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The doorbell rings. He laughs now and sets me on the ground as we rush to pull ourselves together. I’m tugging my sweats back on when he kisses me. “I’m going to get the door.”
He rushes out of the kitchen and I laugh again. This needs to go in the journal. I swipe at my hair and turn toward the door as Reese walks in the door with Savage behind him and I laugh again.
“Why are you laughing now?” he asks.
Savage answers. “Because you have more of her lipstick on your face than she does.”
The look that settles on Reese’s face is decisively satisfied. I do believe my man just marked his territory. It’s not a normal behavior for Reese, but somehow, today, it’s perfect. “Just wanted to tell you that attorney asshole that was blackmailing you is in bad enough condition to be placed in ICU. Bad news for him, but good news for you. This just reaffirms the fact that he won’t be coming after you anytime soon. One of us will update you if we hear more.”
He turns to leave, and Reese and I stare at each other, the lightness of our mood fading. Yes, I’m safe, but at what cost?
Hours after we receive the news about Debbie, Elsa and Richard, are back after a dinner break, and in the living room, preparing for tomorrow, including the possibility that Martha could back out. Every outcome is considered. Every strategy dissected. I’m in the kitchen working on my column and take a break to join them, sinking into a cushy chair as Richard and Elsa have claimed the couch.
Reese is standing, pacing as he often does during these sessions, but he sits down on the ottoman next to me. “Here’s the big question,” Richard says, speaking to us all. “Do we tell Dana in advance of Martha’s testimony?”
“She’s sleeping with Reginald,” Elsa says. “If Martha backs out, we don’t want to have Dana freaking out on Reginald, then him trying to save himself.”
“Which could mean throwing Dana under the bus,” Richard says scrubbing his jaw, his tie long gone, and his jacket with it.
“We’re going to take that risk no matter what,” Reese says. “Once Martha outs Reginald, he’ll be in survival mode.”
“But no matter what,” I interject, “the jury will have doubt about Dana’s guilt.”
“Exactly,” Reese says. “But I do think we need to hold back on informing Dana about Martha’s testimony until after it happens. Let’s let her and Reginald coast through the night.”
“Desperate people do desperate things,” Elsa replies. “Once Martha testifies, Reginald will panic and Royce’s team will be watching.”
Desperate people do desperate things. I replay that in my head. Wait.
“What if she lied?” I ask.
The entire room turns to look at me.
Chapter seventy-nine
Cat
Istand up and so does Reese, both of us facing each other. “I know we talked about Dana and Reginald working together, but we all believed Martha when we were at the police station.”
“But what if she lied?” Reese says. “Yes. That’s been on my mind as well. What if she lied?”
“What if she lied again,” I supply, “since a lie is what got her put in jail in the first place.”
“I have to break her on the stand just like I would Reginald.”
“Treat her like a hostile witness,” I assume.
“Exactly,” he agrees, his hands coming down on my arms as he pulls me to him and kisses me. “I need to call Royce and make sure he’s still digging around on her.” He reaches for his phone and I feel the words in my head forming, with a need to put them on paper.
I slip away again and return to the kitchen, sitting down in front of my computer, considering all that happened today with Martha and even Debbie, before I finish my column and then write my closing.
Too often, we let other people scare us into doing nothing. It’s easy to think that if we do nothing, we get nothing in return, which sounds pretty horrible, but it can feel safe. The problem with doing nothing is that the result is not nothing. Something happens because we choose not to act, but we choose to allow the result to be out of our control. By doing nothing, we leave the results to someone else. We accept their outcome. What does this have to do with the day in court? Martha Banks went to jail for lying. Lying is not doing nothing. It’s doing something. She chose to lie. A lie is complex, rooted in a truth that doesn’t want to be told. What is that lie for Martha Banks and what is the truth that hides behind it?
I’m interested to find out what happens tomorrow when she returns to the stand when she must choose to a) tell the truth, b) lie again, or c) plead the fifth. I certainly hope she chooses to tell the truth, but what is that truth? Her own guilt or perhaps knowledge of someone else’s? Until then, —Cat.
I think of Debbie and her lie. The lie hides the truth. Her lie hid the real father of her baby, to in turn deliver her a payoff. Desperate people do desperate things. Tomorrow, Reese is going to make a lot of people a whole lot more desperate, including the prosecutor.
Morning comes with a jagged-edged energy. I’m hanging over the toilet and hiding it. Reese is hyped up on caffeine, and eager to step into the courtroom, where we all believe he’ll win the trial by way of reasonable doubt, even if he doesn’t end it by way of a confession. I dress in a black dress that fits loosely around the waist, while Reese wears a blue pinstriped suit he has me pick out because he’s on the phone with Royce and can’t seem to actually get dressed.
