She was surprised to find Ryan waiting for her a few minutes later outside the elevators. “I told Brett I’d be with you on the interviews for the show. Do you have a car coming or should I call my driver?”
29
For a man who had successfully tried multiple, complex jury trials, Ryan looked a little nervous. His eyes were darting between the doorman, front entrance, and the elevator as the doorman called upstairs to announce their arrival.
“This can’t be the first time you’ve spoken to a potential witness,” Laurie whispered.
“Of course not, but usually the person’s under arrest or with their lawyer.”
The doorman announced that Ms. Lawson would see them. “Penthouse floor,” he told them.
Gabrielle Lawson was one of those women who could pass for any age between forty and sixty, but Laurie happened to know that she was fifty-two years old, the same age Hunter Raleigh would have been, had he lived. She was dressed in an elegant white suit with tasteful gold jewelry, and her red hair was swept into a perfect, high bun. She didn’t look much different than she had fifteen years ago, when “The Chatter” published a photograph of her looking lovingly at Hunter Raleigh.
Fifteen minutes into their conversation, Laurie had managed to make eye contact with Gabrielle only twice. Gabrielle was absolutely riveted by Ryan, twenty years her junior. Based on everything she’d read about her, Laurie knew that she was singularly focused on attracting the attention of successful, preferably handsome men. Ryan checked both boxes.
Gabrielle ignored Laurie’s question about her greeting Hunter at the Raleigh Foundation gala and instead launched her own inquiry for Ryan: “How did you go from being a television commentator to a producer?” she asked.
“Actually, I’m not a-”
“Mere producer,” Laurie said, interrupting Ryan’s correction. “He’s also the new star of the show. He’ll be the one working start to finish with all our participants. He’s the heart of Under Suspicion, really.”
She guessed that being the heart of a news-based television show wasn’t quite the draw of the award-winning film director Gabrielle had stalked, but it was probably good enough to have her fawning over Ryan.
She hoped Ryan would take the hint and use the obvious dynamic to their favor, but instead he asked Gabrielle to confirm that she’d been thrice married and divorced.
“I see no reason to dwell on that,” she said softly.
“I think what Ryan would really like to know is whether you went over to greet Hunter the night of the foundation’s gala.” It was the very question she had already posed, but Gabrielle seemed to hear it for the first time now that it had been attributed to Ryan.
“Let’s see… did I talk to Hunter that night? Well, of course I did. At some length.”
Laurie pointed out that Casey’s defense lawyer had asked every prosecution witness whether they’d seen Hunter and Gabrielle together. No one had, other than a brief moment when Gabrielle walked up to Hunter near his family’s table and flung her arms around him enthusiastically. It was a subtle point, intended to undercut the prosecution’s claim that Casey killed Hunter because he was planning to break off their engagement to be with Gabrielle. Casey’s lawyer never argued that Gabrielle could have used the moment to slip a drug into Casey’s glass.
“We were keeping things discreet,” Gabrielle said demurely. “Hunter hadn’t broken the news to Casey yet. He was dignified. He would never embarrass any of us. He would break things off quietly, and then we would have gone public after a respectable time period.”
“Sounds reasonable,” Laurie said, even though she did not believe a word of it. “Given that you were keeping things private, how did Mindy Sampson manage to get a photograph of the two of you together at a fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Clubs?”
Gabrielle smiled coyly, as if they were two girlfriends gossiping. “Well, you know how it is. Sometimes these matters need a little push. It didn’t dawn on me that the picture would get Hunter killed or I never would have done it.”
“So you admit you gave that picture to Mindy,” Ryan said, as if nailing down a witness on cross-examination.
Laurie managed to suppress a wince. His statement was too bald and assertive. Alex never would have made that mistake. Sure enough, Gabrielle immediately denied the accusation.
“Heavens, no. I saw a photographer approaching and leaned in for the picture. But that’s all.”
Laurie immediately tried to regain some rapport with Gabrielle. “What about Casey? I’ve heard that she was quite a mess at the gala.”
“Sloppy doesn’t begin to describe it,” Gabrielle dished. “She was visibly intoxicated, slurring her words and nearly falling down. It was embarrassing. Hunter was distraught, I could tell.”
“As distraught as Hans Lindholm when he applied for a restraining order against you?” Ryan asked mockingly.
Gabrielle glared at Ryan. “You’re as pretty as a Georgia peach, but your mother should have taught you some manners, Mr. Nichols.”
Laurie offered a profuse apology and her warmest smile. “Ryan’s a lawyer by training,” she explained. “Law schools don’t spend a lot of time teaching etiquette.”
Gabrielle laughed. “I can see that.”
“Millions of people watch our show. Would you be willing to share your observations with our viewers?” Laurie asked.
Gabrielle hesitated, eying Ryan skeptically.
“It would be essential to countering Casey’s claims of innocence,” Laurie pressed. “On the program we want to make sure we hear from both of the women in Hunter’s life.”
Gabrielle’s face glowed at the description. “Absolutely,” she said. “I owe it to him. That’s why my other marriages never lasted. I could never replace my Hunter.”
Gabrielle was still smiling as she signed on the dotted line.
As Laurie walked to the elevator, she found herself wishing Alex were here. As much as she resented Ryan’s presence, she had often asked Alex to play a role in these preliminary interviews. If he had been the one who had accompanied her, they’d have been sharing their opinions immediately. But she had no interest in hearing Ryan’s thoughts, so she replayed her own.
She believed Gabrielle’s account of Casey’s impaired condition, but that was consistent with having been drugged involuntarily. However, she did not believe that Gabrielle had had a close relationship with Hunter. She was certain that Gabrielle had been in cahoots with Mindy Sampson to plant that photograph of Hunter and her in the paper. But was she obsessed enough to kill Hunter? Laurie had no idea.
The elevator doors had barely closed when Ryan laid into her. “Don’t ever apologize for me to another person again or make a joke at my expense. I’m good at my job.”
“You should have been the one apologizing, including to me. You may be a good lawyer in the courtroom, but you’ve now chosen a job that you seem to have little interest in learning about. You nearly blew that interview,” Laurie shot back.
“You call that an interview? More like a cakewalk.”
“Gabrielle agreed to go on camera, which you said an hour ago would be impossible. We’re not federal prosecutors. We don’t have subpoena powers. We get witnesses by being warm and fuzzy, not sarcastic and alienating. The tough questions come later, while we’re filming.”
“Please. The woman doesn’t even know anything relevant. Hunter Raleigh was murdered by Casey Carter. Full stop.”
Laurie walked three steps ahead of him through the building lobby and into the backseat of the awaiting car. “You have a lot to learn, and you don’t even know it. If you mess this case up, I won’t care how many of your family members know Brett-I won’t work with you again. And now I’m taking your car to my next interview.”