FiFty Fifty

Chapter Thirty - One

KATE

Eddie's opening speech had surprised Kate. She felt sure he was going to lay some bombshell in the middle of the court, and watch it blow her defense wide open.
He didn't.
He wasn't coming after Alexandra. It was a high-risk strategy, but smart. It relied on the jury taking their oath seriously, and deciding that if they couldn't choose between Alexandra and Sofia as to who was the real killer, then they had to acquit. Technically, the argument was sound.
Bloch whispered, 'He's good, but that's never going to work.'
'Why not?' said Kate.
'This jury saw that photograph of Frank. If they believe one of the sisters did
it, they're not leaving this courtroom unless someone is made to pay for it.'
Kate nodded, then saw Dreyer stand and call his first witness.
'Detective Brett Soames,' said Dreyer.
Kate flicked through her legal pad, looking for the notes she'd marked with
pink tabs. While she found the pages, she heard Soames come forward. She recognized him from the night of the murder, when she first met Alexandra in the cells. He had worn a truly awful yellow shirt. The shirt had been terrible enough to stick in mind. It was that bad.
Soames was tall, mid-fifties, with tight greying hair. The yellow shirt had been given the day off, but the replacement didn't look much better. He wore a navy suit and green shirt with a blue and white striped tie. It looked like an odd ensemble. Kate wondered if he was color-blind. As Soames held up the Bible, Kate noticed the notch on Soames' left ring finger. He had been used to wearing a wedding ring, until recently. Made sense – no spouse would let their man walk out of the house wearing a suit and tie combo like that.
Once Soames had been sworn in, Judge Stone told him to take a seat and then took a moment to make sure the detective had water and whatever else he needed to make himself comfortable in the witness stand.
To settle the witness, Dreyer asked some easy questions about the detective's length of service on the force, and his experience. He was a career cop. He'd been in homicide for the best part of fifteen years. This was not his first rodeo.
 
'Detective, how were the police first alerted to this crime?' asked Dreyer.
'The defendants both made 911 calls from their cell phones,' said Soames. As he spoke, he made a point of turning toward the jury and delivering his answer to them. He didn't smile, didn't even appear friendly to the jury. He struck Kate as an honorable cop who was simply here to do his job and tell it like it was. A prosecutor's dream witness.
'Your Honor, I think it would be prudent at this time to play the 911 calls for the jury.'
'I agree, that okay with you, detective?' asked the judge.
Kate had never seen a judge be so pro-police before. You can score all the high marks you want in the bar exam, you can know every piece of case law and precedent and ace your way through every mock trial that's thrown at you, but nothing prepares you for this. Even if you're completely factually and legally accurate in your argument – you can still lose in front of a biased judge. This was the real world now.
Dreyer signaled to one of his assistants, and Kate put down her pen and listened while the PA system kicked into life and the first tape was played.
It was Alexandra.
Bloch opened a file and read along with the transcript. Alexandra swallowed and closed her eyes as she heard her own voice, and the fear that was rifled through each word like a fat seam of gold running through bedrock.
The jury listened too, and Kate paid close attention. They were drinking it in.
The tape finished dramatically, with the dispatcher losing Alexandra on the line, not knowing her fate.
'And the second call, please,' said Dreyer.
This was Sofia's call, which had come into the 911 emergency response center almost a minute after Alexandra's. The tremors in Sofia's voice sounded real enough to Kate. If she had to make an assessment of both calls, she would say Sofia was the most scared on the phone.
Closing the file with the call transcript, Bloch folded her arms and leaned back. She must've made the same assessment.
Sofia sounded more real.
Kate had no doubt her client's fear had been very real at the time; this just meant that Sofia was better at faking it.
'Detective Soames, you were tasked to the scene by the NYPD response unit?'
'Yes,' said Soames. 'The response unit had secured the property, and the scene. Given that both occupants of the property had blood on them, and were both reporting that the other had carried out the murder, the response officers