I think he can tell that it was not the most sincere of apologies, because he keeps closing the door.
I yell to Laurie, “Don't just stand there!”
After a brief moment that seems like an hour, she shrugs and says, “I need your help, Pete.”
Pete immediately relaxes and opens the door. He speaks only to Laurie. “Why didn't you say so? What's up?”
I jump in. “We have to run down an old license plate.”
Pete ignores me and again speaks to Laurie. “What's up?”
“We have to run down an old license plate,” Laurie says.
This is starting to annoy me—I mean, all I did in court was my job. “Hey, what am I, invisible?”
“You're lucky you're not dead,” Pete snarls. “You turned me into a goddamned idiot on the stand.”
“You were already a goddamned idiot. I just brought it out into the open.”
This time I'm pretty sure that if he has a gun in that cute red bathrobe he will shoot me. Laurie tells me to go wait in the car, which I think is a wise idea.
From the time I get in the car, it only takes a minute or so. Laurie comes back and gets in the passenger seat.
“Let's go,” she says.
“What happened?”
“He's going to call it in. We should have it tomorrow.”
“See?” I say. “I told you I could handle him.”
I drop Laurie off at her apartment and then head home. Pete's going to get us the information, and then we'll either have something or we'll have nothing. I have rarely felt less in control.
The next morning I ask for a meeting in Hatchet's chambers with him and Wallace. They have heard about Nicole getting shot, and I lay out for them the threats we had received and the attack in my office. I make the case that someone is actively trying to prevent justice from being carried out, and I ask that I be allowed to depose Victor Markham and Brown-field about the photograph.
Wallace seems genuinely sympathetic to my situation, but is obligated to make the point that no significant legal link has been made between the photograph and the Miller trial. He is technically correct, and Hatchet is also technically correct in denying my request. Which he does.
Our first witness this morning is going to be Edward Markham, on whom I am planning to take out my frustrations. Laurie has joined Kevin and me at the defense table for the day's festivities.
As I glance around the courtroom, I see that Victor is there to provide sonny boy moral support. He's going to need it.
Just as Hatchet is taking his seat behind the bench, the door in the back of the courtroom opens and Pete appears. He walks toward me as Hatchet is instructing me to call my first witness.
Pete hands me a small piece of paper and says, “I figured I should deliver this one personally.”
I look at the paper and say, “Holy shit.”
Laurie nudges me. “What is it?”
I hand her the paper; her whispered reaction is more biblical than mine. She says, “Jesus Christ.” She passes the paper down to Kevin, but I can't hear what he mutters.
Hatchet sees all this. “Are we going to pass notes in class today or might we call a witness?”
I stand up. “Your Honor, we call Edward Markham, but a significant development has taken place, and we would request a brief recess prior to his testimony.”
“How brief?”
“The balance of the morning, Your Honor. We would be prepared to question the witness right after the lunch break.”
Hatchet asks Wallace and me to approach. We do, and I tell them that this can be a crucial breakthrough, and that I need the morning to follow through on it. It can change the entire case.
I am shocked when Wallace doesn't object. He knows that his position will not be harmed by waiting a few hours, and he trusts me that this is in fact an important development. What he is doing is putting justice ahead of victory; my father would have been damn proud of him.
Hatchet goes along with it, and I head back to the defense table. I tell Kevin that if I'm not back in time, he is to question Edward for as long as it takes, just making sure that he does not leave the stand before I get there. I don't even wait for an answer; I'm out of the building and on the way to my car.