Page 15 of Falling for Roxanne

“I appreciate it, but there’s nothing Colin wouldn’t say on speakerphone in front of a crowd, trust me. He’s with my sister right now, and they’re watching Wall-E. Again. I am not sorry to be missing that boring, sad cartoon, I’m telling you.”

“Hey, I liked that one,” I protested.

“Well, then you and Colin would get along fine. He loves robots. Even if they’re rolling around in a trash pile being depressed apparently.”

“It’s a sweet movie.”

“If you say so. I’ve seen it about twenty times now. I think the opening music makes me go to sleep immediately as a defense mechanism,” he joked.

“Maybe you’re just tired,” I suggested.

“That could be it, too,” he said. “Six-year-olds have a lot of energy.”

“Does he like Chinese food?”

“No. I’m not giving up hope, but he is not here for food that is touching other food unless it’s pizza. He’ll do salad and stuff, but cooked vegetables mixed together—no way. So this is a treat for me. Grown up food, grown up conversation. Even though it’s business and I’ve spent the whole time talking about my kid,” he said. “Sorry. I’m a proud dad. I admit I’m obsessed with him.”

“I think it’s great. I missed my dad a lot growing up. It’s wonderful that you and your son have a close relationship.”

“I’m sure that was difficult for both of you. I can’t imagine being separated from my son, and I almost think he’d survive it better than I would. I’d be so emotional,” he said.

“That’s a very empathetic way to look at it. Most people if they find out my dad was incarcerated, they are pretty clear that if he had wanted to take care of his family, he wouldn’t have gone around committing crimes. Which he didn’t, but you have no idea how people look at you when you say your imprisoned father is innocent or he was framed. Like you’re completely delusional or you’re lying. That is some real eye rolling energy you get there,” I admitted.

“People are really judgmental, especially if they’ve never had contact with the system themselves, either policing or the courts. Once you find out how powerless you can feel, how little say you have in what happens to you once you’re in that system—it’s a different story,” Hamilton said seriously.

“That’s true. Not many people think like that though.”

“That’s unfortunate but I believe it. I’m sorry your family had to go through that. As for our client, we may be one step closer to reuniting him with his family in the outside world,” he said.

“You said you had news,” I prompted, taking a big bite.

“Yes, the eyewitness from the original trial, Pansy Lestrade.”

“Yeah. Her statement wasn’t very specific compared to her testimony at the trial. It’s always seemed a little shady to me,” I said, not wanting to suggest more.

I thought she was lying, is what I really thought, but I didn’t want to throw around accusations because I didn’t have any proof, and also, I was just an intern. I shouldn’t really speculate. So, I waited for him to fill me in on the new developments in the case.

“I agree. And I’ve spoken with a woman, the now-ex-wife of the detective on the original case.”

“Detective Cheavers? What did the ex-wife have to do with it?”

“Well, the gag order was lifted and she can speak about their divorce. Pansy Lestrade was named as a third party in that case. It was settled out of court but there was an eighteen-month period in which the ex wasn’t allowed to speak about the terms of the case.”

“Pansy was screwing Cheavers, who might have wanted an open and shut case. So her memory just got a lot clearer on the witness stand. What a coincidence,” I said sarcastically. “Sorry, but my dad was convicted because the police didn’t put through a report on the eyewitness account that exonerated him. The case was already cut and dry, they said, and they didn’t want the complication of a long trial. So they just buried that information. I’m a little triggered by this. It just makes me want to help even more, work even harder, you know?”

“Yeah, I think I understand.”

“Thank you. I know we’re not supposed to take the cases personally, but it’s just personal for me. I mean, Pansy could have been paid off by her lover or just given false testimony to please him. Also, how nasty is that? Really. A dirty cop screwing the witness and probably getting her to change her story…” I put down my fork, because it kind of made me lose my appetite. “Are we going to contact Pansy directly? Or are we going to try to talk to people close to her first and find out if she ever admitted to perjury?” I asked.

“There’s two schools of thought on that. One, if we can get a relative to say on the record that she admits to lying, that helps. But the flip side of that is Pansy finds out we’re fishing around in her past and trying to make trouble and she then refuses to cooperate with us. Then we have to get a subpoena and hope she tells the truth and she’s a hostile witness,” he said.

“So it’s better to talk to her from the beginning,” I said. “I guess if I was me, I’d want to tell my own story in my own way, and not have people sniffing around asking my friends about stuff. But the fact is, I’m not sure we can trust her. I mean, she was sleeping with a married cop, and she probably lied for money or sex or attention or whatever. And since we could bring her nothing but possible trouble for perjury, why would she tell us anything?” I asked.

“You’re assuming that whatever reasons she had for lying are still valid and in play. And you’re assuming further that her only motivation is purely selfish when people lie for a lot of reasons, and not all of them are evil. I’m not trying to be the devil’s advocate, and I don’t even think she’s the devil here, but there’s always a possibility that she’d be willing to speak about it and get it off her chest, for the relief of confession and the promise of immunity.”

“Can we do that?” I asked, hoping the answer was yes.

“I’ll have to speak to the judge on the case and the opposing counsel before I can promise it, but I think it’s a fair assumption. She’d be a fool to say a word before she had a document in front of her guaranteeing her freedom from prosecution based on any sworn statement she makes in regard to this case.”

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