A Matter of Life and Death by Phillip Margolin (ereader with dictionary TXT) 📕

concluded it was possible, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Mr. Rostov is a criminal with a record of violence, isn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“Have you recovered the murder weapon?”

“No.”

“Did you find a key to apartment 5 on my client?”

“No.”

“Do you have any witness who will testify that Mr. Ortega threatened to kill Judge Carasco?”

“No.”

“Am I correct in concluding that you have no proof that Mr. Ortega expressed a desire to kill Judge Carasco, no proof that he was inside apartment 5 or possessed a key to apartment 5 or the weapon that killed the judge?”

“I … Yes.”

“Nothing further, Your Honor,” Robin said.

“Mrs. Cole?”

“Detective Dillon, is there evidence that Andre Rostov had been in apartment 5 before the date of the murder?”

“Yes.”

“Please tell the judge what made him go there.”

“Mr. Rostov will testify that Stacey Hayes had a pimp named Karl Tepper, who set up a hidden camera in the bedroom of apartment 5. Every time Hayes had sex with the judge, the event was recorded secretly. On the two occasions when Hayes and Ian Hennessey had sex, two more sex tapes were made.

“Tepper told the judge to pay him or the tapes and his relationship with a prostitute would be made public. The judge paid Rostov to go to apartment 5 and beat up Tepper. Rostov forced Miss Hayes to show him where the camera and the tapes were hidden. The camera was hidden on the top shelf of a bookcase that was across from the bed, and the tapes were concealed in two hollowed-out books that hid the camera from view. Mr. Rostov took the tapes out of the books. Then he told Miss Hayes to get out of the state and not return. Mr. Rostov gave the sex tapes to the judge at the fight.”

“This incident occurred while the judge was still alive and before the illegal fight?”

“Yes.”

“Nothing further, Your Honor,” Vanessa said.

“Any more questions of this witness, Ms. Lockwood?”

“No.”

“Any witnesses?”

Robin was about to tell the judge that she didn’t have any witnesses when she remembered something Roger Dillon had just said. She froze. That was when she figured out what her subconscious had been trying to tell her in her dream!

“Ms. Lockwood?” Judge Wright said.

“Your Honor, can we take a recess? I might have a witness.”

“Very well. Will twenty minutes be enough?’

“It should be.”

Judge Wright left the bench, and Robin waved Jeff to the front of the courtroom.

“What’s up?” Amanda asked.

“I’ll tell you after I take another look at the discovery.”

“You rang?” Jeff said.

“I need you to serve a subpoena right now.”

“Who’s the victim?” Jeff asked, and Robin told him. Then she took a look at the crime scene photograph of the bedroom in apartment 5 and reread one of the interviews.

CHAPTER SIXTY

“Good morning, Mr. Hennessey. I apologize for serving you with a subpoena on such short notice, but I need your testimony to clarify a few points.”

“Okay.”

“Do you feel that Anthony Carasco set you up when he asked you to take Stacey Hayes to dinner on the day that we tried a case against each other?”

“Definitely! He hired a man to kill his wife, and he suckered me into being his alibi.”

“How did he do that?”

Hennessey flushed and looked toward the floor.

“Stacey played me. She pretended to like me. When we were in bed together, she taped us. On the day Mrs. Carasco was murdered, Stacey asked me to come to her apartment. Then she threatened to tell Mrs. Cole that I was paying her for sex if I didn’t get rid of her outstanding warrants, which I never did.”

“Get rid of the warrants or pay her?” Robin asked.

Hennessey blushed. “I didn’t do either one,” he said.

“Okay. What happened after she threatened you?”

“The judge had switched one of my cases to his court for a late-afternoon hearing. He knew I’d run to him for help, and he engineered it so I would be with him when his wife was killed.”

“You aren’t involved in Mr. Ortega’s case other than as a witness, are you?”

“No.”

“So you haven’t seen the police reports, crime scene photographs, autopsy reports—all the stuff Mrs. Cole gave me in discovery—have you?”

“No.”

“I’m sorry if this is embarrassing, but I have to ask you. You were only in Miss Hayes’s bedroom twice, right?”

“Yes.”

“Was the first time on your second date?”

“Yes.”

“Was the second time when she threatened you?”

“Yes.”

“Were you in bed, naked, when Miss Hayes threatened you with her gun?”

Hennessey’s pale features flushed bright red, and he nodded.

“You have to answer out loud so the court reporter can put your answer in the record,” Judge Wright reminded the young DA.

“Yes.”

“Can I assume that your eyes were glued to that gun?” Robin said.

“Yes.”

“Can I also assume that you dressed and got out of that apartment as fast as you could?”

“Yes.”

“And that was the last time you were in apartment 5 at the Grandview?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’m confused, Mr. Hennessey. Do you remember being interviewed by Detective Dillon?”

“Yes.”

“May I approach the witness, Your Honor?”

“Go ahead,” Judge Wright said.

Robin handed Hennessey a copy of his interview, which had been turned to one of the pages.

“Did you tell Detective Dillon, and I quote,

“I’m such a sucker. I never suspected that I was being set up for blackmail. There was a bookcase across from the bed. A camera was hidden between two books on the top shelf. Stacey said she had a sex tape of us she’d send to Vanessa if I didn’t help her. When I got upset, she pulled a gun on me and told me to get dressed and go to my office and fix the warrants. I left right away. I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could.”

“Yes, I said that.”

Robin paused and looked directly at Hennessey. “How did you know that the camera was hidden between two books on the top shelf of the bookcase?”

Hennessey looked confused. “She said she had a tape of us having sex. There had to be a camera.”

“That would be a reasonable deduction, but the camera was hidden from view on the two occasions