The Fifth Witness - Michael Connelly [165]
“If the figures you used are correct, that sounds right.”
“I take it, then, that the WestLand account was very big at ALOFT.”
“Yes, but all our clients are important.”
“So you must have known Mitchell Bondurant, the victim in this case, pretty well, correct?”
“Of course I knew him well and I think it’s a terrible shame about what happened to him. He was a good man, trying to do a good job.”
“I am sure we all appreciate your sympathy. But at the time of his death, you weren’t very happy with Mr. Bondurant, were you?”
“I’m not sure what you mean. We were business associates. We had minor disputes from time to time but that always happens in the natural course of business.”
“Well, I’m not talking about minor disputes or the natural course of business. I’m asking you about a letter Mr. Bondurant sent to you shortly before his murder that threatened to expose fraudulent practices within your company. The certified letter was signed for by your personal secretary. Did you read it?”
“I skimmed it. It indicated to me that one of my hundred eighty-five employees had taken a shortcut. This was a minor dispute and nothing about it was threatening, as you say. I told the person who had that particular file to fix it. That’s all, Mr. Haller.”
But that wasn’t all I had to say about the letter. I made Opparizio read it to the jury and for the next half hour I asked increasingly specific and uncomfortable questions about its allegations. I then moved on to the federal target letter and made the witness read that as well. But again Opparizio was unflappable, dismissing the federal letter as a shot in the dark.
“I welcomed them with open arms,” he said. “But you know what? Nobody’s come in. All this time later and not a word from Mr. Lattimore or Agent Vasquez or any other federal agent. Because their letter didn’t pay off. I didn’t run, I didn’t sweat, I didn’t cry foul or hide behind a lawyer. I said I know you’ve got a job to do, come on in and check us out. Our doors are open and we’ve got absolutely nothing to hide.”
It was a good and well-rehearsed answer and Opparizio was clearly winning the early rounds. But that was okay because I was saving my best punches. I wanted him to feel confident and in control. Through Herb Dahl he had been fed a steady diet of no worries. He had been led to believe I had nothing but a few desperate hints of conspiracy that he could easily swat away as he was doing right now. His confidence was growing. But when he got too confident and complacent, I was going to move in and go for the knockout. This fight wouldn’t go fifteen rounds. It couldn’t.
“Now at the time these letters were coming in you were engaged in a secret negotiation, were you not?”
Opparizio paused for the first time since I had begun asking him questions.
“I was engaged at the time in private business discussions, as I am at almost all times. I would not use the word ‘secret’ because of the connotation. Secrecy being wrong when in fact keeping one’s business private is a matter of course.”
“Okay, then this private discussion was actually a negotiation to sell your company ALOFT to a publicly traded company, correct?”
“Yes, that is so.”
“A company called LeMure?”
“Yes, correct.”
“This deal would be worth a lot of money to you, would it not?”
Freeman stood and asked for a sidebar. We approached and she stated her objection in a forceful whisper.
“How is this relevant? Where are we going with this? He now has us on Wall Street and that has nothing to do with Lisa Trammel and the evidence against her.”
“Your Honor,” I said quickly, before he could cut me off. “The relevance will become apparent soon. Ms. Freeman knows exactly where this is headed and she just doesn’t want to go there. But the court has given me the latitude to put forth a defense involving third-party guilt. Well, this is it, Judge. This is where it comes together and so I ask for the court’s continued indulgence.”
Perry didn’t have to think too long before answering.