Until Proven Innocent (29 page)

Myra looks up at him and nods assent. The judge looks at Tony and the jury. Detective, you’re free to go now. All charges against you have been dismissed. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I thank you for your participation in this trial and want you to know that you are also dismissed and free to go home.

It’s only now that I realize the seats in the front row of the courtroom are empty. Snell and his men have already escorted the piracy gang out of the courtroom, and I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to Evelyn. Well, that’s life. During all the commotion, Suzi slipped out of the witness chair and is now out in the hallway making her press statement, which I’m sure she’s rehearsed many times over the past week. I’ll have to catch it on the news later tonight.

Looking around, I also see that Tony is gone too. That’s strange, because I usually get a thank you after I manage to keep someone’s rear end off of death row. After a few minutes, Myra and I realize that we’re the only ones left standing. The courtroom is almost empty and all the action is now out in the hall. The judge has left the bench, so we might as well make plans for dinner now. It’s decided that Myra will ride in the car with me, so I use my cell phone to call Jack B. and tell him to bring the Hummer around. One of Tony’s detectives gives us the message that Suzi will meet us at the restaurant. She and her assistant are riding there in a caravan of police cars.

I still can’t figure out how this David Miller fits into the puzzle, so when going out into the hallway I try to get a look at him. There’s some slight resemblance to the pony-tailed hippie I met at April’s apartment building, but the David Miller they’ve now got handcuffed here has short curly blonde hair and he’s clean-shaven. I’ll have Myra ask the kid how she made this connection. I think he was sitting in the back of the courtroom on the first day of trial too, but at that time I must have thought he was just a trial-watcher who got lucky and grabbed an empty seat. If he’s really the shooter, then he probably got spooked when Suzi said she’d give him up. He obviously snuck out with the bunch of reporters who were leaving the courtroom to file their stories.

As we leave the courthouse and walk out to the sidewalk where Jack and the Hummer are waiting for us, we see the news crews’ camera lights in the parking lot. They’re all interviewing the new star, who is precariously standing atop two milk crates. I hope that the New York morning shows are ready to fork over extra first class tickets for her assistant and legal guardian too, because that’s the only way I’ll agree to let her appear.

* * * * * *

Chapter 15

The victory party at the restaurant is pretty upbeat. When we enter Mi Ranchito we’re informed that everything has already been paid for. The entire evening is on Tony, who gave them his credit card number. I look around, but don’t see him.

We now hear the sirens of Suzi’s escort vehicles. When two of Tony’s close cop friends come in, I inquire about Tony, and they tell me that he wasn’t feeling too good, so he went home to rest. I don’t blame him. We all went through quite a bit with this case, but he’s the only one who was in danger of going behind bars. Stress can do a lot of damage - even to a man of steel like Tony.

While we’re eating, the restaurant owner tunes the numerous hanging television sets to an English-speaking channel, so we can all watch the local early evening news. The blow-dried newscaster tells us about the motion picture piracy ring bust, and the screen shows Snell being interviewed outside his office. The FBI doesn’t like to be seen on TV near a State courthouse, because that level of government is obviously beneath them. Instead, we see him outside the West Los Angeles Federal Building, and he’s managed to be interviewed in such a way that the camera can also see the building’s identification and flag waving in the background. All he needs now is brass band quietly playing some patriotic John Phillips Sousa march in the background.
Stars and Stripes Forever
would probably suffice.

He owes me big time for this case, and true to his word, his little speech doesn’t mention any baloney about how the FBI conducted a lengthy investigation to track down the culprits. Naturally he takes all the credit for the arrest, but he also says that the received some helpful and important information from a private citizen, and the tip was instrumental in leading to the arrest and what will certainly result in conviction of the persons in custody. I never asked him to say anything like that, so I guess he’s getting a little soft as he ages and starting to show a little appreciation for us civvies.

The part of the show that we’re all most interested in watching comes on screen and the newscaster is seen outside by a news van in the courthouse parking lot. He can’t stop gushing on and on about how this brilliant little girl helped crack the case and lead to the detective being cleared of all misdoings. The camera follows her to where two uniformed cops lift Suzi up and stand her on the milk cartons. She’s now almost eye-level with the reporters and the cameras, and the interview starts. I see something new added to her wardrobe: she’s wearing a baseball cap with some inscription on the front of it, and it looks like it starts out with ‘www.’ If I’m not mistaken that’s her Internet website address, and during the interview she mentions how her forensics laboratory is equipped.

When the reporters ask her how she got all that equipment, she tells him that her legal guardian bought if for his office to use, and she learned how to run the programs, providing help to law enforcement agencies in the area. She did it again. Not only did she just advertise our law firm and its scientific capabilities, but she also managed to prove to me that the equipment was worth the money and that it is now a law firm expense, not to be deducted from her end of the profits.

The really interesting part comes when she gets asked how she felt ‘beating’ her good friend Myra, to which her practiced reply was beautifully constructed and performed. “I didn’t beat her. There was only one loser today, and that was the man they arrested for doing the crime. Everyone else won, because the truth came out, and that’s what the District Attorney’s office wanted from the beginning. There’s no way that Attorney Myra would want to prosecute and send an innocent person to jail, so she won along with the rest of us.”

“
Well Suzi, you must think a lot of our District Attorney… and also of your legal guardian, Attorney Peter Sharp.”

“
Oh yes, I do. And when I graduate Harvard Law School and start my own law firm, I intend to hire both of them.

*****

At this point the news turns to more serious stuff, and both Myra and I shoot glances over to our future employer, who is surrounded by so many cops that she doesn’t notice our looking at her.

I tell Myra to be careful. “You know something Myra? She means it. I hope I’m retired from practicing law twenty years from now, because that kid over there is what the future will be like. Would you really like to go up against her head-to-head in a trial? I know I wouldn’t, and I pity anyone who does.”

One of the cops comes over and hands me a note, telling me that it’s from the little hero. Unfolding the napkin it’s written on, I see five words scribbled. ‘I’m tired. Let’s go home.’

Myra assures me that the cops will drive her home, so I signal Jack that we’ll be leaving and he goes out to get the Hummer. It’s a good thing he’s our designated driver, because he gave up his heavy drinking many years ago and is now completely clean and sober.

When we get back to the Marina I head right for our boat without stopping to check in on Tony. The lights are all out on his boat, so he must be sleeping already.

It probably will take another few days for me to find out the real story of how this case was solved. I still think there are plenty of things I don’t know about.

* * * * * *

EPILOGUE

The following morning after our trial ended, everyone noticed that Tony’s boat was gone from its slip, but no one knew where it went. Two months later, the kid leaves a box on my desk. She says she found it sitting on the outer deck of our boat, probably left by some cop friend of Tony’s. Inside the box are two packages - one large and one small. The large one has my name on it, and the small one has Suzi’s.

The outside of the package contains instructions that it is to be given to us two months after the trial ends. Opening up my package first, I find a beautiful rosewood case with an engraved plate attached. It has three initials in it: ‘A.C.E.,’ which I’m sure stand for Anthony C. Edwards. Inside the case is Tony’s .50 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver with a post-it note that says ‘you feel lucky Mr. Lawyer?’

I shake the dog biscuit box and give our magically appearing messenger the small package to deliver. After finishing his biscuit, he grabs the package in his mouth and disappears into the guest stateroom below.

A little while later I see the kid wearing a new necklace around her neck that consists of a gold chain from which is hung a leather holder with Tony’s police detective badge attached to it. I feel that a warning is in order. “Suzi, I just want you to know that if you want to wear that badge around the boat it’s okay, but please don’t wear it anywhere else, because that would be against the law.”

Oh boy, that does it. Not only is she getting ready to speak to me, but I think I’m in for a lecture.

“
Peter, I’m well aware of section 538d of the Penal Code, and it specifically states that in order for the crime to be complete, a person who is not a peace officer, but who is wearing the badge of a peace officer must have the specific intent to fraudulently induce the belief that he or she is a peace officer. Now I ask you, is there any condition under which you could be induced to believe that I am a peace officer if you see me wearing this badge?”

I guess the conversation is over, because she has completed rolling her eyes and is now walking away, disgusted at my feeble attempt to play lawyer. Some day she’s going to be grown up, and I pity any guy who gets involved with her… inside or outside of a courtroom.

*****

Gary Fitzpatrick, one of Tony’s closest friends and former partner on the police force stops by to say hello and fills me in some facts about Tony. Gary tells me that just before the trial started, Tony put in his retirement papers, and requested that they become effective one day after the trial ended. The department was directed to deposit all of his pension benefits directly into a special account that was set up to provide for the college education of his two young sons.

Gary also tells me that Tony was ill, due to his serving four years in the Navy, working in ships’ boiler room. Twenty years ago, before most of the ships were nuclear powered, the boilers were insulated with asbestos and breathing in that dust took its toll on Tony. About a month before the trial he was diagnosed with a lung disease, and the prognosis wasn’t too good. He told Gary that after the trial, which he felt confident would go his way, he planned on packing a normal life’s supply of pain medication, obtained from a friendly drug dealer, and sailing off into the sunset.

I thought his weight loss was due to the stress of being charged with Joe’s murder, but now I learn that it was because of his illness.

There were some other interesting news items recently, including the report that some psychiatrist committed suicide by jumping out of an office building somewhere in Hollywood. His name wasn’t released to the public, but I think I know who it was.

Snell had another mini press conference to announce the arrest of a wealthy husband and wife who were operating a white supremist paramilitary training camp on the outskirts of Los Angeles County. They were distributing racist literature, and training groups of people in how to use illegal machine guns. That bothered the government, so Snell was brought in. Quite a bit of helpful information about their group was provided by a former member who is now in custody on a non-related charge. So much for honor between racists.

When they reveal the names of the husband and wife, it suddenly dawns on me that the snitch who turned them in may have been in custody on a charge that actually was related to the couple. Their names are Chad and Ruth Sinclair, and if they are the ones who own the apartment building that April lives in, David Miller must be the former member mentioned.

It’s all slowly starting to come together in my mind. The Sinclairs and David Miller all belonged to a white supremist group. This means that when their tenant April started bringing her black boyfriend Joe Caulfield home with her, Miller and the Sinclairs must have gone postal.

Being heavily involved in weapons, it was reasonable to expect them to go to target ranges often, and learning that one of the shooters out there was also working on the black boyfriend’s motion picture gave them too great an opportunity to pass up, especially after seeing Joe Caulfield one day when he went shooting with Tony. Miller probably cased the soundstage and planned the whole murder and frame-up, maximizing his access to Tony’s gun during those few seconds when it was out of Tony’s sight while the tight rugby shirt was being removed.

With the Sinclairs and Miller all in custody, the real estate trust was in financial trouble, so it filed for bankruptcy. From what April tells me, the referee in bankruptcy appointed a receiver to supervise the apartment buildings, and he hired April to be the manager of the building she lives in.

She also has lost more than fifty pounds already, and Hershel’s weight loss business is doing as well as his dealership. This must be great for Hershel’s supplier, who is my friend Stuart, now semi-retired in his late uncle’s condo in Thailand, on the island of Koh Sumai.