The 20th Victim (Women's Murder Club #20)(74)

CHAPTER 107





I BADGED THE court officer and he opened the door to courtroom 6A.

There was standing room behind the last row of chairs in the gallery. I took a spot on the aisle and watched Zac Jordan make his closing argument. I was relieved that the case hadn’t yet gone to the jury. Maybe I could speak to the judge, hand off the bombshell of Antoine Castro’s death, and buy some time for Yuki and Zac to talk to the defendant.

Zac Jordan was wearing red-framed glasses, camel hair over plaid and khaki, finishing with cordovan cap-toes. It was a look that said, I’m a good guy. I knew he was.

I listened intently to his closing statement.

He said, “Clay Warren is guilty of trusting someone he didn’t know in exchange for an adventure, a road trip, and—just guessing here—a small amount of cash. It turned out to be a catastrophic error, the biggest mistake of his young life.

“It’s also possible that the man who shot Officer Morton put a gun to Clay’s head and forced him to drive. We have seen in the video that this killer also aimed his gun at Jonas Hunt and made off with his car.

“I have to answer these questions hypothetically because Mr. Warren won’t tell me. He won’t tell you, either.”

Zac paced a little. His brow was furrowed, and I watched the jurors’ rapt expressions as they followed him with their eyes.

Zac stopped and faced the jury, saying, “But when he was first arrested, Clay thought he might know who’d convinced him or forced him or paid him to get into the car. He mentioned the name of a notorious criminal, but he said that he couldn’t make a 100 percent ID. And now I know why he wouldn’t cooperate or help himself. He was afraid of retribution—and he got it. He was brutally attacked in jail, stabbed multiple times in the gut, and came this close to dying.

“You heard Ridley Sierra, Clay’s best friend since grade school, swear under oath that in his opinion Clay is naive and younger than his years. He described Clay as ‘gullible.’

“I believe that Mr. Sierra is right.”

My heart twisted thinking about Clay Warren, the poor dope, and I wanted to tell him, “Help is on the way.”

Zac was wrapping up and time was running out. I saw where Yuki was sitting beyond the railing. I texted her, but she didn’t respond. I was desperate to reach her, so I took a chance and crept up the aisle to the bar, reached over, and tapped her on the shoulder.

She spun around, annoyed, but then she read the expression on my face. She mouthed, “What’s wrong?”

I stepped on some feet, bumped knees, but I got close enough to Yuki to whisper in her ear.

“Antoine Castro is dead.”

She whispered back, “How do you know?”

“He’s in a drawer at the ME’s office.”

Yuki grabbed my hand and squeezed, then stood up.

She said, “Your Honor, Mr. Jordan, I’m sorry to interrupt, but we have new information from the SFPD. If we may approach the bench?”

“This had better be good, Ms. Castellano. It had better be brilliant.”





CHAPTER 108





YUKI, ZAC, AND I stood at the bench, looking up at the judge.

Yuki said just above a whisper, “Your Honor, the man who we believe killed Officer Todd Morton has been positively identified by his photo. His fingerprints on his gun matched his prints inside the Chevy and Mr. Hunt’s RAV4. I would prefer you hear this information from Sergeant Boxer, who is a homicide investigator with the SFPD.”

Judge Rabinowitz looked at Zac.

“Okay with you, Mr. Jordan?”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

He said, “If we were on a TV show, I would say, ‘This is highly irregular.’”

Irregular or not, the judge called court into recess, and Yuki, Zac, and I followed the judge into his private chambers. He didn’t ask us to sit, so we stood around his desk.

Judge Rabinowitz said, “What can you tell me about this individual, Sergeant?”

I said, “The man we believe was the passenger in the stolen white Chevy, the one who shot officer Morton, is a drug dealer by the name of Antoine Castro.”

“You have him in custody?”

“He was shot dead yesterday, Your Honor.”

“You say the man suspected of shooting Officer Morton is dead?” Rabinowitz said. “And what do you infer from that, Mr. Jordan?”

Zac Jordan said, “As I’ve told the court, Clay Warren was terrified that the shooter would have him killed or harm his family. Absent the immediate threat, my client may cooperate with the DA. If he tells what he knows about the drugs in the car, if he had a working relationship with Castro, we may be able to roll up some major criminal activity.”

“Lot of ifs and maybes,” Rabinowitz said.

Zac added, “We need a little time, Your Honor. The defense requests a continuance.”

“This is highly irregular,” said the judge. “But you’ve got until one week from today.”





CHAPTER 109





LEONARD BARKLEY KNOCKED on the back door of a small brown stucco house on Thornton Avenue, two doors down from the nearly identical house where he’d lived with Randi for four years.