The Professor (McMurtrie and Drake Legal Thrillers #1)(93)

Tyler smiled at the jury, as if he didn’t have a care in the world, but he had begun to sweat underneath his starched dress shirt.

What in the hell was going on?



Jack Willistone forced himself not to laugh. “What the f*ck is this?” had been scribbled in blue ink on the yellow sticky note, underneath which was the bill of lading for Dewey Newton’s fateful trip. Jack had never actually seen the bill, but knew what it was. Yes, it was bad, and under normal circumstances, the document would destroy them.

But these aren’t normal circumstances, Jack thought. These are the circumstances I have created.

The bill of lading was stamped and signed, as all bills of lading at the Tuscaloosa Ultron plant were, by its records custodian. Faith Bulyard.

Who happens to be in New York City right now, and ain’t coming back.

Jack smiled and scribbled his reply to the sticky note.

“Piss in the wind.”





84


“Ms Batson, how long have you worked at the filling station at the intersection of Limestone Bottom Road and Highway 82?” Rick asked, gesturing to the jury so that Ms Rose would direct her answer to them. Last night, after disclosing his “stop” at Ms Rose’s store and his idea to re-call her to the stand, the Professor had insisted that Rick conduct the examination. “She’ll be more comfortable with you asking the questions, Rick. She trusts and likes you. We need to work this one as a team. You handle the witness... and I’ll take care of Tyler.” Rick wasn’t sure he agreed with the plan, but he was humbled that the Professor believed he was up to the challenge. Just relax, he told himself. You can do this.

“Forty years,” Rose answered. She wore her normal outfit for work. A Texaco shirt, short-sleeved, with her name stitched over the heart, and a pair of jeans.

“And in those forty years, how many times have you driven east on 82 and turned left onto Limestone Bottom to get to your store?”

Rose smiled. “Well, ever’ day, I ’spect. For thirty years, I lived about a mile west of the store, so that was my normal way a goin’. The last ten years, I been livin’ at the store, but every day I go downtown for a piece of pie and a Co Cola down at Eunice’s. Come back 82 and turn left on Limestone Bottom.”

Rick pulled out a marker board from the corner of the courtroom, set it in front of the jury, and took the top off a black marker. “So, I’m no mathematician, but, if we give you two weeks’ vacation every year, you would have made this turn 350 times a year for forty years.” Rick wrote 350 x 40 on the board. “Is that right?”

Rose shrugged. “I didn’t take that much vacation.”

Rick nodded. “So it would really be more than 350 days a year?”

“More like 360.”

Rick erased 350 and replaced it with 360. “OK, 360 times forty is–” Rick worked the problem for the jury “–carry the two... 14,400 times. So...” He turned back to Batson and pointed at the board. “So, you’ve made the left turn from 82 onto Limestone Bottom about 14,400 times?”

“Your honor, this is all very fascinating,” Tyler said, rising to his feet. “But we object. The number of times Rose Batson made this left turn is completely irrelevant.” Cutler motioned for counsel to approach the bench, and Tom joined Rick and Tyler in front of the Judge. When they were out of earshot of the jury, the Judge peered down at Rick. “Mr Drake?”

Rick had hoped to be further into the examination before Jameson’s objection, but Tyler was no dummy. He had to know where Rick was going by now, and he wasn’t going to wait another second.

“Judge, I’m just laying some foundation,” Rick said. “I can link it up if you give me a few more questions.”

“A foundation for what?” Tyler asked. “Rose Batson is a store clerk at a Texaco. She is not an expert. She can’t give opinions on the accident.”

“She has made the same turn that Bob Bradshaw made on the day of the accident over fourteen thousand times,” Rick said. “She has spent forty years at that Texaco. She knows that area better than any person on the face of the earth, and her opinion as a lay person would be beneficial to the jury.”

Cutler scratched the side of his face and pulled a book in front of him, which Rick instantly recognized. He glanced at the Professor, who nodded.

“Section 35-5,” Tom said, and Cutler looked down at him.

“Uh... thank you. This is your book, right, Mr McMurtrie?”

“Yes, sir,” Tom said. “Second edition.”

“Are there other editions?” the Judge asked.

“Yes, sir, there is a third and a fourth. The lay opinion section, though, hasn’t changed. Ms Batson’s testimony should come in under the cases cited in it.”

“Your honor, as I’m sure Tom says in his book, the general rule is that lay opinions do not come in.” Tyler’s usual calm and cool manner had been rattled, and his voice had risen to a higher pitch.

“That’s true, Judge,” Tom continued. “But I think you’ll find this case to be similar to Matthews Brothers v. Lopez, where the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed a trial court’s allowance of a lay witness to give his opinion on how long skidmarks had been on the pavement of a highway. Ms Batson, like the lay witness in Matthews Brothers, has so much experience with the scene of the accident that her opinions will aid the jury in understanding what happened.”