21st Birthday by Patterson, James (ebook reader screen .TXT) 📕

Brady said, “All good?”

“Yes. Give me a hug.”

He squeezed her until, laughing, she begged him to stop.

“See you later,” she said.

She left Brady, gave Lindsay a high five as she passed her desk, then went downstairs to brief Red Dog on her meeting with the judge.

TWO MONTHS LATER

CHAPTER 75

COURT HAD BEEN CALLED into session.

Judge Passarelli had instructed the jury, “Don’t read the paper or watch TV, I mean it. Don’t discuss the case with anyone, not spouses nor blood relatives, nor strangers on a train. That goes for comparing notes with your fellow jurors or talking to yourself out loud when you’re washing your hands or in your sleep or under any circumstance whatsoever until you’re in the jury room to deliberate. Then you can and should talk to your fellow jurors until you’ve arrived at a verdict. Okay? Very good.”

All but one of the jurors had smiled. They liked the judge as much as Yuki did.

The gallery was packed and it murmured like a beehive. Press was allowed, but not cameras. Yuki turned her head to face the rear and saw Cindy in the last row, on the aisle. Since Cindy had rung the bell on this case since before baby Lorrie Burke had even been found on the beach, Yuki hoped her friend would get the story she’d earned. A guard opened the door and Brady slipped inside the courtroom and stood next to Cindy. He gave Yuki a thumbs-up.

She nodded and turned back to the courtroom and her co-counsel, Nick Gaines, sitting to her left.

Gaines was Yuki’s second chair. He had just returned to the DA after several years in a startup law firm, and Yuki was very happy to have him back. It worked both ways. Nick liked being on the prosecution side and was excited to have accidentally timed his return with a chance to work with his former mentor on the case of the decade.

The high and low points of this trial would be reported not only in the United States; the Lucas Burke case had also attracted the avid attention of the international press. The outcome of this trial would stick to the San Francisco DA for years, win or lose.

Adrenaline shock waves were coming more frequently as the business of the court was concluded and the moment was coming when the judge would say “Ms. Castellano, you’re up.”

Yuki turned her head forty-five degrees to the right to check out the defense table. At that precise moment, Newt Gardner turned his face to hers. He was ready for his close-up: head freshly shaven, shirt as stiff as marble, and his suit was fine and smart. Handmade, a classic navy blue.

Gardner smiled and tipped his head in greeting. Yuki nodded back. There was no point in taking anything Gardener said or did personally. Yuki’s phrase for the day was “Steady, girl. You’ve got this.”

Nicky Gaines wrote on his tablet. What a creep.

She nodded, added to the note, Yeah and he’s not even the killer.

That said, Lucas Burke, the accused, looked the part of the villain. He had shaved badly, like he wasn’t used to plastic razors after the sharp steel he formerly used. He was allowed a suit, shirt, and tie, rather than the orange jumpsuit that could unfairly prejudice the jurors. Still, his rumpled tweed jacket and dingy dress shirt didn’t support a look of innocence.

Yuki also observed that he had aged since the murders. He had more wattle under his chin probably because of the weight he’d lost. His hair had gone from auburn to gray. His attorney leaned toward him and whispered in his ear. Burke then sat up straighter, as if good posture would acquit him of triple homicide.

Yuki took some deep breaths, released them silently, and with eyes closed visualized this blond-wood-paneled courtroom as Baker Beach. She’d seen photos of the baby at the shoreline, and that was the image that she would implant in the jurors’ minds.

Nick nudged her with a knee under the table.

The gallery that had been buzzing softly went quiet.

Judge Passarelli said, “Okay everyone. Settle down. No talking to each other or anyone on pain of removal from the courtroom. There will be a lunch break at around noon. Anyone who thinks they will need a bathroom break should leave now and come back at one. Any questions? Good.

“ADA Castellano. Ready with your opening statement?”

CHAPTER 76

CINDY THOMAS HAD BEEN WAITING for this day since Kathleen Wyatt had crashed into her office, wild-eyed and shrill, demanding attention for her missing daughter — who had only been missing for a few hours.

Kathleen’s instincts were sharp.

Cindy had done the right thing by getting Lindsay involved.

And the whole rotten story had unspooled from there: Lorrie, Misty, Wendy, Susan, and last, Tara with her throat slashed and still strapped into the passenger seat of her Volvo.

Starting today, Cindy’s job was to report this trial daily. She knew her column would be lifted and reprinted elsewhere or rewritten and rerun in all forms of media around the globe. If Yuki’s argument won over the jury, Lucas Burke would be convicted on three counts of murder.

He would never be free again.

The judge called on Yuki to make her opening statement, and Cindy had a pretty good view of her dear friend walking over to the jury box.

Yuki said good morning and introduced herself to the twelve jurors and three alternates, a total of eight women and seven men. Cindy thought the more women the better, and in this case the foreman was also a woman.

Yuki stood in front of the jury box, her hands at her sides and said, “I want to bring you to a Monday morning in Lucas and Tara Burke’s small house on