Mickey Haller 4 - The Fifth Witness

made Opparizio read it to the jury and for the next half hour I asked increasingly specific and uncomfortable questions about its allegations. I then moved on to the federal target letter and made the witness read that as well. But again Opparizio was unflappable, dismissing the federal letter as a shot in the dark.
    “I welcomed them with open arms,” he said. “But you know what? Nobody’s come in. All this time later and not a word from Mr. Lattimore or Agent Vasquez or any other federal agent. Because their letter didn’t pay off. I didn’t run, I didn’t sweat, I didn’t cry foul or hide behind a lawyer. I said I know you’ve got a job to do, come on in and check us out. Our doors are open and we’ve got absolutely nothing to hide.”
    It was a good and well-rehearsed answer and Opparizio was clearly winning the early rounds. But that was okay because I was saving my best punches. I wanted him to feel confident and in control. Through Herb Dahl he had been fed a steady diet of no worries. He had been led to believe I had nothing but a few desperate hints of conspiracy that he could easily swat away as he was doing right now. His confidence was growing. But when he got too confident and complacent, I was going to move in and go for the knockout. This fight wouldn’t go fifteen rounds. It couldn’t.
    “Now at the time these letters were coming in you were engaged in a secret negotiation, were you not?”
    Opparizio paused for the first time since I had begun asking him questions.
    “I was engaged at the time in private business discussions, as I am at almost all times. I would not use the word ‘secret’ because of the connotation. Secrecy being wrong when in fact keeping one’s business private is a matter of course.”
    “Okay, then this private discussion was actually a negotiation to sell your company ALOFT to a publicly traded company, correct?”
    “Yes, that is so.”
    “A company called LeMure?”
    “Yes, correct.”
    “This deal would be worth a lot of money to you, would it not?”
    Freeman stood and asked for a sidebar. We approached and she stated her objection in a forceful whisper.
    “How is this relevant? Where are we going with this? He now has us on Wall Street and that has nothing to do with Lisa Trammel and the evidence against her.”
    “Your Honor,” I said quickly, before he could cut me off. “The relevance will become apparent soon. Ms. Freeman knows exactly where this is headed and she just doesn’t want to go there. But the court has given me the latitude to put forth a defense involving third-party guilt. Well, this is it, Judge. This is where it comes together and so I ask for the court’s continued indulgence.”
    Perry didn’t have to think too long before answering.
    “Mr. Haller, you may proceed but I want you to land this plane soon.”
    “Thank you, Judge.”
    We returned to our positions and I decided to move things along at a quicker pace.
    “Mr. Opparizio, back in January, when you were in the midst of these negotiations with LeMure, you knew you stood to make a great deal of money if this deal went through, did you not?”
    “I would be generously compensated for the years I spent growing the company.”
    “But if you lost one of your biggest clients—to the tune of forty million in annual revenues—that deal would have been in peril, correct?”
    “There was no threat from any client to leave.”
    “I draw your attention back to the letter Mr. Bondurant sent you, sir. Wouldn’t you say that there is a clear threat from Mr. Bondurant to take WestLand’s business away from you? I believe you still have a copy of the letter there in front of you, if you want to refer to it.”
    “I don’t need to look at the letter. There was no threat to me whatsoever. Mitch sent me the letter and I took care of the problem.”
    “Like the way you took care of Donald Driscoll?”
    “Objection,” Freeman said. “Argumentative.”
    “I’ll withdraw it. Mr. Opparizio, you received this letter smack-dab in the middle of your deal making with LeMure, correct?”
    “It was during negotiations, yes.”
    “And at the time you received this letter from Mr. Bondurant, you knew he was in financial straits himself, correct?”
    “I knew nothing about Mr. Bondurant’s personal financial situation.”
    “Did you not have an employee of your company do financial background searches on Mr. Bondurant and other bankers you dealt with?”
    “No, that’s