Page 51 of The 24th Hour
Steinmetz agreed and signed off. Joe saw Bao picking out cops by name, telling them she needed help getting the computers out of the house. Joe called out to her, “Wait for me. I’ll be back.”
He didn’t hear her say, “I’ll be right here.”
THURSDAY
CHAPTER 65
AT SIX O’CLOCK the next morning, Nick Gaines crossed Bryant from the All Day Parking lot to the Hall. He turned so that he was facing the gray granite face of the Hall of Justice building and called Yuki.
“Yuki, sorry to wake you. The gaggle is stopping traffic on Bryant and starting to pack the sidewalks. Uniforms are outnumbered.”
Yuki said, “Aw jeez,” thanked Gaines, and slipped out of bed without waking Brady, made coffee, and called Mary Elena.
“Mary Elena, are you awake?”
“Maybe. I’m not sure I was asleep. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Not yet. Just every journalist in the country is surrounding the Hall. Please get dressed. I’ll pick you up in about forty-five minutes.”
“Party dress or jeans?”
“Your blue skirt suit, Mary Elena. Or the gray jacket and trousers … I want to get you into the building ahead of the press and they’re already stopping traffic.”
“I’ll be ready,” Mary Elena said.
Yuki went to her closet and pulled out the first suit still in a dry cleaner’s bag. No one was going to be looking at her. She showered. Soaped her hair. Dried off and dressed. She put on her watch that had once belonged to her mother. Seven o’clock plus a few seconds. She tiptoed back to the bedroom and kissed Brady goodbye. He startled awake.
“What’s happening? Are you okay?”
Yuki soothed him back to the pillows and blankets, told him she had to be at court early, kissed him again.
She stepped into her shoes and left the apartment. Yuki’s mother’s voice warned her,Drive safe, Yuki-eh. She said,Okay, Mother, I’m good,as she drove her car out of the garage and up the ramp to the street. Checking the time, she was sure she’d be at Mary Elena’s place in ten minutes. If the lights were with her.
This was a big day. Mary Elena was going to testify about the assault again, but this time Schneider would cross-examine her. Unordered thoughts flashed through Yuki’s mind, but chief among them was this: Would Mary Elena hold up on the stand? Would she stay in her main personality?
Yuki thought over the questions she was going to ask, added one, subtracted another, braking her car as she nearly ran the light on Geary Street. After that close call, she turned on the radio to a light jazz station and kept her eyes on the road.
CHAPTER 66
WHEN COURT OFFICER Louie Mack opened the double doors to Courtroom 8G, journalists and the trial curious stampeded through the wide opening and lunged for seats in the gallery. Cindy fought for the last seat nearest the door, throwing her computer bag onto the chair that she called hers, and nailed it.
Britney Waller, a reporter from theSacramento Ledgerwho also wanted that seat, stamped on Cindy’s instep with her high heel, hard enough to bruise bone. Cindy yelped and cursed at Waller, who was taller, older, and heavier than Cindy. Still, Waller saw something in Cindy that caused her to back off.
Once seated, her computer cord plugged into the socket behind her, Cindy opened her laptop. About then Bailiff Riley Boone entered the courtroom from the side door, filled his lungs with air, and called out, “Alllll riiiise.”
The audience stood noisily as the judge came through the narrow doorway from his office and took his seat at the bench.Even from the back of the room, Cindy noted that His Honor Henry William St. John had had a bad night, or maybe hadn’t slept at all. It was clear from the bench that the gallery was packed to the walls, chairs squeezed close together. His Honor was not pleased. He banged his gavel repeatedly, calling out “Quiet,” until the volume of voices dropped to a low buzz.
Cindy looked up at the judge as he shouted, “You people in the gallery who’ve rearranged the chairs. What we have here is a fire hazard. Bailiff, please clear the aisles and everyone standing at the back of the room. That’s it. Show the nice people out to the corridor, Officer Mack. No one else comes into the courtroom unless they are part of the proceedings.”
While Cindy was drafting her column, a man standing in the rear of the room called out, “Your Honor, Your Honor, I’m Cory Leach from theGrand Rapids Badger—”
“Sorry, but no, Mr. Leach. No standing room.”
Cindy kept her head down, fingers on the keys, setting the scene, describing her observations, quoting the quotable. She was working fast and well when Bailiff Riley Boone brought in the jurors from their room behind one of the oak-paneled walls of 8G. Once they’d been seated, court was called into session. Judge St. John delivered the rules on court decorum quickly, paused to pass his eyes over the room, then turned to Yuki.
“Ms. Castellano, please call your witness.”
Yuki stood, keeping one hand on the back of Mary Elena’s chair.