Page 53 of Jason's Justice
“Thoughts?” Ilsa asked quietly.
“Just thinking about the closing argument for tomorrow. I know I shouldn’t be frustrated about Steve coming to me to talk, but I get so frustrated when defense attorneys try to bargain the charges against their clients away, especially with the mountain of evidence we have against them.”
“I can understand your frustration, as a defense attorney myself, I have done that.” She shook her head and held up her hand to stop what he was about to say. “However, it was when the prosecutor was grasping at straws and everything was speculation, and no hard evidence. Nothing like this case against Grayson.”
“Oh, well then, in those cases I’ve talked deals. I’m not saying we came to a conclusion, but we’ve talked.” He shook his head as he started gathering their dinner plates. “I don’t deal with people like Grayson. It pisses me off when people like that expect to get a reduced sentence just because of their clout before they were caught.”
Ilsa remained silent as she watched him, and when he finished cleaning up and rejoined her, she asked quietly, “Are you going to recommend he serve in a Federal prison?”
“No, that’s going to be part of my closing argument, he did the crime, and just because he was a director of the FBI, that doesn’t give him the right to have a cushy prison sentence. His crimes weren’t federal, only his position with the agency was.”
“Good,” Ilsa said and they went into the dining room and worked for the next six hours on Jason’s closing argument for the next day.
CHAPTER 22
“What now?”Kevin Lassiter asked as he, Ilsa, Lyle, and Jason stood in the hallway outside the court room, all of them looking lost.
“Now we wait,” Jason said on a heavy sigh. “We gave our closing statements, the judge gave instructions to the jury, now it is in their hands.” He shook his head at the group. “Was it just me, or did Grayson’s lawyer do a lot of talking, but didn’t say one damn thing?”
“It wasn’t you,” Kevin said with a shake of his head. “Three hours of talking around, over, and under the issue at hand, but nothing concrete. Where you took fifteen minutes and laid out the entire past six weeks of the trial. I did note that several of the jurors were nodding off during the defense statement.”
“Yeah,” Ilsa said with a shake of her head. “I reserved a room upstairs for us to wait in. We have it until six o’clock tonight. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t want to be too far away from here in case the jury comes back with a verdict quickly.”
“But not too quickly,” Jason and Lyle spoke at the same time. They made their way to the elevators, then up to the sixth floor to the spacious office reserved for them to wait. Just before heentered, Jason’s phone rang, and they all froze as they turned to look at him. He pulled it, scowled at the name and number, then looked at them.
“Not the jury, personal. I’ll be right in.” He stepped away, but not before handing his briefcase off to Kevin, and took several steps away from the door before answering. “Mrs. Hastings, is everything alright?”
“No, do you know when you’ll be home?”
“Not for at least a week,” Jason said on the fly. “The case I left to take just went to the jury. We’re waiting for a verdict, then I can come home. What’s going on?”
“I gave your phone number and e-mail address to the detectives. I was here doing my weekly cleaning. I only come in once a week with you gone.”
“That’s fine. What happened?”
“Remember when you dated Amber and she cheated on you with some guy, then she brought a real estate agent in to sell your townhouse?”
“Yes, what about it?”
“As I was cleaning, I heard someone downstairs. Instead of investigating, I called 911.”
“And?”
“Somehow the realtor had gotten a key to your new locks and she was in here taking measurements. When the police arrived, she said she had the owner’s permission to be there. I appeared and asked her who the owner was.”
“Good, you let her dig a hole for herself.”
“Yes, I learnt from the best. Anyway, she said that Amber was the owner. I turned to the detective and told him she was lying, then I told them what had happened when she, Amber, and that guy tried the same stunt a few years ago. She was arrested, and the police are going to call to see if you want to press charges. I said you would, but they need to hear it directly from you.”
“Do you have the name and number of the police detective in charge?”
“I snapped a photo of his business card and sent it to you.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Hastings, I’ll give them a call and have them tell me what happened. I’m not calling you a liar,” he didn’t say anything more because Mrs. Hastings interrupted him.
“I know you’re not, Jason. I just wanted you to know so you weren’t blindsided when they called you.”
“When did this happen?”
