Bailed Out (The Anna Albertini Files #2) - Rebecca Zanetti Page 0,92
the witness.”
The judge looked up. “Objection denied.”
Well, I’d gotten it across to the jury that Alice was mean, and Kelsey needed protection. Good enough.
Alice softened her voice in a very plausible manner. She sounded almost regretful to have to ask any more questions. “Please answer the question. Would you lie to protect your sister or her boyfriend?”
Kelsey chewed on her lip. “Probably but not in court under oath.”
Excellent answer. I kept my expression stoic when I wanted to run up and high-five her. Sometimes the nicest people made the best witnesses, which actually gave me hope with the entire system.
Alice smiled. “All right. I assume you talked to the defendant’s attorney before your testimony. What did she tell you to say?”
Kelsey pursed her lips before answering. “She just told me to tell the truth. That’s all.”
The bailiff stifled a grin. Yeah, I was new, but everybody learned that trick in mock trial and debate.
“I see.” Alice didn’t lose a step. “Let’s go back to the night of the incident. You and your sister were in the bar. How close were you to your sister when Mr. Dorsey allegedly touched her?”
“He grabbed her. I was maybe a foot away from her?” Kelsey asked.
“And you were looking at her butt?” Alice asked smoothly.
“No. I mean, not really. Maybe I was more than a foot away, you know? We’d been drinking.” Her eyes opened. “Not a lot, though. Yeah. I was a foot away.”
I mentally sighed and listened carefully for possible objections to break up the line of questioning, and on redirect, I tried to rehabilitate Kelsey’s testimony best I could. But Alice had dented her credibility, even while seeming to sympathize with her. Finally, Kelsey was excused.
She pretty much ran out of the courtroom.
Pucci turned toward me, keeping his voice low. “Is it just me, or did that not go well?”
“It went all right,” I said. Kelsey had been shaky from the beginning, and it might’ve been a mistake to put her on the stand. But the jury had liked her, and they’d probably sympathized with her wanting to stick up for her sister and her sister’s boyfriend, who’d been defending her honor. It was a strategy and possibly a good one. “She actually was more effective than you think,” I said, my mind spinning. “We’ll get your two buddies to set up the remainder of the night with their testimony, and then Krissy will bring it home.”
“Good,” Pucci said, leaning back. “She’s solid.”
She’d better be.
Chapter 33
After a late lunch where my mind kept returning to Clark’s statement the night before, I slightly altered my approach to the trial. I’d had one witness after Kelsey and before the break, and he’d done a good job of describing how upset Krissy had been when she’d been grabbed. I’d spent a lot of time with him and so had Alice, and he’d stayed strong. Making the trial about Krissy and not Pucci was the best strategy, and it seemed to be working.
As we settled at our table and waited for the judge to arrive, I glanced toward the back of the courtroom to see that Aiden had gone. He hadn’t joined us for lunch, so I figured he’d be off doing whatever it was he did. I turned toward Pucci. “What’s Aiden’s deal, anyway?”
Pucci straightened his shirt and tried to look responsible. “He’s who he says he is. The president of the Lordes.”
I swallowed. “Yeah, but tell me the truth. I’m your lawyer now, and we have privilege.”
Pucci looked my way, and his deep eyes were serious. “Listen. You’re a nice person when you’re not being all judgy. Aiden is a guy who gets things done. We have a deal going that will make us both a lot of money, and you should like that.”
My head was starting to ache in both temples. “Is it a legal deal?”
Pucci studied me like he hadn’t really looked before. “No.”
For the first time, I felt like he was giving me the full truth. The reality smashed me in the chest, more specifically the heart. The pain was palpable. “He said he wants to go legit.”
“We all want to go legit,” Pucci said quietly. “But then opportunities knock hard and you have to take them. Guys like us can’t help it. We don’t want to help it.” The rare display of wisdom seemed to open the floodgates. “You either need to get on board with that or get out now. Aiden ain’t going to change.”