The Brass Verdict

defense to float an alternate theory. We give the jury a plausible explanation for why these two people were killed. We throw suspicion away from you and at somebody else.”
    “Like the one-armed man in
The Fugitive
?”
    I shook my head.
    “Not exactly.”
    I remembered the movie and the television show before it. In both cases, there actually was a one-armed man. I was talking about a smoke screen, an alternate theory concocted by the defense because I wasn’t buying into Elliot’s “I-am-innocent rap” – at least not yet.
    There was a buzzing sound and Elliot took a phone out of his pocket and looked at the screen.
    “Walter, we have work here,” I said.
    He didn’t take the call and reluctantly put the phone away. I continued.
    “Okay, during the prosecution phase we are going to use cross-examination to make one thing crystal clear to the jury. That is, that once that GSR test came back positive on you, then-”
    “False positive!”
    “Whatever. The point is, once they had what they believed was a positive indication that you had very recently fired a weapon, all bets were off. A wide-open investigation became very tightly focused on one thing. You. It went from what they call a full-field investigation to a full investigation of you. So, what happened is that they left a lot of stones unturned. For example, Rilz had only been in this country four years. Not a single investigator went to Germany to check on his background and whether he had any enemies back there who wanted him dead. That’s just one thing. They didn’t thoroughly background the guy in L.A. either. This was a man who was allowed entry into the homes and lives of some of the wealthiest women in this city. Excuse my bluntness, but was he banging other married clients, or just your wife? Were there other important and powerful men he could have angered, or just you?”
    Elliot didn’t respond to the crude questions. I had asked them that way on purpose, to see if it got a rise out of him or any reaction that contradicted his statements of loving his wife. But he showed no reaction either way.
    “You see what I’m getting at, Walter? The focus, from almost the very start, was on you. When it’s the defense’s turn, we’re going to put it on Rilz. And from that we’ll grow doubts like stalks in a cornfield.”
    Elliot nodded thoughtfully as he looked down at his reflection in the polished tabletop.
    “But this can’t be the magic bullet Jerry told you about,” I said. “And there are risks in going after Rilz.”
    Elliot raised his eyes to mine.
    “Because the prosecutor knows this was a deficiency when the investigators brought in the case. He’s had five months to anticipate that we might go this way, and if he is good, as I am sure he is, then he’s been quietly getting ready for us to go in this direction.”
    “Wouldn’t that come out in the discovery material?”
    “Not always. There is an art to discovery. Most of the time it’s what is not in the discovery file that is important and that you have to watch out for. Jeffrey Golantz is a seasoned pro. He knows just what he has to put in and what he can keep for himself.”
    “You know Golantz? You’ve gone to trial against him before?”
    “I don’t know him and have never gone up against him. It’s his reputation I know. He’s never lost at trial. He’s something like twenty-seven and oh.”
    I checked my watch. The time had passed quickly and I needed to keep things moving if I was going to pick my daughter up on time.
    “Okay,” I said. “There are a couple other things we need to cover. Let’s talk about whether you testify.”
    “That’s not a question. That’s a given. I want to clear my name. The jury will want me to say I did not do this.”
    “I knew you were going to say that and I appreciate the fervor I see in your denials. But your testimony has to be more than that. It has to offer an explanation and that’s where we can get into trouble.”
    “I don’t care.”
    “Did you kill your wife and her lover?”
    “No!”
    “Then why did you go out there to the house?”
    “I was suspicious. If she was there with somebody, I was going to confront her and throw him out on his ass.”
    “You expect this jury to believe that a man who runs abillion-dollar movie studio took the afternoon off to drive out to Malibu to spy on his wife?”
    “No, I’m no spy. I had suspicions and went out there to see for myself.”
    “And to confront