The Fifth Witness - Michael Connelly [168]
“Sit down, Mr. Haller, and please watch your tone when you are addressing me.”
“Yes, Your Honor. I apologize.”
I sat down and waited while Perry brooded over the situation. Finally, he spoke.
“Ms. Freeman, anything else?”
“I think the court is well aware of how the prosecution views what Mr. Haller has been allowed to do. I warned early and often that he would create a sideshow that had nothing to do with the case at hand. We are well past that point now and I have to agree with the court’s assessment that all of this makes the court look foolish and manipulated.”
She had gone too far. I could see the skin around Perry’s eyes tighten as she stated that he looked like a fool. I think she’d had him in her hand but then lost him.
“Well, thank you very much, Ms. Freeman. I think at this time I’m inclined to go back out and give Mr. Haller one final chance to tie it all in. Do you understand what I mean by final chance, Mr. Haller?”
“Yes, Your Honor. I will comply.”
“You’d better, sir, because the court’s patience has drawn thin. Let’s go back now.”
Out at the defense table I saw Aronson waiting by herself and realized she hadn’t followed me into chambers. I sat down wearily.
“Where’s Lisa?”
“In the hallway with Dahl. What happened?”
“I’ve got one more chance. I have to move things up and go in for the kill now.”
“Can you do it?”
“We’ll see. I’ve got to run out to the facilities before we start again. Why didn’t you come into chambers?”
“No one asked me to, and I didn’t know if I should just follow you in.”
“Next time follow me in.”
Courthouse designs are good at separating parties. Jurors have their own assembly and deliberation rooms, and there are aisles and gates to separate opposing parties and supporters. But the restrooms are the great equalizers. You step into one of these and you never know who you will encounter. I pushed through the inner door of the men’s room and almost walked right into Opparizio, who was washing his hands at the sink. He was bent over and looked up at me in the mirror.
“Well, Counselor, did the judge slap your hands a little bit?”
“That’s none of your business. I’ll find another restroom.”
I turned around to leave but Opparizio stopped me.
“Don’t bother. I’m leaving.”
He shook his wet hands off and moved toward the door, coming very close to me and then suddenly stopping.
“You are despicable, Haller,” he said. “Your client is a murderer and you have the balls to try to cast the blame on me. How do you look at yourself in the mirror?”
He turned and gestured toward the line of urinals.
“This is where you belong,” he said. “In the toilet.”
Forty-nine
It all came down to the next half hour—maybe an hour at the most. I sat at the defense table, composing my thoughts and waiting. Everyone was in place except for the judge, who remained in chambers, and Opparizio, who was smugly conferring with his two attorneys in the first row of the gallery where they had reserved seats. My client leaned toward me and whispered, so that not even Aronson could hear.
“You have more, right?”
“Excuse me?”
“You have more, don’t you, Mickey? More to go after him with?”
Even she knew that what I had already trotted out was not enough. I whispered back.
“We’ll know before lunch. We’ll either be drinking champagne or crying in our soup.”
The door to the judge’s chambers opened and Perry emerged. He called for the jury and the witness to return to the stand before he was even seated on the bench. A few minutes later I was back at the lectern, staring down Opparizio. The restroom confrontation seemed to give him renewed confidence. He adopted a relaxed posture that announced to the world that he was home free. I decided that there was no sense in waiting. It was time to start swinging.
“Now then, Mr. Opparizio, continuing our discussion from before, you have not been completely truthful in your testimony today, have you?”
“I have been completely honest and I resent the question.”
“You lied from the start, didn’t you, sir? Giving a false name when sworn in by the clerk.”
“My name was