Mickey Haller 4 - The Fifth Witness

science-based case on the eve of trial. I don’t only need time to do DNA testing. After two months, I now need to rethink the entire case. This is devastating, Your Honor, and it should not be allowed under the basic idea of fair play.”
    Freeman wanted a comeback but the judge didn’t allow it. I took that as a good sign until I saw him looking at the calendar hanging on the wall behind the clerk’s corral. That told me he was only willing to ameliorate the situation with time. He was going to allow the DNA into evidence and would just give me extra time to prepare for it.
    I sat back down in defeat. Lisa Trammel leaned toward me and desperately whispered, “Mickey, this can’t be. It’s a setup. There’s no way his blood could be on those shoes. You have to believe me.”
    I put my hand up to cut her off. I didn’t have to believe a word out of her mouth and that was all beside the point. The reality was that the case was shifting. No wonder Freeman had all her confidence back.
    Suddenly I realized something. I quickly stood back up. Too quickly. Pain shot down my torso into my groin and I bent over the defense table.
    “Your… Honor?”
    “Are you all right, Mr. Haller?”
    I slowly straightened up.
    “Yes, Your Honor, but I need to add something to the record, if I may.”
    “Go ahead.”
    “Your Honor, the defense questions the veracity of the prosecution’s claim of learning about this DNA result only this morning. Three weeks ago Ms. Freeman offered my client a very attractive disposition, giving Ms. Trammel twenty-four hours to think it over. Then—”
    “Your Honor?” Freeman said.
    “Don’t interrupt,” the judge commanded. “Continue, Mr. Haller.”
    I had no qualms about breaking my agreement with Freeman not to reveal the disposition negotiations. The gloves were off at this point.
    “Thank you, Your Honor. So we get the offer on a Thursday night and then on Friday morning Ms. Freeman mysteriously yanks it right back off the table without explanation. Well, I think we now have that explanation, Judge. She knew back then—three weeks ago—about this supposed DNA evidence but decided to sit on it in order to surprise the defense with it on the eve of trial. And I—”
    “Thank you, Mr. Haller. What about that, Ms. Freeman?”
    I could see the skin around the judge’s eyes had drawn tight. He was upset. What I had just revealed had the ring of truth to it.
    “Your Honor,” Freeman said indignantly. “Nothing could be further from the truth. I have with me in the gallery here Detective Kurlen who will be happy to testify under oath that the DNA report was delivered over the weekend to his office and opened by him shortly after his arrival at seven thirty this morning. He then called me and I brought it to court. The district attorney’s office has not sat on anything and I resent the aspersion directed at me personally by counsel.”
    The judge glanced out to the rows of seats and spotted Kurlen, then looked back at Freeman.
    “Why did you withdraw the offer a day after making it?” he asked.
    The million-dollar question. Freeman seemed unsettled that the judge would carry the inquiry any further.
    “Judge, that decision involved internal issues perhaps better not aired in court.”
    “I want to understand this, Counsel. If you want this evidence then you better allay my concerns, internal issues or not.”
    Freeman nodded.
    “Yes, Your Honor. As you know, there is an interim district attorney since Mr. Williams joined the U.S. Attorney General’s Office in Washington. This has resulted in a situation where we don’t always have clear lines of communication and direction. Suffice it to say that on that Thursday I had a supervisor’s approval for the offer I made to Mr. Haller. But on Friday morning I learned from a higher authority in the office that the offer was not approved internally and so I withdrew it.”
    It was a load of crap but she had delivered it well and I had nothing that contradicted it. But when she told me the offer was gone that Friday I knew by the tone of her voice that she had something new, something else, and her decision had nothing to do with internal communication and direction.
    The judge made his ruling.
    “I am going to put back jury selection ten court days. This should give the defense time to have DNA testing of the evidence completed if it chooses to do so. It also allows ample time to consider what strategic change will come with