Breaking Steele (Sarah Steele Legal Thriller)

Chapter 5

THE COURTROOM WAS PACKED. Not only was the media there, keenly observing every move we made, there were family members, tense and agitated at the sight of Williams, and then there were the citizens who came for the show, for the gory pictures and dramatic courtroom speeches.

I pushed everyone out of my mind. All that mattered now were my witnesses and my jury. At the beginning of each case I claimed the jury for myself. It helped me speak to them as if I knew them; as if we were longtime friends I was telling a horrific story to. It was my greatest strength, working the jury, and it’s what Dan had seen in me that had got me hired.

The first witness of the day was Hank Williams’ mother. In my interview with her she mentioned how her son had a porn addiction and I hoped to use it to show that Hank Williams was into girls, young ones. But she folded on the stand. She all but vouched for his character with tears in her eyes. She backed up his not guilty claim by saying how he never lied, how he had been a boy scout and a model student, and how he treated women with the utmost respect. I masked my anger with a smile and cut my questions short.

Then came Kathleen Perry, an elderly lady—big boned, thinning hair, teeth that had half an inch of tar coating them, and a skull and bones tattooed on her neck. She didn’t exactly look like the type of person you’d leave your children with, but she was a neighbor to the abandoned farmhouse Williams had kept Tracy in.

I was halfway through my interrogation, and had already pulled out a few tears from her as she recounted the experience. But she wasn’t as confident as she’d been when she was alone with me. Kathleen’s eyes were shifty, and she answered with, “probably,” “maybe,” and “kind of,” more often than I’d like. It was more than just jitters, too. I could tell. This was something different. Something had spooked my witness and I didn’t know what. I plowed ahead, though, ready to hear her witness that he was there the night Tracy died. And then I would get her out of here.

Cross-examining witnesses was always an adrenaline rush. There was no other feeling like an open conflict between two people with a silent audience.

“Now let’s jump to the night of the murder,” I said. “Did you see anything out of the ordinary at the barn?” I asked. I sneaked a sideways glance at the jury. They were listening with rapt attention.

“Yes. I saw a silver car in the driveway. You know, one of those nice ones that you see on TV a lot? I’d seen it in the driveway off and on for about a month.”

I walked back and took a photo Joshua was holding out for me. He always knew what I needed before I even asked. ““May I approach the witness with State’s Exhibit No. 65, your Honor?”

The Judge nodded.

I slid the picture of the defendant’s car toward Kathleen and her eyes lit up. “Yes, that’s the one. I remember the sticker in the back window. It looks like a snake or something. I remember thinking it was a little creepy.”

“Tell the Court what you heard coming from the farmhouse, if you can.” I leaned in and handed her a tissue. She took it and dabbed her eyes.

“Around eleven o’clock I went out for a smoke. It was a calm night. No wind at all. I noticed that car there by the barn. And I heard something. Screams … they sounded muffled, and almost like an animal. I thought it might be a wounded dog or something.” She said it so low that everyone in the courtroom leaned in to hear.

I asked my next questions in a calm voice. “Why didn’t you call the police?Why didn’t you try to get some help?”

She looked up at me with red, puffy eyes, and then looked around the room apologetically. “I didn’t believe it was really what it sounded like. We have such a peaceful, little place and I never imagined it was more than a tomcat, or maybe a wild animal. I should have called, but I just didn’t think—”

“You didn’t think that someone could be this cruel and heartless to a helpless little girl, did you?”

“Objection!” Sawyer stood so fast his chair tipped over.

I turned and walked to my desk. “No further questions, your Honor.” I made my point and the courtroom felt it just as I did. After a few more expert witnesses, and slide after slide of Tracy Mulligan’s broken body, everything would wrap up like a Christmas present. I looked over at Williams. Through it all, he looked calm and collected.

What was he hiding?

Sawyer picked up his chair, red faced, and walked over to Kathleen. I tensed as if I were the one on the stand.

“Have you ever been convicted of any felonies, Mrs. Perry?” He spoke her name crisply.

Kathleen gasped.

“Objection, your Honor,” I said evenly. “Irrelevant.”

“Lends to character, Judge,” Sawyer said.

“Overruled,” the judge said. “Please continue, Mr. Sawyer.”

Kathleen looked down and wrung her hands. She wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes and barely whispered, “Yes.”

“What were you charged with?” Sawyer asked. I couldn’t see his face but I was sure it was smug.

Kathleen shifted in her chair. I willed her to look up, speak confidently, and not look so darn guilty. “I was heavy into drugs. Got caught with possession. Served my time.” She looked up and said loudly. “It ruined my life, and my son’s life. I ain’t never gonna get a hold of that stuff again. We moved here and alls I do is smoke, nothin’ more. Everyday I’m sorry I ever introduced drugs to my family.”

“So there are no drugs in your family anymore?” Sawyer asked.

Kathleen took a shaky breath. “N-n-no,” she stuttered. Her rehearsed, clearlypronounced words slipped into her normal slang. I forced myself not to look down in defeat.

I glanced at the jury. Their eyes were distrustful. I tried to meet Kathleen’s gaze, but she wouldn’t look at me. This was going downhill, fast.

“So if I was to get the police to raid your house, we’d find no drugs at all?” Sawyer said. Kathleen’s eyes widened.

“Objection,” I said. “Threatening the witness.”

So this was what it was all about. Kathleen wasn’t nervous for herself. I knew people on drugs and she didn’t have the look of it on her. But she was protecting her son. I held my breath. How much would she do to protect him?

“Sustained,” the judge said, and I let out my breath.

But Sawyer had already done what he needed to. Kathleen looked like a cornered rabbit.

“So on those nights when you saw the defendant’s car at the barn, and you heard those screams, you were in no way inebriated?”

She opened her mouth to say something, and stopped. Sawyer continued.

“You’re absolutely sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that you saw that car parked at the barn and heard those sounds at eleven o’clock on May 14th?”

Kathleen swallowed. I could see what she was thinking. She was wondering if she said yes, a raid would be ordered on her house. So wrapped up in the moment, I nodded for her, as if it would help.

“Would you swear—” Sawyer pointed at Williams,“—on his life that you are absolutely sure you saw what you described?”

If anyone looked unsure at the moment, it was Kathleen. I internally groaned. The jury looked gone already, as if they didn’t need to hear anymore.

Giving up, she shook her head. No. She wasn’t sure.

Sometimes I wished I were a defense attorney … all they had to do was just show reasonable doubt. So much for my eyewitness.