“You were losing this case,” she said.
He nodded and flashed that smile at her again. “Big time. We had no chance. You want something to drink? A cup of coffee, tea, anything?”
“If you have coffee, sure.”
While Paladino picked up the phone, she set down the mug and walked over to the window. The sun was just settling into the ocean. After a few moments, Paladino joined her and they watched as the city was transformed from a deep red to a dusky blue.
“Did Harry Gant tell you why your client was with Johnny Bosco?” she said.
Paladino nodded. “They thought they knew who really killed Lily. That’s all he told me. That’s why I called you.”
“Okay, so what about Hight and his daughter? You took a big risk with the jury and floated the idea that he molested her. Your spotters confirmed that they didn’t want to hear it. Were you fishing or did you have something real?”
Someone tapped on the door, then opened it. A middle-aged woman dressed in a chef’s smock pushed a cart into the room. As Lena walked over, Paladino thanked the woman and she made her exit with a slight bow. On the cart, beside a coffee urn and two cups and saucers, were small bowls of white and brown sugar, several varieties of chocolate chips and mints, and a small pitcher of cream.
Paladino poured a cup and passed it to her. As he poured another for himself and returned to the couch with her, he said, “I wasn’t fishing, Lena. At the same time, I can’t confirm it for you. Hight’s relationship with his daughter seemed unusual to me. Almost like it was too close for comfort. From what Jacob told me, Lily fought it and struggled with it like any other teenager would or should. What struck me was something Jacob told me he’d seen a week before the murder.”
“You’re shooting straight with me, right, Buddy? This isn’t some kind of play?”
Paladino met her eyes and held the gaze without a word as he sipped his coffee.
“Okay,” she said finally. “What did Gant see?”
“It was on a Friday night. Lily was struggling to get out of the car and ran into the house. Hight chased her inside.”
“So what?”
“Jacob thought it looked like Hight was touching her in a way no father should. It was during the struggle in the car. The door was open.”
“Touching her where?”
“He thought it looked like he was trying to kiss her-like he was grabbing her chest-but it was only an impression. He told me that he couldn’t be sure.”
“Those houses are right next to each other,” she said. “Why couldn’t he be sure?”
“Hight’s driveway is on the other side of their house. There’s that oak tree and it was dark. Jacob was sitting in a lighted room reading a book. Eyewitness testimony is shaky enough at noon from ten feet way. You know that as well as I do.”
“But they were friends. They were doing it. Why didn’t he make sure she was okay?”
“They were having problems-those voice and text messages he left over those two weeks were real. It took him a while to rise above all that. When he did, he went over but the car was gone. No one answered the door. The next day he saw her with her girlfriend and she looked fine. Things were still awkward. Nothing had changed between them, so he never had the opportunity to ask her what happened.”
“Her friend being Julia Hackford. She never appeared in court.”
“She didn’t have anything to say. I got the impression that she and Lily hung out together but didn’t share much. That’s another reason why I thought something might be going on with Hight. His daughter never really talked about her home life. Not with Hackford. Not even with Jacob. According to Jacob, she deliberately avoided it.”
“So, you floated the idea at trial and pulled back.”
Paladino moved over to the chair and picked up the commemorative mug. “My hands were tied. I couldn’t present an alternative theory without hurting my client. Our backs were up against the wall.”
“Until the DNA evidence went missing.”
“That’s right,” he said. “Then everything changed. That’s why I said that there were three parts to this trial.”
“How did you find out the evidence went missing?”
“An anonymous tip. It came in at the end of the first week. I didn’t really trust it, and we had already conceded that the semen belonged to Jacob. But I spent the weekend thinking it over. Not about how the lab might have misplaced the samples. I was more concerned about why. Why do you suppose that the only evidence that went missing was the evidence that pointed to my client? Everything else was still there. The blouse and T-shirt with Lily’s blood, the screwdriver that became the murder weapon, the blood samples that the SID tech mishandled and dropped in the driveway outside their van. Why did the crime lab only lose evidence that pointed to Jacob?”
“You know that you could look at it another way, right, Buddy?”
“How’s that?”
Lena shrugged. “You said it yourself. Your back was against the wall. The prosecution was killing you in one of your biggest cases. Your client’s life was at stake. But you were the one who benefitted most by what went wrong at the lab, not them. So maybe you’re responsible.”
Paladino laughed, then got up and opened a cabinet. Inside, Lena could see a small bar that included a wine rack. Paladino selected a bottle of scotch and offered her a glass. When she shook him off, he poured a drink for himself and took a small sip.
“I knew it could break our way,” he said. “But I wasn’t there yet. I still wanted to know why. And I was no longer willing to concede that the semen they found was Jacob’s. I wanted an independent lab to take another look.”
“Which was your right, but impossible because the samples were gone. When you made the request in court, how did Bennett and Watson take it?”
“They said they weren’t aware of the mishap, but I could tell that it was an act. And they were scared. Not where it shows, but underneath where it counts. When I saw that, I became even more suspicious.”
“What do you think of them?” she asked.
Paladino took another sip of scotch, mulling it over. “Not much,” he said. “Would it be too crude to say that Bennett can’t keep his dick in his pants?”
Lena smiled. “It’s only a rumor that they’re having an affair.”
“Only a rumor? Come on, Lena. The district attorney’s office keeps a suite over at the Bonaventure so that they don’t have to drive home during trials. I needed to talk to Bennett about a discovery issue a month before we got started, and was told that he and Watson were at the hotel having lunch. When I called the front desk, my call was redirected from the restaurant to the suite upstairs. Watson answered. You know how you can tell by the tone of someone’s voice that they’re laying down?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, Watson was on her back.”
They laughed together, but only briefly.
“I saw it as an asset,” Paladino said. “The two of them being distracted like that was good for our side. I’m just surprised Bennett stayed with her this long. Despite his wife and kids, I’ve always read him as the kind of guy who thrives on variety. The kind of guy who can’t go deep and needs a cheerleader by his side to keep telling him he’s not an asshole.”
Paladino’s words lingered-his irritation for the man and his resentment were obvious. Lena went with the vibe and could see Bennett and Watson thinking that their slam-dunk case was set on automatic and had plenty of fuel. She could see them taking everything for granted while feeding on the media attention, the spotlight, the public’s approval and good wishes. She could even see them fucking each other at the Bonaventure and thinking that this high-profile trial would push them over the top.
But in the end, Paladino was right. Steven Bennett couldn’t go deep.
The defense wanted an independent examination of the semen found on Lily’s body, and the two deputy district attorneys couldn’t produce the evidence. And then everything began to unravel. Paladino saw his opening. But even more, Paladino saw the end. Jacob Gant wasn’t on trial anymore. Bennett and Watson and the LAPD were.