shows there was no cancellation. She stares at the small screen but can’t make sense of the swirling words and asks the judge for a moment to talk to her client.

In a whispered conversation at the defense table, Dita says that she never cancelled the flight because her cousin wanted so much to visit Florida. When Joanne asks if her cousin flew under her own name, Dita tearfully says her cousin lost her driver’s license, but since they look so much alike, Dita let her cousin use her ID.

Dita now looks like a liar who tried to hide that she taught arson techniques to a group of eco-terrorists. It’s not a stretch for jurors to think that if she lied about that, she probably lied about not setting the Organica Streetwear fire, too. Joanne has always tried to be prepared for any last-minute surprises at a trial, but this evidence is a dagger to the heart of her case.

Shaking, Joanne approaches the bench and asks the judge for a short recess as she needs to double-check the facts of this new evidence. The judge grudgingly gives her thirty minutes, no more.

Mike, ignoring reporters’ questions, follows Joanne down the hallway. They finally shake the media by entering an empty courtroom and sequestering themselves in its jurors’ room (Note: Many courtrooms have side doors to such private rooms). Joanne, hurt and angry, accuses him of setting her up to believe he had evidence in support of Dita, when in fact he introduced damning evidence that has destroyed her case, her career and Dita’s life.

Mike begs her to hear him out. Both he and the DA received that electronic itinerary moments before she ended her questioning of Jim, and if she hadn’t brought Mike to the stand to testify about it before the DA, he would have used it against her to far greater damage.

Or maybe, Joanne says, you never really believed that Dita was innocent. That Mike’s driving need to unmask the Timepiece Arsonist is greater than anything, even the truth. And to think she believed him when he said he’d do anything to help her win. Fighting tears, Joanne pulls out her phone to call the cousin so she can testify by phone that she took Dita’s place on that flight. But Joanne’s dyslexia prevents her from making sense of the numbers on the keypad.

Mike says he’ll track down the cousin so she can testify by phone, but Joanne isn’t listening. She tells him it’s over as she walks away.

Minutes later, a defeated Joanne re-enters the courtroom. Oh, she’ll do her best to explain to the court that it was Dita’s cousin who actually took that flight, but she has no way to prove it. Tomorrow morning is closing arguments, but the case is really over now.

Meanwhile, Mike locates Dita’s cousin’s number, but there’s no answer. He tries calling others in Dita’s family, but no one knows where she is. As he walks down the courthouse hallway, stray members of the media hound him, one asking why an ATF special agent is working on behalf of the defense. It’s just a matter of time before ATF learns about this.

A familiar voice called out his name.

Mike looked up and saw his dad.

“Your mom and I are driving home later today…I wanted to drop and see how the trial’s going and say good-bye.”

For the first time in years, Mike opens up to his dad, tells him about the itinerary, how he’s unable to track down the cousin, how she texted her confirmation a week or so ago to Joanne, but phone carriers don’t have the technology to save text within messages, just their attachments. Maybe Paula’s text message had an attachment that could have made a difference in this trial, but Mike lost the opportunity to see it.

His dad says any lawyer with just cause can request Mike’s old phone records & he’ll put through a rush subpoena to that cell phone carrier.

Kenneth Day submits a subpoena for Paula’s text attachment on a rush turnaround.

By five p.m., Mike and his dad are reviewing the attachment: A picture of a cell phone screen with the message:
Need more Mac computers. Big T

Mike immediately recognizes the nickname of an L.A. biker, Big T. A street-savvy criminal, Big T ducked the ATF for years until eight months ago when Mike and other agents finally arrested Big T for interstate transportation of illegal firearms. Big T, now out on bond, is currently awaiting trial. Mike knows Big T wasn’t talking about computers in this message—Mac, slang for gun, meant he wanted to buy more guns. During her relationship with Mike, Paula had heard that slang term, knew about Big T, so she would have understood what the message meant.

That was the dangerous information she learned. Whoever owned that phone learned that Paula knew too much and staged her death by arson with the watch-device.

Mike pulls Big T’s cell phone number from a database and calls him. After reading Big T the text message, Mike offers him a deal: Tell Mike who Big T was buying guns from, and Mike will put in a good word with the federal prosecutor in Big T’s case. If he fully cooperates, Mike will ask for Big T to get probation without serving any time.

Big T tells him he had been buying guns from Harley.

All the pieces fall into place. Harley is around six foot tall. Harley would have the expertise to break into a building and the know-how to rig a watch-device, which he used to throw off investigators because they’d assume it had been the work of an amateur. Maggie once barked at a cabinet at Joanne’s office because the dog had picked up on a familiar scent: Harley’s.

And Harley would have been smart enough to have researched an excellent candidate—Dita, with her hired-torch-father and her ties to an eco-terrorist group known for their arson tactics--to be a foil. Now Mike realizes that the headline seen on Harley’s computer screen must have been bait. Harley probably kept a stream of Vegas news rolling on his screen, knowing that Mike, after reading the headline about a watch device being used in the Vegas arson, wouldn’t go on vacation but head straight to Las Vegas.

Mike asks his dad if it’s possible, legally, to expedite Harley being brought to justice in time to help Joanne. As Archie Benning devises a legal strategy, Mike realizes the depth of his dad’s intelligence and compassion. He’s finally understanding his father.

T
he next morning
were closing arguments.

Mike arrived before the trial began and sat next to Joanne at the defense table. She hadn’t answered his calls or texts, so no surprise she refused to talk to him. But he’d prepared for that. He handed her a note, telling her it contained information that will win her case, but if her dyslexia is troubling her, he’d read it to her.

Joanne opened the note, but her dyslexia has flared up and she can barely make out the first few words.

The Timepiece Arsonist is
…

She came to court today prepared to give her closing argument, but even more, prepared to lose. She has no place to go with her career after today, so she had nothing to lose to hear what this is about. The courtroom had begun filling with people. Within minutes, the final day of trial will begin. She asked Mike to read the note.

He leaned close and quietly read to her.

The Timepiece Arsonist is my boss at ATF: Harley Lambert. Lenny pretexted a call to Harley & asked him to drive out from L.A. to be an expert witness. (Harley had actually been in LV—will explain more later.)

So Harley will be in court today, prepared for you to call him to the stand as an expert witness to verify the Timepiece Arsonist’s M.O. Harley is six foot, matching the height of the man in the satellite imagery. Also in court will be a man called Big T, who wrote Harley a text message three and a half years ago about wanting to buy some Macs, or guns. Big T is ready to testify to that, and also that Harley continues to illegally sell ATF-confiscated guns.

No matter what you might think after yesterday, I got your back.

Mike pulled out a blown-up photo of the phone screen, explaining that based on his research, only a few phones had this particular screen size and shape, which matched the phone brand Harley used three and a half years ago.

“I’m meeting Harley outside the courthouse in a few minutes,” Mike said, keeping his voice low. “I called him last night and ‘confessed’ that I was helping investigate the Timepiece Arsonist in that Las Vegas case, to which Harley said he’d seen something on the news about that. Then I said I’d take the heat for that, but meanwhile I really need a favor. Told him defense was losing, badly, and you’d fired me as your consultant...which I suppose you did but here I am, ready to save the day if you’ll let me. Anyway, I told Harley that an inside source, close to the defense, had told me that after firing me, you’re desperately needing an arson expert who’s familiar with the Timepiece Arsonist’s M.O. to put on the stand before closing arguments. A last-ditch effort to find any information that might help your client, Dita. I asked Harley if he could drive out to Vegas...knowing of course, that the scumbag has been here for days...anyway, told Harley that this inside source will ensure that Harley takes the stand tomorrow morning. Harley and I both agreed that his testimony won’t provide anything helpful to the defense, meaning Dita, the Timepiece Arsonist, will finally be put behind bars.

Mike further explained that Lenny, pretending to be “the inside source,” would bring Harley inside the courtroom and introduce him to Joanne as the expert witness. Meanwhile, Mike will take a seat in the courtroom gallery.

Twenty minutes later, Judge Fields entered the courtroom. As he started to explain to the jury that today is closing arguments, Joanne interrupted, asking the judge if the defense may please re-open its case because important material has been discovered.

“Objection!” Burnette yelled.

The judge, irritated, told Joanne she had a bad habit talking out of turn in his courtroom, and was she inviting another contempt citation?

It was a déjà vu moment for Joanne. The last time Judge Fields threatened contempt, her world changed irrevocably. Joanne had a choice: Either trust Mike’s evidence and fight for her client, or distrust it and sit back down. The first is her taking the wheel and steering this case as best she can, with the chance the defense wins. The second is to remain in the backseat of the case, where it’s safe, and where she and Dita lose.