CHAPTER 43

“Ladies and gentleman of the jury, my name is Luke Maddox. And I’m going to cut to the chase.”

With these words an icy tremor travels north along my spine. There is nothing in this universe more dangerous than a succinct lawyer. I should know; in the courtroom, I’m as succinct as they come.

“The defendant Erin Simms is guilty of the crimes of arson and first degree murder and here’s why. Here is what the evidence will show.”

I lean back in my chair with a silenced sigh. An attorney possessed of the rare ability to state his opening concisely is like a fine storyteller. By being economical with his words, summarizing only the most basic and necessary evidence, Maddox will be able to magnify his intensity without confusing the jury with redundant or useless information. Like hammering in a nail without splintering the wood.

“The defendant Erin Simms was betrayed,” Maddox exclaims as he marches in front of the jury box like Braveheart before a battle. “Betrayed by the man she loved, the man she was about to marry. And the defendant learned of this betrayal just moments before her wedding ceremony here on the island of Oahu.”

As Maddox takes the jury on a journey through Motive City, my mind slips back to yesterday’s telephone conversation with Turi. Prisons offer prosecutors and defense attorneys alike one of the greatest opportunities to obtain information on open cases. Snitches, opportunists, A-1 nutballs, they all like to talk, but for most, truth isn’t high on the list of topics they’d care to discuss. But this inmate Turi discovered at Halawa seems to have as much information about the Kupulupulu Beach Resort fire as I do. And I suspect that only the arsonist himself knows more about this case than the lawyers who are about to try it.

“During this trial, ladies and gentlemen,” Maddox continues, “you will hear testimony from members of the defendant’s wedding party who will describe in great detail how furious the defendant became upon hearing the news that her fiancé, her soon-to-be husband, had been unfaithful to her, had in fact had sexual relations with one of the defendant’s very best friends, one of her bridesmaids, Mia Landow, a mere two weeks before the wedding.

“Now, no one in this courtroom can fault the defendant for being angry, no. Who wouldn’t be angry? Who wouldn’t be livid after learning of such a betrayal—and on her wedding day, no less? But what the defendant did later that evening is criminal and inexcusable.

“What did she do? She committed murder. The defendant murdered her new husband Trevor Simms in cold blood. Stabbed him in the stomach with a four-inch switchblade and allowed him to bleed out right there on the king-size bed in their honeymoon suite.

“But, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, that’s not all the defendant did. To cover up the heinous deed she had done, to conceal her horrible crime, the defendant then set fire to their honeymoon suite, a fire that rapidly spread through the entire sixteenth floor of the Liholiho Tower, taking the lives of ten other people. Ten innocent guests of the Kupulupulu Beach Resort, two of whom were children.”

Maddox solemnly lists their names without notes. For the younger victims, he follows their names with their ages.

Next to me Erin shivers and I turn and whisper in her ear, remind her to mind her body language. I haven’t yet told Erin about the inmate at Halawa and I don’t intend to. Not until I know for certain that this inmate holds information that can be used to exonerate her.

“Now the defense is going to contest that it was the defendant Erin Simms who stabbed her husband. My adversary, Mr. Kevin Corvelli, is going to contest that it was the defendant Erin Simms who set fire to the Liholiho Tower of the Kupulupulu Beach Resort on that hot night this past July. The defense will contest these facts, because…” With a humorless smile, Maddox shrugs his broad shoulders and holds out the palms of his hands. “Because what else are they going to do?

“But you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, will not be swayed, will not be fooled. Because you will hear evidence during this trial that will convince you beyond any reasonable doubt that the defendant Erin Simms stabbed her husband in the gut and watched him bleed out, then set fire to the tower to conceal her crime.”

Maddox allows for a dramatic pause, a hush that undoubtedly touches each of the jurors in the belly, before moving on to the evidence he is about to present.

“You will hear testimony from the defendant’s friend Mia Landow,” he says, “of death threats the defendant made earlier in the day against her then-fiancé, who had betrayed her.

“You will hear testimony from Izzy Dufu, assistant chief of resort security, who was called to the defendant’s room twice because of heated arguments between the couple earlier that night.

“You will hear the testimony of Dr. Derek Noonan, this county’s chief medical examiner, as to how each of the defendant’s victims, including her husband Trevor Simms, died.

“You will hear testimony from veteran fire investigator Inez Rios, who will explain as precisely as possible how the fire started and how it spread.

“You will learn from Honolulu homicide detective John Tatupu all about the department’s murder investigation and the eventful arrest of the defendant Erin Simms.

“Finally, you will hear the testimony of Trevor Simms’s sister Lauren Simms, who observed a Pteroco Legend switchblade in the defendant’s possession just hours before Trevor was murdered.

“And you will see physical evidence, ladies and gentlemen. You will see the Zippo lighter—engraved with the initials ED for Erin Downey—that the defendant used to set the fire.

“You will see remnants of the canisters that held the charcoal starter fluid that the defendant used as an accelerant so that the fire would take and quickly spread.

“You will see photographs of the suite where the defendant began this massacre, the fire’s point of origin marked by a distinctive burn pattern in the shape of the letter V.

“And you will see—though I will try to spare you as much of the macabre as possible—images of the eleven dead. All that remains of the defendant’s victims.”

Maddox swallows hard, stares up into the courtroom’s fluorescent lights until it looks as though he’s properly suffering from his own words and thoughts. He turns slightly away from the jury and pokes a pinky finger into the corner of his left eye, before spinning back around, a tear surfing the curve of his cheek.

“Excuse me,” he says, his words barely audible. Quickly Maddox straightens himself, stands tall and bold as an intrepid prosecutor should, and looks each of his jurors in the eye.

Then, like a practiced thespian, he tenderly strikes a clenched fist into an open palm and shakes the pair to symbolize his solidarity with the twelve men and women in the box. “You and I,” Maddox tells the jury, “are here in this courtroom today for the very same, simple reason. To see that justice is done.”

When Maddox finishes with his opening statement less than an hour later, I’m already drained. Every last drip of confidence I stepped into the courtroom with this morning has evaporated, and I fear that it shows on my face.

I’m an empty shell of an advocate.

No longer sanguine but fatalistic.

I am, in every respect, outgunned.

Unless Turi’s man at Halawa can be placed at the Kupulupulu Beach Resort at twenty after two on the night of the fire, there’s a damn good chance I’m going to lose this case.