Landon looked out over the sea of faces in the courtroom. She sat between Jane and Carly at the defense counsel table, facing the gallery where the jury panel was assembled. Trevor was seated on the other side of Carly, but his presence was superfluous at this point since this part of the process was pure legal hocus-pocus. Shelby had angled to be present in the room, but Jane had gently informed her that there wasn’t room for visitors during jury selection and she’d have to wait outside.
Judge Grafton had ordered double the usual number of jurors for a felony case, which was a good thing since a bunch of them were saying anything they could think of to get out of serving on a high-profile case. Hardly anyone could claim an excuse for not being available the length of the trial, since it wasn’t expected to last more than two weeks. Texas was quick to justice in criminal trials. But plenty of the potential jurors labored under the assumption they could simply state that they loved or hated football and get tossed from the panel. Grafton had spent the morning dispelling them of that notion before she’d turned the questioning, or voir dire, over to the attorneys.
The prosecutor, Donna Wilhelm, hadn’t been particularly impressive. She was an old-school workhorse when it came to questioning the panel, and she didn’t employ any fancy tricks or attempts to sell the panel on the merits of the case. She merely went through her checklist of questions and did her best to get the jurors to open up and talk about their feelings.
Jane on the other hand, was a master. She managed to get most of the panel to engage in debate and conversation with each other, an expert move to keep them from feeling like they were being interrogated. By the time she was done, Landon and Carly had amassed pages of notes on almost everyone in the room.
Judge Grafton explained to the jurors they would be taking a short recess and they should plan to be back outside the courtroom in thirty minutes. It was a guess since there was no telling how long the rest of the process would take.
Landon, along with Jane, Carly, and the other attorneys, stood while the bailiff escorted the last panel member from the courtroom. “Counsel,” Judge Grafton said. “Does anyone have any challenges for cause?”
Donna spoke first. “Yes, Judge. Jurors number seven and twenty both expressed doubts they could be impartial based on their strong and abiding love of all things related to the Dallas Cowboys. Number seven even had his car custom painted to match the team’s colors.”
“That’s crazy. Neither one of them said they couldn’t be impartial.” Landon felt a hand on her arm and looked back at Carly sending cautionary signals with her eyebrows. “Respectfully, Your Honor, neither one of those professed fans definitely stated they couldn’t be impartial when you questioned them further.”
Grafton nodded. “It’s true, Ms. Wilhelm, both jurors said they could set aside their fandom and decide this case on the merits. Absent any evidence to the contrary, I’m going to take them at their word. Anything else?”
Donna shook her head, but Landon spied Carly whispering in Jane’s ear.
“Just one more, Your Honor,” Jane said. “Juror number six listed on her questionnaire that she has been or knows someone who has been the victim of domestic abuse, but when I asked the same question during voir dire, the juror didn’t raise her hand. Out of respect, we didn’t pursue the matter in front of the entire panel, but we’d like the opportunity to ask her some questions.”
“Very well.” Judge Grafton signaled to the bailiff and asked him to bring juror number six back into the courtroom.
While they were waiting, Jane made a few notes and thanked Carly for making the catch. “Last thing we need is a sleeper on the jury.” Carly shrugged off the compliment, but Landon took note. She was going to have to step up her game.
The rear door opened, and the bailiff entered with a petite African American woman who looked like she’d rather be anywhere else. Judge Grafton waved her up to the bench, and both sets of attorneys gathered around. “I noticed on your questionnaire that you checked yes to question eight,” Grafton said, motioning for the bailiff to hand the juror a copy of the document. “The attorneys may have some questions for you about your response. Ms. Sturges?”
To Landon’s surprise, Jane stepped back. “Ms. Pachett is going to take the lead on this.”
Carly’s eyes widened, and for a second it looked like she wanted to dash out the door, but when it became clear Jane wasn’t kidding, she moved forward. “Just a couple of questions, Your Honor.” She turned to face the juror. “Mrs. Franklin, were you referring to yourself or another person when you answered yes to the question about domestic abuse?”
“It was my sister,” Mrs. Franklin replied, her voice barely above a whisper.
“And are you personally acquainted with the facts…” Carly stuttered and stopped, and she cleared her throat. “Tell us what happened to your sister.”
“Her boyfriend beat her bad enough to send her to the hospital. He lost a bet on the Super Bowl last year.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Is she okay now?” Carly asked.
“Bruises are gone and bones are healed, but she’ll never be okay again.”
“And I imagine since you’re her sister, you helped care for her while she was healing.”
“I did.”
“And how did what happened to her affect you?”
Mrs. Franklin looked confused for a moment, like no one had ever thought to ask her about her feelings. “Truth be told, it scared me. Vida is a strong woman, but she was no match for that man’s anger.”
“Do you think what happened to her would prevent you from keeping an open mind about this case?”
Mrs. Franklin nodded slowly. “It might.” The nodding got more vigorous. “Yes, I think it would.”
Donna rolled her eyes, and Landon could tell Donna thought Mrs. Franklin had just figured out the get out of jury duty pass. “That’s all from me, Judge,” Carly said.
“Mrs. Franklin, is there a reason you didn’t raise your hand earlier when I asked, or when these other attorneys asked about this very issue?” Donna asked.
“I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. The judge had just told us how important jury duty is, and I wanted to do my part.”
Donna smiled. “I understand. It sounds like you’re willing to follow whatever instructions Judge Grafton gives, is that right?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“So if she tells you to put aside your personal experience and decide this case based only on what you hear in the courtroom during trial and nothing else, you will follow that instruction?”
“Of course.” Mrs. Franklin looked at the judge as if for approval.
“Thank you for your honesty,” Donna said. “Judge, the state has no issues with Mrs. Franklin’s ability to serve on this jury.”
Smooth, Landon thought. She watched Carly closely to see how she would respond. “Your Honor, I have just one more question.” Grafton nodded, and Carly moved one step closer to Franklin. “I have no doubt you would make a diligent and fair juror under normal circumstances, but it’s my job to make sure that my client starts this trial with a level playing field. Now I know the prosecutor and the judge have told you that if you are on the jury you will have to follow the judge’s instructions to set aside any personal feelings you might have and decide this case only on the facts, but that’s when you’re already on the jury. But if you think there’s any chance what happened to your sister might impair your ability to be fair, now is the time to tell us.”
Mrs. Franklin’s eyes welled with tears, and Landon thought she might start weeping right there in the courtroom, but she didn’t. She did say, “Lord help me, I don’t think I can be fair to that man.”
The judge thanked her for her honesty and dismissed her from the courtroom. Donna barely waited until the doors shut behind her before starting in on Carly. “What was that?” She turned back to the bench. “Judge, she was clearly leading that woman into a way out of jury duty.”
“Respectfully, Your Honor, that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Carly said, offended at the accusation. “We all had a right to know more, to dig a little deeper. Mrs. Franklin had already demonstrated that she was willing to serve or she would have made a bigger deal out of her experience during our questioning of the panel. Ms. Wilhelm’s just lucky she didn’t bring it up then, or I bet we’d have even more jurors digging through past experiences for a way out. But being willing to serve doesn’t mean you get a free pass to sit in judgment when other factors point to an inability to set aside prejudice.”
“I’m inclined to agree with you, Ms. Pachett.” Grafton picked up her pen and made a note. “I’m removing juror number six for cause. She’ll be dismissed when the rest of the panel goes. Is thirty minutes long enough for you to make your picks?”
They all agreed, and Judge Grafton and her court reporter left through the door behind the bench. The moment the door shut behind them, Donna motioned to her trial partner, Ed Barnes. “We’ll take the jury room,” she said. Without waiting for an answer, they took off toward the door in the front of the courtroom, by the jury box.
“Where are we supposed to go?” Landon asked.
“We usually stay in the courtroom,” Carly said. “This won’t take long.” She sat back down at the defense table and spread out her notes. “Let’s start with the first row.”
Landon looked around, not keen on discussing which jurors they were going to strike in front of courthouse personnel, but the courtroom was fairly empty with the exception of the bailiff, who was busy helping other attorneys on the docket locate prisoners in the holdover. She slid into the seat next to Carly and set her notes on the table. Jane and Trevor sat on the end.
Everyone called it “picking” a jury, but the people they “picked” were the ones they wanted to eliminate. Each side could strike ten jurors, but they did so blind, which meant they could foreseeably strike the same jurors as their opponents, effectively wasting a strike. It happened, but not a lot. Most of the time, they tried to anticipate which jurors the other side would want and strike those. The common result was that they wound up with a jury comprised of individuals neither side had engaged with much during voir dire, and therefore, didn’t know much about. The whole process was a gamble, but Landon had learned to trust her gut.
Carly’s method looked a lot more intense. She was hunched over a cram-packed, color-coded chart full of symbols and abbreviations. Landon squinted as she tried to decipher the information. If a bus hit Carly, they’d be hard-pressed to figure out anything about her method.
Carly looked up from her hieroglyphics and smiled. “Don’t try to understand, just trust that I know what I’m doing.” She pointed at the first square. “Juror number one. Mr. Bailey. No ties to law enforcement. A once in a while sports fan. He’s an engineer and his wife’s a CPA—both professions high on facts and low on emotion. He’ll want solid evidence from the prosecution, not wishy-washy emotions. Answered no to all the questions about whether he knows anyone who’s been the victim of domestic abuse which probably means no one confides in him or he tends not to believe such stories. Didn’t have a lot to say. I say he’s a keeper for us.”
“Wow,” Trevor said. “You got all that from what went on in here? I could barely keep up with what everyone was saying, it went so fast.”
Landon was impressed too, but she tempered her response. She was more of a feelings than facts person when it came to jury selection, but she couldn’t argue with Carly’s logic. What she could do was assert her own acumen before Carly stole the show. “I agree, but at this rate, we’re not going to finish in time. How about we all write down the ten jurors we’d each strike, and see which ones we have in common, and then discuss the rest?”
After a few minutes of tallying their individual responses, they managed to agree on a list of ten strikes. Carly filled out the strike list and handed it to the bailiff with five minutes to spare. Landon decided to make a quick run to the restroom. When she walked through the double doors at the back of the courtroom, she ran into Shelby, who was pressed up against the window, looking into the courtroom.
“Hi, Shelby.”
“Hey. Can I go in now? I know you said there wouldn’t be room, but it’s practically empty in there now.”
“The jurors will be back in a few minutes. We’re almost done with this part. When opening statements start, you can grab a seat. I’ll make sure and save you one in the first row.”
“You’re a sweetheart.” Shelby pointed back toward the courtroom. “Do you know what they’re talking about?”
Landon followed her gesture and peered through the window. Trevor and Carly were sitting super close with their heads together, both looking down at the table. Landon assumed they were both reading something, but in a different environment, it looked like two young lovers, snuggling close. She made a mental note to mention how it looked to Carly, but she knew her reaction was about more than just appearances. She felt a stab of jealousy at their closeness, and not because they might be talking about the case without her, but because she wanted to be sitting where Trevor was. “Probably talking about the case. We’ll start opening statements after lunch.”
“You’re doing that part, right?”
“Yes.” Landon was still sore about it. She thought she was much better suited for closing since that was the more on the fly part of the trial, tying up all the loose ends that had come up during testimony into a pretty package designed to sway the jury to their side. She’d argued the same to Jane.
“Carly would be perfect for opening. She makes intricate outlines and she’s excellent at delivering facts.”
“And you’re not?”
“I think my skills would be wasted on opening.”
“And I think it’s a good idea to mix things up a bit. If each of you only plays to your strengths, how am I supposed to judge how flexible you can be?”
Landon had started to say a high-profile case wasn’t the right venue for “mixing things up,” but she risked Jane kicking one of them off the case if she pushed too hard. She’d deliver the most incredible opening statement ever, but she didn’t have to be happy about it.
“How long?”
Landon stared at Shelby, certain she’d missed a piece of the conversation. “What?”
“How long until things get started?”
“Probably another forty-five minutes. The judge will call the panel back in, and they’ll seat the jury and swear them in. The prosecutor will read the Indictment, and the judge will ask for Trevor’s plea.” Landon looked at her watch. “She’ll probably break for lunch, and we’ll start back up with opening statements after.”
“Do you need Trevor at lunch?”
“No.” Landon hoped she hadn’t answered too emphatically, but having a client tag along during trial breaks got tiring real fast. “If you need to talk to him, that would be a perfect time.” Several jurors walked past them on their way back into the courtroom. “I should get back in there. Wait out here. We shouldn’t be too long.”
Jane and Carly had already switched the chairs back so they were facing the front of the courtroom, but they were standing in front of the table, and they would remain there while the jury panel filed in. Trevor and Jane had moved to the side and were engaged in a whispered conversation, so Landon took the opportunity to talk to Carly. “Great job on Mrs. Franklin.”
“Thanks. Of course, who knows how many other Mrs. Franklins there were in the panel who weren’t honest with us.”
“True, but we can only do what we can do.” Landon considered her next words carefully. “Hey, so I was just in the back of the room and happened to look up and see you talking to Trevor.” She cleared her throat. Now that she’d started talking, she wondered if she was making a big deal out of nothing. “If I were a stranger, seeing you two for the first time, I might think there was something going on.”
Carly’s expression was puzzled at first, but then she snorted a laugh. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Uh, not really, no. Like I said, I know you didn’t mean anything by it, but you were sitting awfully close and you were smiling…” As she played the words back in her head, she realized how lame she sounded, and judging by the fierce look on Carly’s face, she felt the same. She didn’t have to wait long to find out.
“If I want advice on how to act during trial, I’ll ask for it, but you can be sure I won’t be asking you. You’ve been flirting with Shelby Cross since the moment you met her. For all I know you’re kissing up to her so she’ll put in a good word with Jane. I wasn’t flirting with Trevor, but if I was, I’d be justified in trying to level the playing field.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
The mass of jurors started to file into the room, bringing an abrupt end to their rift. Landon stored up all kinds of possible comebacks, but she was wasting valuable brain space she’d need to deliver an edge-of-your-seat opening designed to capture the hearts and minds of the jury from the first moments of trial. Carly might not believe she’d been trying to be helpful, but at this point all bets were off. Landon had two goals—win this trial and become partner—but she’d have to find a way to stop wanting Carly or she’d lose both.
* * *
“The evidence will show that Trevor Kincade had both the opportunity to kill Vanessa Meyers and the motive to do so.”
Carly suppressed the urge to count how many times Donna’s trial partner Ed had used the phrase, “the evidence will show.” It was classic opening statement language if you were in law school doing a mock trial, but there were so many other ways to stick to the facts without reminding the jury every few seconds that you were bound by them.
Ed droned on for a while before finally taking his seat. As boring as he’d been, Carly’s stomach was in knots after the one-sided recitation of the strikes against Trevor. She always felt this way in trial, which was one of the reasons she preferred the no drama landscape of appellate work where instead of anxious clients and fact hungry jurors, it was just her, the law, and the paper record.
She glanced over at Landon, who had avoided her during lunch under the guise of going over her notes. When Ed finished, it would be up to Landon to divert the jury’s attention back to their side, and Carly could see her morphing into litigator mode. Landon looked every bit the high-powered lawyer in a sharply tailored navy suit with a crisp white shirt, and Carly experienced a surge of pride they were on the same side.
Landon waited until Ed had taken his seat before standing and striding over to the jury box. She thanked them for their service and launched right into her opening. “What Mr. Barnes just described to you is horrifying.” Landon walked the few steps to the witness stand, where Ed had conveniently left a framed eleven-by-seventeen photo of Vanessa Meyers, looking happy and very much alive. Landon paused for a moment in front of the photo and then lifted it from the easel. She held the portrait in front of the jurors. “What happened to Vanessa Meyers was a tragedy, and that tragedy has lingered since her death, altering forever the lives of the family and loved ones she left behind.
“You heard Mr. Barnes recite a litany of things he promised the evidence would show. As you can imagine, we have a different list, and I will share it with you.” As Landon spoke, she walked over to the side of the jury box and gently propped the photo of Vanessa out of sight. Without missing a beat, she returned to the defense table and placed a hand on Trevor’s shoulder. “But first I’d like to talk to you about something I bet you all can relate to. Getting blamed for something you didn’t do. Whether it’s big or small, we have a story that starts off with ‘they said I did something, but they were mistaken.’ You can all relate to that, right?” She nodded and at least half of the jury nodded with her.
“Maybe you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Perhaps you had a reputation in college for being the party guy or girl—a preconception you could never seem to shake. Can you imagine if those preconceptions were magnified on an enormous scale, and no matter who you really were, everyone defined you by what they thought was the truth without taking the time to figure out you aren’t the kind of person who could do the thing you’ve been accused of doing?”
Landon continued in this vein, setting the tone for reasonable doubt before moving on to challenge Eddie’s litany of evidence. By the time she sat back down, Carly was captivated and could tell by their rapt attention, the jury was as well. Judge Grafton looked at the clock on the wall and asked Donna who they planned to call as their first witness. When Donna replied she planned to call the lead detective on the case, Leon Royal, the judge nodded in thought.
“It’s almost five, and the State’s witness will likely be on the stand for a while. I’m calling a recess until tomorrow morning and we’ll start fresh then.” She spent a few minutes explaining to the jurors that they were not allowed to talk to anyone about the case or read or watch any news coverage. Carly stood with the rest of the attorneys as the jurors filed out of the room.
“Is it a good thing that she cut things short today?” Trevor whispered in her ear as the last juror filed out of the room.
“It doesn’t mean anything, really,” Carly replied. “Royal’s testimony will probably run longer than anyone else, and it’s easier to do it all in one day than figure out the best place to break it up.”
“Are you busy tonight?”
“What?” His question had caught her off guard. Carly scrambled for a response. “We’ll probably spend most nights during the trial preparing for the next day.”
“But I thought Landon was going to cross-examine the detective? I was hoping we could talk, maybe over dinner. Nothing big, but it would help alleviate my stress to get a play-by-play of how you think things will go.”
Carly spotted Jane, who was standing behind Trevor, mouthing “say yes.” Not what she wanted to hear. Trevor was a nice guy, but she had more important work to do than babysit a worried client, not to mention she was getting an inappropriate vibe from all the extra attention he’d been sending her way. Then again, if babysitting Trevor was the path to partnership, maybe it was a small price to pay. “Okay.”
“Sounds good. I’ll text you for the address and pick you up at seven.”
“Trevor, we should get going.” Shelby tugged him out of the courtroom with Jane close behind.
Carly watched them go, lingering behind with Landon. “I think I’ll wait here a minute and let them hog the press. Great job on the opening, by the way.”
“Thanks. That was the easy part. Now we just have to wait and hear what the witnesses say when they get on the stand.” Landon pointed to where Jane, Shelby, and Trevor were exiting the courtroom. “What was that all about?”
“What?”
“Are you really having dinner with Trevor?”
Landon’s tone made it clear she thought it was a bad idea. Carly agreed and had already started thinking of ways to get out of it but wasn’t about to say so in the face of Landon’s patronizing attitude. “He wants to talk about the case and feels comfortable with me.”
“As long as that’s all he’s feeling.”
Landon muttered the words, barely loud enough for Carly to hear. “I thought we agreed to get along?”
“We did. During trial. But you cozying up to the client after hours is a whole new ball game.”
“Are you trying to be clever?” Carly steamed at Landon’s characterization and wondered if she was imagining the undercurrent of jealously in Landon’s tone. Was she jealous of her relationship with Trevor or the advantage it gave her on the job? Whatever the source, Carly was determined not to let it distract her. “I guess you thought agreeing to get along meant I was going to roll over and let you have this partnership. I can’t help it if our mutual client decided to bond with me, but you can bet I’m not going to tank my chance at the prize by blowing him off. If Trevor does wind up taking the stand, which of us do you think Jane is going to pick to take the lead? Why don’t you focus on your own trial prep and let me handle mine?”
Carly didn’t wait for an answer before stalking out of the courtroom. She stopped before she hit the doors and arranged her expression into a look that she hoped conveyed confidence in case she ran into jurors, the press, or any law enforcement scheduled to testify the next day. She should be wearing the game face twenty-four seven during this trial. Why was it just a few words from Landon always seemed to crumble her defenses?