Thursday was conspiracy day. The jury heard from Walsh and Stuckey in the morning, and they were to hear from Marsh in the afternoon.

"The people call Phillip Marsh to the stand!"

The man looked like a cartoon villain with his scowl and his scar. Kessler knew that Marsh wouldn't testify.

Perhaps, his methods weren't quite legal, but Abe was ready to do whatever he had to do in order to win. That's the thing about defense. Even if the prosecution finds out what he did eventually, acquittals aren't appealable.

Marsh took the stand and McCoy asked him. "Please state and spell your name."

"I invoke my fifth amendment right not to testify."

Petrovsky looked at him. "Haven't you taken a deal in exchange for your testimony? It cannot incriminate you Mr. Marsh."

"I want to withdraw from the agreement. I want a jury trial."

Jack wasn't fazed. He knew that something was going on with Keslser and Marsh and he had a backup plan.

The Executive ADA requested a sidebar. He, Petrovsky, and Kessler went into the judge's chambers where McCoy produced an agreement to immunize Marsh's testimony.

"Is that wise?" Petrovsky challenged.

"He already confessed to the murders," McCoy told the judge. "We don't need his testimony for his trial."

When they offered the agreement to Marsh, he refused it, only to hear, "It's not for you to refuse." The prosecution had complete control over whom they offered immunity.

Marsh still refused to testify, so Petrovsky ordered him to be held in contempt.

"Next witness," Petrovsky questioned.

"The people would like to recall Cyrus Lupo."

Kessler thought they would be done with questioning. He had been prepared to file a motion for a directed verdict.

"Any objections counselor?"

"No," he said quickly.

Lupo took the stand.

"Earlier, you testified that you found Margaret Greenfield through Michael Stuckey. Did Stuckey use the name Margaret Greenfield?"

"No, she was using the alias Hannah Wallace."

"And how were you able to determine that Hannah Wallace and Margaret Greenfield were in fact he same person?"

"We compared a photo of Margaret Greenfield that we received from her father's estate lawyer to the DMV photo for Hannah Wallace."

"And were you able to corroborate Mr. Stuckey's testimony as to how they met?"

"We were. In the Wallace residence, Boston police found an employment contract between her and Mr. Stuckey's sister, Quinn."

"And is this the agreement that they found?" McCoy offered a sheet of paper

"Objection. Relevance?"

"This agreement establishes that the defendant had Mr. Stuckey's sister under her employ, increasingly the likelihood that Mr. Stuckey and the defendant in fact knew each other and the rest of his testimony was truthful."

"Any other objection?"

"Best evidence rule, why isn't Ms. Stuckey here to testify?"

Petrovsky turned to McCoy.

"I would like to know that myself," he told her. "Mr. Lupo, did you try to find Ms. Stuckey?"

"We did."

"Could you find her?"

"No we could not."

"And why not?"

"Because Ms. Greenfield had paid her to leave the country."

"Objection! Mr. Lupo is incompetent to testify as to this allegation."

"I ask that you allow Mr. Lupo to explain how he knows this."

"This better be good. Proceed carefully Mr. McCoy."

"How do you know that the defendant paid Ms. Stuckey to disappear?"

"The day that Mr. Stuckey's arrest was announced, the defendant transferred $500,000 into Ms. Stuckey's bank account. Later that day, she bought a ticket to London where she has been unreachable ever since."

McCoy offered Margaret's bank statements as evidence to the conspiracy over Kessler's objection.

The defense attorney had not been prepared for them to discuss Stuckey's sister. He only now realized that McCoy anticipated that Marsh wouldn't testify. He used Marsh as a way to get the evidence on Stuckey's sister into the trial. Shit!

After McCoy finished his case in chief, Kessler continued with his motion for a directed verdict.

Petrovsky postponed her ruling on the motion until after the defense put on its case.

"You should think about putting her on the stand," Kessler's consultant told him.

"What?" The plan had been to not put Margaret on the stand.

"The jury is growing distrustful. After all of this hoopla about Stuckey's sister and Marsh refusing to testify, the jury needs something to bite its teeth into. It needs a real story, not this is a prosecutorial conspiracy. No ones falling for it Abe."

He wasn't sure if her solution was any better, but she had a point. Cabot held up on the stand. The facts just didn't lend themselves to the narrative Kessler had tried to weave. The money looked really bad for them.

If he did put Margaret on the stand, however, what would be the story that she told?

Friday

"The defense calls Trevor Langan to the stand."

Trevor had not expected to be called as a witness. He wasn't in the courtroom.

"Mr. Langan," Petrovsky called out. She didn't see him. "Is he even here today?"

"He's on the witness list," Kessler told her.

"But did you tell him to appear." Many people are on the list but were never called.

"May I have a recess?"

"Make it quick Mr. Kessler."

The fellow defense attorney was uptown in a meeting with his advisory board. When his secretary came to retrieve him, he was not amused. "Mr. Langan, you've been called as a witness."

"What in green acres are you talking about?"

"Mr. Kessler has called you as a witness in the Walker trial."

"Damn!"

Trevor had to hurry. Petrovsky hated it when she was kept waiting.

When he finally took the stand, the jury looked bored, as if they had lost interest in the trial while they waited.

"Please state and spell your name for the record."

"Trevor Langan T-R-E-V-O-R L-A-N-G-A-N."

"And what is it that you do Mr. Langan?"

"I'm an attorney."

"What kind of attorney?"

"Criminal defense and wills and trust management."

"How many criminal defense clients do you accept a year?"

"Objection, relevance?" Steele thought this would just be a muddying of the waters.

"It goes to Mr. Langan's familiarity with trials and his bias in the case."

"I'll allow it for now. You best get somewhere soon Mr. Kessler."

"I take in between 8-15 clients a year."

"And how many wills and trust clients do you take each year?"

"It varies."

"Try to give a number."

"This past year, I took in four clients."

"So you don't do much work with wills and trusts compared to your criminal defense cases?"

"No, I split my time fairly evenly."

"Please explain how that is possible."

"Most of my criminal cases are resolved fairly quickly. My client might take a deal. The case might get dismissed. Even if it goes to trial, I seldom have a case that goes on for more than two years. If I take on a client involving a will or a trust, I might be working with them for 5 years."

"So you actually spend more time with each civil client?"

"Typically, yes."

"And how long have you been representing criminal defendants?"

"About 9 years now."

"So you've had somewhere between 72 and 135 criminal clients in your career?"

"That's probably right, but I wouldn't remember the exact number."

"And how many estate clients would you say you've had?"

"30-40 maybe. I don't know exactly."

"What rate do you charge your clients?"

"Objection, still on relevance."

"Mr. Kessler, I'm growing impatient."

"I promise it's relevant."

"If it's not, I'll strike his entire testimony and put you in contempt."

"Currently, I charge $350/hour for criminal cases and $250 for civil cases."

"Why the disparity?"

"Supply and demand. There are more lawyers competent to do wills and trust than there are to handle felony trials."

"How much would you say your clients typically spend on you for a criminal case?"

"In attorney's fees, about $9000 a week. The longer the case takes, the more it costs them."

"So it's cheaper for them to take a deal than it is to go to trial."

"Of course."

"When your clients run out of money, do you encourage them to take a deal?"

"Objection. How is Mr. Langan's legal advice relevant at all?"

"Your honor. His client is a star witness in his case. How he handled her case bears importance on my case right now."

Petrovksy groaned. "Hurry it up!"

"I base my legal advice on how strong or weak I perceive the prosecution's case to be, not how much is in their bank accounts."

"But if they told you they wouldn't spend another penny on your services, what would you tell them?"

"Objection, calls for speculation."

"Sustained."

"Have you ever had a client tell you he would not pay?"

"No. In my experience, clients don't admit to being broke. If they are broke, they run up a bill and then try to dodge you when its time to collect."

The jury snickered.

"Would you say that defendants who are short on funds face more pressure to plead guilty?"

"That's probably true," Trevor admitted. "Those who have an abundance of funds hire private litigators like us. Those who don't have the money often get underpaid and overworked public defenders. Did you know the average public defender takes on more than 300 criminal cases a year?"

"I did not. You represent Cassie Walker?"

"I do."

"And she is one of your wills and trusts clients."

"Of course. She's too young to be a defendant and too cute."

The audience awed.

"Quiet," Petrovsky scolded them.

"And as her lawyer, you sued my client."

"To retrieve the money she stole from Cassie and her now deceased mother yes."

"As a part of that lawsuit, you requested that my client's assets be frozen."

"I did."

"Did you make this request on behalf of the prosecution, so that my client could not afford private counsel?"

"Objection. The rationale behind Mr. Langan's motion is privileged," McCoy argued.

"This goes to his bias your honor."

"Mr. Kessler has yet to ask Mr. Langan anything related to the case. This whole line of questioning has been incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial."

"Chambers, now!" Petrvosky was not happy.

McCoy and Kessler followed her into her office.

"I will not have my courtroom turned into a stunt room, Mr. Kessler. Are you putting on a serious defense for Ms. Greenfield or should I request that the ethics counsel do an inquiry?"

"My defense is most serious, your honor. If Mr. Langan had my client's assets frozen to prejudice her case, and if he did that at the request of the prosecution, then it seriously calls into question the motivation for this trial."

"Mr. McCoy?"

"This is ridiculous. I never spoke to Mr. Langan about this case at all."

"Then his answer should be sufficient."

Mr. Langan was asked the question again.

"No one asked me to have the defendant's assets frozen. I made the motion to protect my own client's interest. For all I knew, the defendant was going to take the money and abscond out of the country."

"So you wanted to make sure that she couldn't make bail."

"I didn't care if she could make bail or not. I just didn't want her to take the money she stole and vanish with it."

Petrovksy called a lunch break after Trevor's testimony.

Kessler met with his client.

"You said we'd win this case." Margaret had been in jail since she got arrested, and she wanted out.

"It's not over yet."

"You look like a jackass," she snapped at him. "No one is believing this conspiracy story." What sounded good in their mock trial was not sounding so good right now. Still, it was unclear what a jury would do. They could get a mistrial if one juror held out.

The call was hers. "Do you want to testify?"

That afternoon Margaret Greenfield took the stand. "Did you hire Michael Stuckey to kill your sister?"

"No, I didn't," she declared tearfully. "Jessie and I had our differences, but I loved her."

"Why would he lie and say you hired him?"

"He wanted money from me. When I refused to pay him, he tried to kidnap Cassie, so he could extort money. What he did was horrible, but I am not to blame."

"And the second kidnapping?"

"I knew nothing about it."

"Why did you pay Stuckey's sister half a million dollars?"

"When her brother got arrested, she was frantic. She knew that he owed some bad guys a lot of money, and she was scared they would come after her to pay the debt. I could see the terror in her eyes, and I felt bad for her, so I gave her the money."

"You were just trying to help?"

"And I got myself arrested. It was a mistake. I should have told her to go to the police."

"And what about the prosecution's claim, that you killed your sister and her husband for money?"

"Nothing could be further from the truth. I loved my sister."

"But you did lie to your father's estate lawyer?"

"I admit that I was desperate and I made a mistake, but I didn't even know Jessica had a daughter. I thought dad's estate would go to charity if neither of us had a child."

McCoy handled the cross-examination.

"How many times did you speak to Michael Stuckey?"

"Only once or twice. I didn't really know him."

"You didn't really know him, but he wanted money from you?"

"He knew I was wealthy, and thought he was entitled to some."

"Just like you felt entitled to your father's money."

"Say whatever you want. I'm not a murderer; I loved my sister."

"You loved her so much that you hadn't spoken to her since your parents disowned her."

"I didn't want to disappoint our father."

"And after he died, you still never reached out to her."

"She had a new life, and a daughter, where did I fit in?"

"A daughter that you moments ago claimed you didn't know of at the time."

"You're twisting my words around!"

"Or perhaps, you told so many lies you can't keep them straight anymore."

"Objection!"

"Withdrawn. You lived under a fake name when you came back to the United States."

"There's nothing wrong with changing your name."

"But you changed your name to hide from the authorities."

"I wasn't hiding anything!"

"Then why didn't you go to your sister's funeral?"

Margaret didn't have an answer.

One Week Later

The jury was still out. Kessler had closed his case on Friday. The prosecution put on a rebuttal case on Monday, and on Tuesday, the jury started its deliberations.

Kessler was relieved that the jury didn't turn around with a quick verdict. The longer they deliberated, the more likely it would be a hung jury.

The media dissected every factor of the case from the prosecution's lack of direct evidence to the defendant's last minute decision to testify.

"Why would Margaret Greenfield take the stand at the last moment?" An irrelevant television host asked a lawyer looking to make a name for himself.

"She must have realized that the case against her wasn't going very well. When defense counsel changes it's strategy at the last minute, it means they're running scared."

"Do you think it was a prudent decision?"

"Well, I don't have all of the facts, but it is a risky move. If they have a mistrial, then everything she said can be used against her in the next trial, even if she does not want to testify."

"Do you think she will be convicted?"

"I can't say for sure. The prosecution proved that she is a thief and she is a liar, but that is a far stretch from proving she is a murderer."

At 4:00PM, the jury announced that it had come to a verdict.