For the People Chapter 9
Groaning, Kate swipes at her phone as the alarm goes off. "I don't want to get up," she complains, plopping her head harder into her pillow.
Rick props himself up on his elbow. "Do you have to? If court doesn't start until nine then you could sleep in another hour and still make it in plenty of time."
"Court may not start until nine, but Shapiro is in the office at seven, sometimes earlier. And he expects me to be poring over the details of the case and ready to discuss strategy right until the court comes to order. I need to have everything we have about Baird's prior bad acts at my fingertips to look for openings if Kaplowitz puts him on the stand. Sometimes I wish I had your memory."
Rick points at his temple. "This trash can? Yesterday alone I counted three eye-rolls from you at the flow of what you regarded as useless information."
"Sorry, Babe. Not useless, just irrelevant at that particular moment. But your fun facts do come in handy at the weirdest times. You've already helped me a lot on this case. And Shapiro expects me to have every iota of Baird's possible misdeeds as ammunition at the drop of a hat, or at least a gavel. It would be great if you could sit with me at the prosecution table sometimes, the way you did in the box when I was a cop."
"Why can't I?" Rick asks. "On Perry Mason, Perry had his secretary Della Street sitting with him and she wasn't a lawyer. Is there some rule about who can sit there and whisper in the attorney's ear?"
"Rick, come on! Perry Mason? And that was for the defense. I'm on the other side."
"Funny, you don't look like Perry's DA, Hamilton Burger, although you can be more enticing than a Remy's burger. Don't paralegals sometimes sit with lawyers?"
"In some states and with permission from the court. But you're not a paralegal."
"Right. How about texting you?"
"Not from the courtroom. I can have a cell phone on silent mode, and so can cops. But visitors can't."
"So, if I were watching the trial from outside the court, I could theoretically text you?"
"Maybe, as long as I wasn't in the middle of questioning someone."
"That's better than when I used to have to bang on the mirror in Interrogation. And you can have a laptop or pad, can't you? Does the court have Wi-Fi?"
"If it's working."
"So I could email you. We could even develop our own little shorthand so I could do it fast."
"Rick, assuming that could work, I can't tell you anything the general public isn't allowed to know."
"You could tell me all the secret stuff when you were a cop because I was officially a consultant with the NYPD," Rick recalls.
"Yeah. But your history with the NYPD doesn't apply now. You know that. So what are you thinking?" Kate questions.
"I'm thinking that maybe I could consult for the DA's office, specifically for you. Shapiro wouldn't have to worry about shoehorning consultant fees into the budget because I'd do it for free like I did when you were a cop. But if you could legally reveal information to me, the memory banks and general out-of-the-box thinking could be a lot more help to you than when you have to tiptoe around. Could you ask Shapiro?"
"The fact that I like to get your two cents when possible isn't exactly a secret, Babe. The Heat novels are still selling in how many countries?"
"Fifty-five, including the US."
"Still pretty high-profile. And Shapiro told me he admires the work you do on your serious books. So if we win this case and I can make the argument that you helped me out – within legal bounds – maybe he'd be willing to expand your role a little."
"What about with this case?"
"If you stick to publicly available information, that's still a hell of a lot. It wouldn't hurt if you checked the court files on Collier and the charges against Justin Birdstein before he died."
Eyebrows rippling, Rick grins. "I can take a hint."
With a mix of triumph and trepidation, Kate watches as Albert Baird takes the stand. She's backed Kaplowitz into a corner, but it may be almost impossible for the jury to be able to tell that from his demeanor. He stands confidently at his place, with a straight tie, every hair in place, and a perfectly fitting suit. "Mr. Baird, when you were first asked in the press if you knew Lauren Amell, you denied ever having met her. Why is that, Sir?"
"I meet a lot of people, Mr. Kaplowitz, thousands a year, sometimes hundreds a day. And I have sex with a lot of women."
Kate and Shapiro exchange split-second glances and Kate begins writing on a legal pad.
"Unless they strike me as outstanding in some way, I can't remember them all," Baird continues. "My memory of Lauren Amell was refreshed by the picture Ms. Beckett displayed to the jury. But I assure you, there was absolutely nothing outstanding enough about her to make her stick in my mind."
"So why did you have sex with her?"
"Hey! I was being nice by buying her something to wear. I do that with a lot of the ladies. Sometimes they come on to me, the way Meredith Fallwell honestly testified that she did. Lauren Amell came on to me too, only she wasn't honest about it."
"Objection!" Shapiro calls out. "Lauren Amell's honesty is to be evaluated by the determiner of fact, the jury."
"Sustained," Judge Willis agrees. "Confine your responses to your own thoughts and experiences, Mr. Baird."
"I thought she was being dishonest," Baird reiterates.
"Objection," Shapiro calls out again.
Willis fixes Baird with a stern look. "Just answer the questions, Mr. Baird. Continue, Mr. Kaplowitz."
"Mr. Baird, could you describe what happened when you had sex with Lauren Amell?"
"I saw this look on her face when she went into the stall at Bloomfeld's. I believed she wanted me to follow her, so I did. She was wearing a coat dress, the kind with just a belt holding it closed. I tugged on it a little, and the dress opened right up. She started grabbing at her pantyhose with her fingernails. They ripped. And then she took care of the panties she was wearing, cotton, not very sexy. But they weren't too much of a turn-off. I got myself in there and maybe dripped a little on the way out. But it was nothing special. When we were done, she said she wanted to leave first and catch a cab right away so she could start writing an article about the club. I said fine and left a few minutes later."
"Were you limping?" Kaplowitz asks.
Baird shrugs. "I might have been. I'm a big man, and it was tight in there. I could have hit my leg on something. As I said, what happened wasn't worth remembering."
"Mr. Baird, at any time did you force Lauren Amell to have sex with you?" Kaplowitz questions.
"No," Baird insists.
"Did she ever tell you to stop?" Kaplowitz presses.
"No, and that's the honest truth," Baird declares.
Kaplowitz turns to the prosecution table. "Your witness."
Kate takes a moment to run her finger over her notes before rising. "Mr. Baird, you stated that you've had sex with a lot of women. How old were these women?"
"I didn't ask for birth certificates, Ms. Beckett."
"Could you give me a general age range?" Kate requests.
Kaplowitz jumps too quickly to his feet. "Objection, Your Honor. Ms. Beckett is on a fishing expedition."
"Your client opened the door when he told the court he had sex with a lot of women, Counselor," Kate reminds Kaplowitz.
"I'll allow it, but get to a point, Ms. Beckett," Willis instructs.
"Here's my point. Of the women you had sex with, Mr. Baird, were any of them under 17?"
"Absolutely not." Baird declares.
"Then I would like to enter into evidence, the police report on the raid of Mr. Justin Birdstein, who was previously referenced by Mr. Stratford as an associate of Mr. Baird."
Kaplowitz reddens. "Objection!"
"I'm going to allow it," Willis announces.
"May I approach the witness?" Kate requests.
"Go ahead," Willis instructs.
Kate holds out a document to Baird. "Please read the highlighted portion."
"I don't have my glasses," Baird protests.
"Then I'll read it to you, Mr. Baird. 'Among those taken into custody at a party where guests had sex with girls ranging from 13 to 16 in age was Albert Baird.' Were you at that party Mr. Baird?" Kate asks.
"I was there, but I never had sex with underage girls, and the police never proved that I did."
"You claim you never had sex with underage girls," Kate repeats. "We'll have to explore that further."
