No Way Out. David Kessler
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do you mean?’ asked Andi.
‘I never touched her. I’ve never even met her.’
‘All right,’ said Alex. ‘We’ll go into that in a moment. But first let me make one thing clear: we can’t argue that it’s both a case of mistaken identity and that she consented. We have to nail our colors to the mast early. In effect you’ve already committed us to saying that it’s mistaken identity because of what you told the police. Technically we can still change your story, but it won’t look good.’
‘But why should I change it? I never even met the bit—’
For a few seconds they all avoided each other’s eyes as they realized what Claymore had been about to say.
‘There goes Uncle Tom.’
There was mocking laughter and jeering as Elias Claymore shuffled his way to the end of the table.
‘Watch where you’re sitting!’ snarled the man next to him, as Claymore barely brushed against him when he sat.
Claymore tried to ignore the taunts. But when he raised the food to his mouth, he felt a sharp elbow in the rib cage, making him drop it. He knew that this was the first and final test. If he showed weakness now, they would make his life a living hell. He had to stand up to the bullies before they saw him as easy prey.
‘Look, cut it out!’ he shouted, leaping to his feet and turning to face his attacker.
The man rose to face Claymore. They were evenly matched for size, but the man was a lot younger and probably a lot fitter.
‘You talkin’ to me, Tom?’ The words were backed up by an open-handed shove.
‘Yeah, you!’ Claymore shot back, shoving the man equally hard.
The man took a swing at Claymore. Claymore ducked and dove in under his guard, clamping on a side headlock and hooking his right leg around the younger man’s left leg in a grapevine. The other man took a swing at Claymore with his left fist, which Claymore deflected with his open right. But he couldn’t avoid the younger man’s rabbit punch to the back of his head, a second before he swung the man round and grappled him to the ground.
The whole place erupted into pure chaos as a nervous guard hit the panic button.
‘So when are you going back to LA?’
Alex was sitting with his secretary Juanita in the reception of their San Francisco office on the 15th floor of the Embarcadero Center. He had flown back that afternoon, after the consultation with Claymore, and was now briefing his paralegal on the background to the case.
‘We’ve got the prelim in twelve days and I’m planning on pushing hard for a change of venue.’
‘What are the chances?’
‘Well the D.A. will fight us all the way. It’s Sarah Jensen. I don’t know if you’ve heard of her?’
‘I’ve heard of her,’ said Juanita. ‘Ventura County domestic violence section. The rumor mill says she’s got her sights set on her boss’s job.’
‘And her boss has his sights set on Sacramento.’
‘I know.’ She nodded.
‘Anyway,’ continued Alex, ‘we already had a fight on our hands about Andromeda Phoenix taking second seat and we won that. But that’s because she didn’t really have a leg to stand on. That means she’ll be even more determined on this one. And she’s got time to do her homework so it’s going to turn ugly.’
‘Maybe you should step aside and let it turn into a catfight. Assuming she’s good enough.’
‘Oh, Andi’s good. But I don’t know if she’s fully—’
The phone rang. Juanita picked it up.
‘Alex Sedaka’s office…oh hallo, Ms Phoenix…I’ll put you through right away.’
She put the call on hold.
‘I could have taken it here,’ said Alex.
‘I need this line free for other calls,’ said Juanita in her sharpest tone. ‘This is an office.’
‘Okay boss,’ he said, with a smile, as he rose from his chair.
Juanita put the call through to his office before he got there, making sure that his phone was ringing by the time he went through the door.
‘Hi, Andi,’ he said into the handset.
‘Hi, Mr Seda—Alex. Listen, I’ve been working here with the demographic department at my firm and we’ve been trying to figure out which are the best counties to try the case. We’ve come up with a list of counties based on demographic analysis and some public prejudice questionnaires.’
‘And which counties are they?’
‘Well the best is Alameda. I emailed a file over to you. Take a look at the demography. It has about 300,000 Hispanics to 200,000 African-Americans and half a million white non-Hispanics. It’s also got 350,000 Asians, who may or may not be friendly to Claymore. We’ll have to run some surveys to check that out.’
‘Okay. But the 200,000 African-Americans won’t necessarily be too friendly to Claymore.’
‘No, but I was thinking about this white liberal issue.’
‘What about it?’
‘Well, you can cherry pick the liberals at the voir dire.’
‘Yes, but whatever cherry picking we try and do, the prosecution will do the opposite. And they’ve got ten peremptories too.’
‘I know that. But it’s a question of how many liberals there are on the panel.’
‘Yes, but like you said, Andi, there’s no such thing as a white liberal county.’
‘By and large there isn’t. But I was thinking: Berkeley’s in Alameda and at Berkeley you’ve got the liberal academic contingent. And they tend to live around that area. So with that and the Hispanics and the Asians as well as the blacks, you might just be able to cherry pick a sympathetic jury.’
‘You could be onto something,’ Alex conceded. ‘The trouble is, the prosecution will fight us every inch of the way.’
‘Only if you let them know what you want. If you make it look like you’re afraid of a black jury and wary of Asians, they might just go for it themselves. The trick is to let the judge suggest it as a compromise.’
‘Andi, if you were here right now, I think I’d kiss you.’
‘In addition to the unfavorable comments on the talk radio stations, an opinion poll has shown that ninety-six percent of the women and seventy-eight percent of the men in the county believe my client to be guilty.’
The judge in Court 12 at the Ventura County Superior Court appeared to be listening attentively to Alex.
‘Clearly,’ Alex continued, ‘it would be impossible for my client to receive a fair trial in Ventura County under these circumstances. On the other hand there have been no such signs of prejudice in Sacramento.’
Andi