Chapter 54

In court this morning we start off differently. Until now I’ve stayed with Hugo in the spectator pews in the times we’ve been in court, but today Irving tells me to sit at counsel’s table with him. I’m pleasantly surprised, Irving doesn’t often have associates as co-counsel.

Things move quickly. The purpose of pre-trial is simply to verify that there’s enough evidence for an indictment, and the defense doesn’t usually put up much of a fight; the idea is to save the big guns, assuming you have any, for the real trial when it matters.

First the medical examiner testifies to the cause of death. The first cop on the scene tells what he found. The cops who took McDonald’s first statement go over it. The detective who took the anonymous call goes into the past relationship between McDonald and the vic, and Truesdale’s mom comes on to confirm.

Irving keeps cross-examination to a minimum except for pushing the detective about the phone tip. The voice was male, he thinks. He’s also pretty sure it was intentionally disguised. Irving wants the tip word for word—it wasn’t taped, dammit—and gets as close as the detective can remember it. But nothing stands out, and Irving lets it go.

Finally we get all three wits, one after another. They’re none of them sure how the fight started, just as Irving had told me. He gets the first two to admit they originally said the vic picked the fight, but they’re stubborn about now being uncertain. The third guy’s still on the stand when the judge, who’s a stickler about time, calls the lunch break, an hour and a half.

The three of us quick-step back to Irving’s office, where he’s ordered take-out lunch. It’s sandwiches, of course, which I know doesn’t make Hugo happy; he isn’t big on bread and hasn’t ever thought that anything between two slices of it is real food. But he goes along in his usual stoic way.

“OK, Hugo, you get anything?” Irving asks.

“I think is very much,” Hugo tells him. Hugo’s picking up the moves really quickly, and that gets Irving’s full-time attention. He sets down his sandwich.

“So?”

“All say true as they know it until the last,” Hugo says. “But the two before who see this fight, there is something behind. I think they are not sure who began the fight because they have been made to doubt what they saw. Perhaps someone has spoken with them, or something else has made them think a second time about this matter.”

“A little over-eager rehearsing of the witnesses,” Irving observes. “I’ve seen it before. But what about the last one, Watkins?”

“This man does not regard the truth. He has strong feelings for the client, and I think strong feelings for the one who is killed as well. He hates both of these men, and he tells what will do harm without caring what is true or is not true. And there is perhaps more still, it is as though he and not the client did the killing.”

Irving’s gaping at him. “Hugo, are you sure?” he asks. “He’s just saying the same thing as the other two, corroborating. How can they be telling the truth and he be lying?”

“I do not say he lies, only that he does not care what is true,” Hugo corrects him. “The hatred is very strong. And it is not new, not recent, it is from long ago.”

“He knew these two before?”

“He hates them very long, I am sure,” says Hugo. “Do you not see how stiffly he holds himself, how he moves his arms and clenches his fists sometimes, how he wrinkles his face? Do you not hear how tight is his voice when he speaks of these men?”