Page 35 of The 1 Lawyer

“How many years have you been in practice, Dr. Caro?”

He returned his focus to me. “I’ve had the privilege of serving the women of Biloxi for eleven years.”

That was a line I’d given him. He carried it off.

Caro had won several awards, done some community service and philanthropy. We covered that, continuing to build his profile as a guy who wouldn’t murder his pregnant girlfriend.

“And, Dr. Caro, did you have occasion to be honored by the Harrison County Chamber of Commerce?”

“Yes. They named me Man of the Year in the under-forty category four years ago.” He sounded appropriately humble.

I checked my notes. “Did you say four years ago, Doctor?”

He paused, squinted at the ceiling. “Sorry, Stafford Lee—it was five years back, actually.” Looking sheepish, he grinned. “I should have remembered that. I don’t qualify in the under-forty category anymore. Not since my birthday. Plus I’m getting too much gray hair.”

A couple of jurors seemed to be warming to him. The oldest lady on the panel cracked a smile at the gray-hair reference.

“Directing your attention to the last calendar year, did you have occasion to meet Aurora Gates?”

He sobered immediately. “I did. We met in November, approximately seven months before she died.”

“How did you meet?”

“I was at the courthouse testifying as an expert in a civil lawsuit. And we met in the lobby. She came up and introduced herself.”

“Did you have occasion to meet with her after that?”

“She texted me and said she wanted to use me as a resource for a class project. We met for coffee two days later.”

I walked to the wooden lectern and rested my elbow on it. “And did you discuss a class project on that occasion?”

“No. It was a pretext. Aurora told me she was suffering pain and bleeding and asked whether she needed medical care. She’d recently had an abortion.”

I let that sink in while I waited for Gordon-James to fly out of his chair.

CHAPTER 28

THE DA’S voice bounced off the walls of the courtroom. “Objection, Your Honor! Request to approach the bench!”

He was so angry, his hands were shaking. From his reaction, you’d think he’d been blindsided.

But Gordon-James already knew. Under the Mississippi Rules of Criminal Procedure, prior to trial, the prosecution must disclose all of its evidence to the defense, so I was aware that during the course of the investigation, the police had obtained from Caro the victim’s medical records. And because I’d served Caro’s records custodian with a subpoena duces tecum, the copy of the subpoena was in the court’s file. He surely couldn’t claim surprise.

But damned if he didn’t act surprised. Also indignant. “This is wholly irrelevant, Your Honor. It’s an unjustified attack on the character of the murder victim, an attempt to sway the jury against her. The outcome of her prior pregnancy is not relevant to any issue of this case.”

“Judge, it’s not character assassination, it’s a statement of fact. The pregnancy that she terminated and the symptoms she suffered afterward are why she wanted to meet with my client. It’s entirely relevant.”

“The objection is overruled. You may continue, Mr. Penney,” Judge Walker said.

After we turned away from the bench, the DA muttered a message meant for my ears alone. “You son of a bitch. When you attacked my niece’s reputation, Aurora was assaulted yet again. I won’t forget this, Penney.”

I let it bounce off me. Of course the DA wouldn’t want the jury to know she’d had an abortion. Their sympathy for Aurora Gates would take a hit when we displayed the medical records that confirmed the truth of Caro’s testimony.

A woman’s decision to terminate a pregnancy wouldn’t have created a ripple in a lot of other places, but this was Mississippi, where antiabortion sentiment ran high. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Mississippi passed a law banning abortion in most cases. Abortion was also illegal in the adjoining states of Alabama and Louisiana. Aurora Gates had had to travel to Illinois to have the procedure performed.

Though we hadn’t polled the jury on the issue, many of the jurors sitting in that box were bound to sympathize with the pro-life movement. And people in that camp viewed abortion as murder.

I resumed my spot at the lectern. “Pardon the interruption, Doctor. What did Aurora Gates confide to you?”

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