Page 19 of The 1 Lawyer

“That sounds right.”

“The way she was acting, Stafford Lee, gave me a feeling. She wants to be a hero.”

Stafford Lee listened, nodding. “Right. I know the type.” He reached into the big briefcase and unearthed a file.

When he flipped it open, Jenny picked up her bag. “I’ll let you get to work. Are we good for Saturday? Can I confirm the meeting with the witness?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

She’d almost reached the door when Stafford Lee called, “Hey, Jenny? The next time I ask you to leave and come back later, I’d really appreciate it if you’d do that. It’s for your own safety.”

Jenny swung the door open. Stafford Lee sometimes forgot that she was her own boss; he needed a reminder. “Go to hell,” she said.

CHAPTER 16

AS I headed to the courthouse on Wednesday morning, I should have been weak and bleary-eyed from getting only three hours of sleep, but I was in fighting form. Whether it was Caro Sr. or Jenny or my old man who’d gotten my wheels spinning was tough to say, but I appreciated the push.

The first person I spotted in the lobby was the victim’s father, Benjamin Gates. I glanced away quickly, but not before seeing how the tragedy had grayed his hair and carved deep creases into his brow. He sat in one of the upholstered seats, flanked by a preacher on one side and a woman who I guessed must be Aurora’s stepmother on the other. Her mother, the DA’s older sister, had passed away years ago. Cancer, I seemed to recall.

Both days of testimony, I’d glimpsed Benjamin Gates in the courtroom gallery several rows behind Gordon-James’s counsel table. I’d dodged his gaze there and in the hall during recess.

Now he saw me walk across the lobby; he handed off his coffee cup and rose from his seat. I looked away, heading straight for the security station. There was nothing to be gained by a public encounter with Benjamin Gates.

He was following me. I whispered to the security guard, a deputy who’d been in Carrie Ann’s English class a few years back, “Yancey, can you let me pass? I’m in a hurry.”

He paused for a split second, then nodded and stepped aside. I walked around the metal detector, grateful for the favor, and strode to the stairway.

Gates trotted up to the security post, calling, “Stafford Lee Penney! I’ve got something to say to you!”

I took the stairs two at a time, distancing myself from security, where the young deputy ordered Gates to empty his pockets and step through the metal detector. It sounded like they were having words.

When the courtroom door closed behind me, I put the minor commotion out of my head and focused on the job I had to do. It was time to turn the screws on the DNA expert, McNabb.

Twenty minutes later, I commenced my cross-examination. “Mr. McNabb, did you have occasion to review the autopsy report in connection with your role in this case?”

“I did, as part of my preparation.”

“So you’re familiar with it.”

“I am. Generally.”

“And you’re aware that the deceased, Aurora Gates, sustained multiple injuries, including injuries consistent with forcible sexual intercourse.”

“I am.”

I was feeling so sure of myself, I asked an open-ended question: “What DNA evidence can you provide that proves my client, Daniel Caro, inflicted those injuries?”

McNabb blinked his eyes repeatedly. Kind of reminded me of an owl. “I testified that the swab from the victim’s cervix—”

I cut him off. “No, Mr. McNabb, we all know about the DNA in the cervix. I’m talking about the other injuries. The gunshot wound, the strangulation, the abrasions on the genitalia. Is there DNA evidence from those injuries that matches Daniel Caro’s?”

The expert cleared his throat. “There is not. No DNA evidence obtained from the injuries you described matched the defendant’s DNA.”

I stepped closer to the witness stand. “Then it’s possible, isn’t it, that those injuries could have been inflicted by someone else? Someone other than the defendant?”

He nodded. “It’s possible.”

“Mr. McNabb, let’s focus on the injuries to the genitalia. You’re telling us that those injuries are not tied by DNA evidence to Daniel Caro, correct?”

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