4
The fourth person
We were waiting in the main lobby. The judge had given a 20-minutes recess, time enough to clear my mind. I was there, Jackson was there, but not Lawrence; he was speaking with the judge about something; strange, he didn't tell me anything about it.
Jackson was relaxing in the bench while humming a song. Then it was for sure, he wasn't even a tiny little bit worried about his position; way too much confidence, I guess.
"Hey, Dom!" he called me. "Come here, there's something I want to tell you."
I approached him. He sat properly and stuck his eyes in mines. He talked with a smile on his face.
"You're doing a great job, Dom. Just remember always to stick with what you really think is the truth; even if it comes down to something ugly."
"Jackson, I know you're not telling me something," I said with anger. "And I want you to reveal it to me now; otherwise this case is going to end with a guilty verdict. Is that what you want?"
Jackson laughed, which made me want to hit him in the nose.
"Dom, take it easy. There's no need to reveal anything. You'll see how every piece of the jigsaw will fit together. Besides, up until now you've proven yourself to be trustworthy and clever enough to understand every fact."
"Yeah but thanks to your help. I would never come up with that about a fourth person. And if it is true as you say it is, then please tell me. I really have no clue."
Jackson doubted what I said for a few seconds.
"I can't say anything just yet," he said. "All I think about this case are pure suppositions. Besides, giving you the answer would spoil the fun."
"You really trust me, don't you?" I asked, but no answer. "Ok, I won't ask again about the fourth person of yours. How about your necklace? Why did you steal it from the victim?"
"Oh, this piece of sorcery?" he asked, fiddling with it. "It has the picture of my daughter inside."
"Uhum… So it's yours? But, I don't understand; your waitress said she saw you stealing it from the victim. Even when you said that the victim borrowed it from you; fact that, by the way, I find quite difficult to believe."
"That Cassie… I knew she had something in her hands. She came to work as a waitress almost a month ago. You sensed what she felt, didn't you?"
As always: aiming the conversation to another direction; every time even more meaningless.
"What are you talking about? Sense what?"
"Every time she is about to mention the name of the victim, she pauses. Also, she has a special nervous tick."
"Now that you mention it, she did pause all the time; like she was shocked for witnessing the crime."
"No, Dom. If someone is shocked for witnessing a murder, they just don't speak at all. She only pauses when she is about the mention Black's name. Doesn't that particular fact seem strange?"
Finally, something he truly doesn't know. But if he didn't know, neither would I.
"So you say Cassie is shocked for something about the victim? Any ideas? Or are you only going to laugh and pretend not to know anything?"
"Oh, no," he said. "I wasn't going to say this up until the moment it would be of most importance but… Mr. Black hit Cassie when he thought I've cheated."
Whaaatt! Was he serious? I didn't know what to believe, even though anything that was happening in that trial was so confusing. Right then when I was standing with my mouth opened for the surprise, a man called us from the courtroom to say that the trial was about to continue. Perfect, just when the doubts came back like an explosion.
"Mind to give me a hint?" I asked, almost begging.
"Oh, come on. No need to worry, Cassie will talk if you know what to ask."
Just when Jackson was turning around to walk to the courtroom, someone ran past and bumped against me, but then kept on running. I had the chance to catch a glimpse of that little person. It was a girl, I could tell so much, most likely a young teenager. But, although I only saw her back, I remember it: it was that young girl that saw me before entering the courtroom for the first time. I wanted to stop her but she had already left, so I headed to the courtroom.
"Now, if Ms. Packard is ready…"
"Yes, your honor." She was sitting in the left stand, as always.
"Ok," continued the judge. "You said you had something to confess, right?"
What? Something to confess? What was it this time?
"I was so scared to say this the first time," she began to say, shivering. "But the reason of why I know about the cheating is that I cooperated with the vic… Mr. Black…" Again, tears and sobs. "… I slipped a card inside Mr. Colfred's pockets so that after the cheating was showed it would seem as he changed a card from his hand to one that he possessed. But when… when Mr. Black searched for the card doing as he was mad for the supposed cheating, he found nothing inside his pockets."
She finished talking, she was almost crying. Again, she was so nervous that she was touching her scarf with a look of pain in her face. I couldn't help to notice that, and the fact that she paused to say the victim's name... Hold on a sec. I started to recall what Jackson told me five minutes ago.
«"Every time she is about to mention the name of the victim, she pauses. Also, she has a special nervous tick."»
So that means Jackson knew that before? Well, good thing I've noticed that "tick" of hers, but what does it mean? Wait, Jackson also mentioned that Black hit her; and the only reason for doing that would be…
"Ms. Packard, I couldn't help to notice that you pause every time you're about to say the victim's name," I said, still without the whole answer. I heard Jackson saying "YOU couldn't help to notice?" But if he wanted to get the credit, he should've spoken for himself long before that moment.
"What… what are you saying?" mumbled Cassie. She tried to reach her hand to her scarf, but before she realized she was subconsciously doing that, she stopped.
"See, there's that other thing you've been doing recently," I went on. "Not only you pause whenever you're about to say the victim's name, you touch your scarf nervously."
The judge interrupted. "You point, Mr. Straw?"
"I still don't know for sure, but I'm guessing that removing the scarf out of her neck would tell us something really important."
"What are you blabbering about, Straw?" said Johnson. But I wasn't blabbering; Cassie was even more nervous than before, that meant I hit her weak point.
"Come to think of it," said the judge. "It is pretty warm inside here, so why would someone bring a scarf?"
I stood up, approached Cassie, and tried to get her scarf out as calm as possible not to freak her out. Unfortunately, she did freak out. She stood aside quickly.
"Don't touch me! You don't understand!" she yelled.
She was completely mad. If I tried to get any closer to her, she would've probably attack me. Still, then I kind of knew what could be beneath that scarf.
"Ok, Ms. Packard." I stood quietly to show no sign of aggression or anything of the sort. "Don't show me your scarf if you don't want to. Just tell me, what happened after Peter Black discovered there was no card inside the defendant's pockets?" I used the victim's full name to cause a bigger impact inside her. Once again, her eyes fade out. She looked like she was blind.
"I… I don't remember…"
"Of course you don't. How could you, if you fainted?"
"What?" Then she panicked. I knew it, there wasn't any other choice.
"I believe I've just pieced everything together from you." That was easier than I thought. I tried to say everything calmly, but the power of knowledge and reasoning was overflowing my ego and so I had to talk like a pro. "You said that you slipped a card inside Mr. Colfred's pockets before the game started. When the last hands were shown a cheat was visible in one of them, so the victim searched Mr. Colfred's pockets to see if there was any card he could've swapped in the middle of the game. There was no card, so that means that the defendant must've hidden it before the last hand. Anyone would know in that moment that Mr. Colfred realized that he was set up to be seen as he was the one who cheated, so that's why the victim must've hit you strong enough to knock you unconscious. To sum everything up, you worked for Peter Black to make him win, but the trap went wrong."
The room was mute. I could only focus on Cassie. She was crying waterfalls. I felt so bad for what I've done, I really did, but it was the only way to finally know what happened behind the scenes. At least there was one thing I knew for sure right then: Cassie Packard didn't do anything wrong or bad, she just followed instructions from some guy who was probably threatening her to do so. I wanted to know so hard who the hell was that guy, but I couldn't ask her that right then.
Cassie stopped crying a little, and started to unwrap her scarf. Once her beautiful neck was completely visible I saw it; a big purple bruise almost coming out from her smooth skin. I could feel the shame she was feeling. I almost started to cry myself. Once she was calmed enough, she spoke.
"Yes, it is all as you say." She seemed a lot better. "I was so afraid to tell this because I thought I'd be seen as the one who did it."
"It's the other way around, Cassie." That was the first time I called her Cassie instead of Ms. Packard. "Knowing all this makes you look clean from suspicions. If you were unconscious before the killing was done, then it means you couldn't have done it."
I was right and I knew it, but what she said wasn't making a hundred percent sense. She would've obviously be seen as someone innocent if she told us about being unconscious in the first place. I don't know why, but I kinda saw something strange in that.
"It's ok, Ms. Packard," said the judge. Johnson was open-mouthed; he didn't see that one coming at all. "You can leave this courtroom whenever you want, we do not need of your assistance anymore. Thank you for your cooperation."
"Thank you," she said. "But, if it is possible, I would like to have a seat in the bleachers and see until the end of the trial."
"As you wish," granted the judge with a happy face. "Now, regarding the situation, the one person we have to go on in this case is Mr. Colfred, am I right?"
"Are you sure, your honor?" said Jackson out of nowhere. "Have you already forgotten about the possible fourth person?"
"No, I haven't," replied the judge. "But it is as you say: possible. We have no clue about who could he or she be."
"Let's go back to when the crime took place, after the cheating." Again, changing the topic to his own benefit. "Peter checks inside my pockets to see if I cheated in the game. He can't find any card, but he was supposed to find one. He hit his partner, Cassie Packard, who was supposed to slip a card in my pockets, and knocks her out. As I see this, I go upstairs to report this to the police…"
"And you left the room with Mr. Black berserk," I added.
"Exactly; and while I was doing that phone call someone killed Peter. So, not only we can assume that the killer has already been in that room before, but that he or she knew of another entrance."
"And why's that?" asked the judge. He was so focused on what Jackson was saying that he looked like a kid when his mother reads a book to her son before going to sleep.
"That's because the stairs are the only visible way to go to the upper floor," went on Jackson. "Maybe you don't remember well, but I did say that the room where I play poker has its own tricks."
Did he actually say that? Then why didn't I ask about it before? Damn, that would've saved me a lot of time.
"Nonsense!" shouted Johnson. He's been quiet for a long time. "All this is pure nonsense with no evidence to support it. Are we supposed to believe the defendant of this imaginary passageway? Up until now Mr. Colfred haven't done anything more than changing the topic to mislead us to his own conclusions. He even did so when he said that Mr. Black didn't find any card inside his pockets; so where is this card anyways?"
Wow. Johnson really was pissed off; I could easily see his jugular vein about to explode.
"I'm sorry to tell you, Mr. Colfred," said the Judge. "But he's right; if you or your defense attorney doesn't have evidence it will be as nothing."
Damn you judge! Why did he say that? Now everyone was looking at me. I wish I had Johnson's suitcase to take evidence out of nowhere. I panicked.
"No need to worry, Dom," said Jackson while giggling. "I'd like to request to send someone to the Big Shrimp's basement and check the wardrobe against the wall. It's some steps behind the victim's chair, easy to notice. Push the wardrobe to the left and you'll see the secret passageway. Also, if you could, please bring the bottles that are on the floor."
A passageway behind a wardrobe? What is this, Narnia?
"All right," agreed the judge. "I'll send one of my men to go check it out. Fortunately, the restaurant is not too far away from here."
"I can understand why the wardrobe," said Johnson. "But the bottles on the floor? Why would you like to have that? Are you planning to kill us all?"
Jackson's smile never went away; he was having so much fun.
"That was actually for you, Johnny. But I won't tell you until they've come back."
Johnson started to sweat. I wondered what was the deal with the bottles.
This was getting kind of exciting. I didn't know exactly what is it that we were going to discover, but it was still exciting. Though that time I wasn't going to let Jackson get away with what I really wanted to know.
"Ok, then." I said. I glanced to my right to see Lawrence fiddling with his hands. He was as concerned as I was, I supposed. "Going back to what you said about the fourth person… well… as you can see, nobody has any idea of who could it be. Though, it seems to me that you knew this person before he supposedly committed the crime. Am I right?"
Long pause. No answer. Jackson smiled and yelled something I'd never forget.
"Now, honey!"
The shout could've been heard to at least four blocks away. Jackson knew how to scream whenever he wanted to.
"Mr. Colfred!" said the judge furiously. "What was that for? I swear, if you ever shout again in my courtroom I'll…"
He couldn't finish his threat because a low music started to sound. It was a cell phone. How disrespectful were the people in this room!
Everyone started to touch their pockets to check if the cell phone was from one of them, but apparently it was ringing from Johnson's suitcase. Right then I wondered if that suitcase was some kind of high-tech thing that could save stuff like a Pandora's Box and could also ring.
Johnson freaked out and started to look inside his suitcase, and after a while he took out a small blue cell phone. He turned it off, and while he was checking from whom that call came from, he explained whose phone was it.
"I'm sorry; apparently Mr. Colfred received a call from an unknown contact. As I said at the beginning of this trial, I had the defendant's cell phone as evidence for being the one phone that made the call to the authorities…" He kept on checking the messages with concern. Jackson was smiling with his head looking down. "Oh, how queer, I had no idea you knew Mr. Eastwood before."
"Why's that?" asked Jackson. I could notice the level of sarcasm in his voice. I looked at Lawrence and… he was sweating! He was as nervous as I was at the beginning of the trial, and that is a lot to say. I wasn't brave enough to talk to him. I feared he might go mad or something. What was going on?
"Well, it seems here that you called Mr. Eastwood at 2:14 AM on April 16th… But wait…"
April 16th? Have I heard that date before?
"Rings any bell?" asked Jackson. He was now looking at Lawrence, who looked away uncomfortably.
"Why, that's the date of death of the victim! And it just so happens that the actual time of death was 2:00 AM! " snapped the judge amazed. Now where was the judge who couldn't even follow up with the trial? At first he was a no-brainer who only hit his gavel and then he remembers the exact date and time of the victim's death? The world was upside-down.
"Bingo!" said Jackson.
"But, I don't get it. Are you insinuating something Mr. Colfred? Please do speak if you have something to say."
"Excuse me, your honor," said Lawrence. I had almost forgotten how his sound sounded like. He was much calmer that before. "I believe I know what the defendant is insinuating but I would like to object on that before he starts with his pointless charades."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Eastwood, but I'm afraid I'll let the defendant explain us why he received that call at that date and time… or would you like to tell us?"
"In fact, I'd be happy to do so." He took a deep breath. "Yes, Jackson and I have been friends for a couple of years now. I just happened to call him at that time 'cause I knew he was meeting an important client that day and so I wanted to know how it went."
"Is that true, Mr. Colfred?"
"Well, yes and no. First off, I remember being the one who actually made that call…"
Bang! That was a direct shot to Lawrence. But yes, Jackson was right about that! Lawrence's speech was so detailed that everyone missed out what he said about making the phone call himself.
"… and the conversation wasn't about that exactly. Have you forgotten already, Lawrence?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, Jax," said Lawrence; he was a little more confident then, it seemed.
"Yeah, I thought you might deny it. Well, thank God I recorded the conversation. Mr. Johnson, could you please press the green button to hear the conversation? Oh, and don't forget to put in on speakerphone."
Bang! Another shot. I did actually feel it by looking at Lawrence's expression. Although he was surprised, he still was keeping his posture. I wanted to talk to him so much, but I just hadn't the strength to do that. Up until then Jackson always acted as if nothing was happening and then it turns up that those things he hides are always right or have something to do with the topic. I didn't know what to think anymore.
I heard a little *beep* and the conversation started.
* Hey, Lawrence, do you have a minute?*
* Yes Jax, what's up? Having trouble with that baldy client?*
Long pause.
* Actually, yes… he's dead, someone killed him.*
* What? What happened?*
* I dunno, I really don't. I just went upstairs for a couple o' minutes and when I came back he was dead. His head was bleeding.*
* Oh my God… Do you need help?*
* I see something bad coming up. If anything would happen to time, would you be there for me?*
Pause.
*…yes. You can count with me*
*END OF THE MESSAGE. TO REPEAT, PRESS THE NUMBER ONE. TO DELETE…*
*Beep!*
Johnson turned the cell phone off. We were all confused and waiting for either Jackson or Lawrence to talk. It was actually the judge who spoke.
"Well, it seems that Mr. Colfred called Mr. Eastwood instead of the other way around, yes… but, besides that nothing else seems off."
"You sure?" said Jackson. He looked at me like waiting for me to say something, but I was empty. The only things about the conversation that called my attention were the long pauses. At first, it happened after Lawrence asked if Jackson was having trouble with the "baldy" client; then it happened when… Wait, could it be? I had to ask Lawrence what I was thinking.
"Lawrence…" I was mumbling. "Have you ever met Peter Black before he was killed?"
He was astonished. He looked at me like if I was against him.
"What are you insinuating, Dominic? Of course I never knew the victim before he was murdered… why?"
Oh God. No way.
"I think I see what Dominic is thinking about," said Jackson. "If Lawrence never knew the guy…"
He halted. Come on, keep on talking! I would have talked myself, but I was petrified for the surprise.
"… then how did he know that the victim was bald?"
