Kevin shifted in his seat. He had lost round one, although Judge Davidson had tossed him a bone in the process. At least the prosecution wouldn’t be seeing his memos to Draga – if they had kept all the materials separate as they claimed.
Kevin held his breath as he waited for the ruling on his contempt. Thirty minutes ago, he had been pretty confident. Now, he was not so sure.
“Second,” Judge Davidson continued, “The Court is very troubled by the conduct of Mr. Anderson with respect to the protective order. However, out of an abundance of caution, the Court will reserve its ruling on the contempt issue until the conclusion of Mr. Zaric’s trial. At that time, the Court will have a full record of counsel’s performance from which to determine if this was an isolated incident or part of a pattern of misconduct.”
The judge looked down at Kevin sternly.
“This is strike two, Mr. Anderson. You first showed bad judgment in taking on this case while you were seeking a job with the other side. Now, you delivered discovery materials to the Serbian secret police. I’m warning you. As they say in your country, ‘One more strike and you’re out.’”
Kevin was relieved not to be going to jail, but annoyed that Judge Davidson didn’t dismiss outright the contempt. He was intending to hold it over Kevin’s head as a threat during the remainder of the case.
“Third and finally,” Judge Davidson continued, looking down at his book again, “all pretrial motions must be filed within thirty days. A hearing on those motions will be held in sixty days, on December 1st. Trial will begin on January 8th.”
Judge Davidson quickly left the bench, leaving no doubt that his orders were final.
Kevin got up and walked back to Draga, who was being handcuffed for his departure to the prison. “You can release the room you saved for me,” Kevin said. “And it looks like you’re going to get your speedy trial.”
“Now I just need to get the football scores from yesterday,” Draga said.
“I could have gone to jail here and all you can think of is football?
The guards moved Draga toward the door.
“I’ll be working my butt off for the next three months,” Kevin called after him, “while you’re studying the sports section.”
When Kevin got home that night, Ellen had big news. “Dad, I have a loose tooth,” she exclaimed as he walked in the door. “Look!” She showed him a tooth near the back of her mouth that moved from side to side.
“Great! Does the tooth fairy come in Holland?”
“We’re going to find out. I hope the tooth comes out before I go to bed.”
Kevin had already told Diane about the favorable ruling at the contempt hearing, but at dinner he gave her and Ellen more details about his day in court.
“Is that mean old guy going to be the judge at Draga’s trial?” Ellen asked with one hand in her mouth wiggling her tooth.
“Fortunately, he’ll only be one of three judges. For our pretrial motions and the trial, the whole trial chamber will be involved.”
“Do you know who the other judges are?” Diane asked.
“The presiding judge is a woman, Juan Orozco of Chile. She was a Justice of the Chilean Supreme Court, and has been at the Tribunal for two years. I’ve heard that she’s a nice person and a fair judge, but that Judge Davidson takes over in court. Sometimes he even rules on objections without consulting her.”
“What about the other judge?” Ellen asked, carefully selecting a hard roll to try to dislodge the tooth.
“Judge Francisco Linares of the Philippines. He was President of the Philippine Senate before becoming a judge at the Tribunal. He’s been a judge for less than a year, but from what I hear he’s brought with him the strong law and order mentality prevalent in his country.”
“Just the kind of judge you would have wanted in the states,” Diane said.
“You’re right,” Kevin said wearily.
The phone interrupted their dinner.
“Will you get it, Ellen?” Diane asked. “It’s probably for you anyway.”
The Andersons routinely received two or three calls a night from Ellen’s classmates with questions about their homework. Ellen had already established herself as one of the brainy kids in her class.
“I’m busy with my tooth, can you get it, Dad?” Ellen asked as she positioned the roll under her loose tooth in preparation for a big bite.
Kevin got up and answered the phone. “Ellen’s Homework Service.”
Ellen turned bright red. “That’s the last time I let you answer the phone.” She gave Kevin the evil eye as he handed her the phone. “Don’t mind my dad,” she said to her friend apologetically. “He’s kinda weird.”
Kevin and Diane continued their conversation while Ellen looked up something in her math book. “I did get some good news, today,” Kevin said. “My investigator, Mihajlo Golic, came up with some information on Draga’s kidnapping.”
“The big guy we saw at Madurodam yesterday?”
“Yeah. He got copies of Belgrade police reports. The police believe the kidnappers were paid by people working with the U.N. Security Forces.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Well, it’s not exactly airtight proof, but it’s enough to support a motion to dismiss the case based on an illegal arrest. We’ll see what the prosecution comes back with.”
The next morning, Kevin and Ellen left on their bicycles together. Ellen had wiggled her tooth out last night and was exclaiming over the shiny Euro coin the tooth fairy had left her. “Where do you think the tooth fairy gets the foreign money?” she asked Kevin.
“I don’t know. Maybe there’s a currency exchange booth at the fairy airport.”
Ellen headed north to the American School, while Kevin went south to The Hague.
From his office in the Tribunal, Kevin called Nihudian.
“I can’t find an investigator to work for Draga,” Nihudian reported. “I think I talked to every investigator in Sarajevo.”
“Damn, this defense lawyer job is tough. I used to have all kinds of investigators at my disposal. FBI, DEA, Secret Service. Now I can’t even find anyone to help.”
“I have an idea, Kevin. How about if I do the investigation, with the help of the students in my history classes? I’m not experienced in this kind of thing, but I would work hard and it would be a great learning opportunity for my students.”
Kevin thought for a minute. He had no real alternative. “We could give it a try. If it seems like too much work or if it makes you uncomfortable, let me know.”
“I would be honored to assist you, Kevin. I know you will be fair with the witnesses, so I have nothing to be ashamed of in helping you. And I owe you so much.”
“You don’t owe me anything. You already paid my fee, remember?”
Kevin felt better after talking to Nihudian. He wasn’t a professional investigator, but he had been a policeman and was someone Kevin trusted. The latter counted for a lot these days.
After spending the rest of the week researching his other pretrial motions, Kevin headed over to the detention center for his regular Friday afternoon meeting with Draga. His client would have a fit if Kevin didn’t show up in time to make their weekend football picks.
Kevin decided to pick up some pannekoeken for Draga and the guards. These were huge Dutch pancakes, the size of a Frisbee, which were made with fruit, cheese, meat, or just powdered sugar on top. The Dutch ate them for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
“Have you ever had pannekoeken?” Kevin asked Draga when the two men met in the interview room.
“Pan-a-what-kin?”
Kevin opened the box and showed them to Draga.
“From the size of the portions, I like them already,” Draga said.
As the two men dug in – cutting the large, thin pancakes with plastic knives – Draga pulled out the sports section and a piece of paper.