The Quiet Game

  This time it is not Blake Sims but Livy who rises from the plaintiff’s table and approaches the box. Judge Franklin gives Sims a questioning look, but Sims says nothing.

  “You will be handling this witness, Ms. Sutter?” asks Franklin, using Livy’s legal surname.

  “With the court’s permission, Your Honor.”

  Franklin turns to me. “Any objection, counselor?”

  “No, Your Honor.”

  Livy walks past the podium and up to the witness box. Though Portman is much older than she, both emanate a sense of confidence and ease to which lesser mortals should not begin to aspire.

  “Mr. Portman, what is your current position?” she asks.

  “I’m the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI.”

  “Do you know the plaintiff in this case?”

  “I do. I’ve known Leo Marston for thirty years.”

  “How did you meet?”

  Portman purses his lips like he’s thinking back. “Leo was the district attorney in Natchez in 1968. I was serving here as an FBI field agent at that time, investigating the death of Delano Payton. Mr. Marston gave the Bureau valuable assistance during that investigation.”

  My heart lurches.

  “Why do you think he did that?” Livy asks.

  Portman opens his hands, palms upward, as though the answer were obvious. “Leo Marston believed in the necessity of civil rights legislation. At no small risk to himself, he worked to help us enforce that. The man was a hero.”

  Livy nods thoughtfully. “How did you first become aware of the charges made by Penn Cage against Leo Marston?”

  “Leo contacted me in Washington by telephone on the day the charges were printed in the local newspaper. We spoke at length at that time, and several times subsequent.”

  So much for the phone records. Livy’s strategy is all too clear. She plans to undercut what little documentary evidence I have before I can present it.

  “What was the substance of those conversations?” she asks.

  “Judge Marston expressed anxiety that this sensitive case was being dragged through the media, and that his reputation was being damaged.”

  “You called the Payton case a sensitive case. Why is that?”

  Portman adopts a pose of paternal concern. “I’m afraid I can only speak indirectly to this issue. As I’ve stated to the press, our file on Delano Payton is sealed on the grounds of national security interest. It has been for thirty years. Earlier this week the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to maintain the sanctity of that file.”

  “Please tell us anything you can about the case.”

  Portman nods agreeably. “The Payton case involved a veteran of the U.S. Army, a man who served in Vietnam. J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI director at that time, felt that the details involving this man, if released during the Vietnam conflict, might damage national morale, particularly the morale of line troops in Vietnam, where racial problems had become an issue.”

  He has to be talking about Ike Ransom.

  “But the Vietnam War has been over for more than twenty years,” Livy points out. “Why is the file still sealed?”

  “As I said, I can’t speak as fully to this issue as I would like. I’m sorry Mr. Cage has seen fit to exploit this case in his bid for publicity or revenge, or whatever it is.”

  Livy pretends to be intrigued by this aside. “Have you had experience with Mr. Cage in the past?”

  “I had some dealings with him when he was an assistant district attorney in Houston, Texas. I found him to be highly partisan, and indeed an unstable sort of man for that type of job. He actually killed the brother of a man he tried for murder, and the facts of that incident were never satisfactorily explained. I think the citizens of Texas were well served when he left that job to pursue a career in which a vivid imagination is an asset, not a liability.”

  I feel like throwing my pen at Portman, just to break up the rhythm. He and Livy are like tennis pros giving an exhibition match, sleek and practiced, the volleys perfectly timed, every shot a winner.

  “One final question,” she says. “As one of the agents who originally investigated the Payton murder, what do you think of the allegation that Leo Marston was somehow involved in that crime?”

  A superior smile touches Portman’s lips. God, he’s enjoying this. “I find the notion utterly preposterous. The fact that we are sitting here today discussing it is a travesty of justice.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Director. Your witness.”

  I would prefer to cross-examine Portman after I have presented my case, but I cannot let his slurs against me stand unchallenged. Nor can I be sure that Portman will even stick around Natchez after he leaves the stand. I rise but remain at my table.

  “Mr. Portman, you and I were involved in a jurisdictional dispute over the extradition of a murderer from Texas to Los Angeles, California, where you were a U.S. attorney. Is that correct?”

  “Broadly.”

  “Where was that murderer ultimately tried and convicted?”

  “Houston, Texas.”

  “Thank you. You also stated that I killed the brother of a man I tried for murder. That trial ended in a conviction, did it not?”

  “Yes.”

  “And wasn’t the man I convicted also the subject of our jurisdictional dispute?”

  “He was. But—”

  “Was I charged in the shooting of his brother?”

  “Not to my knowledge.”

  “Your Honor, I have further questions for this witness, but I would prefer to examine him during the presentation of my case.”

  Seeing Franklin gearing up to explain to me why the director of the FBI cannot be expected to sit around at my beck and call, I add, “I hope to recall Mr. Portman before the end of the day.”

  Judge Franklin turns to Portman with a solicitous smile. “Will that impose an undue hardship on you, Mr. Director?”

  “I can be available until the end of the day, barring an unforeseen emergency.”

  “Very well. You are temporarily excused.” Franklin turns to the defense table. “Mr. Sims, does the plaintiff intend to call further witnesses?”

  Blake Sims leans across Leo’s massive chest and holds a whispered conference with Livy. She listens, then shakes her head. They want this show to close as quickly as possible.

  “Your Honor,” says Sims. “Reserving the right to call rebuttal witnesses, the plaintiff rests.”

  Judge Franklin looks at her watch. “This phase of the trial has taken much less time than I anticipated. Let’s take a ten-minute break, and then Mr. Cage will present his defense.”

  As the jurors file out, I turn and look for Caitlin. She’s sitting with my parents. She slides along the bench, then comes up to the bar behind my table. I can tell by her face that she doesn’t have good news.

  “No word from Stone?”

  “Nothing. I’m sorry. You’d better drag out the testimony of every witness you have.”

  “I hate to do that. Juries always sense it.”

  “I don’t think you have a choice.”

  What a comfort. The ten-minute recess lasts about two minutes, and then I’m on my feet again, doing what I have done countless times in my life: presenting a murder case. I do not stall for time. I do not equivocate. I present it just as I’d planned.

  My witnesses come and go like commentators in a documentary. Frank Jones admits he lied about being alone in the Triton parking lot; his ex-wife describes finding the soiled stockings in their car; Betty Lou tearfully places Ray Presley at the crime scene (earning points with the jury for testifying against her own interest), then describes Presley’s subsequent threats and brutal harassment; Huey Moak’s expert testimony establishes that Payton’s car was destroyed by C-4, proving the evidence “discovered” by Presley was planted; and Lester Hinson testifies that he sold C-4 to Ray Presley in April 1968. All this testimony runs like a Swiss watch.

  And therein lies the problem.

&n
bsp; Neither Blake Sims nor Livy rise once to cross-examine my witnesses. They don’t even challenge Huey Moak’s credentials. Every time I tender a witness, Sims waves his hand from the table and says, “No questions, Your Honor.” Their strategy is simple. They’ll happily let me prove Ray Presley guilty of murder. And they will probably let me draw connections between Presley and Ike Ransom, if I can. As long as I can’t link Presley or Ransom to Leo Marston, I am fulfilling the scenario painted in Sims’s opening statement. The Payton murder was a race crime, committed by a racist. In his closing argument Sims will probably laud my efforts to find justice in this terrible tragedy. But to suggest any nefarious link between such men and Leo Marston must indicate some secret malice toward Marston on my part.

  My dilemma is simple. Either I begin the long, laborious task of building circumstantial links between Presley and Marston, which will last well into tomorrow and bore the jury to tears (not to mention sabotage my opportunity to cross-examine John Portman in this lifetime), or I can question Portman now, do what damage I can, and pray that Dwight Stone descends from the heavens like the deus ex machina of my dreams. Without Stone’s testimony as a fulcrum, I can’t force Portman to help my cause. But by forcing him to lie, I can set him up for a later fall on perjury charges. And for the director of the FBI, that could be a very long fall.

  “Call John Portman,” I say loudly.

  “Bailiff,” says Judge Franklin. “Call John Portman.”

  Portman returns to the courtroom wearing the same confidence with which he left it. He takes his seat in the witness box, shoots his cuffs, and gives me a serene smile.

  “Director Portman,” I begin, “in your earlier testimony you stated that Leo Marston rendered valuable assistance in the investigation of Del Payton’s death. What was the nature of that assistance?”

  He pretends to agonize over this question. “He provided certain information to us.”

  “In other words, he acted as a federal informant.”

  “Yes.”

  A couple of the white jury members frown.

  “I’m going to ask you a direct question. Please answer yes or no. Did the FBI solve the murder of Delano Payton in 1968?”

  Portman takes a deep breath but says nothing. We have come down to the nut-cutting, as we say in the South. If he lies now, he is laying himself open to perjury charges.

  “Director Portman, I asked whether the Bureau learned the identity of Del Payton’s murderer in 1968.”

  “Yes. We did.”

  A gasp goes up from the spectators.

  “Order,” snaps Judge Franklin.

  “Why didn’t the FBI arrest or charge anyone in connection with that murder?”

  “For reasons of national security.”

  “Let me be sure I understand this. The FBI preserved the national security by protecting the identity of a man who had murdered a veteran of the Korean War?”

  Portman shifts in his seat. “Director Hoover made that decision. Not me.”

  “Did you agree with his decision?”

  “It wasn’t my place to agree or disagree.”

  “You were just following orders.”

  “Yes.”

  “Like a good German,” I remark, recalling Stone’s phrase.

  “I strongly resent that.”

  “Mr. Cage,” Franklin warns. “Don’t push me.”

  “Withdrawn. Director Portman, did you—”

  The loud clearing of a throat behind me breaks my train of thought. I start to ignore it, but something tells me to turn.

  Caitlin Masters is crouched at the bar behind my table, urgently beckoning me with her hand.

  “Your Honor, I beg the court’s indulgence.”

  I walk back behind my table and kneel so that Caitlin can whisper to me. Her lips touch the shell of my ear. “I just talked to Stone’s daughter,” she says. “She and Stone were both at the newspaper. Two of my people are bringing them over now. They’ll be on the courthouse steps in two minutes.”

  Relief and elation flood through me.

  “Mr. Cage?” Judge Franklin presses. “We’re waiting.”

  I squeeze Caitlin’s arm, then rise and walk back toward the witness box with a briskness Portman cannot fail to notice. Caitlin’s news has galvanized me.

  “Director Portman, was there only one man responsible for Payton’s death? Or more than one?”

  “More than one.”

  A murmur from the spectators.

  “How many? Two? Three? Ten?”

  Portman folds his arms across his stomach. “I decline to answer on grounds that it might damage the national security.”

  “But you did say more than one. So, a minimum of two. Was one of those conspirators a Natchez police officer named Ray Presley?”

  He gives me the great stone face. “I decline to answer on grounds that it might damage the national security.”

  “Did you work the Payton case alone, Director?”

  “I was part of a team.”

  “Did that team include a veteran agent named Dwight Stone?”

  Portman’s eyes track me as I move, trying to read the source of my new-found confidence. “Yes.”

  “Was the Payton murder your first major case as a field agent?”

  “It was.”

  “Had Agent Stone wide experience in working civil rights cases for the Bureau?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you admire and respect Agent Stone?”

  Portman hesitates. “At the time, yes.”

  “Did you, earlier this week, order the assassination of Agent Dwight Stone, who is now retired?”

  “Objection!” shouts Blake Sims, with Livy close behind.

  Franklin bangs her gavel in a vain attempt to silence the gallery. “Mr. Cage, you’d better be prepared to substantiate that statement.”

  “I intend to do just that, Your Honor.” I turn back to Portman. “Did you also order the assassination of Sheriff’s Deputy Ike Ransom, the man murdered at the old pecan-shelling plant last night?”

  The spectators collectively suck in their breath as Portman turns to Judge Franklin for help.

  Franklin looks hard at me, then says, “The witness will answer the question.”

  “I did not,” Portman says in an indignant voice.

  “Did you last week order the assassination of former Natchez police officer Ray Presley?”

  “Mr. Cage,” Franklin interrupts, “I’m losing my patience.”

  “One final question, Your Honor. Director Portman, if Special Agent Dwight Stone walks through that door back there and takes the stand, will you remain in Natchez to be recalled as a witness by me?”

  He looks right through me. “I will.”

  “No more questions, Judge.”

  “Director Portman, you are excused,” says Franklin.

  Portman glances up at the TV cameras, then stands, shoots his cuffs again, and leaves the witness box. As he passes me on the way to the aisle, I say: “Call retired Special Agent Dwight Stone.”

  The hitch in Portman’s walk is momentary, but for me it occurs in slow motion. His eyes flit instinctively to the main door, searching for his old enemy. Then they return to me, the fear in them tamped down, varnished over with the go-to-hell defiance of a man who has survived every threat to his monumental egotism.

  “Call Dwight Stone,” Judge Franklin orders.

  The bailiff opens the back door. A tall, wiry man wearing a Denver Broncos windbreaker and leaning on the shoulder of a much younger woman limps through it with a cane in his left hand. Even from my table I can see the steely resolve in Stone’s eyes. But he is not looking at me. As his daughter squeezes in beside Caitlin, he limps up the aisle using the cane, his eyes never leaving the face of John Portman, the man who threatened his daughter’s life, and who tried to kill us two nights ago. I have a feeling that a lot of dead Koreans and Chinese saw the look that is on Stone’s face right now. I would not want to be John Portman at this moment. But when I
turn back to Portman, what I see unsettles me.

  He looks surprised but unafraid.

  CHAPTER 40

  When Stone finishes his slow journey to the witness box, he pauses for a few deep breaths, then turns to Judge Franklin. “May I stand during my testimony, Your Honor?”

  “Do you have a physical malady that prevents you from sitting?”

  “I was shot two nights ago. In the left buttock.”

  Predictably, some spectators snicker in spite of Stone’s obvious pain.

  “You may stand,” says Franklin, glaring at the crowd.

  I move slowly toward the podium, running through memories of everything Stone told me two nights ago in Colorado. He lied to me then—by omission—leaving Ike Ransom completely out of his story. I need the truth today, the whole truth. Stone must be made aware that Ike the Spike no longer needs his protection. Instead of stopping at the podium, I adopt Livy’s tactic and continue right up to the witness box. In a voice barely above a whisper, I say:

  “Ike Ransom was shot to death last night.”

  As Judge Franklin orders me to speak at an audible level, Stone winks, and my heartbeat rushes ahead.

  “Mr. Stone, were you ever an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation?”

  “I was a field agent for sixteen years.”

  “Did your duties ever bring you to Natchez, Mississippi?”

  “Yes.”

  “In what capacity?”

  “In May of 1968, I was assigned to investigate the death of Delano Payton. I arrived here the day after he was murdered.”

  “Who gave you that assignment?”

  “J. Edgar Hoover.”

  “Personally?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you succeed in that assignment? Did you solve the murder?”

  “I did.”

  Even though Portman said the same thing during his testimony, the crowd buzzes in expectation. It’s plain that Dwight Stone does not intend to hold anything back.