12th of Never
as he continued with his battery of questions.
“Isn’t it possible, sir, that you saw a car like Mr. Herman’s car parked in front of Mr. Herman’s house, and from that you drew an understandable conclusion that the man was Mr. Herman? Isn’t it possible that you actually saw the
kidnapper
taking the child, not Mr. Herman?”
“Your Honor, I object to Mr. Kinsela bombarding the witness with questions. Again, if there is a real question in there, what is it?”
“Sustained. Please phrase
one
question, Mr. Kinsela. That’s a warning. Don’t do this again, or you will be fined.”
“Sorry, Judge. I got carried away. Mr. Durden, given the distance, the visual obstacles, and that there are over sixty thousand dark Lexus sedans in San Francisco, could you have been mistaken when you stated that Keith Herman brought his daughter out to the car parked across the street from your house?”
“I saw Keith Herman,” Durden said doggedly. “I saw him. I saw him one hundred percent.”
“I have no further questions for this witness,” Kinsela said, turning his back on Graham Durden.
Judge Nussbaum said, “Ms. Castellano?”
Yuki stood.
“Mr. Herman, you’re wearing glasses. Were you wearing them on the morning of March first?”
“Yes, I was.”
“And what is your vision when you’re wearing your glasses?”
“Twenty-twenty.”
“Have you ever been diagnosed with a mental disorder?”
“No. Never.”
“Thank you. That’s all I have, Your Honor.”
“The witness may step down,” said the judge.
Chapter 15
YUKI ELBOWED HER way out of the courtroom, smiled at the members of the press who were jamming the hallway, and said, “Hi, Georgia. Yeah, thanks. All’s well, Lou,” then, as John Kinsela and his client stood in the hall for an impromptu interview, Yuki headed for the fire stairs with Cindy Thomas on her heels.
“Aren’t
you
popular?” Cindy said, going through the door behind Yuki.
“Sooo popular,” Yuki said, her voice ringing in the cement-lined stairwell. “By the way, Cindy, you’d better behave yourself. Every word I say to you is off the record.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“Yeah,” Yuki said. “You’ve been known to forget. So I’m saying it loud and clear. Don’t mess with me.”
“When did I ever mess with you? When?”
The door on the ground floor, behind the back wall of the grand lobby, swung out into the daylight under the flat of Yuki’s palm and she and her blond-haired, determined friend filed out onto Harriet Street.
“Where to?” Cindy asked, catching up with Yuki.
Fringale was a cute, cozy bistro just a few blocks from the Hall of Justice, a little slice of France on the corner of 4th and Freelon Streets.
When Yuki walked through the door into the little place with its eggshell-colored walls, the aroma of rosemary and thyme filling the air, she felt the stress of the trial fade—all but the hard stone of worry in the part of her skull right between her eyes.
Could she really convict Keith Herman?
Had she forgotten what kind of lawyer John Kinsela was? Kinsela had
eviscerated
Red Dog Parisi.
The two women ordered salads as entrées, and when the waiter left the table, Yuki asked, “How bad did he hurt us?”
“You talking about how Kinsela gored your witness?”
“‘Gored’ him? It was that bad, huh?”
“Actually, Yuki, I think it made Kinsela look like a bully and a dirtbag. But did it discredit Durden? Yeah, I think so. Depends on what else you have. I take it Lynnette Lagrande is going to put you over the top.”
The waiter placed a salad in front of each of them: a beautiful dish of frisée with bacon dressing, pine nuts, and a poached egg. Yuki broke the yolk with her fork, speared a leaf of lettuce, chewed it, and sipped her water.
“I feel good about my case. It’s solid. But let’s face it, John Kinsela has about twenty years of criminal law to my three.”
“Lay out your case for me,” Cindy said.
Yuki told Cindy the details of her case in the rapid, machine-gun style she was known for. She talked about the bruises on the child, and the fact that Jennifer Herman had confided in a friend, saying that her husband might harm her. She cited Keith Herman’s paramour, Lynnette Lagrande, who not only refuted Herman’s alibi for the time of Jennifer Herman’s murder but would also testify to and document the fact that Keith Herman wanted out of his marriage.
“It’s a good case,” Cindy said.
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