Part 13 (1/2)

”Sometimes terrible circ.u.mstances come together, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, people making it look as though you did something you didn't. It looks like you've done something awful, but you haven't. All the stars and circ.u.mstances and bad luck conspire against you, and you're blamed for something you didn't do.”

She looked at each of them intently, from one face to another. ”Luke Quentin did not not commit those murders. He did commit those murders. He did not not rape or kill those women. And we will prove that to you, beyond a reasonable doubt. If you believe us, or have any doubt whatsoever that Luke Quentin committed these crimes, then we are asking for an acquittal. Don't punish an rape or kill those women. And we will prove that to you, beyond a reasonable doubt. If you believe us, or have any doubt whatsoever that Luke Quentin committed these crimes, then we are asking for an acquittal. Don't punish an innocent innocent man, no matter how terrible these crimes.” And with that, she went back to her seat. The judge called a twenty-minute recess immediately after. man, no matter how terrible these crimes.” And with that, she went back to her seat. The judge called a twenty-minute recess immediately after.

Both Jack and Sam congratulated Alexa on her opening statement and its impact on the jury.

”Judy's wasn't bad either,” she said fairly. She didn't have much to work with, and would have even less as the days wore on, but at least she had raised a question in their minds. Alexa knew it was the best she could do.

They went to get coffee out of the machine, drank it quickly, and were back at the prosecution table when Judge Lieberman rapped his gavel and brought the court to order again. He told Alexa to call her first witness.

She called Jason Yu from the forensics lab because he was personable and would make the DNA tests easier for the jury to understand. Afterward she would call experts, whose information would be harder to digest. With Alexa questioning him, he explained the DNA tests that had first linked Quentin to the bodies in New York. She had him on the stand for close to an hour, and then the judge called a recess for lunch. Jason Yu had done well, and she thanked him. Judy was going to cross-examine him after lunch.

Sam, Jack, and Alexa went out to lunch, but Alexa was too nervous to eat. She was running on adrenaline and spent most of the lunch hour making notes and jotting down additional questions. The two men chatted about sports while she worked, and then they went back to the courtroom.

The public defender's cross-examination of Jason Yu was weak. She tried to confuse him, unsuccessfully, and make his information and tests sound unreliable and inconclusive, but each time he explained his material more precisely and more clearly. She was starting to look foolish and dismissed him, and said she had no further questions. Neither did Alexa.

Alexa called one of her expert witnesses after that, and his testimony was long, drawn out, and potentially confusing. But there was nothing she could do. The evidence he presented was important to their case. She knew there would be many witnesses like that from several states. And she was afraid it would bore the jury, but they each had something important to contribute.

On the whole, the first day went well, and so did the first week. Despite the heinousness of the crimes, there was little emotional testimony in the case. It was all very technical. There were no eyewitnesses, the parents had no testimony to give.

The most emotional factor in the courtroom was the enormous section of seats cordoned off for the relatives of the victims. There were a hundred and nine people in those seats, watching the proceedings intently and many of them crying. Instinctively, the jury knew who they were and looked at them often. Alexa had referred to them once, so they'd know, and Judy had objected. But by then the jury knew, and it was too late. Charlie sat among them with his family, who had come to see justice done.

Mostly the case involved the presentation of technical forensic data that systematically linked Luke Quentin to each victim and her death. Cross-examination involved refuting that evidence, and the public defender didn't have the skills or evidence to do it. It was a hard case to beat. Alexa and Sam met with Judy on Friday afternoon after court was recessed for the weekend.

”I just wanted to suggest to you again,” Alexa said calmly, ”that you get your client to plead. We're all wasting our time here.”

”I don't think we are,” Judy Dunning said stubbornly. ”People make mistakes in DNA tests. Sometimes all they do is exclude one group of people without accurately pinpointing others. I think the cops in every state pinned every unsolved murder they had on Luke. If there was one mistake made, just one, if one of those cases was wrong, or poorly handled, it will raise a reasonable doubt that could overturn all the others.” It was a long shot, but the only one she had. And investigation teams in nine states and the FBI had seen to it that there were no mistakes. Alexa thought she was being foolish and committing legal suicide for her client in open court. ”He has nothing to lose and he has a right to a trial,” Judy said darkly, as though she were watching an innocent man be crucified, instead of a merciless killer being brought to justice. She still believed in her client's innocence, that much was clear. She wasn't just doing a job, she was leading a crusade, for a lost cause. Judy seemed painfully naive to Alexa.

”He has a lot to lose,” Alexa pointed out to her. ”The judge is going to be much tougher on him if he wastes everyone's time. No one is going to be sympathetic to him, or give him a break. He'd be a lot better off if he strikes a deal now, before we go through weeks of trial. The judge is going to get p.i.s.sed,” Alexa warned her, and Jack agreed with her completely, and felt that a good attorney would have forced Luke to plead. Judy was too weak to do it, and too enthralled by Luke. ”If I were his attorney,” Alexa said quietly, ”I would make him plead.” The judge might give him concurrent sentences instead of consecutive, which could extend far beyond Luke's lifetime. Concurrent sentencing was the best he could hope for.

”Then he's lucky you aren't his attorney,” Judy said firmly and stood up, looking huffy. ”I'm his lawyer, counselor, and he's not pleading.” Alexa nodded, thanked her, and she and Jack left the room without comment.

”See you Monday,” she said as she left him in the hall.

Four policemen helped her down the courthouse steps into a waiting police car, and two stood outside her apartment all weekend. They were back in court on Monday.

The technical testimony went on for three weeks, and was impressively conclusive, beyond a reasonable doubt, Alexa thought. Again it was less emotional than she would have liked. And the photographs of the victims were absolutely awful, because most of them had been found later and the bodies had been badly decomposed. The jury had been warned that they would have to view them. They looked sick when they did, but the photographs were evidence in the trial, and part of the State's case.

After three weeks of testimony, the prosecution rested and turned the case over to the defense. Alexa had produced volumes of expert testimony and DNA testing that couldn't be refuted. All Judy could do was try to confuse it, which she attempted, without much success. And the most d.a.m.ning element in her case was that Luke wasn't going to take the stand in his own defense, because of his previous convictions and criminal record. He could have, but it would have been foolish in the extreme. Even Judy wouldn't risk it, so he said nothing in his own defense, which spoke volumes. Instead he sat in the courtroom for three weeks looking arrogant and without remorse, as the victims' families cried.

The case for the defense took less than a week, and then the public defender rested her case. Alexa called only two defense witnesses for reb.u.t.tal and made hash of them. They were incompetent, and it showed. And then Judy made an emotional closing statement, begging the jury not to convict an innocent man, and hoping that she had convinced them he was. The jury looked stone-faced as they watched her.

Alexa's closing argument summed up the evidence for them, reminded them of each case and instance when Luke Quentin had been linked conclusively to one of the women, as their murderer. She went down the list of proofs, both simple and complicated, that should convince them that the defendant was guilty of all of these crimes. She then made a brief emotional speech reminding them of their responsibility as jurors to bring criminals like Luke Quentin to justice and convict, not an innocent man, but a man who had been proven proven to have raped and killed eighteen women. She thanked them for their attention during the long trial. to have raped and killed eighteen women. She thanked them for their attention during the long trial.

The judge then instructed the jury for their deliberations. The foreman had already requested charts and evidence that had been presented during the trial. Throughout the trial the judge had warned the jury that they were not to read anything in the press about the proceedings, but he had not sequestered them.

They would be taken to a hotel that night, however, if they had not reached a verdict, and for as many nights as it took. The jury left the courtroom, and Alexa let out a long sigh. Her job was done. Sam and Jack looked at her with admiration.

”You did a h.e.l.l of a job,” Sam said, somewhat in awe of her strength and precision. Watching Alexa in court was like watching ballet. She had an amazing way of making complicated information sound simple and reasonable to the jury, as she questioned witnesses and asked them to explain in simple terms what they'd said before. It was a very clever way of not confusing a jury with overly technical details.

As she stood up, Luke Quentin was led away in handcuffs by the four deputies who had been with him throughout the trial. He looked at her in open hatred this time. He knew too that it hadn't gone well. He said nothing to Alexa and moved on, but if he could have murdered her with a look, she would have been dead on the spot. She was more than ever grateful that she had sent Savannah away. Until he was behind bars in a maximum security prison for life, she didn't feel safe.

Sam, Jack, and Alexa had to stay near the courtroom but not in it while they waited for the jury to deliberate. They were all available on their cell phones, and decided to go back to Alexa's office. It was hard to believe it was almost over. Alexa hoped they'd convict, and it was difficult to imagine they wouldn't. But juries were unpredictable and quixotic. If they had a ”reasonable doubt,” even if they had been too confused to a.s.similate the information, he'd go free. They had all seen it happen.

Sam sprawled out on the couch in Alexa's office, while Jack relaxed in a chair, and Alexa sat down with her feet on the desk. She was excited, but exhausted, and had been running on adrenaline and fumes for almost five weeks, since jury selection. It was the first of June. Savannah was graduating in Charleston in ten days. Life would be normal again by then. The DA had promised her a week's vacation as soon as the verdict came in. He stuck his head into her office as she sat there and said he had seen her closing argument and it had been excellent. He had been in the courtroom frequently during the trial, as had several senior members of the FBI.

There was no call from the court that afternoon, and little conversation in her office. They were too tired and anxious to speak.

Finally, the judge's clerk called, and told them to go home. The jury was going to a hotel for the night, and would reconvene to deliberate in the morning. Alexa reported it to Jack and Sam, and they both groaned. They were hoping the verdict had come in, although it was early for that. They invited her to dinner, but she said she was too tired. She went home and sat on the couch and stared at the TV mindlessly. It had been an incredibly grueling five weeks. Alexa fell asleep on the couch, in her clothes, without dinner and with the TV on, and didn't wake up until seven a.m. the next day. She looked at her watch as she woke with a start. She had to shower and dress. The jury was reconvening in two hours.

Chapter 17.

Sam, Jack, Alexa, the judge, the public defender, and the families of the victims waited through another long day, while the jury deliberated, with no results. They were all about to leave so the jury could be sent to a hotel for another night, when the foreman sounded the buzzer in the judge's chambers that announced they had reached a verdict.

Court was immediately reconvened, and the defendant was brought in.

The elderly man who was the foreman of the jury stood up and looked at the judge.

”Have you reached a verdict, Mr. Foreman?” the judge said formally, as the man nodded.

”Yes, we have, Your Honor. The jury has reached a unanimous verdict.” Alexa heaved a small sigh of relief. No hung jury. No retrial. Whatever it was, it was over. They had all done their jobs, the jury as well.

The judge instructed the defendant to stand at the defense table and then turned to the foreman again.

”And how do you find the defendant on eighteen charges of rape, Mr. Foreman?”

”Guilty, Your Honor,” he said clearly, as Alexa glanced at Sam. They hadn't won yet, but they were halfway there. There was an intake of breath in the courtroom.

”And how do you find the defendant on eighteen charges of murder in the first degree?”

”Guilty, Your Honor,” the foreman said, looking at the judge, but not at Luke. Guilty on all counts.

There were shouts and screams and crying in the courtroom from where the family members sat, and a moderate amount of pandemonium, as the judge rapped his gavel and called everyone to order. Alexa noticed Charlie and his mother hugging and crying as the judge thanked the jury for their hard work and civic responsibility, and many weeks of their time, and they were led from the room immediately, as was Luke, this time in both handcuffs and leg irons, which they had ready for him. She couldn't help herself, Alexa watched him go. He turned toward her as they led him away and in the most venomous tone he could muster, looking like the killer he was, he spat ”f.u.c.k you!” at her, and was gone. Judy had tried to comfort him before he left, and he had pushed her away, and she was sitting in her seat, stunned. Alexa went across the aisle to her to shake her hand.

”You couldn't win this one, Judy. You never had a chance. The case was just too tight. He should have pleaded.” She looked up at Alexa with sad eyes.

”I don't think he did it. That's the awful part,” she said as Alexa looked at her in silent disbelief. The awful part was that she believed a man who was a stone-cold killer and a sociopath. Alexa said as gently as she could, ”I think he did.” She hoped Judy would never see him again after the sentencing. She was sorry she had to see him again then herself.

The judge rapped the gavel again then and said that sentencing in this matter would be held on July 10th, and both prosecution and defense were expected to be present, and the defendant. And then he thanked everyone, dismissed the court, and disappeared into his chambers. It was seven-thirty at night, and he wanted to go home. And so did Alexa. All she wanted was to see Savannah now. She hadn't seen her in a month.

It took ten cops to get her through the wall of photographers on the steps this time. They were pus.h.i.+ng and grabbing and wanted comments from her and interviews, and she just smiled at them and hurried down the steps to the patrol car as they ran after her.

”What do you have to say? How does it feel?” They were calling her name, and she turned to them just before she got in the car and smiled. ”Justice has been served. That's all that matters. The murderer of eighteen women was convicted. That's what we're here for. That's our job,” she said, and the police drove her away.

Savannah called her on her cell phone before she got home. She had just heard the news, and what her mother said.