The judge considered it. “Ms. Crawford actually does have a way of making things fit.”
The judge’s leaning was no surprise to Jack. It had been clear throughout the trial that he was of the mind that Sydney Bennett had murdered her daughter. The prosecutor continued to hammer away.
“Judge, we are talking about a manipulative, conniving woman who murdered her two-year-old daughter and was caught embracing the man who bought off a juror.”
“Okay, I have your argument,” said the judge. “Let me tell you where I come out. Mr. Swyteck, as the record stands now, I believe the prosecution has demonstrated that Sydney Bennett is sufficiently connected to the jury tampering in this case to justify overturning the verdict of not guilty.”
“Judge, but-”
“Don’t interrupt,” the judge said. “Since we do have the FBI here, I’m feeling charitable today. I’ll give you seventy-two hours to bring in Sydney Bennett. I’m not forcing her to testify, but I am telling you that, even if I allowed you to go forward with the evidence you’ve proffered, it isn’t enough to save your client’s not-guilty verdict. If she isn’t here in this courtroom within seventy-two hours, I will enter an order granting the prosecution’s motion to set aside the verdict on the grounds of jury tampering. And I will issue a warrant for the arrest of Sydney Bennett. That’s my ruling. Are we clear?”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
“Very well,” said the judge. “Mr. Swyteck, notify my assistant if and when you are ready to proceed.”
Chapter Forty-Four
We should send her to New Jersey,” said Theo.
Jack was back at his house on Key Biscayne with Theo and his grandmother. Immediately after finding the threat from Merselus on the back of the JUSTICE FOR SALE sign, Jack had put Theo on an airplane to bring Abuela back to Miami.
“New Jersey?” said Jack. He was standing in the kitchen, and Theo was seated on one of the barstools at the granite counter. Abuela was in the bathroom. “Why New Jersey?”
“It’s where they film that show that’s all over the Internet-Shit Abuelas Say. She’d be awesome.”
“Theo, I can’t begin to count the number of reasons why that would be a bad idea.”
“Half serious, remember?”
“Got it.”
The toilet flushed in the bathroom down the hall. It was Abuela’s fourth visit since the plane had landed. That happened when she was nervous.
“Where your mop?” she asked as she entered Jack’s office.
“My map of what?”
“No mapa. Mop. El bano. Ay! Dios mio.”
“Abuela, we have a cleaning service.”
“What they clean? Your wallet?”
“New Jersey,” said Theo, his voice rising.
Jack ignored him. “Sit, please.”
Theo helped her up onto the barstool beside him. Jack came closer to the counter, leaning toward her. “I know all this back and forth from Tampa to Miami must seem really crazy to you, but I don’t want you to worry. You’ll be safe here.”
“I stay here with you?”
“Yeah. I talked it over with Andie, and that’s the best thing.”
She smiled. “Bueno.”
There was a knock at the door.
“I’ll get it,” said Theo, but when he got up, his foot caught on the stool. It sounded like a multicar pileup on I-95 as he and the stool hit the tile floor, but Theo was okay. He crossed the living room and opened the door. It was the neighbor’s son, RJ.
“Hi, Max!” RJ shouted.
Max lifted his head. He’d slept through the multicar pileup in the kitchen, but he was suddenly wide awake and barking as if he had smelled RJ approaching a block away from the house.
“That’s some watchdog you’ve got there,” said Theo.
Max was all over RJ, and they went down for a wrestling match on the floor. RJ quickly had the upper hand. He was big for thirteen, a force on the middle school basketball court in his size-twelve shoes, and Jack regarded him as poster child for twenty-first-century Miami: Cuban on his mother’s side, Lebanese on his father’s, and his favorite food was sushi, which he’d learned to roll himself from his uncle, whose fiancee was Japanese. When Max was pinned, RJ looked at Jack and said, “We’re leaving for Charleston tomorrow. I just wanted to see what time you wanted me to pick up my travel buddy.”
Jack hesitated. The original thought had been to send Abuela to Tampa to stay with her brother and to send Max away for the rest of the summer with the Kayals, who rented a beach house in South Carolina every year. Jack knew RJ was going to be disappointed.
“Actually, there’s been a change of plan,” said Jack.
“Max can’t go?” said RJ.
The sadness in the boy’s voice was bad enough. The pathetic expression on Max’s face made it even worse. It was as if Mighty Casey had just struck out and they were in the heart of Mudville. Jack glanced at Abuela, who shot him a reproving look that seemed to say, Have you no heart? Send the dog!
“You know what?” said Jack. “Let’s just stick to the plan. I’ll have him and all his stuff ready for you tonight.”
The joy was back as RJ gave Max a bear hug, along with a quick rundown of how much fun they were going to have at the Kayal family reunion. Abuela seemed satisfied. Jack was going to miss his early-morning ritual with the cold black nose in his face, but it was only for a short time-until the threat against “someone you love” was lifted.
The phone rang, and Theo answered it. “It’s Hannah,” he said as he handed Jack the phone.
“What’s up?” Jack said into the phone.
“I just left the women’s detention center. They finally coughed up the visitation records that Theo asked for on Saturday. I’m going through them now.”
“Anything of interest?”
“There are a couple names on here I don’t recognize, so I’ll need to follow up on them. But what made me call are the names I do recognize.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, there are the familiar names you would expect. Me. You. Geoffrey and Ellen Bennett. My dad. Those are all multiple visits. And then way down on the list, there’s a name that jumped out at me. Just one visit.”
“Who is it?”
“Celeste Laramore.”
Jack’s mouth opened, but no words came.
“Jack, you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“I thought you should know right away, especially since you have that hearing before Judge Burrows tomorrow about the Laramore case. I thought it could be important.”
Now, there’s an understatement.
“Thanks, Hannah,” said Jack. “Thanks for the heads-up.”
Chapter Forty-Five
Score one for us.
Jack wasn’t keeping a blow-by-blow score in his head, but Tuesday morning’s hearing in the civil case against BNN was definitely going his way. It began with the loss of credibility BNN suffered when Ted Gaines requested that television cameras be allowed at the hearing.
“Let me get this straight, Mr. Gaines,” said Judge Burrows. “Before the plaintiffs even filed their case, you rushed into my courtroom and persuaded me to enter a gag order that prohibited them from discussing the case publicly, correct?”
“That’s correct,” said Gaines. “These scandalous allegations against the news-gathering practices of my client would cause irreparable harm to BNN’s reputation and standing.”
“I understand that argument,” said the judge. “And I also understand that just a matter of hours after those allegations appeared on Celeste Laramore’s Facebook page, you filed a motion to dismiss the case with prejudice as a sanction for violating that order. Also correct?”