"Isn't that a decision for Louis to make?" Dobbs asked. "After all, he's -"
"Cecil, shut up," Windsor snapped. "Just shut up and stop second-guessing everything this man does for Louis. He's right. We're not going through this again!"
Dobbs looked like he had been slapped by her. He seemed to shrink back from the huddle. I looked at Mary Windsor and saw a different face. It was the face of the woman who had started a business from scratch and had taken it to the top. I also looked at Dobbs differently, realizing that he had probably been whispering sweet negatives about me in her ear all along.
I let it go and focused on what was at hand.
"There's only one thing the DA's office hates worse than losing a verdict," I said. "That's getting embarrassed by a judge with a directed verdict, especially after a finding of prosecutorial misconduct. Minton went down to talk to his boss and he's a guy who is very political and always has his finger in the wind. We might know something in a few minutes."
Roulet was directly in front of me. I looked over his shoulder to see that Sobel was still standing in the hallway. She was talking on a cell phone.
"Listen," I said. "All of you just sit tight. If I don't hear from the DA, then we go back into court in twenty minutes to see what the judge wants to do. So stay close. If you will excuse me, I'm going to go to the restroom."
I stepped away from them and walked down the hallway toward Sobel. But Roulet broke away from his mother and her lawyer and caught up to me. He grabbed me by the arm to stop me.
"I still want to know how Corliss got that shit he was saying," he demanded.
"What does it matter? It's working for us. That's what matters."
Roulet brought his face in close to mine.
"The guy calls me a murderer on the stand. How is that working for us?"
"Because no one believed him. And that's why the judge is so pissed, because they used a professional liar to get up there on the stand and say the worst things about you. To put that in front of the jury and then have the guy revealed as a liar, that's the misconduct. Don't you see? I had to heighten the stakes. It was the only way to push the judge into pushing the prosecution. I am doing exactly what you wanted me to do, Louis. I'm getting you off."
I studied him as he computed this.
"So let it go," I said. "Go back to your mother and Dobbs and let me go take a piss."
He shook his head.
"No, I'm not going to let it go, Mick."
He poked a finger into my chest.
"Something else is going on here, Mick, and I don't like it. You have to remember something. I have your gun. And you have a daughter. You have to -"
I closed my hand over his hand and finger and pushed it away from my chest.
"Don't you ever threaten my family," I said with a controlled but angry voice. "You want to come at me, fine, then come at me and let's do it. But if youever threaten my daughter again, I will bury you so deep you will never be found. You understand me, Louis?"
He slowly nodded and a smile creased his face.
"Sure, Mick. Just so we understand each other."
I released his hand and left him there. I started walking toward the end of the hallway where the restrooms were and where Sobel seemed to be waiting while talking on a cell. I was walking blind, my thoughts of the threat to my daughter crowding my vision. But as I got close to Sobel I shook it off. She ended her call when I got there.
"Detective Sobel," I said.
"Mr. Haller," she said.
"Can I ask why you are here? Are you going to arrest me?"
"I'm here because you invited me, remember?"
"Uh, no, I don't."
She narrowed her eyes.
"You told me I ought to check out your trial."
I suddenly realized she was referring to the awkward conversation in my home office during the search of my house on Monday night.
"Oh, right, I forgot about that. Well, I'm glad you took me up on it. I saw your partner earlier. What happened to him?"
"Oh, he's around."
I tried to read something in that. She had not answered the question about whether she was going to arrest me. I gestured back up the hallway toward the courtroom.
"So what did you think?"
"Interesting. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall in the judge's chambers."
"Well, stick around. It ain't over yet."
"Maybe I will."
My cell phone started to vibrate. I reached under my jacket and pulled it off my hip. The caller ID readout said the call was coming from the district attorney's office.
"I have to take this," I said.
"By all means," Sobel said.
I opened the phone and started walking back up the hallway toward where Roulet was pacing.
"Hello?"
"Mickey Haller, this is Jack Smithson in the DA's office. How's your day going?"
"I've had better."
"Not after you hear what I'm offering to do for you."
"I'm listening."
FORTY-THREE
The judge did not come out of chambers for fifteen minutes on top of the thirty she had promised. We were all waiting, Roulet and I at the defense table, his mother and Dobbs behind us in the first row. At the prosecution table Minton was no longer flying solo. Next to him sat Jack Smithson. I was thinking that it was probably the first time he had actually been inside a courtroom in a year.
Minton looked downcast and defeated. Sitting next to Smithson, he could have been taken as a defendant with his attorney. He looked guilty as charged.
Detective Booker was not in the courtroom and I wondered if he was working on something or simply if no one had bothered to call him with the bad news.
I turned to check the big clock on the back wall and to scan the gallery. The screen for Minton's PowerPoint presentation was gone now, a hint of what was to come. I saw Sobel sitting in the back row, but her partner and Kurlen were still nowhere to be seen. There was nobody else but Dobbs and Windsor, and they didn't count. The row reserved for the media was empty. The media had not been alerted. I was keeping my side of the deal with Smithson.
Deputy Meehan called the courtroom to order and Judge Fullbright took the bench with a flourish, the scent of lilac wafting toward the tables. I guessed that she'd had a cigarette or two back there in chambers and had gone heavy with the perfume as cover.
"In the matter of the state versus Louis Ross Roulet, I understand from my clerk that we have a motion."
Minton stood.
"Yes, Your Honor."
He said nothing further, as if he could not bring himself to speak.
"Well, Mr. Minton, are you sending it to me telepathically?"
"No, Your Honor."
Minton looked down at Smithson and got the go-ahead nod.
"The state moves to dismiss all charges against Louis Ross Roulet."
The judge nodded as though she had expected the move. I heard a sharp intake of breath behind me and knew it was from Mary Windsor. She knew what was going to happen but had held her emotions in check until she had actually heard it in the courtroom.
"Is that with or without prejudice?" the judge asked.
"Dismiss with prejudice."
"Are you sure about that, Mr. Minton? That means no comebacks from the state."
"Yes, Your Honor, I know," Minton said with a note of annoyance at the judge's need to explain the law to him.
The judge wrote something down and then looked back at Minton.
"I believe for the record the state needs to offer some sort of explanation for this motion. We have chosen a jury and heard more than two days of testimony. Why is the state doing this at this stage, Mr. Minton?"
Smithson stood. He was a tall and thin man with a pale complexion. He was a prosecutorial specimen. Nobody wanted a fat man as district attorney and that was exactly what he hoped one day to be. He wore a charcoal gray suit with what had become his trademark: a maroon bow tie with matching han
dkerchief peeking from the suit's breast pocket. The word among the defense pros was that a political advisor had told him to start building a recognizable media image so that when the time came to run, the voters would think they already knew him. This was one situation where he didn't want the media carrying his image to the voters.
"If I may, Your Honor," he said.
"The record will note the appearance of Assistant District Attorney John Smithson, head of the Van Nuys Division. Welcome, Jack. Go right ahead, please."
"Judge Fullbright, it has come to my attention that in the interest of justice, the charges against Mr. Roulet should be dropped."
He pronounced Roulet's name wrong.
"Is that all the explanation you can offer, Jack?" the judge asked.
Smithson deliberated before answering. While there were no reporters present, the record of the hearing would be public and his words viewable later.
"Judge, it has come to my attention that there were some irregularities in the investigation and subsequent prosecution. This office is founded upon the belief in the sanctity of our justice system. I personally safeguard that in the Van Nuys Division and take it very, very seriously. And so it is better for us to dismiss a case than to see justice possibly compromised in any way."
"Thank you, Mr. Smithson. That is refreshing to hear."
The judge wrote another note and then looked back down at us.
"The state's motion is granted," she said. "All charges against Louis Roulet are dismissed with prejudice. Mr. Roulet, you are discharged and free to go."
"Thank you, Your Honor," I said.
"We still have a jury returning at one o'clock," Fullbright said. "I will gather them and explain that the case has been resolved. If any of you attorneys wish to come back then, I am sure they will have questions for you. However, it is not required that you be back."
I nodded but didn't say I would be back. I wouldn't be. The twelve people who had been so important to me for the last week had just dropped off the radar. They were now as meaningless to me as the drivers going the other way on the freeway. They had gone by and I was finished with them.
The judge left the bench and Smithson was the first one out of the courtroom. He had nothing to say to Minton or me. His first priority was to distance himself from this prosecutorial catastrophe. I looked over and saw Minton's face had lost all color. I assumed that I would soon see his name in the yellow pages. He would not be retained by the DA and he would join the ranks of the defense pros, his first felony lesson a costly one.
Roulet was at the rail, leaning over to hug his mother. Dobbs had a hand on his shoulder in a congratulatory gesture, but the family lawyer had not recovered from Windsor's harsh rebuke in the hallway.
When the hugs were over, Roulet turned to me and with hesitation shook my hand.
"I wasn't wrong about you," he said. "I knew you were the one."
"I want the gun," I said, deadpan, my face showing no joy in the victory just achieved.
"Of course you do."
He turned back to his mother. I hesitated a moment and then turned back to the defense table. I opened my briefcase to return all the files to it.
"Michael?"
I turned and it was Dobbs reaching a hand across the railing. I shook it and nodded.
"You did good," Dobbs said, as if I needed to hear it from him. "We all appreciate it greatly."
"Thanks for the shot. I know you were shaky about me at the start."
I was courteous enough not to mention Windsor's outburst in the hallway and what she had said about him backstabbing me.
"Only because I didn't know you," Dobbs said. "Now I do. Now I know who to recommend to my clients."
"Thank you. But I hope your kind of clients never need me."
He laughed.
"Me, too!"
Then it was Mary Windsor's turn. She extended her hand across the bar.
"Mr. Haller, thank you for my son."
"You're welcome," I said flatly. "Take care of him."
"I always do."
I nodded.
"Why don't you all go out to the hallway and I'll be out in a minute. I have to finish up some things here with the clerk and Mr. Minton."
I turned back to the table. I then went around it and approached the clerk.
"How long before I can get a signed copy of the judge's order?"
"We'll enter it this afternoon. We can send you a copy if you don't want to come back."
"That would be great. Could you also fax one?"
She said she would and I gave her the number to the fax in Lorna Taylor's condominium. I wasn't sure yet how it could be used but I had to believe that an order to dismiss could somehow help me get a client or two.
When I turned back to get my briefcase and leave I noticed that Detective Sobel had left the courtroom. Only Minton remained. He was standing and gathering his things.
"Sorry I never got the chance to see your PowerPoint thing," I said.
He nodded.
"Yeah, it was pretty good. I think it would have won them over."
I nodded.
"What are you going to do now?"
"I don't know. See if I can ride this out and somehow hold on to my job."
He put his files under his arm. He had no briefcase. He only had to go down to the second floor. He turned and gave me a hard stare.
"The only thing I know is that I don't want to cross the aisle. I don't want to become like you, Haller. I think I like sleeping at night too much for that."
With that he headed through the gate and strode out of the courtroom. I glanced over at the clerk to see if she had heard what he had said. She acted like she hadn't.
I took my time following Minton out. I picked up my briefcase and turned backwards as I pushed through the gate. I looked at the judge's empty bench and the state seal on the front panel. I nodded at nothing in particular and then walked out.
FORTY-FOUR
Roulet and his entourage were waiting for me in the hallway. I looked both ways and saw Sobel down by the elevators. She was on her cell phone and it seemed as though she was waiting for an elevator but it didn't look like the down button was lit.
"Michael, can you join us for lunch?" Dobbs said upon seeing me. "We are going to celebrate!"
I noticed that he was now calling me by my given name. Victory made everybody friendly.
"Uh . . . ," I said, still looking down at Sobel. "I don't think I can make it."
"Why not? You obviously don't have court in the afternoon."
I finally looked at Dobbs. I felt like saying that I couldn't have lunch because I never wanted to see him or Mary Windsor or Louis Roulet again.
"I think I'm going to stick around and talk to the jurors when they come back at one."
"Why?" Roulet asked.
"Because it will help me to know what they were thinking and where we stood."
Dobbs gave me a clap on the upper arm.
"Always learning, always getting better for the next one. I don't blame you."
He looked delighted that I would not be joining them. And for good reason. He probably wanted me out of the way now so he could work on repairing his relationship with Mary Windsor. He wanted that franchise account just to himself again.
I heard the muted bong of the elevator and looked back down the hall. Sobel was standing in front of the opening elevator. She was leaving.
But then Lankford, Kurlen and Booker stepped out of the elevator and joined Sobel. They turned and started walking toward us.
"Then we'll leave you to it," Dobbs said, his back to the approaching detectives. "We have a reservation at Orso and I'm afraid we're already going to be late getting back over the hill."
"Okay," I said, still looking down the hall.
Dobbs, Windsor and Roulet turned to walk away just as the four detectives got to us.
"Louis Roulet," Kurlen announced. "You are under arrest. Turn around, please, and place your hands behind your ba
ck."