The Lincoln lawyer - By Michael Connelly Page 0,127
of testifying: don’t get trapped in a lie.
“Talked to an attorney, yes. But it was nothing more than talk. I didn’t hire him.”
“Is that because the prosecutor told you not to hire anybody until the criminal case was over?”
“No, he didn’t say anything about that.”
“Why did you talk to an attorney about this case?”
She had dropped into a routine of hesitating before every answer. This was fine with me. The perception of most people is that it takes time to tell a lie. Honest responses come easily.
“I talked to him because I wanted to know my rights and to make sure I was protected.”
“Did you ask him if you could sue Mr. Roulet for damages?”
“I thought what you say to your attorney is private.”
“If you wish, you can tell the jurors what you spoke to the attorney about.”
There was the first deep slash with the razor. She was in an untenable position. No matter how she answered she would not look good.
“I think I want to keep it private,” she finally said.
“Okay, let’s go back to March sixth, but I want to go a little further back than Mr. Minton did. Let’s go back to the bar at Morgan’s when you first spoke to the defendant, Mr. Roulet.”
“Okay.”
“What were you doing at Morgan’s that night?”
“I was meeting someone.”
“Charles Talbot?”
“Yes.”
“Now, you were meeting him there to sort of size up whether you wanted to lead him back to your place to engage in sex for hire, correct?”
She hesitated but then nodded.
“Please answer verbally,” the judge told her.
“Yes.”
“Would you say that practice is a safety precaution?”
“Yes.”
“A form of safe sex, right?”
“I guess so.”
“Because in your profession you deal intimately with strangers, so you must protect yourself, correct?”
“Yes, correct.”
“People in your profession call this the ‘freak test,’ don’t they?”
“I’ve never called it that.”
“But it is true that you meet your prospective clients in a public place like Morgan’s to test them out and make sure they aren’t freaks or dangerous before you take them to your apartment. Isn’t that right?”
“You could say that. But the truth is, you can never be sure about somebody.”
“That is true. So when you were at Morgan’s you noticed Mr. Roulet sitting at the same bar as you and Mr. Talbot?”
“Yes, he was there.”
“And had you ever seen him before?”
“Yes, I had seen him there and a few other places before.”
“Had you ever spoken to him?”
“No, we never talked.”
“Had you ever noticed that he wore a Rolex watch?”
“No.”
“Had you ever seen him drive up or away from one of these places in a Porsche or a Range Rover?”
“No, I never saw him driving.”
“But you had seen him before in Morgan’s and other places like it.”
“Yes.”
“But never spoke to him.”
“Correct.”
“Then, what made you approach him?”
“I knew he was in the life, that’s all.”
“What do you mean by ‘in the life’?”
“I mean that the other times I had seen him I could tell he was a player. I’d seen him leave with girls that do what I do.”
“You saw him leave with other prostitutes?”
“Yes.”
“Leave to where?”
“I don’t know, leave the premises. Go to a hotel or the girl’s apartment. I don’t know that part.”
“Well, how do you know they even left the premises? Maybe they went outside for a smoke.”
“I saw them get into his car and drive away.”
“Ms. Campo, you testified a minute ago that you never saw Mr. Roulet’s cars. Now you are saying that you saw him get into his car with a woman who is a prostitute like yourself. Which is it?”
She realized her misstep and froze for a moment until an answer came to her.
“I saw him get into a car but I didn’t know what kind it was.”
“You don’t notice things like that, do you?”
“Not usually.”
“Do you know the difference between a Porsche and a Range Rover?”
“One’s big and one’s small, I guess.”
“What kind of car did you see Mr. Roulet get into?”
“I don’t remember.”
I paused a moment and decided I had milked her contradiction for all it was worth. I looked down at my list of questions and moved on.
“These women that you saw leave with Mr. Roulet, were they ever seen again?”
“I don’t understand.”
“Did they disappear? Did you ever see them again?”
“No, I saw them again.”
“Had they been beaten or injured?”
“Not that I know of but I didn’t ask.”
“But all of this added up to you believing that you were safe as far as approaching and soliciting him, correct?”
“I don’t know about safe. I just knew he was probably there looking for