Cut and Run (Lucy Kincaid #16) - Allison Brennan Page 0,43
down. She sat back down. “Why did you recant, Stanley? Why now?”
“Because I haven’t been able to sleep or eat. I confessed because I was scared and worried about my family. If anything happens to them … but then when I did sleep, all I could think about was Victoria. That someone killed her, and that someone was going to get away with it because I was being threatened. I don’t care about me. But Marie is in danger, I know it, and you have to protect her.”
“You were threatened into confessing, but guilt made you recant?” There was something he wasn’t telling her. “I don’t trust you.”
“I told you the truth.”
“You haven’t told me everything.”
“What do you want from me?”
Oliver interrupted. “We’re due in court in five minutes. We’re clear on your statement today, correct?”
Stanley glanced at his attorney, seeming to have forgotten that he was in the room. “Yes,” he said, then turned back to Max. “Victoria’s family respects you. I’ve followed your career for years. You can find out what happened to her. I should never have confessed. I should have found a way to get Marie and the boys safe. But after the car accident— I panicked.”
Oliver said, “We may bring all this up during the trial, but I’m going to move to dismiss the case based on lack of evidence.”
“But I confessed.”
“I’ll try to get the confession thrown out. I don’t think it’ll fly, but it’s a good first move. The police didn’t coerce the confession, so the judge has no reason to suppress it, but I may be able to convince the court that you were coerced by a third party. Even if it’s not thrown out, once I get discovery I can look at the evidence and the tape of your confession and see if there is anything contradictory. In the meantime, I’m asking for bail, I think you’ll get it. The prosecution will ask that you have an ankle monitor. I’ll object, but the judge has been known to have monitored release in cases like this. Then, we’ll work on the case if I can’t get it tossed.”
The bailiff came in and said, “Mr. Jones, Mr. Grant, I need to escort the defendant into the courtroom.”
“Thank you,” Oliver said.
Max and Oliver stepped out. “What do you think?” Oliver asked her.
“He’s lying.”
Oliver wanted to talk more, but Max walked away and sent Sean a text message:
Ask Marie about a car accident she was in the day before Grant confessed.
By the time Max was seated in the courtroom, he had a response:
Her car was totaled, no one seriously hurt. Turn around.
She did and saw Sean walk in with who she presumed was Marie, a petite blonde who looked like she hadn’t slept in days.
Sean situated Marie between Max and himself and whispered, “Marie, this is Maxine Revere.”
“You’re helping my brother?”
“I’m finding the truth,” she replied. At this point she didn’t know if the truth was going to exonerate or condemn Stanley Grant.
The judge hadn’t yet come in from his chambers, but movement in the back of the courtroom had Max glancing over her shoulder. Simon Mills, Victoria’s older brother, walked in. She had reached out briefly to their father yesterday to let him know she would be in town, but she hadn’t talked to anyone in the family today.
Simon nodded to Max, then sat in the far back corner of the small courtroom. He was looking at the back of Stanley’s head as he sat at the defendant’s table. She couldn’t read his face, whether he was angry or resigned. Simon and Stanley had been friends since college. According to Grover Mills, Simon had brought Stanley home for Christmas the first year they were at school and he’d become part of their family.
The bailiff asked everyone to rise, and then the judge stepped up to the bench.
The proceedings went pretty much exactly as Oliver Jones predicted, except for one thing: The judge postponed considering Oliver’s motion on the confession until Friday. He wanted to review the circumstances surrounding the confession and asked both the defense and prosecution to write statements as to why it should or should not be suppressed and submit them by five p.m. tomorrow; he’d be back in the court at nine a.m. Friday with his ruling. At that point he would consider other motions and set a trial date. He then granted bail, required Grant to wear an ankle monitor, and indicated that Grant couldn’t leave Bexar County.