12th of Never (Womens Murder Club 12) (11 page)

Kinsela asked, “Did the bullet match a gun in the national ballistics database?”

“No. It’s consistent with four or five firearms.”

Kinsela thanked the witness and had no other questions.

After the forensic pathologist stepped down, Judge Nussbaum called for a lunch recess. Nicky and Yuki had sandwiches at her desk, buttoned up every detail, and when they returned to the courtroom one hour and twenty minutes later, Yuki called her star witness, Lynnette Lagrande.

Lagrande was critical to the prosecution’s case. And because she had been photographed by the press, and because Mr. Herman had a reputation for having witnesses threatened, terrified, and possibly killed, Yuki had kept her witness in a safe house with 24-7 security for the last two months.

Now the bailiff called her name.

As if they were at a church wedding, as if the organ music had just begun, the jurors, the attorneys, and the audience in the gallery turned as one to watch Lynnette Lagrande come up the aisle.

YUKI, LIKE EVERYONE else in Arthur R. Nussbaum’s courtroom, watched Lynnette Lagrande come through the wooden gate in the bar, which separated the gallery from the judge, jury, and prosecution and defense tables. She was wearing a black-and-white print dress with a high collar and a hem that hit midcalf. The thirty-year-old woman was so stunning that the simple dress only enhanced her spectacular figure.

Lagrande swore to tell the truth, then took her seat and crossed her legs at the ankles. When she moved her wavy black hair away from her eyes, she revealed her beautiful, heart-shaped face.

Yuki walked up to the witness and asked, “Ms. Lagrande, what kind of work do you do?”

“I teach first graders at John Muir Elementary School. I’ve had this job for four years and I love it.”

“Are you acquainted with the defendant?”

“Yes, I am.”

Lagrande didn’t look at Keith Herman, but he fixed his sharklike eyes on her.

“How did you come to meet Mr. Herman?” Yuki asked.

“Two years ago, Lily Herman, Mr. Herman’s daughter, was in my class. I met him one day when he came to pick her up after school.”

Under Yuki’s questioning, Lagrande described the course of her relationship with the defendant: parent-teacher conferences, accidental meetings in town, then a lunch with Mr. Herman that turned romantic and was the start of a liaison that had continued for more than a year.

“How would you characterize your feelings for Mr. Herman at this time last year?”

“I loved him.”

“And did he ever tell you how he felt about you?”

“He claimed to love me.”

Yuki brought a packet of letters and e-mails from the prosecution table to the witness stand and showed them to the witness.

“Do these cards and printouts of e-mails belong to you?”

“Yes. They’re mine.”

“Your Honor, I’d like Ms. Lagrande to read some passages from this correspondence and then I’ll introduce all of it into evidence.”

Kinsela said, “Your Honor, the defense concedes that the defendant expressed feelings of love for the witness.”

“The tenor of the correspondence goes to motive, Your Honor,” said Yuki.

The judge was attacked by a fit of sneezing. Everyone in the courtroom waited him out. A few people, including Yuki Castellano and John Kinsela, blessed him.

The judge blew his nose. He thanked everyone, then he said, “I’m not going to deprive the jury of the opportunity to hear these communications, Mr. Kinsela. Ms. Castellano, please proceed.”

YUKI SAID, “MS. LAGRANDE, will you please read these e-mails aloud, including the dates?”

Kinsela leaned in and whispered to his client, but Keith Herman didn’t acknowledge his lawyer or seem to be aware of him at all. He seemed transfixed by the sight of his former lover.

Lynnette Lagrande bent her head and read from the pages in front of her.

“December twenty-fourth. Lynnie, I know I promised to be with you on Christmas and I am so sorry that I have to let you down. There is no place I’d rather be than in your arms and in your—”

The witness looked up and said to Yuki, “He goes on to say how it makes him feel to have sexual relations with me, and if you don’t mind, I’d rather not read this out loud.”

Yuki said, “You can skip that passage and just read the last paragraph.”

“Okay.

“When you open your present in the morning, I hope you will know how much I love you. With all my love, the K-guy.”

“Please read your response, Ms. Lagrande.”

The witness sighed.

“December twenty-fourth. Keith—I don’t want presents. This is hurting me too much. It’s really unfair to all of us. Fondly, Lynnette.”

“Please read the next e-mail.”

The witness read e-mails for the next fifteen minutes. But the correspondence consisted, emotionally, of a two-step dance.

The defendant wrote that he loved Lynnie without reservation and that he would do anything to be with her.

Ms. Lagrande wrote back that she was suffering from his attentions, not because she didn’t return his feelings, but because she did.

Yuki asked the witness to read the e-mail dated February 27, two days before Jennifer Herman’s dismembered body was recovered. The beautiful woman dabbed at her eyes, sipped from her water bottle, then read:

“Lynnie, I know you don’t believe anything I say anymore, but actions speak louder than e-mail. We will be together by this time next week. I promise you that. All my love, Keith.”

Lynnette Lagrande put the papers in her lap and put her hands to her eyes. Her sobs were soft but her shoulders shook.

Yuki said, “Do you need to take a minute?”

After a moment, the witness said, “I’m okay.”

Yuki waited until Lynnette Lagrande seemed composed, keeping her own face composed as well. This entire day was going perfectly. Couldn’t be better.

She asked, “Did you see Mr. Herman on February twenty-eighth, the day before his wife’s body was discovered?”

“No, I did not.”

“Did he write to you?”

“I don’t know. I changed my e-mail address and my phone number. I left my apartment and moved in with my sister.”

“To be clear, did you see the defendant at any time after he wrote to you on February twenty-seventh, saying that the two of you would soon be together?”

“No. He wants me to give him an alibi, but, I can’t lie for him anymore. I didn’t see him in February at all.”

“Thank you very much, Ms. Lagrande.”

NICKY GAINES TYPED on his tablet, “Red Dog was standing in back. Caught yer
amazing
direct.”

Yuki smiled at Gaines, deleted the message, and turned her attention to Kinsela, who, to date, hadn’t been worth the two grand an hour Keith Herman was paying him.

Kinsela approached Lynnette Lagrande and put his hand on the witness stand, as if he were gently touching the witness herself.

“Ms. Lagrande, what was the Christmas gift that Mr. Herman gave you?”

“A diamond necklace.”

“Do you know the value of that necklace?”

“Not really. Maybe twenty-five thousand dollars.”

“And do I understand correctly that you kept the necklace?”

“I kept it. It was for pain and suffering.”

“Really? A legal term. Well. Ms. Lagrande, did you also accept a new Lexus sedan from the defendant in January of last year?”

“Yes. Keith gave me a car. It was a birthday present.”

“I believe the going rate for that car is in excess of sixty thousand dollars, is that correct?”

“I don’t know.”

“You kept the car.”

“Yes.”

“It’s worth more than your annual salary, isn’t that right, Ms. Lagrande?”

“Yes. I suppose it is.”

Kinsela walked to the witness stand, then asked loudly, “Did the defendant ever give you money?”

The witness tossed her hair defiantly. Yuki leaned forward. Lynnette knew Kinsela was going to go after her, and Yuki had coached her to remain calm and matter-of-fact—take a moment to think before answering if she were attacked.

But the witness answered angrily, “I’m not a whore, Mr. Kinsela. Do
not
call me a whore.”

“Your Honor?”

“Ms. Lagrande, you must answer the question or I will be forced to find you in contempt. Mr. Kinsela. Please ask the question again.”

“Did you receive cash from the defendant? Yes or no.”

“Yes. And so what?”

“Did you tell him that you liked nice things?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Ms. Lagrande, were the expensive gifts and cash the reason you dated the defendant, who was, after all, a married man?”

Yuki stood, said, “Your Honor, objection. Opposing counsel is badgering the witness.”

“Overruled, but get to the point, Mr. Kinsela.”

“Okay, Your Honor. Ms. Lagrande, were you looking for a big payday when Mr. Herman finally left his family? Is that why you accepted expensive gifts even though you plainly didn’t return the defendant’s feelings?”

“I
did
return his feelings. I
did
love him. I still
do
.”

“I believe that you do love Mr. Herman. That’s why you spent the weekend with him at the time someone else was murdering his wife and child. In fact, weren’t you making love with the defendant that entire weekend, Lynnette?”

“No, no, no. I was not with him that weekend. No.”

“When the murders were discovered, and Mr. Herman was arrested, and this whole sordid affair was coming to light, you decided to finally cut him loose so that your reputation wasn’t trashed, isn’t that right? You’d rather betray your lover than tell the truth about your actions, right, Lynnie? You say you’re not a whore, but exactly what kind of woman would you say you are? Would you say that you’re fickle? Or disloyal? Or would you just call yourself a user? Which is it?

“What kind of woman are you?”

John Kinsela continued to glare at Lynnette Lagrande even though Yuki objected loudly, even though the judge repeatedly slammed his gavel against the block and found Kinsela in contempt. Even though Kinsela’s questions were stricken.

Kinsela looked triumphant and Yuki felt his triumph like an ax through her star witness’s credibility. Kinsela had bullied the first grade schoolteacher with the heart-shaped face, painted her as a gold digger, muddied her character, cast doubt on her testimony, and threw a bright light on the legal concept of reasonable doubt.

Yuki felt blindsided.

Nussbaum said, “Redirect, Ms. Castellano?”

Lynnette had her head down and was sobbing into her crossed arms.

Yuki didn’t know what she could do to rehabilitate the woman who had taken great big gobs of money from the man she said she loved.

YUKI BROUGHT A box of tissues to the stand and let Lynnette take a couple of seconds to pull herself together. Yuki had made a mistake not to have realized that Kinsela was going to use Keith Herman’s gifts against Lynnette.

It was a sickening oversight. But was it fatal?

As Lynnette dabbed her eyes, Yuki thought out her redirect with the speed of a supercomputer, and when the witness seemed more or less composed, Yuki said, “Lynnette, did you ever try to hide the fact that you received gifts from Keith Herman?”

“No, of course not.”

“Did these gifts always come on holidays?”

“Yes.”

“Did Keith ever tell you why he bought you such expensive presents?”

Yuki took a slow turn away from the witness stand, headed toward the lectern, and stole a look at the jurors. They were attentive. For the moment, that was all she could hope for.

“Could you repeat the question?” Lynnette said.

She was still looking shaky, Yuki thought, but shaky was vulnerable and vulnerability was better than defiance any day.

“Lynnette, did Keith ever tell you why he bought you such expensive gifts?”

“He said different things at different times.”

“Go on,” Yuki said.

“He said that until he was free, this was the only way he could show me how much he cared.”

“Anything else?”

“He said that he felt guilty for my pain and suffering.”

“Pain and suffering. Those were
his
words?”

“Yes.”

“The money that Keith gave you—what was it for?”

“He gave me twenty-two thousand dollars to pay off my student loan. I appreciated the help. I don’t make a large salary.”

“Did you expect to cash in—that is, get rich—from marrying Keith Herman?”

“I knew he had money. But the only thing that was important to me was that we had a real relationship, with holidays together, and that I could be with Lily. I wanted to be able to go out into the open, to stop feeling bad because I loved someone else’s husband. And when I saw that I couldn’t have that, I tried to break it off with Keith many, many times.”

“And Keith pursued you, isn’t that right?”

“Yes.”

“You testified that you changed your phone number. You moved out of your home.”

“Yes.”

“On the weekend of February twenty-eighth through March first, were you with the defendant?”

“No. I was not. I was alone in the hunting cabin my father left me in Oroville. I don’t have a TV there. I don’t even get a cell phone signal. I just wanted to be by myself.”

“So when the defense tells the court that Keith Herman was with you the weekend his wife and daughter were murdered, that’s a lie, isn’t it?”

The witness winced ever so slightly. Yuki took it to mean that Lynnette still loved Keith Herman.

“Yes,” she said. “That’s a lie.”

“Thank you, Ms. Lagrande. I have nothing more for this witness, Your Honor.”

Kinsela had nothing to add, a good move on his part, Yuki thought. If one juror believed that Lynnette Lagrande was a money-grubber and a liar, Kinsela had done his job.