Fatal Convictions (33 page)

90

Taj Deegan rested her case, and for the second time, Alex was confronted with giving an opening statement that suddenly seemed irrelevant. This time he had no choice.

He stood and faced the jury, clutching his legal pad. He followed his notes and summarized the evidence in favor of Khalid Mobassar. But the question on everyone’s mind had now shifted.
How does the affair fit into this puzzle?
Alex felt like everyone had the same sense of the matter he did—the key to the mystery was right in front of them but somehow just out of reach.

He finished his planned opening, walked back to his counsel table, and left his notepad there. He turned toward the jury, contemplative, as if he had just thought of one more thing.

“I’m still trying to process the testimony we just heard, and you probably are as well. What does it all mean? I don’t have that figured out yet, but there is one thing I know for sure. When Ghaniyah Mobassar sat right there on that witness stand and told her husband that she was sorry, that was no act. It wasn’t technically part of her testimony, but I know some of you saw her say that.”

Alex was standing next to his client, and he put a hand on the back of Khalid’s neck. The imam was studying the table in front of him, too embarrassed to even look at the jury.

“And when I saw the look on my client’s face during this afternoon’s testimony, I knew it was the first time he had heard about the affair. Many of you glanced at him. Judge for yourselves. Was this the first time that Khalid Mobassar heard about this? And if so, how could Fatih Mahdi possibly be telling the truth?”

Alex took his seat, leaving them to ponder that question. Under the circumstances, it was the best he could do.

* * *

After a brief smoking recess, the judge told Alex to call his first witness. There was only an hour left in the day, and Alex and Shannon still couldn’t decide whether they should put Khalid on the stand. Over the break, they had devised a stalling strategy that would give them the weekend to make that decision.

Alex would call Nara as his first witness. Fatih’s revelation and Ghaniyah’s testimony now made leaving her off the stand impossible. He could easily fill the hour or so until court adjourned for the week with background information about her father and his views on Islam. Then Alex would have the weekend to decide whether he wanted to ask Nara to testify about the events in Lebanon. Besides, he had to discuss that testimony with Shannon before he made the call.

But when Alex announced Nara Mobassar as his first witness, Taj Deegan objected, noting that Nara had been in the courtroom when Fatih Mahdi and Ghaniyah testified. Alex countered by explaining that he had decided not to call Nara as a witness until the surprise revelation about the alleged affair. The lawyers argued for about ten minutes in hushed tones at the judge’s dais, just out of earshot of the jury.

Rosenthal decided that Alex should have an opportunity to put Nara on the stand, but when the deputy went into the hallway to call her, she couldn’t be found. Cell phone calls proved futile, so finally Judge Rosenthal gave up and adjourned court for the weekend.

“You’d better have all your witnesses ready to go first thing Monday morning,” he warned Alex.

“I will,” Alex promised.

After court, Alex and Shannon fought their way through the reporters without making any comments. Shannon headed to Ghaniyah’s home to provide their client with some comfort. Alex headed home. He had a splitting headache, and the last thing he wanted to do was spend time with Khalid’s unfaithful wife.

He changed clothes and turned on ESPN. He tried in every way possible to distract himself from the day’s events but eventually ended up pacing around the condo trying to make sense of it all. It felt like the case was in serious jeopardy now, and he needed to pull out all the stops. Ghaniyah had corroborated Fatih’s testimony about the affair. And Fatih’s question kept churning through Alex’s mind—
“Why would I make something up that is so publicly humiliating?”

Had Khalid really threatened to expose Fatih? That could explain a lot, including Fatih’s abrupt decision to stop criticizing his imam six months prior to Ja’dah’s death. But if that was true, Khalid was an incredible actor. The look on his face today was one of genuine shock and devastation.

Either way, Alex resigned himself to the fact that both Nara and her father would need to testify on Monday. If he held anything back and Khalid was convicted, Nara would never forgive him.

He couldn’t get Nara off his mind, knowing the heartache she must be feeling. He tried calling her and left messages. It was nearly eight o’clock when she finally returned his calls. She had been visiting her father at the jail. He had talked to her about forgiveness and tried to calm her down. She needed to talk. Could they meet at his condo?

Alex wanted to say yes, but he’d learned his lesson. The only thing worse than being seen alone in public with Nara would be to have her seen entering his condo. “Why don’t we meet at Catch 31? Do you remember where that’s at?”

Catch 31 was a swank restaurant and bar on the ground floor of the Hilton Hotel on the boardwalk. The place had a stone patio outside with chairs gathered around brick fire pits. That night, for the first week of December, was relatively mild. Alex thought they might be less conspicuous outside.

“I can be there in twenty minutes,” Nara said.

“Wear something warm.”

* * *

Nara wore a heavy overcoat with the collar pulled up and a wool cap pulled down to her eyebrows. Alex wore a down jacket and a baseball cap. There were not many people outside by the fire pits since the temperature was hovering around forty-five degrees with a stiff wind from the ocean. The two of them sat close together and propped their legs up on the edge of the fire pit. Alex ordered a diet soda; Nara went for a vodka and tonic.

Alex wanted to put his arm around Nara and keep her warm, but he didn’t know if a telephoto lens might be snapping shots from one of the balconies of the rooms above them or from a hundred other locations with a direct view.

“I hate that woman,” Nara said when Alex asked how she was doing. “She’s always pretended to be so pious and such a woman of faith. Now her affair may well cost my father his freedom.”

Alex couldn’t argue and didn’t really want to. Instead, he let Nara vent until she had poured out all the venom. When she started to softly cry, Alex could no longer help himself. He reached over and put his arm around her, and she placed her head on his shoulder.

“Your father is a good man,” Alex said. “The jury’s going to believe him when he says he never knew about the affair. And even if they don’t, think about it this way—why would Khalid order an honor killing when his own wife was unfaithful and he did nothing but love her for the next thirty years?”

Nara burrowed in a little closer and wiped some of the tears with the back of her hand. “I know,” she said softly. “I’m just so scared.”

“There’s nothing to be afraid of.” But it was lie. He was just as concerned as Nara.

“I may need you to take the stand after all,” he said softly. “Once the jury finds out about what happened to us in Beirut, this case should be over.”

Nara turned her head and looked at him, her moist eyes pleading. “When it’s finished, will you go away with me?”

Alex wanted to say yes. They were sitting by a fire looking at the Christmas lights on the boardwalk and the moon over the ocean. One of the most beautiful women Alex had ever met was leaning against his shoulder with her eyes full of tears asking him to spend his life with her. What kind of man could say no under these circumstances?

“Let’s take it one step at a time,” Alex said, surprising himself with his answer. Was he really ready to leave the beach and Ramona and Shannon behind?

“Okay.” She snuggled a little closer, and Alex could feel the warmth. For several minutes neither he nor Nara said a word. Monday morning was a long way off. For now, Alex would relax, enjoy the fire, and dream about what life with Nara might be like.

91

On Saturday, Nara showed up at the office just before noon to work on her trial testimony. Before leaving Catch 31 the night before, Alex and Nara had agreed to start at ten, but that was before she had downed three vodka and tonics. She looked, Alex had to admit, like she hadn’t slept at all.

“I can’t go back to my parents’ place tonight,” she told Alex during a break in their preparation. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forgive my mother, but right now, I can’t handle being around her.”

They talked about Nara’s feelings for a few minutes until Nara finally got up the nerve to ask the question she had apparently intended to ask all along. “Could I stay at your place tonight, Alex?”

He hadn’t really expected that question. His heart said absolutely. He cared deeply about Nara. She was hurting. He could help.

But his head told him that this could be one of the dumbest moves he had ever made, especially in the middle of a huge trial. “Why don’t we get you a room at the Hilton and see if Shannon can stay with your mom tonight?” Alex asked.

Nara’s face reflected her disappointment. The dark eyes were downcast, but she immediately tried to recover, forcing a thin smile. “You’re right. I’m sorry I asked. I just need a little space.”

* * *

Alex spent most of Sunday at the Virginia Beach City Jail in a small interview booth, talking to Khalid Mobassar through the sound slits at the bottom of the bulletproof glass. Khalid swore he knew nothing about the affair between Ghaniyah and Fatih Mahdi. He asked Alex how Nara was handling things, and Alex gave him the truth. The dark circles under Khalid’s eyes and the deep wrinkles on his face evidenced his grave concern.

The revelations of the last twenty-four hours seemed to have thrust Khalid into a zombielike state of mourning. His voice had no energy. Alex could hardly imagine putting him on the stand like this. The only time Khalid showed any emotion at all was when he inquired about Nara. Nevertheless, they rehearsed his testimony and practiced cross-examination for nearly six hours, until Khalid was so exhausted that his answers made little sense.

“You’ll do fine tomorrow,” Alex assured him.

Khalid gave him a lifeless look. “Even if we win the case, my family will never be the same.”

He was right about that, and Alex had no response to offer except, “I’m sorry.”

* * *

By 9 p.m., Alex, Shannon, and Ramona were still at the office preparing for the final stage of trial. Alex didn’t particularly want to go home. Misery loved company, and right now he liked being around Shannon and Ramona.

Nara had sequestered herself in the Hilton at the oceanfront, a tempting short drive from Alex’s condo, but a drive he had resisted on Saturday night and was determined to resist again tonight. Shannon had arranged for some friends of Ghaniyah to stay with her.

The temperature was hovering in the low forties with a threat of rain, but apparently Kayden Dendy didn’t bother checking weather reports. It was nearly nine thirty when the team heard his Harley pull up and stop in the parking lot outside their building. “That’s got to be Dendy,” Shannon said. “I’d recognize those mufflers anywhere.”

She went to the window and confirmed her suspicions. “Wonder what he’s doing here on a Sunday night.”

Less than a minute later, they had their answer. Shannon looked at Alex when she heard the loud knock on the reception area door. “Just what I don’t need right now,” she said.

“I’ll handle it,” Alex said.

When Alex opened the door, Kayden was there in all of his leather-clad glory, holding his gloves in his right hand. “You got a minute?” he asked.

“Actually, we’re kind of busy,” Alex said.

But Kayden took a few steps into the reception area anyway. “This’ll only take a minute. Is Shannon here?”

He found his way to the conference room, greeted Shannon, and asked if he could meet with the lawyers in private. As Ramona was leaving, Kayden had the gall to ask her if she could get him some hot chocolate.

Ramona stopped and glared at him for a second. “No,” she said, and then turned and walked away.

“I’d fire her,” Kayden said to Alex.

Alex ignored the comment.

“You’re probably wondering why I’m here,” Kayden said. He walked over and closed the door. “It won’t take long. I know you’ve got a big day tomorrow. Which, actually, is the reason I’m here.”

He looked at Alex. “Your partner has been doing a good job on the Mobassar civil case, by the way. But I will say that Max Strobel knows how to push her buttons.”

“Look,” Alex said, “we really don’t have a lot of time.”

“That’s good, ’cause neither do I.” Kayden took off his leather coat and threw it over a chair. He started pacing next to the table. “Do you know what a pen register is?”

“No.” Alex didn’t try to hide the frustration in his voice. He didn’t need this guy pontificating and taking up valuable time the night before a busy day of trial.

“Didn’t think so,” Kayden said. “A pen register is an electronic device that records all numbers dialed from a particular telephone line. Law enforcement used the devices for decades to find out what numbers somebody was calling. They could get court orders for a pen register easier than they could to tap phone lines because with a pen register, they were only getting phone numbers called and not the actual content of the conversations.”

“And this is relevant why?” Shannon asked.

“I’m getting there,” Kayden admonished her. “Section 216 of the Patriot Act expanded the definition of a pen register to include devices or programs that provide the same kind of function with regard to Internet communications. In other words, under the Patriot Act, the government can find out all the Web sites visited by a specific computer or by a router at somebody’s home if they meet the same criteria they would need for a pen register on a phone line. Here’s where it gets interesting.”

It better get interesting fast,
Alex thought.

Kayden stopped pacing and leaned forward on the table. “When you guys subpoenaed the information that the federal government had on Mr. Mobassar under the Patriot Act, you asked for copies of all phone calls, text messages, and e-mails the government had monitored. But your subpoena didn’t ask for the pen register information. Am I right?”

Alex didn’t have the foggiest idea.

“I drafted the subpoena,” Shannon said. “I didn’t even know about pen registers, so I’m sure I didn’t include that in the request.”

“Well, in the civil case, Max Strobel did,” Kayden said. “And he turned that information over to Taj Deegan this weekend. And, well, I’ve been wrestlin’ all weekend with whether I should tell y’all what’s in there.”

This sounded to Alex like it was going to be more bad news. He wasn’t sure he could take anything else right now.

“I finally decided to stop by and tell you on one condition.” Kayden looked directly at Shannon. “You can’t say where you got this information.”

Shannon looked at Alex, and they both shrugged. After this big buildup, they had to know what he had. “Agreed,” Shannon said.

“When I tell you about this evidence, you’re gonna wanna dismiss your civil case against my client and Country-Fresh, Inc. But I didn’t think it was fair to have Mr. Mobassar spend the rest of his life in jail just because you got ambushed by this.”

Kayden turned back to Alex. “You are puttin’ your client on the stand tomorrow, aren’t you?”

“I haven’t decided for sure,” Alex answered. He still didn’t trust this guy.

“You may not want to after you hear this.” Kayden reached into his back pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. He unfolded the paper and spread it on the table in front of him. “The commonwealth confiscated the computers at your client’s home, searched the hard drives, and gave you a copy of what they found. Am I right?”

“That’s right,” said Alex.

“But that only gives you the Internet search history and downloads for the computers that were actually found in your client’s home. The pen register information under the Patriot Act gives you the Internet searches for any computer using the wireless router there. So if your client buys another computer for the sole purpose of conducting searches that he doesn’t want the authorities to later find out about, those searches will still show up on the pen register information even if your client tosses that computer. Do you follow me?”

Alex nodded and braced himself for the bombshell. He had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Kayden tapped the paper in front of him. “This here’s a list of searches and Web sites visited during the two months prior to Ghaniyah Mobassar’s accident. I didn’t copy all of them, but I did put down all the searches and sites relating to—” he looked up at Alex and Shannon and said the next words slowly—“closed . . . head . . . injuries.”

Alex was so stunned he couldn’t speak. The color drained from Shannon’s face. “You mean . . . ?” she managed.

“That’s right.” Kayden slid the paper across the table to Shannon. “Mr. and Mrs. Mobassar were researching closed head injuries in the two months
before
she had her accident. They must have bought a new computer specifically for that purpose and disposed of it afterward, because those searches don’t show up on the hard drives of the computers seized by the commonwealth. Unfortunately for the Mobassars, they didn’t know that every Internet site they visited and every search they conducted was being recorded on a pen register pursuant to the Patriot Act.”

Alex thought about the evidence in the civil case. There was no brain damage shown on the MRIs or the CT scans. Ghaniyah had definitely run the car head-on into a tree, but the major damage had been to the passenger side. She did have a nasty bump on her head and some swelling around her eyes. But was it possible she did that to herself? Could she be faking the head injuries? Had Khalid and Ghaniyah been scamming
everybody
?

“Taj Deegan now has this information,” Kayden said to Alex. “She didn’t have to give it to you because it’s not exculpatory. But if you put your client on the stand tomorrow, she’ll shred him with it.”

Shannon had been studying the list. She typed some of the sites into her computer and pulled them up. From the look on her face, it must have been bad.

“Why did you bring this to us?” Alex asked.

“Because the evidence won’t go away just because you now have it. I can still use it in the civil case if you decide to keep going forward. But I’ve been following Mr. Mobassar’s case the last couple of days, and even though your client might be a liar and even though he tried to rip off the insurance company, I don’t think that makes him a killer.”

“Thanks for your vote of confidence,” Alex said.

His own view of Khalid had just taken a serious hit. Alex thought about how much he had put on the line for this client. He had resigned from his church. He had staked his reputation on this case. In Alex’s mind, he had been Atticus Finch defending an innocent man whom the rest of the world wanted to lynch. And he had been winning the admiration of his client’s beautiful daughter in the process.

But in a few short minutes, Kayden Dendy had blown that storybook fantasy into tiny little pieces. Instead, it now seemed that Khalid Mobassar was a con artist willing to risk serious injury to his wife in order to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars. Kayden was right; that didn’t make him a murderer. But it sure made Alex feel dirty representing the man.

Alex looked at Shannon, who simply shook her head.

“Whose idea was it to take this case?” Alex asked.