The One Who Got Away (30 page)

* * *

There is a turning point in every trial, and with David's trial, it came when District Attorney Sandy Ruiz wheeled two empty suitcases into the court.

Tucker the Texan stood up. ‘Objection,' he said.

I waved at him to sit down. ‘You knew this was coming,' I said.

‘I want my objection on the record,' he said, wagging a bent, white finger in the direction of the court stenographer.

‘It's on the record. Now sit.'

Tucker sat. Sandy wheeled the two suitcases into the centre of the courtroom. I stretched up in my seat and peered over the bench. One of the suitcases was a black Samsonite, 100 per cent polycarbonate with a scratch-resistant, micro-diamond finish, guaranteed for life. It had four spinners – wheels that turn the full 360 degrees – and a brushed metal, side-mounted combination lock.

The other suitcase – well, was it even a suitcase? More like a travel bag. It had four sturdy wheels on the base, but it was collapsible, with zips that would allow somebody to make it bigger and then bigger again.

‘Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,' Sandy said, ‘you have been sitting in court for a long time. I thank you for your patience and your attention. I need a little more of the latter because these suitcases are an important part of our case. Please take a good look.'

Some of the jurors shuffled forward in their seats.

‘Now, with this big one, some of you can probably tell that this is an expensive case. In fact, it retails for nine hundred and eighty dollars,' said Sandy.

A couple of the jurors raised their eyebrows at each other, as if to say:
‘Woo-wee, that's expensive.'

‘Yep, that's a lot of suitcase,' said Sandy, reading their minds, ‘and that's a lot of money. Although, probably not to the defendant …'

‘Objection,' said Tucker, rising slightly from his seat.

‘Withdrawn,' said Sandy. ‘Still, you get a lot for that money. For example, look how light this case is,' she said, using the top handle to turn the case a full 360 degrees, ‘especially when it's empty. But is this case empty? Let's see, shall we?'

Sandy's junior got up behind the defence table and helped her place the suitcase gently on its side. The jury watched, transfixed, as the two of them got onto their knees and unzipped it, leaving it open like a clam on the floor.

‘Yes. Here we go,' said Sandy. ‘This case is definitely empty.'

One of the jurors stretched up in his chair. As far as I or anyone else could tell, there was nothing in the case but elastic cross-straps, and silky lining, billowing up like clouds.

‘Now look at this second case,' Sandy continued. ‘It is much smaller, but hey presto, when you start undoing these zips' – she began doing just that – ‘it expands and expands, and by the time you're done, why you could almost fit a whole person in here.'

‘Oh, objection,' said Tucker, exasperated.

‘How can you object to
that
?' said Sandy. ‘That's just a fact.'

Tucker glared, as if to say, ‘Why
wouldn't
I object to that?'

‘That's leading the jury,' he said.

‘Well, fair enough,' said Sandy, putting a hand on her knee for balance as she got shakily to her feet, ‘fair enough. I'd be objecting to this case being in court if I were you, too.'

She smiled. Tucker was in no mood to smile back. Sandy looked up at me, and said: ‘May I?'

‘You may,' I said.

Sandy turned to her junior, who left the court through a side door. The jurors seemed curious. What was happening? The junior was wheeling old-fashioned medical scales into the courtroom.

‘Thank you,' said Sandy. How much she knew about medical scales before the trial of David Wynne-Estes, I don't know, but she set about balancing the weights and a steel hook. She picked up the Samsonite with both hands, and hung it from the hook, and moved the weights again.

David, in the witness box, couldn't take his eyes off the scales.

‘Let's see,' Sandy said, thoughtfully. ‘I make that … five pounds. Tucker, if you could confirm that?'

Tucker got up, sulkily. He strode towards the scale and gave it a cursory glance.

‘You agree?' asked Sandy.

‘Sure,' he said, all surly.

‘We're agreed,' said Sandy, happily. ‘Lovely. We are agreed on something. That's so nice. This empty case weighs five pounds. Now, if I could just ask the jury to again examine the footage of the defendant – David – and his beautiful young wife, Loren, leaving their house to go to the airport …'

The jurors turned to look at the big screens. There, again, was footage they had seen a dozen times of David rolling their suitcases towards the car that would take them to LAX for the flight to Cabo.

‘We've seen this a dozen times. My friend Mr Bingham has already explained to you why Loren looks so happy. It's not because she's heading out on a much-needed second honeymoon with her husband, who she's forgiven for his affair. It's not because she believes that her marriage is back on track. It's because she's just killed a woman and she's trying to cover it up by pretending to be happy. Ridiculous, in my opinion, but never mind that – how many cases do they have?' asked Sandy.

One juror lifted a finger and began to point and count, silently.

‘By my count, they have three cases between them,' said Sandy, ‘but let's count them together, shall we?' She moved her red laser pointer onto the image. ‘Here we are. Loren has one – and it's a big black Samsonite, just like this one here – and here David has two, and one of them is a blue Samsonite, pretty much like the one we have here in court today, and the other … well, it's like this collapsible bag, isn't it? It's like this bag, opened up to about half its possible size, would you all agree with that?'

The jurors reacted cautiously. Were they supposed to answer?

‘No, don't answer,' said Sandy, reading their minds, ‘all I need is for you to see what I see, which is Loren with one big black case, and David with one big blue case, and then David with his computer bag strapped around his body, and then this third case – a collapsible, canvas case – out on its wheels, too. And now, Your Honour, I'd like to call Naomi Linden.'

‘Very well,' I said.

‘Ms Linden, what is your occupation?' said Sandy. The question hardly seemed necessary. Naomi was wearing a flight-attendant's uniform, complete with a silky, corporate neckerchief.

‘I work for North-South Airlines,' she said.

‘Of course you do,' said Sandy. From there, she took the jury through the basics: Naomi had been on duty when David and Loren Wynne-Estes had approached her counter to check in their bags for the flight to Cabo San Lucas; and yes, one of the cases that David checked in was a blue Samsonite; another was a black Samsonite; and the third case was a collapsible case, with four wheels and canvas sides, and a steel, retractable handle on the top; and yes, Naomi was able to confirm for the jury that David's blue case had weighed fifty pounds, while Loren's black case weighed only twenty-two pounds, and as for the collapsible case, it seemed to have almost nothing in it, for it weighed only fifteen pounds.

‘So that collapsible case wasn't quite empty, but it was pretty much empty when David checked it in?' suggested Sandy.

‘It was.'

‘And how commonly do you see people checking in almost-empty cases?'

‘Oh, it's not
uncommon
,' said Naomi. ‘Many people take half-empty cases when they travel. Shopping is a big part of the vacation experience for them. They know they're going to be buying things. A light case like that isn't something I'd normally be concerned about.'

‘And so you weren't concerned?'

‘I wasn't. In fact, I remember joking with his – the defendant's – wife: “Oh, you're going to have fun filling these up,” and she said, “Yes, yes, yes.”'

‘Lovely,' said Sandy, and Naomi was dismissed.

Sandy turned to the jury. ‘Now I'd like to show you some more footage,' she said, using the clicker to change the images on the screen. ‘You've seen the defendant and his wife getting into their car with three cases. You've heard Ms Naomi Linden
saying she checked in three cases. Now you see David and Loren boarding the ship. Up the gangplank they go. There's Loren, with a little frangipani behind her ear. There's David with his glass of champagne. And look here, behind them; that's one of the ship's porters, and how many cases does he have? Two! One of them is the tall black Samsonite, and one of them is a tall blue Samsonite.'

A couple of the jurors nodded. Yes, okay, the porter had only two cases, and both were Samsonite.

‘So, where is the third case?' asked Sandy.

The jury didn't answer. They weren't supposed to answer. Also, how were they to know?

‘Well, our side say it's inside that black Samsonite,' said Sandy, ‘which was of course where it started its journey. You all remember that, don't you? David says that Loren had this case inside her big black case, ready to do some shopping, and he took it out and stuffed her clothes into it, right? The clothes she wore on the night she killed Lyric. Which, if he had them, would help to prove that she did indeed kill Lyric. Because maybe they'd have a fleck of blood or something on them. But he doesn't have those clothes. Why not? He says that when he got to Cabo, he threw them out. Why? Because he was helping Loren cover up her crime. That's what he says. What I say is that David did no such thing. I say he simply told Loren that he was going to make three cases two cases, by folding this collapsible case back into her Samsonite before they got on board the ship. And I say that we can prove that, because these suitcases were weighed going onto the plane, and they were weighed again going onto the ship, and Loren's case, when it goes onto the ship, is no longer twenty-two pounds, it's actually almost forty pounds, so it seems to me that the collapsible case is now inside this bigger case.'

Some of the jurors nodded. That seemed to make sense.

‘And now, if it pleases the court, I'd like to recall Melissa Haas,' said Sandy.

A door at the back of the courtroom opened. The Guest Relations Manager of the company that owns the
Silver Lining
wasn't happy to be recalled. She had previously asked the court for permission to give all her testimony at once, rather than having to make multiple trips to the States, but that didn't suit Sandy.

‘I realise this is your second time here, and I do apologise for the inconvenience,' said Sandy.

‘It's fine,' said Ms Haas, smiling weakly.

‘The reason I've called you back is, I need you to confirm something for me. How many suitcases did David and Loren have when they boarded?'

‘Two,' said Ms Haas.

‘And how many suitcases did your porters carry off the ship for David after Loren disappeared?'

‘Two,' said Melissa, her lips in a thin line.

‘Two.'

‘That's correct. Two.'

‘So two went on, and two went off?'

‘Correct.'

‘And, Ms Haas, just while I've got you there,' Sandy continued, ‘you testified to this earlier, but just to be sure, you have checked every inch of the surveillance tapes, haven't you?'

‘We have.'

‘And it goes without saying that you found no footage of anyone lobbing a suitcase over the edge of your ship?'

One juror gasped.

‘We most certainly did not,' said Ms Haas.

‘You're sure? You've checked all the tapes? All the cameras? Every inch of every one? That's got to be a big job. A labour-intensive, time-consuming task, checking all those tapes. Maybe you missed it?'

Ms Haas shook her blonde head. ‘We have examined every inch of every tape,' she said, firmly, ‘as have your police here in Bienveneda, as have police in Holland. That's not the kind of thing we – or anyone – would be likely to miss. Had one of our cameras captured that, we'd have seen it.'

‘Okay, but just to be doubly sure that I understand the situation correctly, you don't have Man Overboard technology that would detect an item of that size going over, do you?'

‘No,' said Ms Haas.

‘And you don't have security cameras aimed …'

‘At every balcony? On every deck? Into all corners and on all levels? No. Of course we don't. Nobody does.'

Ms Haas was getting cross. Sandy could sense it, too.

‘Please don't misunderstand me,' she said, ‘I'm not accusing you of anything, but for the jury's sake, I need this point to be extremely clear. A suitcase – an expandable case, like the one we've all been looking at here in the courtroom today – could go overboard, and you'd never know?'

‘It's possible,' Ms Haas conceded.

‘What did you say?'

‘I said, it's possible.'

‘Oh, but it's not possible,' said Sandy, smiling. ‘It's much more than
possible
. Because we say that's what
happened
. A case like this one went on your ship but it did not come off.'

‘I can't see how you'd say that,' said Ms Haas. ‘Mr and Mrs Wynne-Estes took two cases onto the ship and Mr Wynne-Estes
took two cases off. The collapsible case could still be inside the big case.'

‘Absolutely true,' said Sandy. ‘They took two cases on, but they left the US with three cases. We saw them do that! And we say that David took that third case onto the ship, inside one of those Samsonites. And that third case is now missing. And I think I know what happened to it. I think this man' – here, she swung around, to point a finger at David – ‘put this beautiful woman' – Sandy swung back to point dramatically at the large photograph of Loren on the easel in the courtroom – ‘inside a case just like this one,' she said, swinging her arm back towards the collapsible case, ‘and then …'