Dead Peasants (27 page)

85

Jack woke at five. This time he didn’t even try to drift off to sleep. He had six hours of rest and that would get him through the day. He put on his cut-offs, T-shirt and running shoes and was out the front door with Killer on his leash. A good walk with Killer would clear his mind and help him concentrate on what was to come. Jack’s mind was at the courthouse as Killer trotted along in front of him. There was a rustle in some bushes, and a man stepped into their path. Jack couldn’t see him well, but it looked like the same man that had confronted him two weeks before at the courthouse. He had a gun.

“You just wouldn’t listen, would you, Mr. Bryant?”

Before he could say anything more, Jack said in a low voice, “Go, Killer.”

Killer’s training immediately kicked in. He saw the man with the gun and let out a deep growl. With two leaps, he was on the man, his mouth on the assailant’s gun hand. Killer crunched his jaws until something snapped in the man’s wrist. The man screamed and fell to the ground as he jerked his hand out of Killer’s mouth. He was big enough that he threw Killer to the side and then was up and turning to run.

“Heel,” Jack called, worried that the man might have a second gun. Killer stood and let the man disappear. Jack picked up the man’s gun and patted Killer. “Good dog. You get a full bowl of treats this morning.”

Jack returned to the house to find both Colby and J.D. up early and having breakfast. J.D. was reading the
Star Telegram.

“Dad, Hampton laid out yesterday’s events very well. He’s not painting a very pretty picture of Allison.”

Colby looked at Jack. “You look a little pale. Are you feeling all right.”

Jack poured his coffee and sat down. “I’m okay now, other than the fact that someone just tried to kill me.”

“Oh my God, Jack. What happened?”

Jack described the event and how Killer came to his rescue. Killer perked up his ears as he heard his name several times in the conversation.

“Jack, I think it’s time you called Joe Sherrod.”

“I agree. It’s still a little early, though. I’ll call him about seven, after I’m dressed.”

Jack was ready to go to court when he picked up his cell.

“Damn early to be calling the Tarrant County District Attorney. This better be important,” Sherrod growled.

“Joe, someone just tried to kill me.”

Joe sat upright in his bed. “Shit, Jack. What happened?”

Jack described the event.

“I’ll send a squad car right over.”

“Sorry, Joe. I don’t have time to give a statement right now. I’m on the way to the courthouse.” Jack looked at his watch. “If they can be here in fifteen minutes, I can show them the location and give them the gun. The guy was wearing latex gloves. So the only prints on the gun are mine. Maybe you can trace the ownership. He may also have left some footprints that may be useful.”

Ten minutes later a police car stopped in front of Jack’s house. He talked briefly to the officers and handed them the gun. Then, he got in the back seat and directed them to the location. One officer called CSI and waited at the scene. The other returned Jack to his house with the understanding that they would meet in Sherrod’s office at the close of the trial that afternoon. When Jack went back into the house, he told Colby and J.D. that he would need to meet with Sherrod after the trial today. Not knowing how long it would take, he suggested that J.D. drive the Hummer. Colby would ride with Jack.

Trial lawyers must constantly change strategy as the evidence unfolds. Jack had several more pages of typed notes with questions for Allison. As they drove to the courthouse, he mentally tossed them in a waste can. He had made the points he needed.

Colby interrupted his thoughts. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay today, Jack? How can you possibly concentrate on the trial after what happened to you this morning?”

Jack turned to Colby while they were stopped at a light. “I’ve learned to compartmentalize. Trust me. That attack will be out of my mind until we visit Joe’s office this afternoon. By the way, I want to thank you for all your help in the trial. I know how much you have to struggle just to keep your sanity.”

“I’m hanging in there. Striplings come from strong stock. Call it woman’s intuition or whatever, but I now believe that we’re all going to be okay in a few days. Are you going to tell the judge about the attack?”

“No reason to, but I want you to watch Allison when he sees me for the first time and knows I’m still alive.”

“You think he set it up?” Colby asked

“Right now I’d say he’s at the top of the list, and the list doesn’t go beyond his name. That reminds me. Tell J.D. to go to the clerk’s office and get a subpoena issued for Beauregard Quillen to appear at one o’clock this afternoon. Let’s just see how truthful Allison was when he said that Allison Southwest is doing well financially.”

86

Jack had unpacked his briefcase and was talking to the bailiff about TCU’s opening game on Saturday, acting as if he had a refreshing night’s sleep and an uneventful morning. J.D. joined in the conversation as they discussed their prospects away from home with Rice.

They stopped talking when the hallway door creaked as it opened. Leyton entered, followed by Allison. Allison gave no sign of surprise when he saw Jack, but merely nodded his head in their direction as he pushed through the gate.
Damn
, Jack thought.
He’s a great actor, or maybe someone else tried to kill me. No. That doesn’t compute. It has to be Allison.

When the jury was in the box, Jack rose and said, “Pass the witness, Judge.”

Leyton did his best to rehabilitate Allison. He established that he had thousands of employees and former employees. Then he elected to change course and face the dead policy issue head on.

“Mr. Allison, being a businessman, does it strike you as unusual that with all of those employees and about seven thousand insurance policies that after all of these years you would start having a few former employees die?”

Allison shook his head. “Not at all, Mr. Leyton. As any group of people advance in age, more of them are going to die.” He looked at the jury. “Just common sense, ladies and gentlemen.”

“And one more thing, when we were talking about your activities in Fort Worth, is there a current one we failed to mention?”

Allison turned to the jury. “You remember that I told you my wife died of cancer. When that happened, I became very involved with cancer charities. This year I’m president of the local chapter of the American Cancer Society.”

Leyton figured he had done what he could to rehabilitate his client. “Pass the witness, Your Honor.”

Jack rose at his table and leaned with his hands on his cane. “Just one question, Mr. Allison. If it turned out that all of those dead employees met violent, unexplained deaths, would your answer to Mr. Leyton’s question be the same?”

Leyton was hunched forward in his chair, his arms on his knees and hands folded. The judge looked at him, expecting an objection; only Leyton just stared at the floor.

Allison sighed, wanting this whole experience to be over. “I don’t know, Mr. Bryant. I do know I had nothing to do with their deaths.”

Leyton recognized that his client had taken some body blows on cross-examination. The kindly civic benefactor has been replaced by an employer who preyed on the deaths of his employees. Leyton knew he had to shift the emphasis back to the policy on Willie Davis and the agreement behind it. He had two witnesses left, his forensic document examiner and an insurance expert. Terri Christopher was a woman in her mid-fifties who had been studying documents and handwriting for thirty years. She was short, trim, nicely dressed and carried an aura of confidence that whatever she said would be believed by a jury. After establishing her qualifications, Leyton put the same signatures on the overhead. Christopher used a laser pointer to highlight the similarities in the signatures. The jury watched with interest as she explained the loop in the “D” and the way the “s” in Davis was almost exactly the same. Her opinion was that there could be no conclusion other than the two signatures were made by the same person.

Next came Erwin Steinman, a former director of the Texas Department of Insurance. He completely refuted Gamboa’s testimony and added that if an employee agreed, a life insurance policy could continue to be in force after the employee left, particularly if the employee was to receive benefit from the continuation of the policy, like $10,000 going to his family at the time of his death. After his two experts testified, Leyton rested his case.

The expert testimony was most typical of almost every trial in the country. There were experts with opinions for hire on any subject, any time. It was like Jerry Buchanan said to Jack. If Leyton had hired him, he could make an equally compelling argument that the signatures were the same. Jack made a few minor points with each of the experts and then quit. His gut told him that the case was no longer going to be decided by opinions from experts. In fact, he had decided not to call Buchanan.

87

Allison was shocked when he returned from lunch to find Quillen, sitting on a hallway bench outside the courtroom, a frown on his face. He didn’t even get up when Allison approached.

“Beau, what the hell are you doing here?”

“That goddamn Jack Bryant subpoenaed me this morning.”

“Shit. What does he want with you?”

“Damned if I know. The subpoena just said to be here. I know that I can’t ignore it. I wish your lawyer had let me know it was coming. I could have gotten out of town.”

“Sorry, Beau. We didn’t know.”

When the court was assembled for the afternoon, Jack announced, “Your Honor, we call Beauregard Quillen in rebuttal. He’s under subpoena and is waiting in the hall.”

McDowell nodded to Waddill who went out the door and returned momentarily with Quillen in tow. Quillen was dressed in his banker’s three piece, pin striped suit with his customary red tie. He took the witness stand with an air of confidence. While not quite as well known in Fort Worth as Allison, most jurors recognized either him or his name. They had all seen commercials for Quillen Bank and Trust.

Before Jack could ask his first question, Leyton asked to approach the bench. “Judge, we don’t understand what evidence Mr. Quillen can bring to this jury. We object.”

“Your Honor, Mr. Allison has testified that Allison Southwest is in the best financial condition it’s seen for the past several years. I have information to the contrary, and believe that Mr. Allison’s banker would be the person to enlighten the jury on that condition. It goes to the credibility of Mr. Allison as a witness, Your Honor.”

“Your Honor,” Leyton said, taking a shot at Jack. “I’m beginning to question the legality of how Mr. Bryant is obtaining this information on my client.”

“Mr. Leyton, this is not the time or place for that. Take it up with the grievance committee or the D.A. after the trial. Objection overruled. You can begin your questions. If I believe you are going too far afield, understand I’ll rein you in.”

Jack noticed a subtle shift in the judge’s attitude almost as if the evidence was impacting on his opinion of Allison. Jack forged ahead, quickly establishing the long relationship between Allison and Quillen, going back to that first loan. “Allison and his dealerships are your biggest customers, are they not Mr. Quillen?”

Quillen looked at Allison for several seconds and concluded that he was under oath. The last thing he needed in his life right now was a charge of perjury. He elected to answer the questions, including the good, the bad and the ugly.

“Allison and his company were certainly my biggest clients for a number of years. They are still a major client, but the economy has gotten to Allison just like it has to a number of my other customers.”

“Mr. Allison has described his company as being financially very strong. Is that an apt description?”

Quillen folded his hands on the rail in front of his seat. “Look, Mr. Bryant, Dwayne has half the dealerships he had five years ago. That ought to give you a pretty good clue.”

Jack got up from his table and walked over to stand in front of the witness, leaning on his cane. “Sorry, Mr. Quillen, but clues aren’t good enough. Is he current on his notes to you, floor plans, that kind of thing?”

Quillen hesitated and looked at Allison again. “No, sir. He hasn’t made a principal payment on any of his notes in three years. Currently, he’s behind on interest to the tune of fifteen to twenty million dollars.”

“Has Allison Southwest made any payments at all on loans from your banks in the past three years?”

Quillen saw the opportunity to help Allison out. “Of course, Mr. Bryant. He’s begun to pay down the interest. Maybe his business is improving. I’m just happy to see the debt coming down.”

The wheels were spinning in Jack’s head. “Are these regular, monthly payments, Mr. Quillen?”

Quillen saw where Jack was going and didn’t want to go there. “Sometimes, counselor.”

Jack walked toward the witness until he was about five feet away. “In fact, most of the payments have been in the last six months and are large sums that show up randomly. Isn’t that true, Mr. Quillen?”

Quillen shifted in the witness chair, took a sip of water and thought about his answer. “I suppose that’s at least partially true.”

Jack had just confirmed what he suspected all along. The proceeds from the dead peasant policies were being used to pay on Allison’s loans. “Those payments are usually round figures, from $200,000 to $600,000, right Mr. Quillen?”

“I couldn’t say for sure without looking at the books.”

Jack asked a throwaway question. “How are these loans secured, sir?”

“I have a lien on everything Mr. Allison owns. That includes his real estate, buildings, cars, trucks, horses, his house, even life insurance policies on his employees.”

“Shit,” Leyton said softly to Allison. “Why the hell did he have to say that?”

“Do you have records on the employee life insurance policies?”

Quillen didn’t want to answer, but he was in too deep to back out now. “I do. Mr. Allison is required by our loan agreements to update those records monthly.”

“And the reason for that is because he’s required to turn over the proceeds of any of those policies to you upon their receipt, and that would explain the lump sum payments for the past six months, wouldn’t it, Mr. Quillen?”

Quillen looked at Allison with an apology etched on his face before he answered.

“Probably true, counselor.”

Jack walked to stand in front of the witness. “So, the fact of the matter is that Allison is not making payments from net income from his business because he doesn’t have such income. Those payments are coming from proceeds on life insurance on the lives of his former employees, correct, Mr. Quillen?”

Quillen looked for a way to avoid answering the question and could think of none. “You’re correct, Mr. Bryant. His payments have coincided with proceeds from those policies.”

Jack looked at Leyton and let a small smile cross his face. At last he had a way to
legally
get his hands on the entire list of dead peasant policies. “Your Honor, at this time we are advising the court that we will be issuing a subpoena for production of documentation of Allison Southwest dead peasant policies in Mr. Quillen’s possession as well as payments from Allison Southwest to Quillen Bank and Trust for the past six months, to include, of course, Your Honor, dates of any such payments. If Mr. Leyton chooses to object, I direct the court’s attention to my statements as to relevance yesterday afternoon after the jury was gone and Mr. Allison’s testimony that his payments to Quillen Bank and Trust came from net income from his business. We will serve it on Mr. Quillen as soon as he leaves the courtroom today.”

J.D. took his cue and quietly left the courtroom to get the document from the district clerk’s office.

Leyton rose and made a half-hearted objection about relevance which the judge overruled.

Quillen turned to the judge. “Judge McDowell, this will be a grave inconvenience of me and my staff. I have an important meeting tomorrow that I can’t get out of.”

“Mr. Quillen, I’m quite certain that you’ve got someone in your office who can pull that information from a computer. It’s your choice as to whether to be there or not. We’re adjourned for the day.”