The 17th Suspect Read online

  Yuki knew that Briana had rolled off Marc’s body, pulled up the blankets around her shoulders, and fallen asleep without untying him or speaking again.

  Yuki said, “Your Honor. Both parties slept until the camera’s memory card was full and had stopped recording.”

  The judge muttered, “Thank God.”

  Art shut down the laptop, crossed to the front of the room, and brought up the lights.

  Yuki felt blasted as the dim light gave way to brightness in the courtroom. She looked at the jurors. She had never seen a jury look so shattered.

  Even the judge looked disturbed. He grabbed at the tissue box and blew his nose.

  Yuki said, “The People enter this recording into evidence, Your Honor.”

  “Done. And this would be a good time to take a half-hour recess. Back here at eleven sharp.”

  He brought down the gavel and left the courtroom.

  CHAPTER 74

  DURING THE HALF-HOUR recess Art helped Marc to the men’s room, sat with him in the corridor, and told him that he had done a great job on the stand. He said casually, “I must have missed the part where Briana said she wanted the best bonk of her life.”

  Marc answered, “I’d forgotten. It just came back to me.”

  Yuki used the time to think through every last word that Marc had spoken. She questioned much of it. She got a bottle of water from the vending machine and, keeping an eye on the time, got back to the prosecution table as Art was helping Marc up to the witness stand.

  Arthur joined her at their table and updated her on his brief chat with Marc. “He said he’d had a sudden recurrence of memory,” said Art. “It was like a miracle.”

  A moment later Briana Hill and Madison Benson returned to the defense table. Briana was nodding as if Madison had given her an affectionate buck-up speech.

  The spectators filled the gallery, no doubt wondering what the hell had happened that had caused the judge to throw them out. Then the jury came in and took their places in the box. Some of them still looked as though a bomb had gone off in front of their faces.

  At eleven sharp the judge took the bench, and a moment before the doors were closed, James Giftos sat down at his counsel table. Yuki guessed that he had used the recess to sharpen his knives and prepare himself to give the cross-examination of his career.

  Red Dog Parisi had once told Yuki that litigation was a storytelling contest and the best story won. James Giftos had a mighty big job ahead of him if he hoped to undermine the prosecution’s story. Yuki had provided something light-years more effective than a secondhand narrative.

  She’d shown Briana Hill threatening and then raping the victim. She had presented proof.

  She expected that Giftos would tell the jurors that the video was open to interpretation. But was it? The jury had been exposed to the rape as if they had been inside Marc’s actual bedroom, staring down the barrel of Briana Hill’s actual gun.

  The judge said, “Mr. Christopher, you’re still under oath. Understand?”

  Marc nodded.

  The judge said, “Court reporter has to hear you. Is that a yes?”

  “Yes, I understand that I’m under oath.”

  Rathburn said, “Mr. Giftos, are you ready to cross-examine the witness?”

  Giftos stood, smoothed his tie, and said, “Sidebar, Your Honor.”

  Judge Rathburn couldn’t keep the irritation off his face.

  “Approach,” he said.

  Yuki and Art got up from their seats and met Giftos and Benson at the bench.

  Judge Rathburn put his hand over the mike and said to James Giftos, “Make it good, Counselor.”

  “We’ve just uncovered some new evidence.”

  “During the recess?”

  “We found voice mail messages from Mr. Christopher to Ms. Hill after the so-called rape.”

  Judge Rathburn growled, “In my chambers.”

  CHAPTER 75

  THE FOUR ATTORNEYS and the judge trooped out and convened in Rathburn’s office. This time the judge didn’t sit.

  He said, “How did these messages come to light at just this moment, James? Convince me.”

  “Can do, Your Honor. After the incident in question Mr. Christopher started dogging my client. He wanted to go out with her. She brushed him off. Then he started calling and e-mailing with threats to blackmail her.”

  “Judge Rathburn, this is the first I’ve heard about blackmail threats,” said Yuki.

  Giftos didn’t look at her. He said, “Until now they were unsubstantiated. Briana avoided Christopher and stopped answering his calls and e-mail. When he went to the police, management at the Ad Shop put Briana on unpaid leave. She never cleared messages from her office phone.”

  “Until now?” the judge said.

  “We grilled her during the recess,” said Giftos, looking very much like the proverbial cat after consuming the canary. “We asked if there was anything at all we could use to refute Mr. Christopher’s bullshit. Pardon me. His lies. She remembered that there were unanswered calls on her office phone. It was a Hail Mary.”

  Yuki’s heart thudded almost audibly. The judge was listening in earnest.

  “Keep talking,” he said.

  Giftos went on.

  “We called her office number and accessed the voice mail system. It still retained her undeleted new messages. There were three messages from Mr. Christopher, none longer than six seconds. The first two messages were essentially, ‘Call me or else.’ The last one was another coded threat.

  “I’ve transcribed these messages by hand,” said James Giftos. “We also recorded the time-stamped audio. Of course, we preserved the original messages on her voice mail at the agency.”

  Giftos handed his pen-and-ink transcript of the three phone messages and a pocket tape recorder to Judge Rathburn.

  Judge Rathburn passed the transcript to Yuki and asked Giftos to play the recorder.

  He did it.

  As Giftos had said, the calls had all been made within a week of the incident. And the technical quality was good.

  Yuki said, “Your Honor, these calls are vague and ambiguous.”

  “I’m allowing them in,” said Rathburn.

  Yuki felt a vortex opening under her feet, but she steadied herself, dragged herself back from the terrible sinking feeling. She wouldn’t go down. She couldn’t go down.

  She followed Judge Rathburn back to the courtroom.

  Back at their table, Art said so quietly only she could hear him, “Don’t worry. Don’t worry. You’ve got this.”

  If only she could be sure. There were two opposing stories. Only one of them was true. Which one? And whom would the jury believe?

  CHAPTER 76

  MARC CHRISTOPHER WAS fidgeting in the witness box, staring out over the heads of the court officers, looking to where his parents sat in the gallery.

  Judge Rathburn pulled his chair up to the bench, appearing to Yuki as if he’d crossed his maximum irritation threshold. Even the jurors looked like they were ready to scream—Come on, already.

  As for James Giftos, Yuki knew that he was on his mark, all set, and good to go.

  Giftos stood and, holding notes and sheets of paper in his hand, walked across the floor and addressed the witness.

  He said, “Mr. Christopher, I have here a transcript of your deposition with my associates and myself on March 1. Could you please read the highlighted section aloud?”

  Giftos handed the papers to Marc, who skimmed the transcript and then began to read:

  “‘J. Giftos: What did you and Briana talk about in the restaurant bar before going back to your apartment?’ I answered, ‘I don’t really remember. I was getting pretty drunk. I just wanted to go to sleep.’”

  Giftos thanked Marc and took back the paper.

  “Mr. Christopher, you just testified to something very different from what you swore to in your deposition. You told this court that you broke off your relationship with Ms. Hill during dinner. That she was c
lingy and hysterical, and that she insisted on spending the night so you could revisit the issue in the morning.

  “Is that still your testimony?”

  “That’s what happened. I mean, yes.”

  “How so, Mr. Christopher? You’ve made two opposing sworn statements; one in my office and one in this courtroom, isn’t that right?”

  Marc said, “You do realize that this is a complicated issue, Mr. Giftos. I was raped by a woman I had feelings for. This is not a linear situation. I’m still trying to understand how she got over on me. I could work on this in therapy for the rest of my life …”

  “You made two opposing sworn statements, yes or no?”

  “This isn’t a yes-or-no kind of thing, I’m telling you.”

  Giftos said, “Your Honor, permission to treat the witness as hostile.”

  “Go ahead,” said Rathburn. “Mr. Christopher, answer the questions. Don’t hypothesize. Don’t rationalize. Don’t make excuses. Get me?”

  “Yes, sir. Your Honor.”

  The judge said to defense counsel, “Mr. Giftos, please proceed.”

  CHAPTER 77

  JAMES GIFTOS STUCK his hands in his pockets and said, “Mr. Christopher, do you need me to repeat the question?”

  Marc looked more annoyed than chastened. “Yes,” he said. “Good idea.”

  Giftos said, “You’ve made two opposing sworn statements about what transpired between you and Ms. Hill in the restaurant, yes or no?”

  Christopher said, “Both are true. We made small talk and she got hysterical when I tried to break up with her.”

  Giftos said, “In fact, neither story is true, is it? While you were drinking together in that bar, you told Ms. Hill that you’d like to experiment with a sex game, didn’t you?”

  “No,” said Marc. “I did not.”

  “Isn’t it true that you told her that you’d like her to act out a rape scene in which she threatened you with a gun and you pretended to be the victim?”

  “No. Definitely not.”

  Giftos said, “Isn’t it a fact, Mr. Christopher, that you suggested this sexual role-playing with a plan in mind to entrap Ms. Hill?”

  “No. No way. I did not. That’s totally crazy,” said Marc.

  “Let me ask you this. Did you know that it is illegal to record a person in a sex act without his or her knowledge?”

  “I thought she was going to kill me.”

  “Really? Mr. Christopher, did you know that Ms. Hill had just come into a sizable inheritance?”

  “I guess so. Yes.”

  “Mr. Christopher,” Giftos said pleasantly, “we’ve uncovered some voice mails from you to Ms. Hill that were left on her office phone. Could you tell us if this is your voice?”

  “You’re saying I made the calls?”

  Yuki tried to beam a thought to Marc: Answer the questions in as few words as possible. Do not give Giftos any shit. Do not.

  “I’m going to play them now,” said Giftos.

  He held the small recording device and pressed a button. As each message played, the mechanical voice of the phone system announced the date and time.

  First message: “Briana, for the last time. Call me. I’m serious.”

  Second message: “It’s Marc. You shouldn’t screw with me, Briana. Call me.”

  Third message: “Briana, I’ve had enough. Either you pay up or there’re going to be some traffic problems in San Francisco.”

  Giftos stopped the recorder and said to Marc, “Is this your voice?”

  “Yes. Sounds like me.”

  “When you said to Ms. Hill, ‘Either you pay up or there’re going to be traffic problems,’ what did you mean?”

  “That was a saying. Like from Fort Lee, New Jersey.”

  “I understand the reference. But what did you mean, ‘pay up’?”

  “I don’t even know. I just said it. I was trying to get hold of her so I could get closure on what she did to me.”

  Giftos said, “So once again I ask you, when you phoned Ms. Hill in the week following your overnight date and left this message, ‘You pay up or it’s time for some traffic problems in San Francisco,’ you were reinforcing your blackmail attempt on Ms. Hill, weren’t you? ‘You pay up or I’ll go public with the video’?”

  Yuki said, “I object, Your Honor. There is no evidence of a blackmail threat.”

  Rathburn said, “Overruled. It’s relevant and I want to hear this. Mr. Giftos, ask your question again.”

  “Mr. Christopher, were you blackmailing Ms. Hill?”

  “Not at all,” Marc said. “Far from it. All I wanted was to talk to her. I needed to talk to her. She did this to me. Raped me and left me lying there like roadkill. I needed an explanation. She needed to apologize. I needed something from her. And you bastard,” he said to Giftos. “You should be disbarred for even suggesting this crap.”

  Judge Rathburn said, “Mr. Christopher, I’m warning you. Any more outbursts and I will find you in contempt. I will fine you, too. Jurors, you will disregard Mr. Christopher’s personal remarks to Mr. Giftos, and the clerk will strike those remarks from the record.”

  Giftos said, “Thank you, Your Honor.”

  To the witness he said, “I guess we’ll let the jury decide what you meant when you left a message for this wealthy young woman—whom you had recorded in a compromising act that you orchestrated—‘Pay up or else.’”

  Yuki was on her feet. “Argumentative, Your Honor.”

  “Sustained.”

  Giftos said, “Your Honor, I have nothing more for this witness at this time, but I reserve the right to question him again.”

  The judge asked Yuki, “Redirect, Ms. Castellano?”

  “Yes, Your Honor.”

  Yuki approached the witness and said, “Marc, please tell the jury what you have to gain by accusing the defendant of rape.”

  Christopher wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and said, “I don’t want or need her money and never have. I’m here to get justice and peace of mind. She shouldn’t get away with what she did to me.”

  “Thanks, Marc. I have no further questions.”

  Rathburn told Marc Christopher that he could step down. With much bumping and limping, Yuki’s star witness left the courtroom.

  When the doors had closed behind him, Yuki said to the court, “The People rest their case.”

  Judge Rathburn said, “Okay. Mr. Giftos, you’re up with your opening statement.”

  CHAPTER 78

  JAMES GIFTOS HAD delayed making his opening statement until after the prosecution had concluded its case.

  Yuki knew that it was risky to let the jury steep in the prosecution’s theory for four days. But James was smart, a trial-tested veteran with an impressive record of wins. He surely had a plan and it was about to be revealed.

  In the next few minutes he would begin to present his defense, in which he would do everything possible to blow up the prosecution’s case and win the jury over to Briana Hill’s side.

  She watched Giftos walk back to his table, return the notes and transcripts to a file folder, exchange looks with his client, and respond to a note from his second chair.

  Yuki was glad that Art was here to witness what could well be a master class in how to deliver an opening statement.

  Giftos walked into the well, faced the jurors, and began, “Briana Hill is the victim here.

  “Marc Christopher is a liar, and his accusations are damned lies. Even the video the prosecution produced is a lie, and in fact was a planned setup by Mr. Christopher. He designed the scene, directed it, and edited it by turning on the recording device after the discussion of the role-playing had been agreed upon. This way, the viewer would see only a staged sex game. Without the prologue, it’s understandable that this entirely orchestrated drama would seem real.

  “As you have heard, Marc and Briana were coworkers. They dated and had sex. And when the flames cooled for Ms. Hill and she let Marc know that she wanted to see other men, Mr. C
hristopher became angry. And he came up with a scheme to hurt Ms. Hill. Why? Because my client had lost interest in him and he was in love with her—an attractive, wealthy, powerful young woman who was rejecting him.

  “Mr. Christopher wasn’t just angry, he was determined to hurt her financially, destroy her reputation, and even send her to jail.”

  Giftos paused for effect, and when he was sure that the jury was dying for him to begin again, he did.

  Giftos said, “On the night in question, when they were in the restaurant bar, Mr. Christopher told Ms. Hill, and she will tell you, that he wanted to act out a rape scene with himself in the role of victim.” Giftos proceeded to summarize the defense’s version of the crime for the jury. Ms. Hill thought she knew Mr. Christopher and was intrigued by his proposition. She had never role-played before. He told her what to do, and as agreed, he would pretend to protest as she tied him up and made demands.

  “The morning after this overnight date,” said Giftos, “Ms. Hill went to the office, feeling that she’d betrayed herself by going along with Mr. Christopher’s game; but she had no idea that she’d been played and was about to be victimized by his extortion scheme.

  “Mr. Christopher asked her to go out with him again several times, and when she refused, he went to her office and told her that he had recorded their sex play. He wanted a payout of $250,000, or he would post the video on the web.

  “Ms. Hill told him to get lost, and that’s when Mr. Christopher took the video recording to the police.

  “Ms. Hill was arrested and charged with a felony that she did not commit. Mr. Christopher’s premeditated extortion scheme cost my client her job and her reputation, and now she is forced to defend herself against the false testimony of this vicious and vengeful man.

  “Please. Don’t let him get away with it.”

  CHAPTER 79

  BRIANA HILL, WEARING dark-gray jersey down to her boots, looked as vulnerable as a soaked kitten as she took the witness stand.