The 17th Suspect (Women's Murder Club #17)(10)

“Premium H2O,” she said, passing the bottle to Yates. “Comes from the heart of a glacier, I think. Or else the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. I don’t really know,” she said with a grin.

He grinned back and thanked her, and Yuki showed Yates the tape recorder.

“I’ll be taping. Any problem?”

“None that I can think of.”

Yuki switched on the small recorder. Yates got comfortable in the chair across the desk from her and then reached over the desk and turned one of the framed photos toward him.

“Nice-looking guy,” said Yates. “Your husband?”

Yuki took the photo out of his hand, put it back under her desk lamp, and said, “Let’s talk about you.”

“If we must,” he said.

Paul Yates had come to San Francisco from Spokane five years before. He currently had a girlfriend, Amy, and they shared a rescue dog, Bosco. Yates was a copywriter at the Ad Shop and had won an award for last year’s Skipperoo dog food campaign. He knew Marc, but they didn’t hang out together.

Yuki said, “Paulie, I need to ask you about Briana Hill.”

“Okay. Shoot.”

“Did Marc tell you that she had raped him?”

“No. I only heard about it when the police started interviewing people at the agency.”

“And what did you think when you heard there had been a sexual assault?”

“I try to ignore gossip and office politics. I’ve never known of anything good to come out of either.”

“Good call,” Yuki said with a smile. “Why do you think Marc thought I should speak with you?”

“Probably because I went out with Briana. Before Amy. Before Marc, too.”

Yuki asked, “Can you tell me about dating Briana?”

“There’s not much to tell,” said Yates. “I only went out with her once.”

“Did you have sex with her?”

“Christ. You want me to talk about that?”

“Please.”

His expression tightened. He scowled.

He said, “What happens if I tell you? You’re going to ask me to testify, aren’t you?”

“Paul. I can’t say at this minute. Tell me what happened with you and Briana Hill. You’re in my office of your own volition. You’re here to help me, but you aren’t required to talk to me unless you committed a crime. Did you commit a crime?”

“Hell no. Unless going out with a psycho is a crime.”

“You’re saying that Briana Hill is a psycho?”

Paul Yates started shaking his head. Then, “Look, I don’t know you and this is embarrassing. I’ve never told anyone, and I don’t want to ever tell anyone else. Not for any reason.”

“What happened, Paulie? Did she threaten you?”

“It was … terrifying.”

“I’m listening,” Yuki said.

Yates reached over and pressed the Stop button on the tape recorder. Yuki had to let him do it.

“I’ll tell you, but I am not going to testify,” he said.

“Okay. Okay, Paulie. Just tell me.”





CHAPTER 14


YUKI AND MARC Christopher were taking the elevator to the fourth floor of the Civic Center Courthouse, where she would be making her case to the grand jury within the next twenty minutes.

The grand jury hearing was a trial run for the prosecutor. Yuki would present the case against Briana Hill, her few witnesses would testify, and she would introduce her evidence. All of this would be done fairly quickly, and with absolute secrecy.

There would be no judge, no defendant, no other attorneys. Yuki would be entirely in charge of this presentation. Unlike with a petit jury, where the jurors had to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt, here the grand jurors—or twelve of nineteen of them—had only to find probable cause that Briana Hill had raped Marc Christopher.

If they found probable cause, they would indict and the case would go forward to trial.

The pressure was on Yuki, and on Marc.

While Len Parisi had always shown confidence in Yuki, she had lost big cases. But for the most part, the losses were not because of error, lack of preparation, or poor skills. Once, a star witness for the prosecution had committed suicide; another had choked on the stand and changed her testimony; and in one case the defense had sprung a surprise witness who landed a crushing blow to the prosecution’s case.

Still, Yuki had notched several important wins. Although Parisi was skeptical about the Hill case, he had given her the green light to go to the grand jury. She was sure she was right to have fought for the case.

The elevator lurched and stopped at the third floor. People got out, replaced by others squeezing in, and once the doors closed, the car continued its ascent.

Standing beside Yuki, Marc Christopher was dressed in a navy-blue suit and blue-patterned tie. His hair was recently cut and he’d had a good shave. Yuki was wearing a blue suit, very much like the one Marc was wearing. No tie for her, but a strand of angel skin coral beads Brady had given her as a wedding gift. Unlike Yuki, Marc looked completely numb.

Yuki suspected he’d popped a Xanax or two. If so, he’d made a mistake. Yuki needed him to bring the story of the sexual assault to life for the jury. He had to emote. He had to be able to describe the damaging effects of what he had been through.